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!]