It’s here! Today we announced the commercial availability of our C5c connectorized client radio. The C5c rounds out our suite of client devices, and in combination with our comprehensive backhaul and access offerings, delivers on our vision of a complete cloud-to-client 5G Fixed wireless solution. The C5c serves traditional tower and GigaPoP architectures, and our innovative MicroPoP architecture approach.

Last week, Jaime hopped on a plane to Washington for three days of action at Wi-Fi NOW. In addition to meeting with many customers and presenting a keynote on the role of wireless in delivering high-speed internet, Jaime came home with a very special award commemorating his induction into the inaugural Wi-Fi NOW Hall of Fame.

The Wi-Fi NOW Hall of Fame was created by the event’s organizers to honor and show gratitude towards individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the Wi-Fi industry.

Barcelona certainly was abuzz with 5G marketing this year, with soaring banners making claims of “the leader in 5G technology” all around. But many attendees walked away shrugging their shoulders still contemplating, “what is 5G?”

After meeting with scores of press, analysts, service providers and vendors I can’t say that I came home with a clear answer. But I did gain a clear consensus perspective on what real consumer speed and connectivity demands are, and what most industry experts believe are the most viable and practical paths forward to a 5G future.

It’s incredibly fitting as Mimosa celebrates our 5th anniversary this month that we today launch our eagerly anticipated 5G Fixed Wireless solutions.

In 2016 we witnessed an unprecedented change in direction for internet access in America, as the most prominent ISPs in the country continued to back-off their fiber plans. This is making way for new fixed wireless technologies as the final connection to consumers in the last-mile.

Unfortunately, all useful wireless spectrum has been allocated, so the important next step is to identify underutilized spectrum that could be re-allocated or shared, to keep up with demand for internet access.

We addressed the operating environment for Mimosa products in a previous Tech Tuesday blog post. As a refresher, our products are tested and rated for outdoor operation in the temperature range -40°C to +55°C (-40°F to 131°F). One thing we didn’t cover was the internal temperature of our devices and how this should be interpreted.

What is link availability and what do the numbers tell you?

When you design a radio link, you have to ensure the availability meets the needs of the applications running over the air. Today’s wireless networks consist of many layers, each one having a different function. They work together as a system to provide connectivity for the end user.

The broad availability of unlicensed spectrum for outdoor use has fostered the growth of wireless service providers offering services that are competitive with legacy fixed wireline services. But the reliability of a wireless network can be threatened by the shared nature of unlicensed spectrum. The explosion of Wi-Fi capable end user devices that operate in the same 5 GHz spectrum that is used by WISP and enterprise users, plus the proliferation of other WISP users with similarly high-power outdoor products, presents challenges in ensuring network performance and uptime.

With copper and fiber-based deployments clearly slowing down, it seems a foregone conclusion that wireless technologies will be the new delivery mechanism to meet consumer demand for fiber-fast internet.

Mimosa stimulated this emergence of the fixed wireless era by building innovative wireless technologies that scale in high-density suburban and city environments, where over 80% of the American population resides. These types of networks, however, depend on available and affordable spectrum to deliver the promise of a wireless future.

With the launch of our first Part 101 licensed radio, the Mimosa B11, we set out to provide you with the fastest and most affordable 11 GHz radio on the market. We also wanted to simplify the license coordination process. If you are an operator located in the United States, you can now login to our network design tool, plan your link and submit it for coordination.