News Intel and Pipex roll out Wimax

[WilHarris]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/04...l_pipex_wimax/

[FredsFriend]

I'm not bothered about Wimax for my broadband really, what i am interested in is broadband for my router and laptop. I'm so bored of the signal degrading after a couple of walls and reducing the throughput to sweet FA

[Swafeman]

How fast is it again? Do they have their own speeds from pipex or do they just offer ADSL to hard to reach places, e.g 2 or 8mb via air not cable?

[mclean007]

I think WiMAX will be a great way to get broadband to rural areas. I'm not so sure why it's being pitched as a solution for cities, however. Sure, it will be great to have citywide wireless coverage when you're on the move, but it seems stupid to replace fixed line broadband with it.

My issue is that, surely, even if it's 100 Mb/sec, that bandwidth will have to be shared among all the users sharing a channel, which, if you propose to roll out WiMAX as a viable broadband solution for fixed users, will mean many, many users in dense urban areas. Daft tbh, when there are high speed point to point channels available in basically every city. I'd rather see widespread roll-out of affordable ADSL2+

[yahooadam]

doesnt say where it will be

how fast

or the cost to the consumer

it doenst bother me much, living out in the country a bit i allways get the short straw when it comes to technology (as if britain on the whole wasnt bad enough)

still stuck on 1mb BB down here, cant even get cable

So its not like it will affect me, i doubt they will put in any system in the near future (IE if they did, itl prolly take then 10 years or somthing)

[Callum]

I'm running on 512 kbps :P

So count yourself lucky

Doubt they'll be bringing this to Penang, Malaysia any time soon, but then hey! I'm off to Canada in a few months

[DaSuperFly]

I think a big benefit of WiMAX is getting broadband without a phone line at the same time. There's also the fact that even if you within range of ADSL, you never know what the actual phone infrastructure is like in your area so you could be limited to 1 Mb connection forever on ADSL.

[Swafeman]

well, we use the phone line too

currently on 512 and exchange getting upgraded to 24mb adsl2 next week, so no need for wimax tbh

[Kipman725]

This is good for humanities future as there isn't enough copper to build traditional wired networks in LEDC's and so when they develop and try to build networks of their own things like wimax will help alot.

Also wimax means the ending of BT's monopoly over ADSL in the uk so hopefully lower prices

[riggs]

It is also hoped that the distance capabilities will help it carry broadband to more rural areas.

...it will roll out more in the top 50 population centres in Britain over the coming few years.

So, it may help folks in rural areas, but they're still gonna be the last people to get it (by which time BT might finally pull their finger out and replace all the awful lines).

Public WiFi really doesn't bother me - I can see how it could be helpful for people wanting broadband on-the-move...but that's not something I actually need.

[DaSuperFly]

Originally Posted by radiator

So, it may help folks in rural areas, but they're still gonna be the last people to get it (by which time BT might finally pull their finger out and replace all the awful lines).

BT are considering buying a license that would allow them to provide WiMAX as well. Replacing the telephone infrastructure is unfeasible. For the same reasons why you don't have cable everywhere, it's expensive and slow to place or replace cables under developed areas.