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Madwen - 27 Feb 2006 19:24 GMT

I posted not long ago about the lack of broadband in my area, despite
our proximity to a very large city. Our community refers to the issue
as a terrain problem but somewhere along the way, for a number of
reasons, cable providers were allowed to "cherry-pick" communities,
serving only those areas they deemed most profitable. Recently our city
council contracted with a small company for the purpose of getting
wireless broadband in regions of the community that have no broadband.
As I posted here previously, the rates are very high for not much
broadband--- 256/512 for $55/mo including a $200. installation fee.
Yikes.

The latest is that the ISP wants our subdivision to install a HAM radio
tower in the middle of the subdivision. Could someone shed a bit of
light on this for me please? Is this common? TIA

Madeleine

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Aawara Chowdhury - 27 Feb 2006 21:21 GMT

> The latest is that the ISP wants our subdivision to install a HAM radio
> tower in the middle of the subdivision. Could someone shed a bit of
> light on this for me please? Is this common? TIA

Possibly. Perhaps they intend to bring broadband to your community through
a line-of-sight microwave link, or a WiMAX connection. You'll likely find
descriptions of them on Wikipedia.

Might be cheaper than pulling new data cable. BTW, do you have cable TV
in your community?

AC

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Madwen - 28 Feb 2006 04:38 GMT

> > The latest is that the ISP wants our subdivision to install a HAM radio
> > tower in the middle of the subdivision. Could someone shed a bit of
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> a line-of-sight microwave link, or a WiMAX connection. You'll likely find
> descriptions of them on Wikipedia.

I'll take a look there, thanks very much.

> Might be cheaper than pulling new data cable. BTW, do you have cable TV
> in your community?

Like I said in my post, the cable company was allowed to cherry pick the
community so some areas of the community (a city of 32,000 right outside
the largest city in the state) have cable while others do not. As the
crow flies through the woods, cable is a mere 1/4 mile away from my
subdivision but Charter has repeatedly refused to provide service. DSL
is not (yet) close enough. I check monthly for possible changes.
Satellite reception is horrible.

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Gnarlodious - 28 Feb 2006 03:59 GMT

Entity Madwen spoke thus:

> The latest is that the ISP wants our subdivision to install a HAM radio
> tower in the middle of the subdivision. Could someone shed a bit of
> light on this for me please? Is this common?

I don't know if it's common, but the ISP apparently wants your community to
subsidize the cost of a wireless link, and possibly bypass FCC regulations
by having a co-op type arrangement. If I lived there I would go for it.

-- Gnarlie

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Madwen - 28 Feb 2006 04:22 GMT

> Entity Madwen spoke thus:
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> -- Gnarlie

Thanks!

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Mac Forum / General / Networking / February 2006

The Latest on Our Mission to Get Broadband