Comments on: CBS MobileZone Usage Report

By: John Dolmetsch

John Dolmetsch — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:10:46 +0000

You are correct with the whole notion of outdoor or indoor seating in the area. It is very difficult to test the network when you have to prop the laptop on one of the news stands or a trash can in the dead of winter. That is why this is a test, to see what environmental and social factors create the best environment for WiFi users to connect in a place like NYC. People connect and use the Mobile Zone network everyday and the assets are fixed so the coverage is constrained to the assets.

In NYC, low power WiFi devices will have about a 30-50ft range, if that, given the -78 noise floor in NYC for 2.5Ghz and the 5.8ghz spectrum, mentioned above, is out of the question as the NYC police and Towerstream all of it. Look outside Penn Station and see the Police Antennas connecting the cameras. All 5.8Ghz.

Even a laptop, with a 30mw client card, will only have a range of about 100ft or so due to the noise floor. Acertaining where the current users connect, including I-Phones, and what makes certain areas more conducive for connection, is what the test is all about.

What is really interesting, is that in the McDonalds, around 50th and Broadway, even Netstumbler can pick up more than 2 or 3 networks while inside. When outside the door, it is a whole different story. These types of things provide a wealth of information on deploying WiFi networks in RF busy environments.

I like the feedback and it is important in evaluating the use of WiFi in a place like NYC. Keep it coming both positive and negative. I only wish I would see the feedback from the power users that download over 1GB per day on the network.

By: Klaus Ernst

Klaus Ernst — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:32:24 +0000

T-mobile does now Penn Station too (Waiting areas and Club Acela)
Maybe ‘business travelers’ don’t go there but McDonald’s/Wayport is also very reliable.
Klaus Ernst

By: Craig Plunkett

Craig Plunkett — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:12:49 +0000

Ooof, being a little harsh on The Tiffany Network here. They might just be having some startup problems, and the budgets for these things are notoriously small. In my experience, advertisers have sticker shock when it comes to the reality of building out good wi-fi coverage. I’m sure a lot of integrators around the country are lowballing jobs just to make payroll given the collapse of the muniwireless market. I would probably have gone with a much less expensive dual-radio 2.4/5GHz solution like Tranzeo’s mesh, rather than the single radio Tropos unit that I pictured. There’s still a lot of poorly informed decision makers out there that believe the same consumer grade equipment will work like a champ under outdoor conditions. A fair number of venue owners are also delusional and close their networks with WEP keys, then give out the key to hapless users that don’t know how to configure their clients. It becomes too much trouble to use and support. After a while, when you visit these venues, the counter staff avoids the issue by saying the wireless is down.

I also believe that laptop users won’t see much benefit from this zone because of the nature of the streetscape and the winter weather in NYC. There’s limited indoor seating to pop open a laptop, and forget about balancing your laptop on your knees at Broadway and 47th st. Dual-mode handhelds are the most likely user target, but I haven’t been able to get mine connected. I probably would have looked for a handset or PDA manufacturer that had a retail presence within the zone to partner with, and a web design company that specialized in mobile browsers to optimize the experience.

As much as it grates on some folks, the people doing the best job in this space, are the guys that charge for it at the business traveler’s Holy Trinity: Starbucks/Borders/Kinkos, T-Mobile.