I'm curious as to why all broadband services seem to rely on either a telephone line or cable connection.
Why can't the service arrive in your house via an aerial or satellite dish?
Most of us have wireless routers, so it must be possible to transmit and receive the information.
|
You mean using 3G type services. Something to compete with these in future is called LTE (Long Time Evolution). The problem with the wireless data transfers at home is distance.
You're missing two important things with your idea - sending data and latency. You can get satellite broadband but it would usually use a slow link for sending data. And you need to send data to request downloads etc. And for satellite the latency is high (distances and also the delay from a request and the data being sent).
Back in the 90s there was wide area wireless Internet in and around San Francisco and Silicon Valley. This used transmitters on lamp posts and relied and a large brick like modem you stuck to the underside/back of the laptop. Speeds were ISDN like (64Kbit/s) so today that is even slower than 3G.
|
When I signed up for my Orange dongle, the lad in the shop mentioned something about superfast access in London.
But I didn't inquire any further as the shop was in Harrogate. :)
|
|
Some areas will currently have an up to 7.2Mbps service via the 3G networks.
|
...Some areas will currently have an up to 7.2Mbps service via the 3G networks...
I'm not too hot on the measurements, but presumably that would compare well with the speeds many of us are getting via a phone line.
My dongle can load sites quite quickly if I happen to get a decent connection.
|
|
The speeds will compare if you get a good connection. But the costs for downloading mean it is not economical to use instead. You'll probably find it's about £1 per Gb. Watching something on iPlayer could cost a pound or more.
|
I don,t know anyone that has ever got anywhere near 7meg on a 3G network.
Its compares very badly indeed to a 8meg broadband connection.
For some reason my router has negotiated a 10meg connection and is transport stuff about at 8.5meg downstream and 1meg upstream.
Not bad for an 8meg connection.
|
|
My netbook came with a free 3 dongle. Works OK in central London and intermittently on the train. Cannot see any signal at all here. Minimum creit is £10 but expeires after a month. CWOT.
|
|
Unless it's changed, Vodafone credit does not expire at the end of the 30 days - it lasts until it's used. If occasional use then it works out better value.
|
I'm afraid it does now expire after 30 days. Changed a while back
|
>> I don,t know anyone that has ever got anywhere near 7meg on a 3G network.
>>
You'd only ever see the 7 meg peak download speed if you were the only user in the cell and you're very close to the base station, so pretty unlikely.
The only decent size study I know of on real world 3G download speeds is this one from the States:-
www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364263,00.asp
which shows typical average download speeds in the 1 - 2 meg. range.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Sat 6 Nov 10 at 18:12
|
There are various solution for Broadband wireless access, many moons ago there was the Ionica system:-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionica_%28company%29
OK not really very broad, bandwise, but wireless.
Then in the mid 2000s there was an attempt to use 3G technology (geek comment - TDD rather than the usual FDD) to give Broadband access in the UK, that disappeared without trace:-
www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/01/pccw_cautious/
There are various big systems worldwide giving wireless access, mostly using WiMax technology (another flavour of 3G)
As mentioned above there are now LTE rollouts taking place (technically 3.9G not 4G) which are being used for broadband wireless access:-
www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/07/verizon_lte_plans/
www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/06/german_lte/
Apologies for high geek content of posting.
|
...Apologies for high geek content of posting...
No need, I had you in mind when the question occurred to me.
The links refer to '4G' in the USA and Germany.
Are we likely to see speedy wireless in this country anytime soon?
|
|
My previous home in Spain had no landlines (builder had left out underground ducts as he thought houses would be holiday home use only!). We relied on a wireless broadband (and telephone) connection from a centrally-located aerial. Better than nothing but speeds are limited. The IPTV service providing UK television can't be used over the wireless connection.
|
>>
>> The links refer to '4G' in the USA and Germany.
>>
>> Are we likely to see speedy wireless in this country anytime soon?
>>
>>
Whoops, didn't see your reply there!
I don't think we'll see rapid adoption of '4G' technologies by UK operators, largely on the basis that they've spent huge amounts of money on spectrum and hardware to get 3G to the point where 7Mbs peak download capability is available in many places. 3G can be pushed to around 42Mbs peak without too much grief, which should give similar 'user experience' to current 'up to 8Mbs' wired broadband.
|
We're waiting for you to switch off your analogue tv iffy so that the government can sell of radio spectrum for 4G. I've heard 2014 / 15 mentioned. tinyurl.com/36kckww
John
|
|
Good to see the highly paid analysts agree with my summary. i.e. no widescale LTE in the UK for a few years yet ;-)
|
Why does broadband need a cable? - rtj70
