>>>>
Internetnews.com reports on a potential FCC ruling limiting 2.4 GHz radiated signal: this is the most frightening development to hit Wi-Fi in its history. If the attempt by satellite radio firm Sirius succeeds, public space, wISP, and community Wi-Fi could suffer crushing blows.

http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article/0,,10692_992321,00.html

..from http://80211b.weblogger.com

Don't get your feathers in a tizzy....there's alot of affected industries, manufacturers and providers with lots of combined revenues and liability at stake....they are all not going to just roll over

the satellite guys will probably have to demonstrate interference problems and extent....

I've been through these rulemakings from my days in the satellite biz, so this is just regular maneuvering

What many people seem to be forgetting (including Sirius) is that the backbone of Norht America's distribution system (warehouses, dc's) are also heavily reliant on 802.11 technology. Just imagine the impact if soemone like Walmart has to shut down their warehouse wireless systems, effectively shutting down those distribution centres. Now imagine their legal reaction if anyone suggests that they should do that.

We should consider the fact that satellite broadcast radio is kind of a dumb idea anyway. Despite the money that has gone into it.

Long live Iridium.

this is something i have to laffe at a little.. if it was a real problem woundt they have seen this befor they even design there sats

...this device must accept interferrence...???

Lets all just boycott Satallite Radio and make them go bankrupt. Then, we can buy their equipment cheap and set up a global network on their Freq?!

We can call it TronNet or BorgNet! After all, we would have ASSIMILATED their technology! LMFAO!

Tron Of Borg

would of course be:

"all your satellite is ours"

I nominate Tron, by vitue of his name, for Chairman of the Borg Board. Can I be CTO/CIO?

LOL,
Thorn

I think it's going to be boycotted anyway by nature of its features. (not to mention cost!)

I nominate Thorn for the title of In Their Side.

Carbolic,

Hah! Can't agree more. Stupidest thing I've heard of in a long time. I can't figure why people would buy into it. But other things that have caught on that I couldn't see any value in.

This should be fought at every possible turn. Boycott the SOBs and file comments against the plan when the FCC starts requesting public input.

Cheers,
Thorn

I read Intersil's response to FCC 01-278. It was pretty amusing. See my news article.

The Sirius system uses three satellites in conjuction with repeaters located in larger metropolitan areas arranged in a cellular grid, re-using their satellite frequencies. It appears that their link budget has only 6.8dB of link margin built into it. Also, their antennas are spray-painted patch antennas on the rooves of cars.

From what I have seen, their repeaters are trying to fill-in to urban canyons and other dead spots. They are being forced by city governments to use the same sites that cellular providers are using - 8 mile diameter cells. This means that they are going up to four miles with about 10-50 Watts ERP. Any minor source of interference causing any little noise over the dead silence of the Big Bang interferes with these folks.

If the XM repeater and the Sirius repeater are not co-located, the two services will probably desense the mobile's receiver on the adjacent band. This is the same hard lesson that Qualcomm had to learn about CDMA - as the noise floor increases, the cell sizes decrease. And since they don't have variable data rate, there is no signal to recover. The outside of the pie is the largest area of course, so you guessed it. They service has huge dead zones on the fringes of their coverage.

I think they may have problems due to poor RF systems engineering. They are discovering that their systems are marginally engineered and grasping at straws. I don't think they will get the FCC's support to cover up for their mistakes.

Konrad Roeder kroeder@springswireless.com