WiBE Shared Hotspot Pitched For Rural Broadband in UK

justice4all writes "A British company claims to have solved the problem of delivering a reliable broadband connection to people in rural communities. Deltenna has developed a small, self-installable gadget called the WiBE (Wireless Broadband Enabler) that uses the 3G mobile network to create a 2Mbps web hotspot. The device sounds similar in concept to devices like Novatel's MiFi, but Deltenna claims it works even in places where a 3G mobile phone wouldn't register a signal. The WiBE has five times the range of a 3G dongle, and can deliver 30 times data throughput compared to a 3G USB modem dongle, Deltenna believes."

hmmm

[lampsie]

While I applaud any effort to bridge the gap between rural and urban internet access, two things strike me here:

1) No mention of price in the article - if current 3g broadband setups are anything to go by, don't expect to see much of a GB allowance compared to standard 'wired' dsl
2) Apparently it can scale to a maximum of 7.2mbps, with a claimed rural 'average' of 2.8mbps - is there much point in a network investing in rolling out these sorts of standards if the average speed is going to be pretty slow? I understand that in rural area's its better than nothing, but the limitations of speed and download allowance I suspect makes this sort of broadband access not very appealing. Frankly, I'd prefer a group scheme using line-of-sight where you are at least going to get a reliable, fast connection. My 0.02 lampsie

There's one that works perfectly.

[Securityemo]

Long-haul optical fiber combined with DSL/a reasonably modern landline phone system for more remote sites; taxpayer money funds the backbone, and the goverment (that isn't hideously corrupt and can be trusted not to use the lines to strangle kittens as soon as you take their eyes of them) leases the last mile to private companies. But of course, there's no profit in that, so such a thing can't possibly exist outside of covert communist dictatorships such as those found here in Sweden. And Japan, to take a ideologically neutral example. Actually, both Japan and Sweden's networks came about through cooperation and understanding between the public and private sectors, more than anything else; it would never have been pulled it off as good as it turned out if the gov. actually had appointed a public sector company in charge as ISP.
*Pets his RJ/45 jack connecting to a 100mbps line in an appropriately condescendingly smug manner*

Re:Slashvertisement

[thijsh]

Now that sounds like tech to be used in rural areas! When they combine the receiving station with a 3G node you would have broadband with an added mobile broadband bonus... This is the way to go, I'm pretty sure Australian farmers would see the benefit of using their mobile all over the ranch and would see a box like that as a good infrastructure investment. The cell companies would probably charge them big time, but this way there should be a mutual benefit, the farmer gets coverage and pays a little more for it, and the telco gets coverage and pays a little less for it...

On that same note, there should be more access points that double as 3G node, so you can have fast cheap mobile internet everywhere you are willing to make the investment where the telco's aren't. Another added bonus is this: transmit power can be lowered significantly so less radio-noise is produced... and your cell's battery will last twice as long when using the internet.

Re:Slashvertisement

[xaxa]

Yeah, and has anyone ever had any reception in a 'rural' area?

This is UK-rural, which isn't really that rural.

See, for example, the yellow bits on this map [gsmworld.com].

Re:There's one that works perfectly.

[TheRaven64]

Off-topic, but it's amusing how broadband access in Wales directly follows the Roman infrastructure. You get decent broadband (and mobile signals) everywhere along the south coast where the Romans built their roads, but as soon as you start going away from these bits it drops off dramatically.

Re:Slashvertisement

[EdZ]

I'd be surprised if it wasn't. You house generally doesn't move about all that much, so it's trivial to point a high-gain antenna towards the nearest mobile phone mast/strongest local reflection. You can even stick in on it's own mast to increase line-of-sight.

Coverage

[Cato]

The only problem is that UK residents can't combine all the networks' coverage without swapping SIM cards - there is no roaming agreement between UK operators. However, this is changing with the merger of Orange and T-Mobile (http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/05/orange_and_t-mobile_everything_everywhere.html), and also network sharing between some other operators.

Ironically a visitor with a non-UK phone will see much better coverage - even UK residents willing to pay extra can't get access to this coverage without using a foreign SIM card.