Gabrielle Chan reports in "NBN trounced by regional offering from locals with an eye for enterprise" (The Guardian, 16 December 2013), about wireless broadband being offered in the town of Harden in New South Wales: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/australia-news-blog/2013/dec/16/nbn-trounced-by-regional-offering-from-locals-with-an-eye-for-enterprise
South Western Wireless Communications is offering broadband from $19.95 a month. But the customer has to purchase the Customer-premises equipment (CPE) and it is not clear what frequencies (licensed or unlicensed) are being used: http://www.hardeninternet.com/ I get a mention in the article with my likening the of ALP and Coalition broadband proposals as being like the choice between a Lexus and a 10-year-old Camry and suggesting what younger customers want is a scooter (wireless broadband): http://blog.tomw.net.au/2013/08/the-lexus-and-broadband-network.html The distinction between fixed wireless and mobile broadband is now largely one of business model, rather than technology. Ericsson were contracted by NBN Co. to provide a 4G / LTE TDD for fixed wireless rural broadband. The base stations and protocols used are essentially the same as for mobile broadband. The difference is that the customer receives the service via an antenna fixed to their home or business, rather than via a mobile device: http://www.netcommwireless.com/markets/rural-broadband Both ALP and Collation broadband proposals have aimed at fixed location home and small business users. Also these have assumed a high density of new users served by new fibre into each home or terminated at new equipment cabinets in each street connecting the last few hundred metres of copper cable. The major cost with FTTP is running the cable from street to the home, with FTTN, is installing new cabinets in the street and reconnecting all the copper cables to it. However, an alternative would be to install the optical fibre in the street and then only connect customers as they require a service. Copper cable can be used for up to 1 GBPS, but limited to a distance of about 100 m. Perhaps rugged optical modems could be installed in the existing pits in the street, to provide service to about eight to sixteen homes nearby. -- Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150 The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/ PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia http://www.tomw.net.au Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/ _______________________________________________ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
