Attack of the Revenge of the Son of Metro Wi-Fi

It's not coming back because it never went away - and it's only getting better

Ruckus Wireless, the always-innovative supplier of both indoor and outdoor wireless LANs, today announced a new set of broadband wireless access (BWA) products aimed at the offshore/developing-economy opportunity for urban broadband via Wi-Fi, specifically targeting multi-dwelling units (MDUs; apartment buildings and the like). The new and comprehensive product line includes very-cost-effective, high-performance point-to-point backhaul links as well as in-building APs and repeaters. It's downright cheap, high-performance, and simple to install.

In short, it's everything we expected metro-Wi-Fi to be when that industry started up about ten years ago. OK, metro Wi-Fi has not been a universal success to date. While there are many production deployments around the world, many early systems suffered from immature technology, high costs, and especially unrealistic business models. I continue to marvel at the number of municipalities who thought that, since the spectrum used by Wi-Fi is free, the service should be free as well. I continue to hold to the position that there is no such thing in business (or even, for that matter, in economics) as free, as that trying to create such necessarily involves a cost somewhere else.

But focusing for the moment on the technology issue, we're in a far different position today, and Ruckus is taking advantage of this with the new product line. First of all, 802.11n is now practically mature, even though the ink on the standard has just dried, and we're now seeing numerous improvements in implementations while keeping the air interface assured. Second, there's less technological volatility, and the name of the game will be to ride the 802.11n cost curve down while taking advantage of improved implementation alternatives. In short, the technology base now allows very cost-effective outdoor broadband-distribution and -access applications, and Ruckus provides strong evidence that the growth of this part of the industry will be very strong indeed.

This says nothing, of course, about the business models for future metro-scale deployments. But, as I've said before, I think such will largely be in the hands of the cellular carriers, who absolutely require Wi-Fi in order to meet customer expectations. So future business models will be on much stronger footing indeed, and a far cry from the idiot politician claiming that broadband must be "free". In the meantime, Ruckus' focus is on local service providers in emerging markets, as opposed to municipalities directly. But advances in these products will, I believe, quickly spill over into the carrier space, and will consequently enable the adoption of even metro-scale deployments irrespective of the politics of the municipality. I thus expect progress even in the US to advance markedly in 2010.

One other note - I'm at Interop in New York all this week. If you're in the neighborhood, please stop by. We've put together (IMHO) another great event, and there's never been a greater need for solid information and (as always) a bit (OK, a lot) of debate. I hope to see you there.

• Wireless / Mobile
• broadband wireless access
• Interop
• metro Wi-Fi
• Ruckus Wireless