Wireless Broadband ISPs - Service Range Effectiveness

Assuming a good line of sight of a Wireless Broadband Provider�s transmitter, what is the effective range of the broadband signal?
For example, for a package providing say 30Mbps (down) / 4Mbps (up) � at what distance from the transmitter do these values start to drop until they become negligible?

Is there any table/graph available to illustrate range effectiveness akin to that used to show how line attenuation affects, amongst other factors, ADSL broadband speed?

Finally, apart from perhaps not having a reasonable line of sight, are there any other factors which may adversely affect level of performance (presumably number of users accessing the service is critical)?

What sort of wireless?

The type of wireless makes a massive difference, as does the antenna used at each end.

I'm looking at walesbroadband.com website which, in partnership with the TFL-Group, claims each of its transmission sites is equipped to deliver both "Wide Area High Speed Broadband Internet & WIFI Hotspot connectivity".

I reckon their nearest transmission tower is about 9 miles from my premises so perhaps I will give them a call to see whether I am in range.

Ouch at the £699 for the antenna

I would ensure that there was a way of not paying for the install, if it turned out the speeds were substantially below what they advertise. Which should be 10 Meg and 4Meg, as they do not use up to.

The crude coverage map puts me off.

http://wales.gov.uk/topics/businessandeconomy/broadb...
May allow you to get a grant to cover the setup costs, if you get under 2Meg now.

http://www.tfl-group.com/services_broadband.php has more information about the service, but still sparse on actual technical information e.g. is it WiMax, LTE, 5GHz, or some other frequency, or point to point microwave with wifi (802.11a/b/g/n) from the local mast

Totally agree with your comments on crude coverage map.

I�m consistently well under 2Mbps so would qualify for the Welsh Government (�WG�) Broadband Support Grant (up to £1,000).

£600 installation costs, whilst high, are lower than those of eXwavia (£999.60 incl. vat). It�s difficult to determine whether the equipment supplied by eXwavia is of a better spec. to justify the higher installation costs. However, as someone has already pointed out on a recent EXwavia/ tbb link, it is �coincidentally 40p less than the max WG grant available�.

Standard 5GHz kit can do 9 miles "point to point", though the distance is getting pretty long for reasonable sized antenna. To give you an example, we have one link within our network that is around 14km (ish 9 miles) and uses two 35cm square panel antenna to form a point-to-point link. We are easily able to deliver a 10 Mbps service to the small village at the end of it - the actual link throughput is around 30 Mbps IIRC.

hi,

Distance: 20.3 miles (32.7 km)

It's a 70Mbps Point to Point link . You need good antennas and a nice clear fresnel zone to pull it off though. (look up fresnel zone).

cheers

10~20Mbps at up-to 15km is possible but requires high gain 90 degree sectors at the mast site and clear line-of-sight (inc Fresnel zone!).

If only an Omni antenna at the mast site then your're looking at about 5~8km max.

The more the range is stretched out the less the capacity is and the fewer people can share the same sector/mast!

Though with such a high install cost I can't see them getting many customers.

Distance: 20.3 miles (32.7 km)

You win!

What are you using to achieve that?

hi,

~25 years of experience in the Radio Frequency design, system and networking industry is the basic answer .

It is a PtP link, the aerials and radios were custom chosen specifically so as to comply with the EIRP limit and the required link SNR / throughput (> 70Mbps TCP per link pair).

We have plenty of 25+ km infrastructure links and client to AP links , many since 2005. . It is one of our strengths as it means we do not need multiple feeds i.e. multiple expensive last mile Fibres that many WiSPs use. We currently use none

cheers

In reply to a post by 5km:

Distance: 20.3 miles (32.7 km)

You win!

What are you using to achieve that?