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Want to go
broadband
anywhere . . .
without waiting for
ADSL or Cable
connection?
Look Mum:
No Wires!
A
ustralians are amongst the
world’s largest users of the Internet. These days, if you have
a computer, the chances are you have
an Internet connection. And chances
are also that it is dial-up, sharing the
phone line with your existing voice
phone service.
With the price of broadband ever
falling, huge numbers of people have
taken the plunge and signed up for
one of the countless offerings available from an almost equally countless
number of suppliers.
8 Silicon Chip
If you have ADSL broadband, well
done. As we have found, it’s not always as easy as the suppliers make
it out to be.
If you could get over the hurdle
of ADSL availability (eg, signing up
for anything on the Telstra network
meant living within just a couple of
kilometres of the telephone exchange)
you then had to wait for Telstra to let
you know that first of all your line
By Ross Tester
was capable of handling ADSL (and
apparently there are many that aren’t,
mainly due to cost-cutting installations in earlier, less-digitally-enlightened times). Then, some time (possibly
weeks) later, you were informed that
you had been connected to ADSL and
you could plug in your broadband
modem, sign up with an ISP and away
you’d go. Hopefully.
Many consumers have been caught
out with “bargain” broadband connections, finding that the usage limits
(and in some cases both upload and
siliconchip.com.au
downloads count) are unrealistically
low. While 300 or 400MB sounds a lot
for a dial-up user, it doesn’t take long
to gobble that up – and then some.
Most people find that when they
connect the always-on broadband, usage increases dramatically (why look
up a phone book when you can find the
info on the net?) and the usage limits
are very quickly exceeded. And that’s
when some of the broadband ISPs really start earning bulk income: many
ISPs charge downright exorbitant rates
once you exceed your monthly limit.
But that part of broadband is really
another story (solutions for which
we hope to look at in more detail in a
future issue).
Cable broadband has of course been
an alternative – if (a) you could get it
(and there are still vast areas which
have not been “cabled”) and (b) if you
could afford it. Cable broadband has, at
least until recently, been significantly
more expensive than ADSL.
An aside: a mate of mine is an Optus
cable broadband customer because
ADSL isn’t available at his place. He
pays about seventy dollars a month
for the privilege. Not long ago, Optus
magnanimously told him they were
upping his limit from the current
plan’s three gigabytes a month to ten.
He very seldom uses any more than
one gigabyte. Would they lower the
monthly rate and keep him at three?
Last time I saw him he was still whistling Dixie.
OK, so what if you could bypass
the whole ADSL/cable rigmarole and
have a broadband connection literally
within minutes? One that is at least
competitive with Telstra/Optus offerings? And perhaps more importantly,
one that doesn’t charge you extra for
your excess usage?
The Unwired system: in front is the Unwired “rabbit” modem, plugging into the
ethernet connection on the laptop (USB versions are also available). It really is
as simple as plugging in and turning on . . . providing you have wireless access.
Enter Unwired
If you live in Sydney, you could
hardly have missed the ads for Unwired on commercial radio (OK,
maybe you listen to the ABC . . .).
Unwired is a one of the large number of
service providers offering broadband
Internet connection.
But Unwired is different. As its
name suggests, Unwired doesn’t rely
on Telstra (or Optus cable, or any other
copper) to connect you. It is totally
wireless – all done via a network of
3.4GHz radio towers spread throughout Sydney, which (at the moment)
cover about 90% of the population.
siliconchip.com.au
Unwired’s coverage of the Sydney area is pretty good, considering the
topography. They cannot say how long the yellow bits will take to come on line.
November 2004 9
and other key regions in Australia for
service expansion. They aren’t saying
when but we’d be surprised if it’s not
sooner rather than later, because Unwired has a very heavy investment in
the spectrum space needed to provide
the service. How much investment? A
cool $100 million+ is the figure being
talked about.
So how does it work?
Run, rabbit, run: the back end of
the Unwired modem shows just two
sockets, one for power and one for (in
this case) PC Ethernet connection.
Right now there are 69 of these towers; shortly that will extend to 73 and
cover closer to 95%.
Note that said population, not area.
There is a big difference!
Of course, due to Sydney’s topography
there will always be some pockets not
reached but according to Unwired, these
will be relatively few and far between.
It’s not the same coverage as mobile
phones but it’s not too dissimilar.
And while it is only available in Sydney right now, Unwired has targeted
Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth
We’ve published several articles
in SILICON CHIP about WiFi – digital
wireless “networking” using (mainly)
the 802.11b or 802.11g standards on
2.4GHz. Well, Unwired is not WiFi –
although it is similar in some respects.
For a start, it is significantly higher in
frequency – around 3.4GHz.
