If we had line of sight, I could sell you a piece of my circuit via wireless. But because a fractional T1 is actually a full T1 with only a part of the bandwidth turned up, getting Verizon to run just the circuit is going to cost anyone $300-$600 a month, and that's without the bandwidth charges, and probably with at least a three-year contract.
That's why wireless is still the great hope. In theory, I could sell bits to all my neighbors and not have to get into the whole problem of right-of-way. I could do it today if I wanted. Probably with parts from CompUSA.
I don't, because who needs the hassle? But I could. Now, in the big cities, it may be worthwhile for Sprint and others like them to set up wireless from a tall building and cover a range of a million people. And someone had (has?) the idea of doing wireless from jets circling overhead.
It sounds insane, but everyone knows that if the perfect connectivity solution came along, the owner/operator could reap the profits of the cable companies, the phone companies, and the ISPs *combined*. And, after all, being a cable TV operator was no big shakes 30 years ago; now they're all rich beyond belief.
|