Wireless transmission at a rate of 8 Mbps over a distance of 5.6km is not that outstanding,
but the key to it is that it can use unused TV spectrum, and adapt to what
spectrum is actually available in a specific area. The company TTP run the demonstration at the
Melbourn Science
Park, to the nearby village of Orwell.
The technology currently requires an external aerial, which is not unlike
other fixed wireless services that are operating with a view to providing
broadband and thus services like IPTV and VoIP in the areas of the UK where
broadband is slow or not available. NextGenUs is one example of a Community
Interest Company providing services to these underserved areas, they use 5.8GHz
kit, with fibre backhaul from the masts to give connections of 50 Mbps to 70
Mbps to properties.
NextGenUs operates
without recourse to BDUK funding, and as such this means if enough interest
from a community is available they can work on creating a service in an area.
Precise costs and speeds will vary from area to area, but a setup fee of £150
and a monthly fee around in the £20 to £30 range appear to be the norm.
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NextGenUs also operates as a 100% not-for-profit that reinvests surplus back into delivering FTTH for the whole community first then continues to return surplus for other projects that benefit the local community.
There is probably little profit margin in the NEXGEN service so I would not hold your breath waiting for FTTH although you might eventualy get FTTC
Is that 8Mb/s the total bandwidth supported by the mast or the headline connection speed? I hope it’s the latter. 8Mb/s shared across 55sqkm doesn’t sound very useful.
@Bob_s2: Actually, depending on the community, the profit margin we have allows fibre reinvestment in 5-15 years depending on uptake in an area while the wireless service we deploy initially deploys a service at generally 50Mbps+ which is beyond what most people require at the moment anyway.
Even if you achieve that you will not be able to deliver FTTH in 15 years. The cost of deploying fibre would be more than the total revenues over the 15 years
@Bob_s2: You cannot make this judgement without knowing our numbers…
I dont need to know the numbers to be able to make a preety good estimate. You are looking at in the region of about a £1000 to £5000 per home passed depending on how rural an area is.
@Bob_s2: Check out the BBC Click video when we deployed FTTH to Ashby de la Launde. It mentions we managed to get the cost down to <£1k per property and that is a very rural area with properties spread outside the village centre. Even if say only 30% of subscriptions at £30pm, that brings in this amount over 10 years. Services that do exactly what they say on the tin 🙂