This report deals with the growing availability of WiMAX in the UK. Already well-established in the USA and in countries like India by the giants of telecommunications, in Britain it has been left to smaller specialist providers to invest in the infrastructure and to develop services. The downside of this is that not many areas in the country have the service available to them but, because the providers own their own networks, they are very responsive and keen to ensure that their clients get prompt and reliable service.
WiMAX uses the latest technology to provide broadband, data and voice communications by microwave from a series of base stations located on high buildings. Most broadband currently arriving on our screens is delivered by telephone lines - copper wires, designed and intended to carry analogue signals of our conversations back to the telephone exchanges to be switched to the appropriate destinations. It was never envisaged that these fragile strands of wire should be required to carry the enormous digital traffic needed by broadband or the data transfer that occurs when downloading films etc. The speed at which broadband arrives is contingent on factors such as the distance from the exchange and the fluctuating weight of traffic being carried. The consumer rarely gets the speed which the service provider advertises as being nominally available. In selected areas, many of our streets are equipped with fibre optic cabling, which is purpose-designed to carry the volume of today's digital traffic at high speed. With the proviso that this cable still goes under ground where it may be subject to road works or impact, it must rank with WiMAX, which is also unimpeded by the tangle under our streets, as the best means of delivering signals across the last mile.
Video Conferencing
If cable is not readily available at your doorstep, it can be very costly to run a link, involving council permission for trench work, and take weeks to achieve. The same observation applies if the broadband is to be delivered by leased line, for which a premium price must be paid. WiMAX, by contrast, can be easily installed without any major works, in a very short timescale.
Most broadband is delivered by ADSL, which is asymmetric DSL. This means that the speed of outgoing traffic is less, often far less, than that of incoming signals. Files can, therefore, be downloaded from the internet faster than data can be uploaded. This affects things like live video conferencing. It means waiting many minutes while files upload. Some exchanges support SDSL which is symmetric, but at lower speeds of transmission.
WiMAX on the other hand provides a symmetric service and delivers, in both directions, the speed of transmission which the client has chosen - 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10Mbs. Customers wishing to switch from leased lines or to free up ADSL phone lines, to the more powerful WiMAX, can do so very simply. The WiMAX equipment is installed within days and the switch-over is seamless, merely substituting one supply cable for another.
It is estimated that installing and using WiMAX is between one and two-thirds cheaper than SDSL, and results in a faster, symmetrical service with a guaranteed reliability of 99.5%, but which in practice is usually in excess of 99.8%.
There are a few installations in places as widely disparate as Milton Keynes and the Isle of Man, but the main two areas offering WiMAX are central London and Manchester. In London the focus is on supplying the service to fixed office locations from a series of base stations. This is done by installing a small antenna (about A4 size) to the office rooftop. The broadband picked up and broadcast by the antenna is then distributed to the employees' desktops. At the time of writing there are 7 base stations already installed, divided into 45 sectors and broadcasting to a rapidly growing customer base, and with a coverage of 500,000 rooftops each capable of having an antenna fitted.
Those with offices in central London, between South Kensington in the west and Clerkenwell in the east, and south as far as Bermondsey are currently covered and WiMAX can be up and running within a very few days. All traffic passing between the company antenna and the base station is encrypted to the highest level of security, the same system as that used by the US Government to secure its transmissions.
Fast Symmetrical Broadband With Guaranteed Speeds, Ideal for Handling Large Files in the Office
This article forms part of a six-page report covering WiMAX, its features and availability in th UK. To read or download the full report, with case histories and FAQs, please visit http://www.wimax-uk.com
Don Anderson is a retired companydirector in Businesss-to-Business Marketing
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