Waves with Wireless Nerd
Join me for a weekly look into what's making waves in tech and the wireless industry! What's new? What's now? What's next?
Waves with Wireless Nerd
The Evolution of Connectivity with AI Gadgets, BEAD Rules Updated, and Wi-Fi Debates Leading into MFD10!
Feeling disconnected from the world? Picture a device that uses artificial intelligence to enhance your interaction with everything around you. That's what Humane offers with its groundbreaking AI pin. And here's the kicker, it's available for pre-order starting from November 16th and runs on the T-Mobile network. Plus, we're taking a deep dive into the revised rules of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Fund. The changes are earth-shaking, paving the way for states to ascertain the financial validity of projects via performance bonds and deployment milestones, a massive win for budding internet service providers.
And there's more! We're also touching on some hot-button Wi-Fi issues. Ever heard of a demand for a $750 reimbursement due to unreliable Wi-Fi? That’s what the students at Allegheny College are clamoring for. We're also shedding some light on the Utah Jazz's beef with Michael Jordan and how it ties in with the Wi-Fi network in their arena. And don't forget Mobility Field Day 10, the much-anticipated event is coming up soon, and we will talk about the lineup of speakers - with one dropping out at the last minute. I'll also be rallying for your support to hit my target of 1,000 YouTube subscribers – let's make this happen!
in South Texas, and today is, let's see, it's November 13th, it's five o'clock in the afternoon and I am Drew Lentz, the wireless nerd, here with Waves, my wonderful weekly podcast. So I decided to start doing this thing where I talked about what's new, what's now, what's next, what's going on, and this is, I think, episode six or seven or something like that, and I'm having a real good time doing it. It's great to meet a lot of different people, talk to people, have conversations about what we're doing in the industry, and so today I wanna jump into a couple of different things here. I've got my little trusty monitor beside me. I'm gonna refresh here on Twitter and see if I'm live. I always like to be live Just in case someone wants to ask some random question. At least I'll be on there so someone can pop in and say hello. So what I'm gonna talk about today from the perspective of new now and next, what's new?
Speaker 1:Some really interesting things. Back in March of this year, at the TED conference, there was this really cool product that was showcased, and it's from a company called Humane and it's the AI pin, and it's this little device that's. It seems to be just a couple of inches big and sits right here on your chest and allows you to interact with the world and have that fed into some huge artificial intelligence engine, and so some details were released about it. Us orders begin on November 16th, so in three days the pre-order starts at 699 and it's basically a way that is an interface into your life the way that they explain it and it's contextual and it's aware and it knows what to answer, when to answer, how to answer, it learns everything about you and it runs on the T-Mobile network, I believe I read. So no Wi-Fi support as of right now, but everything running on the T-Mobile network at launch. So that'll be pretty interesting. I can only imagine it's because they need some type of really high-end connectivity, some 5G connectivity, to get to that device, just in order to make it process as quickly as possible. So we'll see where that goes. But if new gadgets are your thing, then definitely look at the AI pin from Humane and again, their website, I think, is it's spelled H-U-A-M-E, m-a-n-e, and let's see if I can pull up their website here real quick. Yeah, it's H-U-dot-M-A-dot-N-E. That's the website for it. It's called the AI pin. Orders begin on the 16th. Now it doesn't say anything about ship dates, but it says beyond touch, beyond screen, it does all this really neat stuff. If you don't know anything about it, please take a look at it H-U-dot-M-A-dot-N-E.
Speaker 1:And the reason I think that this is interesting is not just because it's another mobile device, no-transcript, but because of the way that this changes how we will interface or interact with mobile devices. One of the things I remember hearing at Meta over and over was you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is you look at your magic rectangle and you see what's going on. It sounds almost archaic to think about it like that already, to think that you walk, you wake up and you stare into a rectangle. The way that you get your information is by staring into a magic rectangle. If you think about human user interface and human interaction, this is just one of those other ways that's going to change the concepts of how we interact with things.
Speaker 1:A lot of people started to get behind the whole headset thing. And are we going to strap something onto our face and use that as a means to communicate? The pitch that Humane has really changes your perspective on that. They show a little kid wearing the mask saying the answer to human connectivity isn't more screens? I think it's one of the quotes from the CEO or something similar. Then it begs the question if I'm wearing a device. I hate it when people are on speakerphone. I don't like to listen to their conversation. I think it's rude. They should just put that stuff in their ears. I think this talking and having a conversation with the device is one thing. Definitely hope there's some air pod support, if you will, with the Humane device. That's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:Again, I think it's launching on the T-Mobile network again, from what I heard. I could be wrong. There could be more information out about it right now, but definitely probably because of the whole 5G component to that. Along the lines of spectrum, there's some great information coming up here about some new spectrum. Before I get into that, there was something that happened in the last week that was really great. That's revolving the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Fund, the BEED funding that's come out by the White House and the United States government. Here in the US, beed funding was supposed to be this great thing that enabled Broadband Connectivity for everyone except. The only way you could do it is you had to put up 25% as cash and then you had to secure as a bond that covered the whole cost of the project. Essentially, only people that had a whole lot of liquid capital could get involved in building out these networks. That was awesome for Comcast and for Cox and for Charter and for AT&T and groups like that Wasn't so awesome for the small internet service providers. Before November 1st, beed rules required a 25% letter of credit, which advocates said would edge out smaller providers. The updated rules allow the states to use other means of confirming financial viability of projects, like performance bonds, which are only paid out if a project fails, and reimbursements based on deployment milestones. That is really, really cool.
