Wimax - Is it any good?

Greebo

Greebo

Greebo

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Co Durham
Just found out that as of 3 days ago we can get what is described as the fastest Wimax connection in the UK.

I get really confused with bits and bytes and claims of speeds and stuff so is it any good?

They say we will have a permanent minimum download speed of "2MB per second"

It will be permenant at that speed with no slow downs no matter how many people are on.

So is it better than my landline bog standard broadband?

Wiki says the max speed of Wimax is 128 Mbits/sec which is faster than my current wifi (108Mbits/sec)

I download at a max speed of 230Kb per sec atm. So is this much faster? I am confused. MY ISP says I have a 2mb download speed atm. Is this the same as Wimax is offering or slower?

Even more confused by the fact they are claiming that it will increase to 20MB per sec when the whole network is expanding in a few months. Do they really mean bytes or bits?

Could I have 20Mb per sec download for £19.99 a month in two months time?

Thanks.
 
Urban WiMax and Attend 2 Ltd both have 10Mbps down 10Mbps up as their top packages, couldn't find any more information for other providers but at a guess i'd say you're likely to get this speed maximum. Assuming you get this speed you'll download roughly 5x faster and probably upload at over 10x faster that your current ISP.

A typo, as 20Mbps seems like a consistent and realistic upgrade from the 10Mbps figures I found. Somehow 160Mbps doesn't seem realistic to me :p

On another note, these services above seem hugely expensive, how did you manage £19.99 a month?
 
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We've used Urbanwimax on a few occasions in parts of London that aren't served well by conventional broadband.
Nothing amazing really.

I think LTE is the next big wireless tech 'in the real world'.
 
Digital Teesdale – a project to provide high-speed internet connections – is up and running. The first antenna to go live is at Brusselton – about seven miles from Hamsterley.
It means, for the first time, next-generation WiMAX broadband is now available in more than 220 square miles of Teesdale, covering 36 settlements. This summer, it will be rolled out to nearly 700 square miles.
Click to expand...

The Digital Dale WiMAX service is being installed by Networks By Wireless.
Backed by Durham County Council in conjunction with One North East, it is being led by Barnard Castle Vision, together with a number of partners.
Click to expand...

Anne Allen, project manager for Digital Teesdale, said: “Usually, networks advertise impressive ‘up to’ connection speeds which suffer as soon as many people in an area are online at once. Yet through its ground-breaking technology, this service will offer a guaranteed minimum download speed of 2MB per second, which will not reduce at any time of the day, no matter how many people are online.
“As the service becomes fully rolled out, minimum speeds will very likely far exceed this level.
Free public WiFi will also be provided in the centre of Barnard Castle and in a number of hot spot areas in Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale.
Click to expand...

We get funded things like this going on living in a rural area in the NE. When broadband first came along One Northest paid BT £10m to upgrade every exchange in the Northeast to boadband no matter how many houses were on the exchange. I reckon we wouldnt still have broadband now otherwise as our exchange only has a maximum potential customer total of 120.

Hence why we will probably never see fibre :(

Anyway, it has all been setup by One Northeast again and they have used Networks by Wireless do set it all up.

One other claim is that its unlimited monthly download as well.

Good point about latency though, never thought of that.:(
 
Scrap that. They are lying. Am I right is think Mb is Megabits and MB is Megabytes?
 
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Reviews I've seen of the Wimax smartphones make 2Mb/s minimum sound more likely than 16Mb/s. Latency etc not a great deal better than current 3G networks either (at least 120ms). Jitter on top of that too, definitely not a gaming connection. That extra latency will make browsing feel slower than a nominally slower dsl connection.

That said if downloads aren't capped you should be able to get decent download speeds.
 
IrishChr1s said:
The original post was in March, from then to now you haven't worked it out?...
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Because they keep advertising it as Megabytes and twice they have confimed on the phone that its Megabytes and not Megabits despite me querying it and they finally only got it live at the weekend so it's about 4 months late.

"Yes, of course sir, it's definitely Megabytes and not bits"

"You 100% certain?"

"Yes sir."

"Cause that would mean if I pay for your 4MB download service you would be giving me 32Mbps"

"No sir, it's 4 Megabytes, not 32 Megabytes"

"You don't understand what I am asking you do you?"

"Yes sir. I do. It's 4 Megabytes. That's your download speed and how fast you download things. You see, broadband works as follows........." and then proceeded to try and give me a lecture in explaining broadband and speeds.:rolleyes:

They are a bunch of liars and con artists and mis advertising tbh. However, 2Mb for £19.99 per month or 4Mb for £30 per month and unlimited downloads is tempting compared to my current £35 per month for 110Gb when I currently only get 2Mb on my landline.

Added bonus that anywhere in Teesdale I will have access to this broadband wherever I am on my laptop.
 
Zarf said:
Reviews I've seen of the Wimax smartphones make 2Mb/s minimum sound more likely than 16Mb/s. Latency etc not a great deal better than current 3G networks either (at least 120ms). Jitter on top of that too, definitely not a gaming connection. That extra latency will make browsing feel slower than a nominally slower dsl connection.

That said if downloads aren't capped you should be able to get decent download speeds.
Click to expand...

I was asking them about latency last night and they say until they have some results they have no idea what the latency will be :confused:

I said you must have a best guess but no so it's wait and see what other people get.

I only finally got into online gaming 6 months ago and poor latency could be a deal breaker........:(
 
dont get it, you can get an enta reseller to give you "up to" 8Mbps or 24Mbps for £30 a month with 30 or 45gb peak usage and unlimited off peak, th e30/45 is depending on home or business, and the peak hours are less on business (8am-8pm). There are also other packages, hell, BT is unlimited now, although they shape torrenting etc.

Latency on a wireless connection will kill your gaming fun times, and also make browsing feel pretty slow, and often drop random packets/requests so it will seem even slower :(

If its just for browsing etc and the mobility is worth it, then fine, but if your going to game, stick to a wire :D
 
Ch3m1c4L said:
dont get it, you can get an enta reseller to give you "up to" 8Mbps or 24Mbps for £30 a month with 30 or 45gb peak usage and unlimited off peak, th e30/45 is depending on home or business, and the peak hours are less on business (8am-8pm). There are also other packages, hell, BT is unlimited now, although they shape torrenting etc.

Latency on a wireless connection will kill your gaming fun times, and also make browsing feel pretty slow, and often drop random packets/requests so it will seem even slower :(

If its just for browsing etc and the mobility is worth it, then fine, but if your going to game, stick to a wire :D
Click to expand...

Latency is a big issue. However download speed where I live is BT wholesale only and I am abut 3 miles from the exchange so 2mb is my max and for that I pay £35 a month for 110gb download :(

It stinks living in a rural area. At work with 20Mb broadband for £20 per month and unlimited download. :mad:

And work is only down the road as well.
 
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