Screw Wimax and LTE – The CSIRO has a brand new wireless technology in the works, and is pimping it to the government as a possible solution to the problem of rolling out the NBN to remote areas.
According to Grahame Lynch at Commsday, the CSIRO technology is still in the prototype stage, although it has been patented to the hilt already. The tech would be able to offer 100Mbps to the consumer (yeah, right), would operate of 30MHz of the analogue TV spectrum (once that gets switched off in 2013), and the backhaul could provide 10Gbps throughputs over 50km distances.
But despite being in the prototype stage, this new wireless tech would be cheaper to roll out. In Griffiths NSW, for example, only two base stations would be needed to give the whole town high-speed internet, whereas Wimax would require 23 and LTE would need 31.
While we’re all for shiny new technologies here at Giz, it seems that if this needs the analogue TV spectrum, it’s probably still a few years off being a real competitor to LTE or even Wimax…
[Commsday – Thanks Kevin!]
Ryan
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 10:31 AMI could never understand why this style of broadband (wireless) wasn’t the focus from the start for regional areas. These types of technologies have to be the future don’t they?
Andrew
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 2:24 PM@Ryan
The problem with Current Wireless is everyone shares the current signal so EG everyone shares the 54mb on a Wirelss G network. Same problem with Cable internet everyone in your street shares the connection pipe.
boc
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 10:50 PMThat is why this would be a good solution for sparsely populated areas. In country areas you wouldn’t have over-subscription issues.
If they used this technology in a densely populated area then that’s just brain-dead stupid as fibre would be more cost effective.
Mathew Packer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 12:35 PMDefinitely an interesting way to make the NBN more available to remote areas, and of course it potentially makes good use of a lot of existing transmission towers…….100mbits is a bit far fetched though..
Nathan
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 1:29 PMWould be a great way to implement it especially in those areas that old fuddy duddys dont like the sight of a massive transmission tower (even though the benefits far outway the negatives)…Might help those older folk adjust accordingly :-P