Wifi, via a wireless network card
inside your desktop PC, or a PC card
or USB stick attached to your laptop,
links to a local access point, itself
“hard wired” to ADSL or cable in the
normal way.
Hence your connection to the ’net
is based on standard copper wire
technology until the last little “hop”
via wireless. It also depends on that
access point being and staying connected. Often (usually?) you have to
pay for the privilege of using it and in
some cases, it can be as expensive as
using an internet café!
Unwired users have an entirely different type of connection – it uses a
special wireless modem (often called
a “rabbit” – and if you look at the photos, you’ll see why!) to connect to one
of their strategically-placed towers. It
doesn’t even have to be line-of-sight
but it does have to be within range.
They talk about a range of around 10km
Setup is as simple as following the step-by-step screens that
appear when you run the setup CD which comes with the
modem.
10 Silicon Chip
The front end of the Unwired Modem
showing the fold-up rabbit ear
antenna plus the three indicator LEDs
and power switch.
(which, at 3.4GHz, is not too shabby!).
Unwired is based on a proprietary
(and patented) system called “MultiCarrier Beamforming Technology”
(MCSB) from Navini Networks in
the USA. It’s also known as Nomadic
Wireless Broadband Access, bringing
wireless not just to an antenna or dish
on the roof (as some other systems do)
but right to the user’s computer (or at
least to the modem close by).
To connect to Unwired, you simply
plug in the modem. That’s either
via a USB port or an Ethernet port,
Naturally, you have to sign up to one of the Unwired plans
before you can start surfing – but you can do this on line as
part of the setup procedure. It’s delightfully simple to do.
siliconchip.com.au
depending on the type of modem
purchased.
The modem cost, by the way, is
about $189, either on-line (direct from
Unwired or via several agents) or retail
from technology chain Harvey Norman.
If you’re in a reception area, after
a few seconds one of three coloured
LEDs on the unit glows steady. You
then sign up for a plan using your
credit card, and you’re on line.
Total elapsed time? You’d hardly
have enough time to get the egg out of
the fridge, let alone boil it . . .
Speed
Once connection is established (and
we’ll look at that in a moment), there
appears to be little difference between
apparent speeds loading and browsing sites I was familiar with using
Unwired or using ADSL/cable. Given
the fact that I was using a computer
which would have little if any cached
sites, I was pleasantly surprised by the
speed and smoothness of the wireless
system.
The three plans on offer run
at 256/64Kbps, 512/128Kbps and
1024/256Kbps (download/upload
speeds – like ADSL, Unwired is not
synchronous).
Unwired does not run at a constant
speed; it varies according to usage of
the system at any given time in much
the same way as cable broadband varies: more users, lower speed. For the
two weeks or so I played with Unwired,
I cannot say speed ever dropped to
“too low” levels, although I have read
many reports of people complaining
of sluggishness at certain times of the
day (especially early evening).
Also, I experienced none of the
dropouts which have been reported
in other media, although given the
minimal signal strength in my area I
would not have been surprised to find
dropouts a problem.
There have also been reports of
massive variations in signal strength
on different floors of the same building – one report, surprisingly, said that
on the fourth floor there was no signal
while on the ground floor there was.
Not wireless?
Believe it or not, there has been
comment in the popular press (and
on newsgroups) that Unwired really
isn’t a wireless system because you
have to connect the modem to your
PC and also to a power outlet.
Sheesh!! What do they want? Taking
the second point first, they’re wrong,
because the Unwired modem contains
an internal rechargeable battery which
will give you up to an hour’s connection away from a power source – as our
lead photo (and front cover) shows!
The other objection really doesn’t
warrant a comment, except that it
points up a very good reason for
not having non-technical journalists
And here’s the proof: the SILICON CHIP website on screen less than three minutes
from the time we turned the computer on. Speeds on the service we had were
commensurate with our mid-range ADSL service at the SILICON CHIP office.
siliconchip.com.au
What about
iBurst?
While we have been concentrating
on Unwired, other wireless contenders
have recently launched on the Australian market, or are in the process of
doing so even as this issue goes to
press.
The most prominent of these is
iBurst, backed by the large ISP Ozemail.
Their Personal Broadband service was
launched in late September (although
it would appear that Ozemail have
renamed theirs Metrowide Wireless).
Unfortunately, we couldn’t look at
iBurst as we have Unwired, because as
yet it doesn’t have much coverage of
Sydney’s Northern Beaches at all!
iBurst uses a different system (Arraycom’s IntelliCell technology) to
achieve a somewhat similar result.
