Ether2 "The Net...fixed" (or "how to close the digital divide")

Editor's Notes

• #2: If you don’t know Vint Cerf, he invented Internet Protocol. So I just want to make sure that everyone understands what he says because this is how it works today….(read quote) Now, TV can send a transmission to millions of devices because it uses a broadcast architecture…but none of the TV stations are broadcasting with Internet Protocol, so who really cares! saying you’ve fixed the Net is a pretty big statement, and the reason we can make it, is because our technology is a universal network architecture that was invented for cable TV way ahead of its time, but in terms of the Internet, we can say that we can eliminate the Net’s problems because never before has there been a technology that can do Ethernet better than Ethernet.
• #3: So we’re really just talking about a firmware upgrade that goes into a communications chip. And this isn’t just another bandwidth increase…In fact, anyone who thinks that a bandwidth improvement will solve an architectural problem, only needs to look at the last 20 years, or the fact that 4 billion people are not yet connected. (tap) Internet Protocol stays exactly the same (tap, tap) We just need to insert code into the chip, (tap, tap) and the result is an overall system improvement (tap) and a better planet. (tap out bullets)
• #4: Now Dr. Campbell and his team of PhD students were so focused on cable TV, that they never envisioned the wireless opportunity. So fortunately, Dr. Alonso proved the technology in Qualcomm’s networks for a 35% improvement, and then in WiFi where throughput was effectively doubled. And then his protege, Dr. Zarate proved the Q. in unstructured Mobile networks, and also proved the migration path for legacy devices. Unstructured means just devices…no cell sites or access points.
• #5: The Internet of things market opportunity is projected to be 2.1 billion devices by 2020. … but here’s the weird part… (tap, bullet) I mean, how does Gartner’s 26 Billion units projection, adjust to 2 billion units, I mean, they were only off by 90% (tap) And what about TV White Space? (tap) AT&T put out the call out to all of their spectrum managers back in 2008…which is the same year that the IPSO Alliance put their Internet of Things ladder up against ZigBee. So what happened? If we look at the WiFi market, the FCC made spectrum available…then the standards bodies do what they do…and then the manufacturers went to market…and today, WiFi products are a huge market. But for some reason, in both the TV White Space and the Internet of things use cases, the FCC unlicensed the frequencies, the standards bodies put together the protocol specifications…but the markets didn’t take off. Well, whatever the excuses, let’s see how we’re going to get back to the original projections for 2020.
• #6: So far there are two developer kits for DASH7, which again, is the first global specification to use The Q. The first is Openmote…and openmote is somewhat agnostic since it also offers code for ZigBee and IETF standards, in addition to ITU Dash7. Wizzimote, on the other hand, is only for DASH7, and they cover a pretty good swath of the Wireless Sensor market, with open code for ST Micro, ARM and Texas Instruments. This development gear is pretty much everything we were trying to raise money to build in-house, and even though that didn’t happen, the good news is that we maintained equity and the work got done anyway… because as you can see, this technology is commercial-ready.
• #7: by offering The Q. for free outside the US, we are building a grass roots developer community like Linux or Arduino. So while unifying IoT is the primary plan for The Q., this is just the beginning of creating one network that can do everything. (tap)
• #8: (Tap, Bullets) Marketing DASH7 at near-perfect throughput shouldn’t be too hard…especially if you’re an OEM who is tired of waiting for ZigBee or any of the other standards to get better. Obviously, we’re going to be DASH7’s biggest cheerleader until the other Internet of Things alliances come on board with The Q (tap)… but for high data rate broadcast video, (tap) you’re looking at everything you’d need to kick-off a carrier-class mesh that would unify the Internet world with the Broadcast world. This type of neighborhood hub would be required for migrating today’s devices to tomorrow’s architecture, but these hubs could be phased out over time as today’s devices get older, diminishing the need for structured networks (tap…)
• #9: Competition? We don’t compete…we coexist…meaning that we can interleave legacy and novel, or the old with the new. Still in all, software networks like OpenFlow, which do not tackle the underlying issue, might feel threatened. Middle hardware solutions will definitely feel threatened, because we just don’t need the traffic cops anymore. And carrier operators might feel threatened because they really don’t want to see devices that don’t need access points and cell sites. Now, we can still help all of these stakeholders take it to the next level, but their markets will shrink and become commoditized…in fact, we only need to look at what happened to the server market when Linux came to town.
• #10: How do we keep another company from doing what we do? First, you have to own the rights, and second, you have to build-out the developer community by beating the drum. (tap) And here are a couple of technical images from the early days when Scientific Atlanta almost licensed The Q to eliminate upstream bottlenecks. First, they commissioned an 80 thousand dollar simulation study at Georgia Tech, which depicted that no matter what the physical distance, The Q was able to see every device at the same virtual distance, so that every device could get a transmission at the exact same time. (tap) And here is Scientific Atlanta’s patent which selected The Q for eliminating uplink bottlenecks in cable TV.
• #11: Previous funds came from the three founders and a seed investor, accounting for 40% of the company. An additional 10% is in reserve for the options pool, and 5% has been sold to friends and family, leaving 45% of Ether2 available. Post funding, we expect top line revenue to be at $300M in 5 years based upon IoT licensing alone, which again, is the commercial-ready segment for The Q.
• #12: (Go to bullets, tap) That’s pretty straight forward…we’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing…and we’re going to let cities like Los Angeles know that they don’t have to spend several billion dollars on CityWiFi. The market void to fill though, started in 1984 when AT&T divested. And this is whey we will highlight our ability to enforce telecommunications privacy law and CPNI, which dictates that usage data is owned by the customer only. Further, the reason this is so important right now is because the FCC wants TV stations to rescind the public’s right to the best frequencies for distance and building penetration, and they want to auction these frequencies to cellular carriers. Why is this a bad thing? Just ask yourself what’s more important, a firefighter behind several walls trying to save lives, or a cellular subscriber saying, “Can you hear me now?” These are the very reasons that we need an entity that can act like a public utility…because there are just some areas where competition is not warranted…police, fire, water, roads…and telecommunication. These are all areas where we need a company that will not let it’s government or carriers data mine, just like we don’t want the post office steaming open a letter.
• #13: I chose Ghandi, a human rights icon, because our societal inability to close the Digital Divide is VERY much about human rights…and the fact that the network companies let it get to the point that the United Nations had to declare the Internet A Human Right…well, it’s just sad. But now that the missing link to near-perfect performance has been proven in a global ITU standard, I don’t think we could stop the momentum even if we wanted to. So With no investment, we keep doing what we’re doing. 2M launches EcoNode developer community to support the ecosystem, and 5M launches the virtual bell operating company that will protect the public with an inherently secure Internet…And the timing couldn’t be better now that the FCC has reclassified broadband as telecommunications.
• #14: Finally, a few more quotes garnered when hitting the pavement after we won at DEMO in 2010. JP Norair was the DASH7 Architect, who put in his engineering deck where to send the Red Bull for his late-nite coding sessions. So I dropped off a case at his door when I was in Silicon Valley. Just think, closing the digital divide may have hinged on a single case of red bull. And when I met Vint Cerf at NASA Ames he asked me to explain how our protocol works during a fireside chat, and when I did he responded with… But my favorite is the inventor of Ethernet’s quote, and it’s just filled with irony because even though Mr. Metcalfe was addressing the energy industry, we could very easily say to carriers and network companies…