Jonathon Watkins
04-08-2004, 04:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/07/london_wi_fi/' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/0...7/london_wi_fi/</a><br /><br /></div>Have I mentioned Wi-Fi before? :) The Register has got a very interesting report up which says that: "… at the WLAN Event in Olympia, Last Mile has officially revealed its plans to install 150,000 wireless circuits, including memory, in 150,000 lampposts in the UK. To do this, it takes advantage of a near-global agreement on roadside telematics - monitoring vehicles - on which in plans to piggy-back commercial services. The plan has raised eyebrows at Westminster Council, which last year announced a radical scheme to put Wi-Fi on all its lamp-posts, primarily to provide wireless connectivity to Council workers, but with the hope of selling services to the public - hotspots, in fact." So, two incompatible wireless technologies, to be deployed in similar locations. Left hand, meet right hand. Ah – I see two haven't met yet? :wink: So why go with this new wireless technology over Wi-Fi?<br /><br />"The Last Mile technology uses very much faster data than Wi-Fi can achieve, and enhances this with clever proxy/cache design. Each lamppost contains not only the 63-65 GHz wireless unit, but a large memory store, which will hold around 80 per cent of the data that most people will want to download."<br /><br />"Westminster, however, is committed to Wi-Fi. …..It already has four wireless cameras, and Rogers spoke enthusiastically, today, about how they have the potential to revolutionise urban society. " Well, we'll see how the revolution pans out, but for the time being, blanket Wi-Fi coverage would sure be nice! Currently, the local authorities aren't allowed to profit from equipment they use, so new legislation would be needed to allow the public access to their network.<br /><br />It is possible that the service providers may be going to put "…other wireless technology onto the same pole, and using Last Mile as backbone, while providing standard IEEE 802.11 wireless for public consumption." So you get a double bang for your buck, with cheaper, low powered, intelligent wireless data transmission for vehicle telemetry, and more ubiquitous, higher powered Wi-Fi available for public consumption. Cute! 8) <br /><br />"If you look at how much electronics and storage you can get into a lamppost, or a traffic light, or any other bit of ordinary street furniture such as a 'Keep Left' sign or a 'No Entry' indicator - it's impressive. We reckon that we can launch our system with a very conservative data service of up to 40 megabits per second for every user in the micro-cell around a lamppost," Abell added. "And we're confident that we can then upgrade the performance to a maximum of 400 megabits - maybe not for every user, but for several - in a 200-300 metre range. That's more data than anybody currently knows what to do with."" 8O You don't say. Be sure to check out the rest of the Register article for more details. Interesting times indeed. So what would you guys do with 400 megabits of bandwidth streaming to your PDA?