Speaker 1:Some great news brought to you by our friends over at BroadbandBreakfastcom is a great website, for if you follow all the stuff that's going on, I tend to read it pretty often. I saw that pop up today and thought I would talk to you all about that. Also, what's been making the news and we covered it a couple of weeks ago was the ability or where the FCC is trying to change e-rate funding to pay for hot spots that go on school buses and things like that. I thought it was funny. Being in Texas, we have no shortage of drama when it comes to supporting stuff that's really good and then not supporting stuff that's really good. Also, senator Ted Cruz chimes in with Kathy McMorris Rogers from Washington saying in a joint statement that they are against e-rate funding for this because it could subsidize children's unsupervised internet access to social media sites like TikTok. So now we have oh and Instagram on their bus rides to and from school.
Speaker 1:So you know, it's like I remember the first time and I don't want to name it. I mean, I really want to name who I'm talking about, by the way, name it. I went in to meet with this customer a bunch of years ago about providing free Wi-Fi inside their restaurants and what it would take to provide Wi-Fi for everyone sitting in the dining room, and I was met with the reaction that well, we don't want to provide free Wi-Fi in our restaurants because if we do, then everyone who works there will use it to get online and they'll spend their time playing on the internet Instead of actually working. I was like, bro, they've got cell phones. Wi-fi is not going to make them better or worse workers. It didn't compute, so this obviously to me doesn't compute. So you know, we'll see where that goes. Hopefully that gets pushed through. But either way, good news on bead funding. For more information on things like that, please follow probandbreakfastcom. Go check them out. Tell me I said hi. I don't know if they know me, but tell me I said hi anyway. Also, what's happening there along the lines of broadband? I'm gonna jump to the next category, because I saw this and I thought it was really cool. This is about four hours, five hours old.
Speaker 1:The White House has released plans to grow a radio spectrum access, with possible benefits for internet drones and satellites. The federal government will perform a two year study on how to possibly repurpose 2,786 megahertz of spectrum. 2,786, that's pretty cool. That swath of the spectrum could be used for wireless broadband drones and satellites. The bands that are slated for this are gonna be the lower three gigahertz band, so right at the bottom edge of three gig Five point, let's say 5030 to 5091. So down in the lower five gig as well, 71, 25 through 8,400, so seven to eight gig, and then 18.1 to 18.6, as well as 37 to 37.6 gig. So lots of spectrum might be coming soon. 2,700 megahertz that's pretty cool. 2,700, remind me of 26,. All 2,600 there for a second. Anyway, that's really good news. More spectrum. I was listening.
Speaker 1:A while back I talked about the CEO of Toronto giving this great presentation, and something stands out from that where he said the only way that we can increase the capacity of radio networks is here to get more spectrum which is probably not coming or better utilize the spectrum that we have. So, lo and behold, hopefully more spectrum will be coming into the United States pretty soon. To go back onto the new topic, a new feature by the Anritsu Corporation in their Y57 network mode has been enabled for the MT-8862 wireless connectivity test set. Why do I think that's important? Cause I think that's pretty cool. You can take their little test set and you can have it act like the base station, act like the network provider for RFTRX characteristics, tx power, modulation, accuracy, and they can be tested on wireless LAN devices in realistic operational conditions. So you can turn it on and simulate noise and simulate interference and simulate all this other stuff from the network side, not just from the client side. So that's kind of cool. So, anritsu, good job cranking out new products. That was pretty neat.
Speaker 1:And what's going on now? Right now, a couple different things. I talked about this, I think, in the little teaser where I said that the Utah Jazz is holding a grudge. And so, as a you know, as any kid who grew up, who was alive in the 80s and was a Chicago Bulls fan, I think the whole country got behind the Chicago Bulls. It won't point, except for maybe the Utah Jazz. Utah Jazz named their arena Wi-Fi network, jordan pushed off. So they're making it clear they still hold a grudge over the 1998 finals. So if you're from Utah, I'm sorry but that's also hilarious. Jordan pushed off is the name of the Wi-Fi network in the arena for the Utah Jazz. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out. There's a play. There's a buzzer beater at the end where Michael Jordan grabs the ball and goes to. You know, in some circles they say he pushed the guy away and then hit that shot, but other circles say that he was moving on his own momentum. Either way, I thought that was pretty funny. I like to follow like weird things in Wi-Fi.
