Microsoft and an army of tiny telecoms are part of a plan to wire rural America
I do applaud wireless internet companies that are fighting the good fight today. However, I feel like the big three wireless companies (Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&amp;T) are likely going to eclipse them in the near future. When dealing with wireless home internet, a lot of it is going to depend on the amount of spectrum you have, how much that spectrum can cover (lower frequencies travel farther), and how much resources you have to deploy it. I think that the big three wireless companies are going to win on those fronts.<p>Aristotle has 40MHz of CBRS (3.5GHz) spectrum and can also use up to 80MHz more of unlicensed spectrum (though that could suffer interference problems from basically anyone else that wants to use the unlicensed portion). The big three companies have more spectrum - T-Mobile has 335MHz, AT&amp;T 246MHz, and Verizon 290MHz. Not only that, it&#x27;s across more frequency bands which has implications for coverage. Low-band (below 1GHz) spectrum will travel farther and be less susceptible to disruption. AWS&#x2F;PCS spectrum from 1.7GHz to 2.1GHz and 2.5GHz BRS&#x2F;EBS spectrum will travel farther than 3.5GHz spectrum. And yes, the big three also have CBRS&#x2F;C-Band 3.5&#x2F;3.7GHz spectrum.<p>These companies are going to have an army of wireless technicians, a lot more spectrum, and the money to invest in deploying it. T-Mobile already has 30M eligible households for their home internet (around 20-25% of US households) and I&#x27;m sure it isn&#x27;t perfect, but it will be improving rapidly over the next few years as they bring lots more spectrum online. Verizon has announced home internet plans as well (I think hitting 30M by the end of 2023 and 75M by the end of 2024 or 2025, but this is from memory here).<p>To make a simple comparison, Verizon is going to be averaging 174MHz of 3.5&#x2F;3.7GHz spectrum vs Aristotle with 40MHz. To me, it seems like Verizon is going to be able to deploy a better home internet service. However, rural wireless carriers have put up a good fight in the past and often serve areas where the big three don&#x27;t. Aristotle might also invest in equipment that simply works better for what their customers want.<p>For example, T-Mobile&#x27;s home internet service just uses a router&#x2F;modem that&#x27;s the size of a WiFi router. There&#x27;s no fancy large antenna or anything. Aristotle might work with their customers to install high-gain directional antennas much like rural people are used to installing for terrestrial or satellite TV. Localities might be more willing to give a small, local company like Aristotle access to their water towers in a way that they wouldn&#x27;t give the big three access. Aristotle might also be better able to find a report with customers about the trade-offs of adding more capacity, cost, traffic management, etc.<p>But T-Mobile could copy that playbook in the coming years. T-Mobile has talked a lot on investor calls about seeing rural customers as one of their big growth areas over the next 5 years. If Aristotle can make it work with 3.5GHz spectrum, T-Mobile&#x27;s 2.5GHz spectrum has better coverage and they have more of it.<p>I&#x27;m probably being overly pessimistic, but it just seems hard to compete with the big three wireless companies.