YDI Shows WISP Know-How

Equipment manufacturer Young
Design, Inc.
will debut its workshop
for wanna-be wire-free Internet service providers (WISPs) at its company
headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia on June 15.

Michael Young, YDI president and founder, plans to present a workshop
entitled High-Speed Wireless Internet Access on License-Free Bands,
and he promises that the course is platform-agnostic, not catering to
either the Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) or Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum (DSSS) camps. That is, until the class is over. Then Young
said attendees are free to speak with YDI staff about vendor-specific
equipment and methodologies.

No SS bias allowed
The class is a technical overview of the how to implement license-free
wireless equipment to link clients over the 2.4 GHz band and connect with
backbones in the 5.8 GHz band.

The class is broken up into two sessions—morning and afternoon.
Young will speak about the different elements that make up a WISP—from
system design and configuration to antenna and dish ranges to the effects
of inclement weather.

Classes like this aren’t a new idea, in fact they’ve been around as
long as entrepreneurs have been setting up Wireless points-of-presence
(WiPOPs) in towns and cities across the nation. But a great majority of
the classes lump together the whole spectrum of wireless applications,
from Bluetooth and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to 802.11b and
everything in between.

In fact, YDI’s first class was held in April, after the fourth annual
Wireless Web 2001 convention was cancels a week before it was scheduled
to convene. Not surprisingly, Young said, the conference was canceled
due to a lack of interest and fees that were out of the reach of the service
segment.

“One of the reasons the Wireless Web 2001 didn’t go was because they
were asking $200 or $500 to attend and it cut across such a wide swath
of wireless Internet technologies and focuses on different market sectors,”
Young said. “Most people are only interested in one part, so they were
saying ‘We’re not going to pay $300 to see one presentation, it just ain’t
worth it.’ People in WAP weren’t interested in license-free radios and
the license-free folks weren’t interested in WAP.”

Price is right
YDI officials sent out a call to the community when it found this out
and managed to snare 25 people to attend its class on putting together
a WISP. Young expects a much bigger crowd this time around, and as for
the attendance fees, he doesn’t see how a wireless hopeful could pass
up YDI’s presentation.

“For the price we’re charging, its almost free,” said Young. “You could
go to vendor-specific training and expect to pay several hundred dollars.
Unfortunately, such a seminar is usually geared towards selling that vendor’s
product. The YDI training is radio neutral.”

The class may be an inexpensive proposition for most people—YDI
charges customer $49 and non-clients $195—but the company is certainly
expecting a windfall on the back end in the form of wireless equipment
sales.

“I have been talking to new and experienced WISP operators for over
three years and have learned what most all the issues are. This class
is the formal compilation of the hundreds of questions and issues that
come up again and again” Young said.

"One way or another, WISPs have to learn this stuff. Many do it
the hard way—on their own," he added. "Those that come
to my presentation will get most of what they need to know in one comprehensive
session."

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