As always with reports of ’4G’ the usual hype around speeds can be very misleading to ordinary punters, so I was quite pleased to see this report talking about real world speeds of 5-6Mbps rather than setting unrealistic expectations. Although they couldn’t resist showing the 83Mbps possible from trials of LTE-Advanced, just to get viewers salivating!

LTE is of course an interesting technology. WiMAX has been around for a few years now and LTE builds on exactly the same underlying radio foundations, but whereas LTE will be for the mobile consumer market, WiMAX will continue to dominate in the local area, fixed/nomadic, and niche application markets for some time to come.

The chance of a new greenfield LTE operator building a network are slim given the $0.5m+ price tag for a basic “Evolved Packet Core” compared to the ‘zero core’ standalone operation of most WiMAX products on the market today. Then there is the price of devices – not just LTE handsets but also desktop and outdoor CPE which have yet to enter production and will unlikely reach viable price points for some time yet.

We spent a day installing (in gale force winds and rain!) and configuring 2 PtP (point to point) links, a PMP (point to multipoint) base station and CPE (customer premises equipment/modem).

In total the first link ran 8Km, delivering in excess of 60Mbps to the hilltop, from where we relayed down 2Km to our base station site.

In a television shop we linked in to an HD display TV and streamed an HD movie at a bit rate of around 20Mbps over the link, alongside a functioning VoIP telephony service.

Needless to say everyone was impressed with the capability, not least due to their current exasperating lack of broadband or excrutiatingly slow ‘broadband’.

This simple and quick demonstration was a neat device to show off the achievable speeds and stability of a wireless broadband system and it worked a treat.

CYNGHORAU CYMUNED PENMYNYDD A STAR A LLANDDYFNAN COMMUNITY COUNCILS

CYFARFOD CYHOEDDUS

PUBLIC MEETING

I drafod a cofrestru am Broadband

To discuss and register for Broadband

ARDALOEDD BROADBAND NOTSPOT AREAS

(Penmynydd, Rhoscefnhir, Talwrn)

NOS WENER 25 CHWEFROR FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2011 7.30pm

CANOLFAN PENMYNYDD COMMUNITY CENTRE

Am ragor o wybodaeth: For more information:

www.bluenowhere.net

Mae Bluenowhere wedi datblygu cynlluniau, fel darparwr gwasanaeth Firespeed, i sefydlu rhwydwaith mewnol band eang cyfanwerthol mynediad agored, newydd. Bydd hwn yn galluogi darparwyr gwasanaeth adwerthu, rhai newydd a rhai presennol, i gyrraedd cartrefi a busnesau nad ydynt yn cael eu gwasanaethu gan y band llydan ar hyn o bryd neu sy’n derbyn band llydan gwael.

Bluenowhere has developed plans, as a Fibrespeed Service Provider, to establish a new, openaccess, wholesale broadband infrastructure allowing new and existing retail service providers to reach homes and businesses currently unserved by broadband or receiving poor broadband

]]> http://www.bluenowhere.net/?feed=rss2&p=601 0 http://www.bluenowhere.net/?p=594 http://www.bluenowhere.net/?p=594#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:02:24 +0000 Harry Aldridge http://www.bluenowhere.net/?p=594 more »]]> Bluenowhere features in the this month’s Wireless Magazine feature “LTE vs WiMAX” (an excellent publication in case you don’t already subscribe).

For Aldridge, spectrum availability has hampered WiMAX deployment and it will delay LTE in the UK. ‘Lack of spectrum in the UK has held up WiMAX deployment,’ he adds. ‘The UK broadband sub-licensing model [introduced] in 2010 has opened the door and WiMAX deployments will take hold in 2011. LTE will not be deployed in currently used spectrum in the near future and will be delayed until new spectrum at 800MHz and 2.6GHz is made available, pushing deployments to 2013 or 2014 at the earliest. Operator rollout of LTE will take a number of years, beginning in highest use urban areas to offload data intensive users.’

Bluenowhere is looking to 802.16e and 16m WiMAX today with a view to migrating to TD-LTE as the technologies converge and LTE becomes market ready with a developed device ecosystem.

‘WiMAX vendors are increasingly making their WiMAX solutions LTE upgradeable,’ adds Aldridge. ‘There is little difference on the radio interface, so choices rest purely on the application or customer requirement and the nature of the users and devices required – and whether LTE is as easily deployable for a greenfield operator.’

The early stage nature of LTE means there have been few commercial deployments, but Brandon says enterprises have engaged with WiMAX. ‘Enterprise WiMAX deployments to date have largely been application-specific, or at least driven by a few applications,’ he adds. ‘For example, in the WiMAX trial in Maidstone, Kent that MLL Telecom operated, the Fire Service used it for sending real-time video from an incident back to the control room.’

Aldridge agrees that those application-driven types of deployment are where WiMAX is strongest. ‘WiMAX will not be deployed by mobile operators and will not form the basis of a national mobile voice network,’ he confirms. ‘Instead, WiMAX networks will serve geographically defined user communities, whether that is to bring fixed broadband to rural areas to meet the Digital Britain 2Mbps USC/NS programme, or in urban environments for specialist organisations in the public sector such as the NHS or local government. WiMAX will predominantly be about data to premises, vehicles and possibly laptops or specialist handheld devices, but not to consumer handheld devices.’

We also get a nod in another article in the same issue, referencing our involvement in the Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group trials in Maidstone, run with Alvarion and MLL Telecom.

Bluenowhere, a wholesale WiMAX network operator supporting local government applications, in conjunction with Maidstone Borough Council, also demonstrated the capability of WiMAX to replace 3G and fixed CCTV connections in a cost-effective manner to provide 24/7 IP-based video surveillance services on a fixed and mobile basis. Also piloted was the use of WiMAX to save costs in building inspection and for live data capture by the community safety team

Click below for more details