achieving economic, social & environmental development of our rural areas by building demand for high speed rural broadband through advice, support & advocacy
I remember using the old walkie-talkie radios. We would always finish each contribution to the conversation by saying “... Over”, meaning ‘time for you to talk now.’ Those were the days of old wireless technologies and respect for the other person. Such respect was essential because that old technology permitted only one person to speak at a time. There was no point in my trying to shout down the other person - to do so only resulted in my own over-loud voice coming back at me.
Imagine if today’s wireless systems were a single channel that required only one person to speak at a time!
There are at least 11 major competitors in the Australian broadband space, compared to around 18 in New Zealand. Has our extra level of competition resulted in keener
pricing and or better services for the local Internet surfer?
No according to a recent Australian study comparing New Zealand broadband plans with those available in Australia. Whilst the study has shown that data allowances in
the broadband plans of both countries has improved over the preceeding 12 months, New Zealand plans are losing value compared to those in Australia.
There is a potentially dire situation playing out in the United States between LightSquared, a wireless broadband provider, the GPS community, and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC. The FCC have approved LightSquared's use of radio spectrum to establish new mobile broadband services using 4G/LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology. Studies by the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) community have shown that LightSquared services will interfere with GPS receivers, causing many navigation and geo-location systems to stop working. This has serious implications for aircraft navigation and emergency services on the ground.
Could a similar radio interference issue ever happen in New Zealand?
Rice University engineering researchers have made a breakthrough that could allow wireless phone companies to boost throughput on their networks by as much as 70 percent without adding a single cell tower. Rice's new "full-duplex" technology allows wireless devices like cell phones and electronic tablets to both "talk" and "listen" to wireless cell towers on the same frequency -- something that requires two separate frequencies today. Click the more link to see the video...
Last week, I back-grounded how the government have short-changed rural New Zealand’s access to ultra fast broadband. Their reason for doing this - bugetary constraints - is understandable, but to accept that reality too easily, is to construct a rural/urban digital divide for generations to come.
In an egalitarian society, a digital divide enforced because of economic constraints must not be accepted.
