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Garage Tinkerers Claim Wireless Last-Mile Solution

Posted by timothy on from the believe-when-it's-under-the-tree dept.

BrianWCarver writes: "The NYTimes is reporting that two guys in their garage have designed a low-cost wireless broadband solution that can transmit up to 20 miles. (A previous story described a 7km achievement in Australia.) Their company is called Etherlinx and they use the Wi-Fi 802.11b standard in a repeater antenna that people can attach to the outside of their homes. The technology, which apparently costs under $100, has been operating in a small for-pay trial in Oakland, CA for a year. Is this a solution to the 'last-mile' problem, hope for rural areas, and the death of cable/DSL? Read and be the judge."

7 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Damn by Jacer · · Score: 5, Informative

    I live in Iowa, Armstrong to be exact. We got sick of waiting for a for a large company (ie qwest, mediacom, ect.) to come in with broad band, so our town of around 1100 people spoke with our local phone company, cable company, and our current ISP. Our ISP let us use them as a backbone provider, and our phone/cable company became our dsl provider. They even put some of the green boxes in the country, so availability is very wide spread. It's a little bit more expensive than normal, I pay $5=60 for 256k/s (even though I get 1.2 megabits, a resriction of the modem) but it is better than dial up!!

    --
    --fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
  2. Re:But what kind of data connection do they get 25 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's best for people like me - I live only 5kms (3miles) from the city limits - on an acreage. Due to low population
    density, the Telco is in no rush to get DSL setup for us!

    But there is something similar to this article already offered in Alberta (Canada eh?) :
    http://www.oagroup.com/airlink/forbus_Overview.c fm ?selected=250

    Don't know if it's the same technology as they haven't (yet) responded to my requests for more
    detail ....

  3. Almost certainly illegal in Europe by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Informative

    The power regulation of the 2.4GHz band in Europe is severely limiting the growth of community access wireless networks[1]. The UK currently has additional regulation[2] which also disallows ISPs from making commercial use of the band.

    [1] 100mW EIRP.
    [2] Seems to be under review at the moment.

    --
    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
  4. limitations by SaturnTim · · Score: 5, Informative

    As someone who has worked with 802.11b outdoors, There are some problems they are going to have to overcome.

    1) Outside, you are pretty much limited to line-of-site. Bodys containing water do a great job of blocking the signal. This includes people, trees, cacti, etc.

    2) The problem with repeaters is that, if an early one goes down, the rest of the chain looses the connection. When hoping to span great distances, this is a problem.

    3) hopping via repeators will cut down on bandwidth, and you are limited to very few hops before you get some severe latency

    4) There are limitations to the amount of power you are allowed to use to boost a signal, from the spec:

    ---- begin copy & paste ----
    (3) Except as shown in paragraphs (b)(3) (i), (ii) and (iii) of this section, if transmitting antennas of directional gain greater than 6 dBi are used the peak output power from the intentional radiator shall be reduced below the stated values in paragraphs (b)(1) or (b)(2) of this section, as appropriate, by the amount in dB that the directional gain of the antenna exceeds 6 dBi.

    (i) Systems operating in the 2400-2483.5 MHz band that are used exclusively for fixed, point-to-point operations may employ transmitting antennas with directional gain greater than 6 dBi provided the maximum peak output power of the intentional radiator is reduced by 1 dB for every 3 dB that the directional gain of the antenna exceeds 6 dBi."
    ---- end copy & paste ----

    So, while their plan sounds interesting, they have some serious issues to overcome, and I don't see how they are going to do it with off the shelf parts. I'll wait till I see a working prototype before I shell out my VC

    --
    http://www.theMediaBunker.com
  5. Re:Satellites? by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 4, Informative
    "Low-cost for consumers, possibly, but do you have any idea how much a satellite costs? Besides, you still need a modem for uploads (and HTTP requests), so you get screwed with latency from the modem, the 'net, and routing through a satellite."

    This will change soon. Star Choice in Canada is sending up a new satellite that will allow both upstream and downstream through the dish.

    Plus, since their satellite TV sercvice was launched with elliptical as opposed to round dishes, it is possible for the dish to receive signals for 2 satellites at once.

  6. WTF they talking its, its just 802.11 by Jeff+Knox · · Score: 4, Informative

    What the heck, why does this justify a NYT article. Basically, they have an 802.11 card, in a small formfactor PC of sorts, with probably some custom built access point software. Their are only a few dozen companies that offer the exact same product, since it is just vanilla 802.11. http://www.musenki.com/ is one, with their M-3 product. 20 Miles? Woopity, anyone can get that with 802.11 and an high gain attenae/amplifer. Their are a multitude of companies offering this service with the same equipment. http://www.techsplanet.com comes to mind. NYT journalist should do their studying before they write lame articles.

    --
    Jeff Knox
  7. don't forget Cringely's warning by e40 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cringely says 802.11b is in trouble, and no one seems to care.