WWAN - WHEN?

rscosworth · 4 Sep 2006 at 21:30

Guys,

America has WWAN at the moment, gives you wireless internet at broadband speeds pretty much anywhere.

Anyone got any info on when somthing like that will be available here, including prices etc etc.

Seems it could really take off as im fed up paying over inflated prices at wifi hotspots.

Cheers

J.B · 4 Sep 2006 at 21:40

Well O2 and vodafone market GPRS PCMCIA cards, if you like paying high rates for the privlidge of this technology.

I seem to remember reading that Pipex is starting trials for a town wide Wi-Fi access for Milton Keynes as a lot of the town cannot recieve ADSL because it's a new town and for some reason the phone lines are made of Al and not Cu :confused:

dont know why this is.

Someone told me it is up and running in some towns, think they said Norwich and Nottingham but maybe that was my in a dream about a better tomorrow where internet access is readily available for all and the infrastructure is the highest quality and well mantained....anyway I digress.

I think it's on its way.

tolien · 4 Sep 2006 at 23:07

J.B said:
dont know why this is.

Because aluminium was cheap, and copper wasn't, and 30 years ago ADSL wasn't a priority.

Quite a few regions have some wireless ISP, but quite a few have gone to the wall because they struggle to compete with ADSL/cable, especially on the install fee.

bigredshark · 4 Sep 2006 at 23:15

actually, vodafone have some reasonable dedicated gprs tarriffs (may even cover 3G where it's available) they do an unlimited traffic one which is pretty good value when you consider you can use it anywhere.

rscosworth · 4 Sep 2006 at 23:21

i thought gprs was still relativley slow.

im looking to see when full on broadband speed 1mb+ will be avail....

bigredshark · 4 Sep 2006 at 23:31

well thats what the US has. it's not as quick as broadband but unless you're downloading stuff you don't need that fast a connection.

to be honest I think it'll be a long time before we see any broadband speed wireless service onver anything more than a small area, there's just no economics in doing it. most people use their PCs at home and those who do use it else where (me for instance) can get a subscription to t-mobile hot spots for less than £25 a month. that makes it very difficult to break into the market