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UK Approves of 5.8GHz For Rural Broadband

Posted by Hemos on from the making-best-use-of-the-air-waves dept.

Tandoori Haggis writes "BBC News reports a major decision by UK Government to approve the use of 5.8 GHz C-band for use with wireless broadband. A prime consideration is the desire to provide broadband access for rural areas where broadband cable might be prohibitively expensive to impliment. Previously there had been resistance to freeing up 5.8GHz because it is in an area of the RF spectrum used by C-band radars."

6 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. line of sight by Uma+Thurman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wouldn't that be line-of-sight communication? This sort of thing would need a big tower to cover a big area. The solar-powered airplane hovering over the area would be a nice solution to that problem.

    Anyway, how well would this work if the line-of-sight to the base station was through a neighbor's brick house? Not well I would think.

    --
    This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
    1. Re:line of sight by thedillybar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, the transmitting antenna should be very high. To establish line-of-sight though, you'd probably be fine with your antenna being 10 or 20 feet above your roof.

      FM radio is line-of-sight too...and you don't lose everything when you're parked next to a brick house. Don't expect tree branches blowing across to severely affect your signal strength.

  2. Cheap? by dave1g · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "Opening this band is expected to boost the development of fixed wireless access services, such as low cost internet access in areas not currently reached by broadband services," said the DTI in a statement. "

    Isn't fixed wireless in the states actually pretty expensive? How are they going to do it cheaply in the UK?

    I thought the real selling point of fixed wireless was that these rural areas finally get to have access, and, being deprived of anything near as fast, would pay a relatively high price for it.

  3. military by powlow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    crazy to share the band with the military...it realy does seem like licensing without guarantee of service...

    The military can shut you down and creat exclusion zones, you have to pay and there is no gurantee of service and they could theoretically raise the licensing fee at a later date. Seems like shaky ground to me.

    1. Re:military by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 4, Insightful
      crazy to share the band with the military...

      'Sfunny that's true of GPS too. GPS is still a useful system; yes, you can theoretically get stomped on.

      it realy does seem like licensing without guarantee of service...

      Yes, well, neither does the internet.

      The military can shut you down and creat exclusion zones

      Yes, well, that's life. If it is really bad you complain to your politician.

      and they could theoretically raise the licensing fee at a later date

      Yes. Death and Taxes.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  4. Re:Already done by VaderPi · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The problem is that there needs to be incentive (read profit more than cost) for them to implement it since they are private companies.
    It is situations like this where local governments (or even, gasp, the federal government) should provide infrastructure for its constituents. If interstate highway development were left to private companies, I bet that it would be much more difficult to get orders from the West to East coast via ground transportation in seven days. As soon as governments recognize that Internet access is a form of infrastructure for communication and commerce things might improve here in the US.