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

[Richard Chirgwin]

On 1/12/10 9:12 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
> 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.
Tom -

I have problems with this.

1. The escalation of NBN cost.

2. There are good reasons for a demarcation at the network boundary. 
Consumers fought long and hard to get exactly this demarcation from 
Telstra, so that we had the right to install our own choice of 
telephone, modems, etc, without Telstra (well, Telecom!) getting in the 
way; and so we could get extra phone points installed without having to 
rely on Telecom to do so.

Probably about half the home users in Australia already have WiFi and an 
Ethernet switch.
> 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.
That's no different to today: if you want equipment beyond the base 
standard, you buy it and install it. If you want access during a 
blackout, for anything but a PSTN phone, then you have to buy your own 
backup. I do not see providing backup for end user equipment (beyond the 
PSTN phone) as a carrier responsibility.
> 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.
As it will do under any "ubiquitous wireless" model. Shifting the 
management burden to NBN Co doesn't get rid of spectrum competition.

RC
> 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>
>
>