Wireless broadband is any technology that allows wireless data transfer over large distances. This is a broad category that includes both terrestrial (land) and (sky) satellite communications.
What’s the difference between wireless broadband and WiFi?
In a word, distance. While WiFi is designed to be sent and received by small devices over a few metres, wireless broadband uses towers to transfer data several kilometres or satellites to transfer data from almost anywhere. This makes these technologies an ideal replacement for wired Internet access in remote areas. Much of the back-end parts of the technology like assigning IP addresses remain the same.
What technologies are included in wireless broadband?
WiMAX: You’ve probably heard of “802.11″ in reference to WiFi. This is a standard from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. WiMAX is defined under the IEEE’s 802.16 standard. Like WiFi, versions of the standard get letters with the current “e” standard running at up to 40 Mbits/s and a planned 802.16m with speeds reaching 1Gbit/s.
When first announced there were stories of the technology having a range of 50 kilometres. While this may be possible, in real-world use the range is up to 15 kilometres outdoors or seven to eight kilometres indoors or in forested areas.
4g: This is WiMAX technology packaged for use by cellular service providers. With 4g WiMAX receivers are added to existing cellular towers for transferring data and voice using this new standard. Australia’s first 4g network came online in Perth earlier this year.
If WiMAX isn’t available, 4g devices can use older standards like 3g for connections.
Satellite: These systems don’t have a unified standard, instead depending on technology developed for specific satellite systems. Older systems used a dial-up connection for uploading information, but this has been replaced by direct communication with satellites. Upload times are about half that of equivalent wired services and latency, the time between asking for and receiving data, can be much longer than wired services.
What equipment do I need to use WiMAX or satellite connections?
Devices for connecting to either system are generally included with service. Aside from phones, any of these devices should connect to computers and local area networks with ease via either a WiFi, Ethernet, or USB connection.
4g is a worldwide standard: If you have a 4g service contract in another country any device you buy in Australia should be compatible with it.
Is it true that I can get a subsidy for a satellite connection?
The Australian Broadband Guarantee initiative is designed to help shoulder some of the costs of installing a satellite connection in remote areas to help bridge the technology gap. Up to $ 2500 can be applied to installation and service costs over three years.
The guarantee defines “metro-comparable” high speed satellite access as 512 kbps download speed and 128 kbps upload speed. If you only have access to dial-up Internet, you should have no problem getting the subsidy. If you have access to cellular Internet, you may need to prove that access speeds are below this threshold in your area. This means you may have to get a statement from cellular providers that the signal quality to your home or business is low enough to affect data transfer speeds.
Information on Internet access in your area can be found through the Government’s broadband service locator at http://www.dbcde.gov.au/BSL.
The subsidy is handled by the company providing the satellite service: They should be able to give you more information about how to get the subsidy. People who joined the subsidy program before June 2010 can have their service increased to the new standards under certain circumstances.
Hugh McInnes is a freelance writer with a background in IT. When he is at home, and not travelling around Australia, he has ADSL2+ broadband Internet but shares his Internet connection with other people in the house using a WiFi hub. While travelling he relies on wireless internet via a USB “dongle”, or Internet cafes.