Bluenowhere, a new entrant to the Welsh broadband market, is today announcing its plans to invest in a technology-leading next generation wireless broadband infrastructure across the Anglesey and Mon a Menai region.
Bluenowhere has developed plans, as a FibreSpeed Service Provider, to establish a new, open access, wholesale broadband infrastructure allowing new and existing retail service providers to reach homes and businesses currently unserved by broadband or receiving poor broadband. The scheme also has the support of the Isle of Anglesey County Council and is seen as a further step towards enhancing the broadband infrastructure of Wales which is a key objective of the Welsh Assembly Government.
Bluenowhere is seeking to take advantage of the Welsh Assembly’s £2m “Broadband Support Scheme”, to accelerate and expand the deployment of our network to cover the more commercially unviable communities in the region.
Harry Aldridge, CEO, Bluenowhere says “We warmly welcome the launch of the Welsh Assembly’s ‘Broadband Support Scheme’. We are today inviting individuals and communities to register their interest at notspots.bluenowhere.net, so we can engage with applicants and propose a solution to extend our state of the art network into their community as soon as possible”.
“Broadband has become the “4th utility” and is now as important as access to water, electricity, and gas. Those unable to take advantage of the social and economic benefits broadband offers will become increasing excluded unless steps are taken to tackle availability. Bluenowhere is delighted to have the support of the Isle of Anglesey County Council in making available council sites and assets to support our deployment and in their commitment to tackle digital inclusion.”
Download our press briefing in English or Welsh
wholesale broadband infrastructure allowing new and existing retail service providers to
reach homes and businesses currently unserved by broadband or receiving poor broadband. The
scheme also has the support of the Isle of Anglesey County Council and is seen as a further step
towards enhancing the broadband infrastructure of Wales which is a key objective of the Welsh
Assembly Government.
Download the Press release here.
The Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group today held an ‘industry day’ in Maidstone, Kent, where our trials have taken place during 2008 and 2009, and published our findings.
There was a significant turnout to the presentations in the morning, and the shuttle bus drive-demonstrations around the town over lunch were a great success.
The message that WiMAX has a strong future in providing fixed and untethered broadband connectivity in non-consumer markets was picked up by some, though the media generally used this to beat WiMAX and herald 3G-LTE as the 4G ‘winner’.
WiMAX.com – Mobile WiMAX Proves Its Worth
ISP Review – National UK Mobile WiMAX Broadband Rollout Deemed Unlikely
Silicon.com – WiMAX Won’t Win the Race to Become 4G King
3G.co.uk - Results of UK’s First End-to-End Live Mobile WiMAX Trials
Unstrung – UK Mobile WiMAX Trial Results Revealed
Total Telecom - Mobile WiMAX Unveils Results
Bluenowhere Chairman, Peter Curnow-Ford is interviewed by Wi-Fi Planet…(full story here)…
Bluenowhere is working on two different WiMAX plays. Later this year, it will launch its 802.16e-based wholesale mobile WiMAX business in selected cities in Britain. (It has been involved in a pilot in Maidstone, Kent since early last year as part of a Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group initiative.)
In the meantime, it’s developing a new model and infrastructure for a wholesale WiMAX business to support triple-play operators in rural areas offering voice, video, and broadband Internet services. “Whereas in urban areas, it’s 80% mobile and 20% fixed/nomadic,” Curnow-Ford says. “It will be the reverse in rural areas.”
The company plans to deliver at least 8 Mbps to rural homes using WiMAX for the last mile and very high-capacity millimeter-wave wireless technology from suppliers, such as GigaBeam and DragonWave for backhaul to the fiber backbone.
It hopes to find support for this in government initiatives flowing from the Digital Britain report, the preliminary recommendations of a parliamentary committee that include guaranteeing availability of 2-megabits-per-second (Mbps) or faster broadband access to every home and business in the country.
WiMAX will almost inevitably play a role, Curnow-Ford believes. While fiber-to-the-home is the logical choice for high-speed broadband services in much of the country, there will still be 8.9% of the population that for business and technological reasons can never get 2 Mbps over a wire.
“And 40% will never get [wireline] 8-Meg service,” he adds. That’s the minimum needed for a triple-play service.
The European Union, meanwhile, is mandating funding in the $1.5 billion range for national broadband initiatives, such as Digital Britain.
Channel 4 News visited Maidstone to do a feature piece on WiMAX. here is the video clip of the report, where you can see the Public Safety trial in action with Kent Fire & Rescue Service…
UK’s first mobile WiMAX network to go live in Maidstone
Harry Aldridge : February 11, 2008 11:43 am : NewsMobile WiMAX Acceleration Group to demonstrate real-world mobile WiMAX network in the UK
BARCELONA – 11th February 2008 – The Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group (M-WAG), a collaboration of companies demonstrating the business case for mobile WiMAX, today announced that it will deliver the first ever UK mobile WiMAX pilot network over 2.5GHz in Maidstone, Kent. The network will go live in April and will be used to conduct multi-application user trials using mobile WiMAX.
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Bluenowhere was at this years Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, representing the Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group (MWAG) on the UK Trade & Investment stand at the show. Press release here.
A busy week of media engagements and back-to-back live demonstrations of our on-demand video transaction system. The demo, courtesy of Bluenowhere and fellow MWAG partner Mobile Sense, was able to show the potential for a consumer focused WiMAX application, allowing a user to purchase content via their mobile and stream via wireless broadband to their mobile device.
Bluenowhere Joins the Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group
Harry Aldridge : November 26, 2007 8:38 am : NewsBluenowhere joins the 4G industry collaboration, founded by Nortel & Urban WiMAX, as lead showcase partner for both consumer and muncicipal authority market trials. The collaboration is made up of companies throughout the 4G WiMAX ecosystem, with a shared belief in WiMAX as a technology capable of enabling the next generation of applications.
Bluenowhere founder & CEO Harry Aldridge said “We are very excited to be working with the collaboration to demonstrate the potential of 4G mobile broadband in the UK. The stranglehold of mobile operators, with their legacy investments to protect, is holding back the development of high speed mobile broadband services, and through demonstrating the capability of mobile WiMAX and the commitment of companies in the ecosystem, we hope to build confidence in the technology and encourage investment in new operators ahead of next years 2.5GHz auction.”
As one of a select number of key collaboration partners, Bluenowhere aims to show how both WiMAX and WiFi can be integrated into a cohesive wholesale network delivering triple-play services to municipal authorities, business users (SMEs) and the public alike.
The full collaboration press release can be downloaded here