Speaker 1:The other thing Allegheny College. This was interesting. Students put together a petition that over 700 signatures lined up, requesting a $750 reimbursement for all students at Allegheny College because the Wi-Fi hasn't been working very well over the last year. So they teamed together and said, hey, we think we need this, we need this $750 reimbursement. It was taken down November 1st. Statement to the campus the college newspaper there. The college acknowledged the petition, highlighted the variety of ongoing measures aimed at improving the campus arena, but said they took it down because it was not properly submitted. Either way, you know I talked a little bit last week about universities that are chiming in, that students are popping in and saying, hey, we really need something to go on with this. Now let's talk about Starlink being a huge magnet in the way that they had to repurpose Starlink. I don't know Google it. Alleghenycampuscom student Wi-Fi petition taken down after 700 signatures Just goes to show you that whenever you deploy a network, you never know what the end result of that is gonna be. There was a third party actually involved in that it looked like, and I couldn't tell what the make and model of the access points were. But if you look at it you can see they've got a pile of Wi-Fi APs laying on the ground pretty interesting. So it looks like a whole bunch of different vendors there. So good luck to the kids over at Allegheny College.
Speaker 1:That and I think, the only other thing that I have to chit chat about today. Utah Jazz, blah, blah, blah, blah is is falling under the now and next category. Mobility Field Day 10 is coming up this week. It's November 15th and 16th, so that's actually in two days it's gonna kick off. Oh, there goes my camera. So that's fantastic. The camera just decided to die out of me. Well, that's cool. At least I still have my microphone going. It shows you what happens when I guess I didn't charge my camera. I thought I was drawing power from it, but maybe not. Either way, it's okay. You know what? That's a good segue into letting everyone know that this is now available as a podcast, so you can be listening to us on Spotify or Apple podcast or wherever you get your wonderful podcast.
Speaker 1:But again, the last thing I want to talk about here was mobility field day coming up. So Cisco be presenting and why bot will be presenting and Vint have will be presenting. Curiously enough, nile was supposed to be presenting and now their name is not listed on the website anymore and I don't know why and I don't know what's going on with that, but I do know that our good friend up in upstate New York, mr Lee badman, posted a blog and lit up a thread On Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it, where we all chimed in and I had a very. I thought it was a very good Conversation going. We posed a lot of questions that we were hoping to get answered at At mobility field day. However, it does not look like that is going to happen. I'm jumping on the website right now to see if there's been any updates to that.
Speaker 1:But mobility field day 10 happening this week, alive from from the beautiful Bay Area in California. Let's go take a look real quick. And it's showing right now. Why, about Cisco inventive? Nope, some good stuff coming from Cisco. Gotta give a little shout out little love, little love to To those, to those folks over at Cisco. Should be a good conversation, but check it out. Just Google mobility field a ten. Or go to techfield a calm. It's gonna be streaming on YouTube, on Vimeo. I believe they stream on LinkedIn as well, so take a look at that delegate panel.
Speaker 1:Darryl DeRosha oh man, the Tower of Power. Darryl DeRosha is gonna be there. David Oliver, keith are Parsons, lee badman, mike Beletheo, sam Clements, scott McDermott, shannon Cranko, sean Neil, tom Hollingsworth, troy Martin and some great event staff there with miss Rachel Fritz, and the, the networking nerd himself, tom Hollingsworth. So give a shout out to the, to the folks over there, go check out mobility field day hashtag M FD 10. Make sure you follow him on Twitter. That's about it, I think. I think this thing's still broadcasting. I'm just locked up. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Either way, I hope you'll have a fantastic week. I will talk to you next week. This episode there should be a little thing in the middle. Let me know if you heard it. There should be a sponsorship advertisement here right in the middle of this. I don't know how it's gonna do it, so we're trying that out.
Speaker 1:But if you hadn't heard it already, already, this episode and the last episode are brought to you by the fine folks at net Ally and their new Cyber scope. I'm staring at an aether scope in XG talking about the cyber scope, so it's really gonna throw me off. But if you haven't had a chance to play with either one of those tools or the air check G3, take a look at them and tell the folks over there that drew said hi, maybe they'll give me a discount. I don't know, maybe they won't, maybe they'll hang up the phone, not really sure. Anyway, have a wonderful week. I will talk to you next week. Thanks for tuning in to waves with wireless nerd and tell all your friends About it. And don't forget, please, please, please, go to YouTube, look up wireless nerd. I need a thousand subscribers so my wife can take me to Mexico, and I think I'm a quarter of the way there. So every little bit helps me get to Mexico and I really appreciate it. I could use a vacay.
