News US wireless broadband project hits snag

A project to deliver wireless broadband in the US has hit a snag - it could conflict with GPS signals.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2011/04/07/us-nationwide-wireless-broadband-project/1

 

While it's a novel idea, the practicalities of covering an entire nation - particularly one as large and sparsely populated as the States - make it a bit excessive. I'd bet this isn't the only major challenge they have to overcome, and I'm surprised the project's even got this far when the cost surely outweighs the benefits.

 

I just want internet thats faster than 7meg! Im not into the wireless thing.

 

One word.

Latency.

 

sure...pour more power into the microwave band, woohoo!

 

"$5bn short of the required $7bn needed to complete the network."

That's quite a bit short.

 

i could care less about wireless broadband. i completely agree with the previous comments. i would much rather have a strong gps signal than this pointless technology. seriously, people need a break from the internet once in a while. i'm a computer enthusiast but it disgusts me to see people on their smart phones whenever they have more than 5 seconds of a waiting period. and for what? to look at facebook? seriously, if you're outside and you have nothing to do, go see your damn "friends".

i really wish people would stop and think about what's practical instead of whats cool or convenient. this includes everyone who has touchscreen monitors at home or speakers with a frequency range beyond 22,000KHz (which we can't even hear). A GPS is an essential technology that dramatically helps businesses as well as the average person. wireless internet everyone is rarely going to HELP anyone with something important.

 

"$5bn short of the required $7bn needed to complete the network."

LOL i thought the exact same thing @DwarfKiller...

 

Next stop, Dragon's Den.

 

is this something kin to wi-max, or am I getting the two mixed up...?

 

I'd rather have a national fiber backbone. It's ridiculous that we have to pay $200/month for 100mbps internet service when japan and other countries get it for $20/month. (Note that I don't actually subscribe to this service, but it is available from Comcast).

 

huh plenty of funding out there, I mean if Intel can throw away billions in settlements lol but anyhow what about 2025 when the $12billion+ 25 New GPS low orbit sats are up and activated.

 

I hope by that you mean $12billion of satellites, as I think things may get a tad crowded with 12 billion more satellites in orbit.

 

I see many people who think like you do... this is highly increases the chances to survive a zombie apocalypse... I say embrace it and enjoy the oportunities it offers.

Seriously now, When wireless came out the first thing announced for massive connectivity was hot-spots, and I was all aboard the Idea, I mean if you are say in mall and you saw something you like, you could just get online from your phone and maybe check a review of the product, see if you like it or something (this is something I do all the time to this day)

BUT, with the cellphone networks growing, now I dont see the point of this wireless broadband project, specially in the US, everyone who is goin to surf the web or do something online has a smartphone of any kind there, and surely with its Data Plan (like I do now )

 

I guess people dont realize that even today more then half around 56% of Americans CAN NOT get any form of High Speed Internet. (I dont call Hughes or Wild Blue Sat High Speed as thats just an over priced joke)


Where I live there is no Hi-Speed lan line, so I have to do line of sight antennas to get high speed internet but since this company I go through is the only one offering out in my area he can charge an arm and a lef for his fastest connection which is 3mb cost me $115 a month so there is a lot of people on here that dont have the right to complain about what they pay for their connection unless your in a similar situation as myself lol.

Ya you watch hulu and netflix on an hourly/daily basis and tell me what your cell phone bill will be at the end of the month when you exceed that bandwidth cap, assuming your with ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, or Sprint as they have bandwidth caps.

 

The U.S. can't possibly be compared to countries such as Japan or any individual European countries simply for geographical reasons. With roughly 3,800,000 square miles of space it's in an entirely different league, individual states are larger than some countries. To make matters worse, even our high population isn't enough to give us a comparable population density. Japan, for example, is ten times denser. Look at a map of U.S. population density. How could a company afford to lay fiber to all of those population centers and charge just $20 a month? Noticable population centers still hardly reach the density of Japan's national average and are spread out across several times the country's size. It's just not profitable to put fiber everywhere, at least not yet.

Of course, poor old me out here in the wild west can't even get that 100Mbps package at all. Even a $200 a month there isn't enough populace to make money off of it.

EDIT: See post above. Let's get everyone covered in the first place before talking about 100Mbps speeds.

 

Still if only one company owns the entire thing it will not solve cost issues for customers b/c they can charge what ever they want. The reason we have slow internet in the states is that in many areas there is only one real high speed provider b/c the local gov creates a monopoly. If we got rid of these and opened up real competition like what exists in some other nations than we should expect to get the benefits that these other nations have which is better quality service.

 

@Zero right but we live in a anticompetitive greedy country that feels anything more then three competing companies is bad business and is enough to get passed the monopoly thing so as long as we keep operating like this and allowing company after company to buy out other companies this will never changed and we will always get shafted. >.<

 

As a Swede i know what you guys are asking for, and i know it can be done. All major citys in Sweden have acess to optical fiber and the network covers most of sweden.

We are less densly populated, have less money per person and per area unit, there is no reason it cant be done in America. That is if you raise your tax a tiny bit for a couple of years and start a nation-wide infrastructural update project.

Sincerely, a swede with fiber.

 

Well, if it's really interfering with the GPS signal (which I doubt) the reason it will get shut down is because the government won't allow it. They are not going to allow anything to interfere with their ability to covertly track people.