Aardvark

[Bruce Simpson]

This column is archived at: http://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2008/0320.shtml

It worked for TV broadcasts in the 1970s so why wouldn't a similar setup work for broadband in the 2000s?

Would it be practical for some enterprising new player to set up a wireless-based digital data network that spans the length of the country and delivers a viable alternative to dial-up to remote communities?

Or have existing taxpayer subsidised wireless systems effectively provided all the coverage we need in these areas anyway?

Are you still one of the few people in NZ who can't get broadband?

If so, how much would you pay to buy into a WiFi service that delivered broadband to your home or business?

[techy]

"Telecom is boasting that it will deliver broadband to any town or village with at least 500 phone lines.

That's got to be good news for rural New Zealand who, until recently, have been largely stuck with a choice between noisy and unreliable dial-up access or expensive and cumbersome satellite-based systems.

But what does this mean to our more sparsely populated rural areas? "


You have an odd idea of rural.
Small towns over 500 households are not rural.

Rural is like down here, little spots all over with a few houses, maybe a shop or pub and farms.

Thats most of "rural" NZ.

[thrashcardiom]

Firstly, I believe the "500 households" thing isn't about delivering DSL rather than being about laying fibre to the exchange so that those towns can get faster DSL.

Secondly, 500 households definitely isn't rural. In my rural district, we have two towns with 500 or more households, 2 towns with under 500 households but over 100, 4 between 50 and 99, and a lot more much smaller communities.

The two towns with over 500 households contain roughly 50% of the district's population.

In other words, around half of our district's population misses out on faster broadband and a large proportion of that majority miss out on DSL altogether.

[dave.net.nz]

Dunno about others, but we've been using solar powered wifi(linksys wrt54g running ddwrt) connected to 128k DSL lines to get faster than 14.4 to a few remote sites... the longest one was 42kms from our "base node"

We took it down 2 years ago now when the last of our "customers" got DSL to their hick town.

All this served from central dunedin, and costing about $1200 per node for the backbone, and under $200 for the clients.

[Ian O]

[robsat]

People are funny customers when it comes to the internet in RURAL NZ
The seems to be a some sort of preconceived idea that rural areas should get the same setup deals as the townies,ie free modem etc. They are all keen usually until the mention of costs come into it and then "our dial ups not really that bad"
When you do get a project off the ground then the first thing a certain company does is service that area and customers start to jump ship to the cheaper option that is being provided to them via a telephone line
Its still not cheap to build out a network with new gear in solar powered sites even if SOHO level equipment is used rather higher level equipment. Range and thruput are the biggest problem that occurs with SOHO equipment especially with multiple users on the far end of the system

[robsat]

Also if you allow an average of 2.5 people per household for towns of 500 lines then that is 1250 people. How small towns and areas in rural NZ are over 1250 residents? Pretty much rules out a heap of rural NZ

[webwat]