New long-distance wireless broadband in Essex?

This morning there was a news item on BBC Essex about a new long-distance wireless broadband service being launched in Essex, starting with Chelmsford, with symmetric speeds of 25mbps or 50mbps.

Unfortunately, I was unable to catch the details of this new provider.

Has anybody else listened in to this BBC Essex show and took down some notes about who thbis new broadband provider is?

quick google found:- http://www.airzonebroadband.co.uk/index.html might be them.

Very little info on their web site though.

A client in my last job used these, connection was pretty reliable.

I don't listen to BBC Essex, but for the last few months I've had a fixed wireless service north-west of Chelmsford from W20 Net (www.w20.net), based at Great Leighs race course and with a transmitter in north-east Chelmsford. They have a new backhaul line coming into Chelmsford apparently this month (which must be good since speeds have deterioriated recently from their advertised 4Meg SDSL residential service which was giving speeds up to 7Meg, much better that BT or LLU providers can offer in villages here of a max 3.5Meg!), which I'm told should herald a significant speed increase (though I'm dubious its what's quoted). I also understand they were looking to expand though it depended on the outcome of a local bidding process to improve broadband to the east Essex coastal areas. Perhaps I got a good deal in that case with just the installation/equipment cost.

If it is they, then they're not new being around since 2004 (I think) when they won an earlier bidding process to provide wireless broadband to Roding valley villages between Chelmsford and Harlow who didn't have ADSL through their exchange.

Edited by smurf46 (Tue 11-May-10 14:12:34)

Or in North Essex this might be of interest: http://www.countybroadband.net/coverage/

Thank you all for your replies.

In the meantime, I found it on the BBC Essex site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p007phpd/Mid_mo...

It refers to a company called FibreWiFi located in Chelmsford, Essex.

Very interesting. From http://www.fibrewifi.com/about-us/people it is the same people as those who run and installed my existing service. I do remember them saying they were considering the change of trading name to BuzCom and were bidding for Essex council funds, but heard nothing more about it, and assumed it had become mired as many government initiatives do.

For the time being, I seem to be stuck in the slower lane, but the current 4Meg SDSL is actually OK for my existing use! It's been a bit erratic lately though so hopefully that will improve following the recent works to their network. Reliability is certainly better this week than for the last month!!

(PS they did say when I mentioned the recent fall off that "the new line to Chelmsford due in May will make a big difference to my connection" but I don't think I become this sort of local wi-fi hotspot though!!).

Edited by smurf46 (Wed 12-May-10 20:02:39)

Meanwhile, I got in touch with them. We are in their covered area, and if they can really provide the symmetric 25 or 50 Mbps service, this is certainly much more useful for business users than the unreliable Max DSL over the old BT copper wires.

Damn, they're coverage is just a few miles short from around where I live. Never mind !
Looks good, prices are excellent too, will be interested to see how the service performs if you go ahead with it.

As an existing customer on their (4 Mbps SDSL) residential service, I understand we are getting moved over to this new service this month, so if there's anything useful to report I'll post back.

Generally their 4Mbps service achieved an aggregate of up & down speeds of between 7 and 10 Mbps split 6:4 (which could be either way!). I think that was its max. using, I believe, a Nanostation 5 receiver on the TV aerial pole, as the highest point on my roof, some 6km from the transmitter. The installation and CS were exemplary, and the service too through the winter. The downtime was normally less than an aggregate hour or so a week, usually overnight, apart from the inevitable disruption during works on the new upgrade. I think I'm lucky being on a hill, and mostly not obstructed by trees or higher buildings, but I surmise that neither are problems over much of the Dengie/Essex coast, which makes it a suitable area.

A couple of things which might need clarification are an installation cost for the aerial/connectors (mine has a power supply over ethernet cable) and contention (less likely I assume on the higher cost business packages). Download speeds tended to be a bit higher in the later evenings. Also if t&c's remain the same it's a 12m min. term, with auto- renewal thereafter for 12m unless 30 days notice of termination given before the anniversary, though of course they might not implement this.

Edited by smurf46 (Fri 14-May-10 14:33:20)