[LINK] Wireless Internet Popular in Australia

[Fernando Cassia]

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 8:29 PM, Richard Chirgwin
<rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au>wrote:

>   However, popularity of
> > wireless raises questions as to the need for and viability of the fixed
> > fibre optic National Broadband Network. Other statistics:
>

Different things, different uses.

I am not in Australia, but here at the other side of the globe, there´s no
such thing as fully "flat rate" 3G ... all mobile providers include a data
transfer quota in each plan, with the difference that when the transfer
limit is reached, some operators cut service (you need to "recharge" or add
more credits to your mdoem), while other providers automatically slow down
to GPRS/EDGE speed.

Wireless will *never* be a direct competitor to fibre or even HFC, in
high-density cities, you´d need an awful lot of short-power antennas and
ground stations (a couple per block at least, I guess) if you want to
replace all fixed broadband with wireless.

RF has limited bandwidth, and it´s shared among all users within the same
geographical spot. With fibre (or anything "wire-based", if there isn´t
enough bandwidth, you lay out a second wire or fibre running in parallel to
the first one).

And then, there´s overlap. The only reason I have a pay-as-you-go wireless
USB modem (3G) is as a backup for the times when my fixed broadband stops
working.

Just my $0.02
FC