Clearwire to the rescue

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Monday, February 08, 2010 | 15:51 UTC-7 | | No comments

by Bobby Glover @zashionfashion (Is it you? Click to confirm)

clearwire to the rescue

I've had a vexing problem, until it was fortuitously resolved, a few days ago.

The situation:

I had promised Pono and Aunty Mattie that I'd be spending more time with them at their home in Waiohuli, upcountry, during my time back in Maui; it was actually Pono who suggested sometime last summer, that I spend a week at a time with him at his house, alternating between there and my home in Wailuku. That seems only reasonable, given how truly parent/child our relationship has evolved into. It's not a legal thing, to be sure, as legal adoption or guardianship isn't involved; but it might as well be, given the Hawaiian tradition of hanai.

More importantly, it's the practical reality of the relationship that makes it very clear to me (and to anyone else who sees it), that I am in fact in a parenting situation right now, with my godson. Thus, spending more time with him, nurturing, and just being-with, is the sine qua non of it.

And as it now happens, I'll be actually spending more time at Pono's home upcountry (Wed. evening through Sun. afternoon) than at mine in Wailuku.

The problem:

Currently, there is no local telecom or ISP offering high-speed access to the internet, up at Waiohuli. There are a couple of reasons for this: (a) the Hawaiian Homelands resettlement area is brand new, and so the infrastructure isn't ready yet; (b) it's 'only' a state/public development--I can easily imagine that if it were a wealthy, private development, building the telecom infrastructure in the area would proceed with more alacrity. I mean, there already are phone landlines available, so why isn't it easier for the local telecoms to provide cable/DSL access? Part of me says, "Because it's just those Hawaiian Homelands folks, they don't need the same amenities as the rest of us." (Clue: Verizon/Hawaiian Tel, the large telecom serving the islands, isn't available there; instead, Homelands residents have had to make do with a small, struggling local telecom, Sandwich Isles Communications.)

Given the nature of my telecommuting work for the UC Berkeley ATDP, a lack of fast online access upcountry, where I'll be spending a significant amount of my time here, is most definitely a problem; while at Aunty Mattie's house, I've had to make do with dial-up access via her AOL account, which while it gets my work done in a barebones fashion, is just way too slow for comfort. I just cannot access my ATDP servers with any reasonable throughput, using a 57-baud modem.

The resolution:

So anyway, last Friday around noon, Pono and I were walking around the neighborhood when we spotted this colorful car cruising slowly downhill, stopping at people's houses along the way. It was one of those cars (a Murano semi-SUV in this case) which entire body is covered with a brightly colored decal, an ad or company logo; this one was in bright chartreuse and seablue, with large text angled on its side.

As we walked uphill and got closer, we could read the car's logo: clearwire | wireless broadband. To Pono's surprise, I suddenly started jogging towards it, my excitement building with each step; he followed me, laughing along. The woman driving it had just walked back from a house whose inhabitants weren't home, and hopped back in. As she pulled out of the driveway and back onto the road, she saw us running towards her, and slowed down, waving.

When we reached the car, before she could say anything, I breathlessly (and perhaps a little too expectantly) asked her, "Aloha, cuz! What's up? You selling something I might like?" And she said, "Good morning, cuz! Yeah. We're doing a promo." (I did the local lingo as soon as I saw the dudette was a local girl ::chuckle::)

And that's how my upcountry connectivity problem came to be, serendipitously, resolved, at noon on Friday, the 11th of November, 2005.

Pono and I hopped into her car and she drove us back home, to set us up with her company's promo; her name was Melissa, and she was a godsend. Okay, well maybe not God, but definitely a Craigsend ::chuckle:: (For Clearwire is a recent nationwide launch of wireless broadband access from two industry titans, Craig McCaw of legendary McCaw Cellular, whose latest foray is as CEO of Clearwire, and Craig Barrett, current CEO of Intel Corp.; odd coincidence, in those names.)

When we got home, in literally just a few minutes, I was online with high speed wireless internet access! The promo included free setup of the (free) wireless modem, and the signal from the tower way down the coast in Kihei, was extremely strong (it lit up the max available five little green lights on the device). I hooked up my Powerbook to the modem with an ethernet cable, and IP connectivity was automatic, with DHCP. It took longer to set up the actual Clearwire account, via their website, than to get the wifi working. I instantly loved the seamless plug-and-play aspect of the thing.

http://virtualatdp.berkeley.edu/lrn/random/workspace112005.jpg

After the hassle of working with the somewhat befuddled folks at Sandwich Isles and the Pixienet ISP, and being shocked at the monthly payments I'd have to spend (going through their not-quite-ready DSL services, in addition to the Verizon DSL I'd be paying downcountry in Wailuku, would have cost me almost $100 a month), the instantaneous setup with Clearwire felt extraordinary. And the promo included free service for the first 2 months, and thereafter just $36.99/mo. Definitely a better deal than the 2 ISP setup I had planned, with Verizon DSL in Wailuku and Pixienet DSL in Waiohuli, totalling almost $100/mo.

Perhaps the best thing about the Clearwire wifi modem is that it's portable--I can just plug it into any power outlet anywhere and, within the coverage area of any of their local towers, I can get a signal. Wailuku town (where I live) is covered, as are Lahaina and Kihei. Melissa said that Clearwire was building a tower upcountry in Kula, and another one down in Paia; so, basically, Maui will be blanketed with its signal, and very soon. (Clearwire's foray into the Hawaiian broadband wifi and wireless space is beginning with Maui, and not Oahu/Honolulu; how lucky for me! After some online research, and via its website, I can see that Clearwire is targeting less competitive markets first; the big urban areas are probably rife with heavy competition from the other big guns in the telecom industry. Is Clearwire in your area yet?)

Today, I'm back home in Wailuku, and also getting a strong signal from the Clearwire base tower in town (interestingly, the signal is stronger when it's overcast; I guess it bounces down better from cloud cover?). Below is a pic of my workspace, and a pic of the actual book-sized modem above, rather inelegantly propped by the screened window. I'm hoping that, when Apple's Intel-powered laptops come about, in a year or so (right, Bigi?), the modem will be even smaller, and perhaps built in to the laptop itself. That will be very cool, with no wires or cables strewn about, as they are at the moment.

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Clearwire to the rescue

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