[LINK] The market for wireless [WAS: Work on Next Generation Wireless in Canberra]

[Tom Worthington]

Stilgherrian wrote:
> On 29/11/2010, at 8:51 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>> ... I suggest the NBN be engineered to be
>>  retrofitted with wireless.
> 
> Well, the customer premises equipment has multiple Ethernet ports. I
> you want general internet (IP) connectivity, you need an account with
> an ISP. Plug in their $100 combined internet router and wireless
> access point. What's to retrofit? ...

What I had in mind was a wireless service managed as part of the NBN,
with base stations on the fibre around the neighbourhood. So customers
could use it without installing any extra equipment in their home.

Otherwise I have to buy wireless hardware and plug it into my NBN
connection. If I want access during a power failure, I need to provide
my own backup battery, in addition to the one already in the NBN
equipment. I can't use my neighbour's wireless, nor use wireless to
access the NBN elsewhere in Australia. My base station will compete with
the neighbour for spectrum.

With NBN providing the wireless, I could take my cordless phone, or 
tablet computer, to visit someone down the road, or on the other side of 
the country.

An example of this approach, to a limited extent, is Eduroam, which
provides WiFi access at universities in Australia and elsewhere:
<http://www.eduroam.org/>.
Previously when a conference was hosted by a university, the organisers
would have to set up their own temporary WiFi network at the venue, or
get temporary user-ids issued for each delegate. Now I can use my ANU
user-id at any participating campus around the world.

ps: BT take a more ad-hoc approach with "Fon". With this customers buy a 
special WiFi router which they plug into their broadband and share it 
with the neighbours: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON>


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra