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WiBE Shared Hotspot Pitched For Rural Broadband in UK
justice4all writes "A British company claims to have solved the problem of delivering a reliable broadband connection to people in rural communities. Deltenna has developed a small, self-installable gadget called the WiBE (Wireless Broadband Enabler) that uses the 3G mobile network to create a 2Mbps web hotspot. The device sounds similar in concept to devices like Novatel's MiFi, but Deltenna claims it works even in places where a 3G mobile phone wouldn't register a signal. The WiBE has five times the range of a 3G dongle, and can deliver 30 times data throughput compared to a 3G USB modem dongle, Deltenna believes."
Yeah, and has anyone ever had any reception in a 'rural' area? I don't know what definition they used for rural here, but it is most likely the park in the center of the city if they can pull 2 Mbit of 3G.
Also: prepare to be massively overcharged by the providers who have to build the 3G towers in the middle of nowhere now...
Presumably it's an industrialised unit, with proper antennae that allow it to pick up a 3G signal in poor reception areas. OK, nothing too exciting there. ...Profit!
1) What agreement do they have with the phone companies? Presumably they need a special licence to resell their bandwidth?
2) Cost - what's the charging model for this?
3)
While I applaud any effort to bridge the gap between rural and urban internet access, two things strike me here:
1) No mention of price in the article - if current 3g broadband setups are anything to go by, don't expect to see much of a GB allowance compared to standard 'wired' dsl
2) Apparently it can scale to a maximum of 7.2mbps, with a claimed rural 'average' of 2.8mbps - is there much point in a network investing in rolling out these sorts of standards if the average speed is going to be pretty slow? I understand that in rural area's its better than nothing, but the limitations of speed and download allowance I suspect makes this sort of broadband access not very appealing. Frankly, I'd prefer a group scheme using line-of-sight where you are at least going to get a reliable, fast connection. My 0.02 lampsie
Why not build a WiMax like network with towers and line of sight external antennas?
End users get ADSL like services if the network is well engineered.
China also offers McWiLL (Multi-carrier Wireless internet Local Loop)
http://www.commsday.com/commsday/?p=346
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Long-haul optical fiber combined with DSL/a reasonably modern landline phone system for more remote sites; taxpayer money funds the backbone, and the goverment (that isn't hideously corrupt and can be trusted not to use the lines to strangle kittens as soon as you take their eyes of them) leases the last mile to private companies. But of course, there's no profit in that, so such a thing can't possibly exist outside of covert communist dictatorships such as those found here in Sweden. And Japan, to take a ideologically neutral example. Actually, both Japan and Sweden's networks came about through cooperation and understanding between the public and private sectors, more than anything else; it would never have been pulled it off as good as it turned out if the gov. actually had appointed a public sector company in charge as ISP.
*Pets his RJ/45 jack connecting to a 100mbps line in an appropriately condescendingly smug manner*
Emotions! In your brain!
Seems to me it would make more sense to just fund MetroNet-like connections out from the towers that already exist.
Eh, signal strength aside, isn't there a timing limit on digital signals? At a certain range, which I don't expect to be more than 10 miles or so, wouldn't the network assume a timeout?
While claiming that they can push more power is ridiculous (it's so easy considering that the standards and regulations are limiting to a ridiculous 250mW in Europe, 500 in USA), it's also totally useless. Of course, you can emit with more power, but then the person who will try to connect to your hotspot will have to emit also with more power, otherwise data are going on one direction only.
When O2, curses on its head, first launched the iPhone, I had constant problems with 3G dropout near iPhones. I began to wonder if O2 was somehow prioritising their iPhone customers, or whether they were bandwidth constricted and the iPhone was sucking up everything. Whatever. Change to Vodafone, no more problems.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
What a stupid idea. Most places there is no broadband, there's no 3G signal either - e.g. mid Wales, North Scotalnd
I'd like to see that.
1) Pull truck onto install location
2)Press self-installer button.
Cue transformers audio effects
3)Use Wi-Fi
The only problem is that UK residents can't combine all the networks' coverage without swapping SIM cards - there is no roaming agreement between UK operators. However, this is changing with the merger of Orange and T-Mobile (http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/05/orange_and_t-mobile_everything_everywhere.html), and also network sharing between some other operators.
Ironically a visitor with a non-UK phone will see much better coverage - even UK residents willing to pay extra can't get access to this coverage without using a foreign SIM card.
Another useful tool is http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ - from the regulator, this shows the exact position and type of base stations (cell towers) in the UK, for all networks apart from T-Mobile. The user interface is a bit annoying and only worked on Internet Explorer, but the data is very useful, particularly for external antenna planning.