News Milton Keynes gets wimax

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/08/21/Milton_Keynes_gets_WiMax/

 

It's an embarresment to this country that while other countries telco's are moving from copper up to fiber wire, the UK's major telco, BT, moved from copper down to aluminium, since it was slightly cheaper.

Wimax...meh, whatever, we wouldn't have this problem if we forced BT to actually be not the worst telco ever created.

 

I posted that last week

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=118959

 

@specofdust; totally agree - BT are a bunch of tight, useless idiots.

As for WiMax, it's a good idea, but I don't understand why they alway go on about people 'living in the sticks', and then debut the service in city areas!?
You just know that all the major cities/towns will get it first, then (if they can be bothered) it'll be setup in rural areas.

On the subject of broadband in rural areas, what even happened to the 'broadband through electric cable' service - yet another option for rural users that never seemed to make it past trial status...

 

Anyone know how much a service like this costs? I work in MK but if this takes off I would happily pay a few more pounds to use a laptop (would have to buy one first) to get online at work without being monitored

 

Spectrum

What spectrum are they using? It will work great if they use good spectrum.

 

One of the reasons BT are so poor is because they are tightly regulated by Ofcom. Telecommunications are far more tightly regulated in this country than any other (and as a result we have very cheap landline phone deals). Its not worth while for them to invest in fibre wire to be fitted all over the country because Ofcom will force them to let it out to other companies for a tiny price.

Ofcom have recently loosened their grip though so hopefully we'll see more investment in new technology.

 

I suppose MK having WiMax is to make up for the worse road/roundabout setup known to mankind.

 

To be fair, a lot of rural areas round where I live (Aberystwyth) can now get atleast 0.5 Mb broadband which is pretty impressive.

 

I live in MK and must say it will be a big improvement from my 2mb line at the momment. Can't wait to test it out.

 

50mbit? lucky bast@@#$ im lucky to get 1mbit max here on cable and thats the fastest thing available. havnt heard anything about any faster services coming anytime soon. what ticks me off is all these big comm companies spending billions to roll a a service thats only twice as fast as thier current system. why don't they look at the future and make the next upgrade 10 times faster. Call me when Gigabit wireless internet access gets here, i'm gunna take a nap till then.

 

From someone who has lived in Harrow and then MK; I would say you have got it the wrong way round mate. MK has one of the best road systems in the UK - maybe you can think about that when it takes you 30mins to drive two miles in London while I'm home in under 5mins in MK

I believe it's free to residents - it'll either be paid for through council tax or by big businesses.

 

What? So everyone gets free wireless in MK ?

 

Eventually, yes. Currently it is only limited from the station to the shopping center, however, it will slowly increase it's coverage until "everyone" within MK can log on. I seem to recall residents will be used as "nodes" to allow others to connect to the network. You can find out more on Broadband in MK and on "WiMax" at http://www.bb4mk.org/default.htm

 

hmm, I'll agree to disagree. Milton Keynes is an interlocking grid of badly signposted roundabouts and roads from what I last recall. As for the parking, don't get me started...

 

No one is going to get free internet - except for maybe the trial period. You will have to signup with Pipex or someone else who is supplying through the WiMax setup to use it.

And for the record, I like the road layout of MK ... Lots more options to get from place to place than London one-way mazes.

 

The Pipex thing is a different kettle of fish