Milton Keynes gets WiMAX

Wery wapid wireless

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Networks, 21st August 2006 15:08 GMT

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Milton Keynes will be the first place in the UK to enjoy city-wide wireless super-broadband.

Pipex, with the help of Intel and Airspan Networks, is setting up a WiMAX network which should be working within a month.

The same group has already tested the technology in Stratford-upon-Avon. It found it could provide almost symmetric speeds both inside and outside. Using external aerials, researchers managed speeds of 9Mbps up and 10 Mbps down, 1.2km from the base station.

The technology to be used in Milton Keynes offers faster speeds than ordinary wireless broadband and is easier to access from a moving vehicle - like South Korea's broadband bus.

Despite being a "New Town", Milton Keynes is hamstrung, because part of its phone network is made of aluminium rather than copper.

For this reason, it's not the first time the city has experimented with wireless technology.

Pipex says it will offer WiMAX in eight UK cities by 2008. ®

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