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County-wide Wireless Broadband
An anonymous submitter sent in this story about a Maryland county providing wireless broadband to everyone, well, almost everyone, anyway. The article doesn't mention how much the service costs, and I don't see anything on the network's website either. There is a good page of information about the network, though.
The correct link is here
It looks like they use a bunch of provides and tieit all into their network. Man... if they did this where I lived I would nut my shorts...
High Speed wireless access
The High-Speed Wireless network is the core of the ALLCONET network providing high-speed access to all members with little or no ongoing charges. Speeds are multiples of current T1 technology, installation is simplistic, and security is irrefutable.
Allconet implements a 10 Mbps backbone thought Allegany county encompassing 7 strategically located towers. The ALLCONET network uses 3 types of equipment to implement a 10 Mbps backbone with 2 and 3 Mbps spurs to building locations.
Breezecom - Breezecom was selected because of it's multi-point ability and 802.11 compliance. Breezecom operates in the 2.4 Ghz frequency range and is a frequency hopper. This unlicensed frequency hopper is excellent at avoiding frequency collisions and load balancing in multi-point installations. Security is achieved by Breezecom by using both DES 3 a frequency hopping ID. This a 3 Mbps unit offering actual throughput of 2.34 Mbps. The cost of this unit makes it an extremely fast and cheap alternative to T1 access. Coverage of this unit is typically 2-4 miles in a 30 degree arc. Software developed by ALLCONET allows 24 hour signal strength and traffic monitoring. Antenna alignment problems are often discovered and corrected before network performance is affected.
Speedlan - Speedlan 2 was selected because of it's price vs. distance factor and multi-point ability. Speedlan operates in the 900 Mhz or 2.4 Ghz frequency range and is a direct sequencer. This unlicensed sequencer is excellent at avoiding frequency collisions. Multi-point installations are switch using a 42,000 MAC address table. Security is achieved by using both DES 3 a unit IDs. This a 2 Mbps unit offering actual throughput of 1.78 Mbps. Coverage of this unit is typically 4-9 miles in a 25 degree arc. Software developed by ALLCONET allows 24 hour signal strength and traffic monitoring. Antenna alignment problems are often discovered and corrected before network performance is affected.
Speedlan - Speedlan 10 was selected because of it's distance and speed. Speedlan 10 operates in the 2.4 Ghz frequency range and is a direct sequencer. This unlicensed sequencer is an excellent choice for speed and security. Security is achieved by using both DES 3 a unit IDs. This a 10 Mbps unit offering actual throughput of 6.78 Mbps. Coverage of this unit is typically 9-20 miles in a 5 degree arc. This is a point to point unit and is only used in ALLCONET for backbone links.
Wavespan - Wavespan was selected because of it's distance, speed and frequency. Wavespan operates in the 5.8 Ghz frequency range, is a direct sequencer, and makes an excellent alternative in a 2.4 Ghz rich environment. This unlicensed sequencer is excellent for speed and security. Security is achieved by unit IDs and extremely directional antennas . This a 10 Mbps unit offering actual throughput of 8.78 Mbps. Coverage of this unit is typically 7-9 miles in a 1.5 degree arc. This is a point to point unit and is only used in ALLCONET for backbone links.
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