Like Unwired, it will offer broadband
coverage over a wide area of Sydney
(though not yet as wide as Unwired) but
is already launching into interstate markets. Most of the northern Gold Coast is
already on line (sorry, wrong choice of
words – not on line, on wireless!) and
iBurst was promising to have Brisbane,
Melbourne and Canberra up and running
within a matter of weeks.
In fact, iBurst will offer two versions
of its wireless service – one is a mobile
system in the true sense of the word,
capable of giving a seamless connection to a notebook computer in a car
travelling at up to 50km/h. Tests we
have seen haven’t been quite so good
as the marketing hype suggests but still
relatively good, nevertheless. Prices
are relatively steep at $99/month for a
1MB per second/1GB limit service and
$199 per month for a 1MB per second
unlimited service. Still, if mobility is
important to you, you’re probably
prepared to pay the price.
The second service is similar to
the ADSL/cable alternative offered by
Unwired – ie, portable, not mobile.
Prices are more reasonable (though
slightly higher than Unwired), starting
at $49.95 a month for a 256KB service
and $99 for a 1GB service.
Ordering is via the web (www.
ozemail.com.au) with modem delivery
within 24 hours. Ozemail promise to
have your account activated by the
time you receive your modem.
November 2004 11
nificant degree when the wavelength
approaches the raindrop size. 3.4GHz
signals have a wavelength of about
0.09 metres or 9cm, a tad larger than
even Noah-sized rain.
For all intents and purposes, you
can use the figure of 10GHz as the
minimum affected frequency (for the
same reason, Ku-band [11-13GHz]
satellite signals can be affected by rain
while C-band [4-5GHz] are relatively
immune).
How well does it work?
After you’ve purchased the wireless modem (about $189, which is significantly
more than an ADSL/cable modem), the plans are not dissimilar to the plans
offered by wired broadband ISPs. The minimum plan is $34.95 per month.
talking about matters technical in the
non-technical press! And now I have
that off my chest . . .
What affects Wireless
strength?
The location of the antenna can
often make the difference between no
signal at all and wall-to-wall signal...
or anywhere in between. Because in
the case of Unwired the antenna is
an integral part of the modem, that
means placing the modem in the most
advantageous position.
Filing cabinets, steel-reinforced
concrete walls, aluminium-backed
wall or ceiling insulation . . . even
someone walking between your modem and the wireless tower (wherever
that might be) can cause degradation
or even total loss of signal. That’s why
you might need to experiment somewhat for best signal level.
It’s quite common to read reports
of rock-solid signal on one side of a
building and low or no signal on the
other. Low signal levels mean that data
speeds are reduced or sometimes data
disappears and the link drops out.
The USB or Ethernet (crossover)
cables supplied with the modem are
only a couple of metres in length. But
you might need to place the modem
(say) on the other side of the room for
best signal strength.
The Ethernet modem would be
the best option here because you can
buy significantly longer cables (many
12 Silicon Chip
metres long) which will have little
apparent effect (if any at all) on your
system speed.
Naturally, your system will need an
Ethernet card for this to be practical
– either on-board, as most late-model
desktops and laptops are, or an add-in
Ethernet card (fortunately now VERY
cheap!).
The USB option, on the other
hand, does limit you to a fairly short
distance. You can buy USB extension
cables but your maximum is just a
couple of metres more. Otherwise you
would have to start looking at amplifiers – our advice is to stick with the
Ethernet version.
Is Wireless affected by rain?
Mmm – good question. There’s a lot
of discussion about this point, with
some saying it is (a little) and some
saying it isn’t at all.
Because wireless signal strength
DOES vary significantly due to any
number of factors, we believe that rain
might often be the innocent victim –
eg, signal strength’s down a bit today.
Yep, it’s raining. Therefore it must be
the rain causing it.
(Corollary: the bank robber was described as having blue eyes and blonde
hair. There’s a blue-eyed blonde. He
must be a bank robber . . .).
The truth is (at least according to
many satellite websites that we’ve
looked at) that rain normally only
starts affecting radio signal to any sig-
Here’s where we came across the
first stumbling block. Unwired’s marketing people suggested we try the
system “both at home and in the office”
because they were selling Unwired as
suitable for both home use and small
office use.
OK, first thing I did was had a look
at the Unwired coverage map on
their website. Like many ADSL/cable
websites you can type in your street
name and suburb and you’ll get a map
showing availability (www.unwired.
com.au/availability/current.php).
I did – type my street name in, that
is. Aaaaaagh!!!! Not in the service area.
Strike one. (Of course I tried – just
one street away I managed excellent
reception. One lousy street!).
I have seen several comments about
being able to use Unwired well outside
their “official” service area. But not
in my case.
So I thought I’d try the SILICON CHIP
office and typed in the address.
