How Reliable is 900Mhz Wireless Internet?

amrust asks: "I live in an area that currently is not being served by broadband in any way. Local ISP's are discussing bringing Wireless Internet into our area, and for some of the more difficult to reach places, they have mentioned 900Mhz being used. I was wondering how reliable/secure the 900Mhz spectrum is for Wireless Internet, and if anybody has some comments on experiences with 900Mhz wireless internet that they can pass on?"

Comments

Phone Frequency

[rritterson]

I don't have any personal experience with 900mhz, but i do know that it is the same frequency that cordless phones use. Some phones today use 2.4ghz and they cause interference with .11b and g (my friend's neighbor has a phone that is so powerful it knocks my friend offline everytime the neighbor turns it on.) There are many more 900mhz phones that 2.4ghz phones, so I'd assume the problem is worse.

However, you are in a rural area, so maybe the congestion on that band will be somewhat less (We live in a major metro area).

It's perfectly secure

[anthony_dipierro]

All the sniffing software is written for the 2.6Ghz range, so you can rest assured that no one other than you and the intended recipient will be able to read the message.

Oops

[Anonymous Coward]

It's so unreliable that I just stole this guy's password and am now posting as him.

Anecdotal

[Jahf]

I listened to Bill Joy talk at a conference in Aspen where he went into fair detail about the 900MHz system they had installed there long before 802.11b came about (if anyone remembers seeing a story about an Aspen cabby with a totally connected neon taxi cab, he was using this system for his net access).

Anyway ... for long distance penetration through anything other than air, 2.4GHz plain sucks (I'm using a WISP now and occasionally when strong winds hit I have to give up working for awhile ... shame). Mr. Joy did mention that they weren't able to get more than a few hundred Kb/s out of their system, but that was acceptable for a few dozen people sharing a single T1 and the system sounds like it was rock solid stable.

If you only have one choice (or if you consider a normal dialup line a choice maybe 2) then that is definitely not a bad one. I think I would actually prefer my 2.4GHz ISP to offer 900MHz as an option. Instead they're switching to 5GHz for high-end use ... though since their 5GHz access point doesn't have trees between it and myself and it is far less war driven I will probably switch to that anyway.