Rural Broadband - More Hope

["Mark McCall" <Mark@xxxxxxx>]

Noticed a story about Wireless BB on Darren's site...
http://www.shmern.org/

And this piece...

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2126723,00.html

Mobile networks could boost rural broadband

GSM base stations and community wireless broadband networks could make
excellent bedfellows
Community broadband networks in rural areas could benefit from the need for
mobile phone operators to improve their network coverage, two UK companies
believe.

Invisible Networks and ip.access have announced a plan to team up in a
trial
to show how mobile phone base stations can operate off local wireless
broadband networks.

If successful, the trial could help to finance the rollout of broadband
across the UK.

Invisible Networks is a company that builds community wireless networks in
areas not served by cable companies or BT's ADSL network. It is currently
constructing the Cambridge Ring -- a cluster of networks around Cambridge
that use 802.11b to provide wireless broadband to residents and businesses.

Telecoms infrastructure manufacturer ip.access makes a range of low-power
GSM/GPRS base stations, which communicate with the mobile operator's
network
via a broadband link to the Internet. According to ip.access they can be
connected to a wide area network, a company LAN or even just an Internet
connection.

Richard Nuttall, chief executive of Invisible Networks, told ZDNet that the
trial aims to show mobile phone operators how they can easily improve
network coverage in existing black spots.

"Initially, we are targeting mobile operators who are looking to fill
in
gaps in their service -- places where they don't have good coverage but
where local people don't want mobile masts to be built," Nuttall
explained.

According to Nuttall, local residents benefit twice over. "First, a
mobile
mast doesn't have to be built and second, some of the money from their
calls
go back into the community network," Nuttall explained.

Invisible Networks currently has community networks operating at two
locations near Cambridge, with a third expected to go live within weeks.
Once a further two networks are launched -- probably in six months time --
the Cambridge Ring will have been created.

The company has a leased line running from Cambridge to a central hub to
the
north of the city. From this hub, other leased lines link to secondary hubs
in each local community. A wireless backbone, based on 802.11b, distributes
the bandwidth around the area, and subscribers connect to it, again by
using
802.11b.

Invisible Networks charges £29.99 per month for a subscription to the
service, or £23 per month if users pay for 12 months up front.

Nuttall explained that the speed of the service is nominally said to be
512Kbps, but in practice users can use the full bandwidth of the backbone
to
get a much faster connection. "One of our subscribers lives in one
village,
but has his workplace in a second village and he is able to back up his two
computers at 6Mbps using our network," Nuttall said.


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