[plug] [Slightly OT] Wireless ISP companies

[Steve Boak]

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 04:42 pm, Onno Benschop wrote:
> Steve Boak wrote:
> >Hi all
> >
> >I am looking at selling our town to the devil (well, a wireless broadband
> >company really, but what's the difference if I choose the wrong one :-)
> > and I would like to know if anyone has experience with the companies
> > concerned.
>
> Uhm when you say wireless, I'm guessing that you're talking about an
> 802.x based technology. From memory you're in the South West of WA and
> I'd be surprised if any such infrastructure exists.

Both companies supply Motorolla Canopy equipment, which gives up to 22Mb (raw) 
throughput over 20km with the standard antenna module, 70+km with a reflector 
or Yagi antenna. Realistic throughput is 7Mb between nodes in the town (free 
traffic), throttled to whatever you pay for out to the real world. Plans on 
offer range from basic 256k/64k, up to and above what I am looking at which 
is 1.5M/512k.

> If you have access to ADSL, which can now run over 30-40km, rather than
> 3.5km, you could likely use any ISP.

Not a chance - Telstra demand at least 80 confirmed signups within the 
standard ADSL range which is well nigh impossible with our population, and 
no-one else seems interested - possibly because we have some of the worst 
phone lines in the state, and maintainance would be a nightmare.

> If you are talking about satellite, then you might want to consider
> speaking with BorderNet or Optus.

I was looking at this for myself, but so far have made do with 128k ISDN which 
has worked extremely well.

> So, in the context of what I know of your environment, I'm not quite
> sure what you're asking for.

Initial proposal is for a 2Mb satellite hub on a hill with the aforementioned 
Motorolla wireless network to each property, moving to terrestrial microwave 
or fibre links to the main backbone for backhaul in the future.

Both companies *say* that this is what they can provide - I just don't know 
whether to believe them :-)

Steve

-- 
Steve Boak, P.O. Box 240, Nannup, WA 6275
Nannup Telecentre IT support, ph (08) 9756 3022
Free World Dialup (voip) number 454566