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Friday 21st November
NTL Wireless Update
An email from Peter at the council:
We won't know whether the trial has been 'successful', and
that it will be continued as a 'permanent' business option, until (at the
earliest) end of March 2004. As I've stated many times, this is a technical
trial, and even technical 'success' does not automatically mean a business
'success'.
The biggest issue is the number of trees in Milton Keynes. Whilst it may
make the area very attractive, it does make 'line of sight' more difficult
to achieve. We are investigating the possibility of a further transmitter,
in an attempt to get two signal directions for each customer property. I
must emphasise that the second transmitter is not a forgone conclusion at
this stage.
I have also heard of comments regarding the administration of this trial.
Obviously we have been attempting to keep the costs to the Council Tax
payers down to the minimum possible, which means we have not employed
additional staff to manage the increased workload. This may have caused some
delays, but I think the nature of the trial should be completely understood
by all, in that there is little that is routine during a trial (it is not a
standard rollout, and new issues will arise each day which have to be
overcome). It is impossible for us to predict how many installs can be
completed each day, which means planning (and informing potential triallists
of progress) is very complex. |
Cambridge Wireless Trial
The following are notes from an IEE lecture that I attended yesterday...
Cotares are running a Cambridge
Public Fixed Wireless Access Trial. They are using equipment supplied by
Cambridge Broadband.
They have been allocated two 20MHz "chunks" at 3.4 and 3.5 GHz. They have 4
base stations around the city and Cambourne.
Each base station has an ATM 1U switch. These standard units set the QoS/
contention ratio / interface to head ends, fibre optic / E1 interface.
The head ends use modulation techniques (QPSK, 16 and 64 QAM). They can be
configured to use several of these techniques dynamically. The system is more
tolerant of non line of sight paths. The modulation scheme uses 60Mbps on air,
giving a user data bandwidth of 48Mbps.
Trees
At 3.5GHz a trees can attenuate a signal by 25dB when in leaf.
Low Budget rollout.
The system can rolled out with the base station "disconnected" from a back
haul. The base station can get a feed from one of its client nodes that does
have a (temporary) feed.
Once a base station is up - don't move it! You don't want to revisit each
client station and re-align the aerial at £100 a time.
PCCW
The head ends are supplied by PCCW. (Pacific Century Cyber
Works is the parent company of Hong Kong Telecom).
"Pacific Century Cyber Works is paying £22 bn for Cable & Wireless HKT in
cash and shares. Founded by Richard Li, son of Honk Kong's wealthiest tycoon,
PCCW has a vision of delivering broadband internet across India and the Far
East."
Licence
The 3.5 GHz spectrum in the UK was recently auctioned by the
Radiocommunications Authority (RA).
The licence for Milton Keynes was won by Pound Radio. Milton Keynes falls into
South East region.
http://www.radio.gov.uk/topics/pfwa/3-4ghz/docs/provawardpoundradio2.doc
The contact for "Pound Radio" has a PCCW email address.
Forum
"PCCW's
disguised bids for broadband fixed wireless licences in the U.K. could represent
the most significant move into Europe by an Asian carrier since Hutchison
entered the 3G auctions."
UK broadband is limited to big cities. This
comment piece supports
Guy Kewney and campaigns for wireless.
Links
http://www.totaltele.com/forum/default.asp?forumID=256
http://www.cambridgebroadband.com/news.htm
http://www.cambridgebroadband.com/product.htm
http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/archive/sum_0003.htm
Modulation Error
Ratio Specifications for QPSK and QAM Transmitters
http://www.cotares.com/bwa.htm
I'm not certain that P-Com are involved, but their product technical specs
agree with the equipment used in the trial.
http://www.p-com.com
http://www.p-com.com/products/PMP_11_00.html
My Inbox
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I now have broadband!
Thank you so much for your efforts and getting the plight noted
Dominic |
I'm in Kents Hill, sent in the form by post, and am
theoretically on the trial. A week or so ago, two jovial NTL guys
arrived to check out line of sight to Linford Wood. Said they had had
some successful installations in Walnut tree.
They failed to get up to the peak of the roof. Their ladder was too short.
Went away with vague promises of returning with a cherry-picker.
Frank
[I will now share my ignorance: A
Cherry Picker is a
mobile platform that can rise to rooftop height.
I hear that the cherry picker will be doing the rounds from next week.] |
A friend of mine who lives in Malmo get broadband: £25 per
month for 26Mbps.
Grrrrrr....
Paul |
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