Aaaaagh!!!! Strike two. In fact, the
whole of the Mona Vale area, one of the
major retail, business and industrial
centres of the Northern Beaches, is not
covered. That was a surprise.
When I raised this anomaly with the
people from Unwired, they informed
me that there was a site available for a
tower which would solve the problem
for both areas.
But thus far they had been stymied
by some misguided tree-hugging souls
who maintained that those electromagnetic thingies would make them glow
in the dark or something. (So they used
their mobile phones to call all their
friends to the protest . . .)
No strike three!
What to do? Fortunately, my “home
away from home”, Narrabeen Beach
Surf Lifesaving Club, was in an area
with coverage (it is in a pink area on
the Unwired website map).
siliconchip.com.au
So – down to the club, plugged the
modem into the Ethernet socket on
the club’s PC, turned it on and . . . no
signal.
You can tell whether you have signal
by the three LEDs on the front of the
unit. Green means a very strong signal,
orange a strong signal and red a good
signal. Flashing red means no signal.
As advised in the setup, I moved
the modem slightly closer to a window and, joy of joys, the LED stopped
flashing – “good” signal. Elsewhere in,
and outside, the club (away from the
foil-covered roof insulation), the signal
was green – excellent.
The setup via the supplied CD was,
thankfully, a doddle and I was on the
net literally three minutes from when I
turned the PC on – including entering
the password and user names which
Unwired had thoughtfully provided.
Mr or Mrs Average Citizen would
get their password and user names
when they first log on and purchase
their plan.
Unwired in use
Quite simply, I found using Unwired
broadband very similar in performance to the two other broadband
services I regularly use: ADSL here at
SILICON CHIP and cable at home.
Regrettably, I wasn’t in a position to
do any actual speed tests (I was about
to but the trial period ran out!) but
purely by observation, I would have
to say I was pretty happy with the way
Unwired broadband behaved.
That feeling was further backed
up when one of my colleagues here
at SILICON CHIP took the Unwired
modem home for a few days. He’s in
the north-western suburbs of Sydney
and reported an instant “green” signal
(excellent level) when he plugged in
Unwired and no problems whatsoever
with surfing the ’net.
Unlike me, he is close enough to the
exchange to theoretically get ADSL
but suffers from the Telstra “pair gain”
bogey so it’s back to the “incompatible
infrastructure” excuse. Though Foxtel
cable is available in his street, given
his success with Unwired, he’s pretty
firmly convinced which way he is
going to go.
Is Unwired safe?
A few moments ago, I made somewhat flippant comment about electromagnetic radiation. But is that a
concern with the Unwired system?
siliconchip.com.au
Given the fact that Unwired is “up
there” on 3.4GHz (much higher than
mobile phones, WiFi or even microwave ovens!) AND the fact that you
have a device emitting e-m radiation
very close to where you are working,
perhaps it is something to be wary of.
Where I was being sarcastic was
in objections to electromagnetic radiation from Unwired towers: sure,
transmitted energy levels will be
higher but the inverse square law
tells me that the radiation at ground
level would be diminished to virtual
background levels.
Having said that, I would be wary
about having an Unwired modem in
close proximity to where I’m sleeping
(and let’s face it – a lot of kids would
have their PC, ergo their Unwired
modem, on a desk next to their bed).
In fact, I’d want to keep the distance
between it and me as far as practical.
Even Unwired themselves have a
warning with the modem that it should
not be used within 20cm of a person.
It’s probably more of a “protect your
butt” clause than anything else but it’s
something to keep in mind.
Do you really need a phone
line any more?
Many of Sydney’s (and, obviously,
Australia’s) young, mobile population
live in rented accommodation which
may or may not include a phone line.
Even if it does, there’s the cost and hassle of having the phone connected, rent
to pay, not to mention (in the majority of
cases) the inconvenience of a different
phone number when you move.
That’s why so many people have
given away the fixed phone line,
instead relying on their mobiles to
stay in touch. If and when they move,
their phone number goes with them.
And there’s no re-connection fee, line
rental, bond, whatever.
Now even that is set to change as we
enter the Wireless Broadband era.
Last month we featured Voice Over
IP, (VoIP), explaining how it could
dramatically lower your phone bills –
especially if you were on broadband.
Unwired is broadband. You are
already paying for the connection
(without time constraints) so why
not use Unwired in conjunction with
a Netphone or headset on your PC
to make ALL your “phone” calls.
Hey, this could even replace mobile
phones!
Admittedly, calls are costed by time
but if you’re not one to sit on the phone
for hours, it is a completely viable option. As we pointed out last month,
quick local calls can even cost less than
what you currently pay. Long distance
is where VoIP really starts to shine.
So there it is: a new service which
we believe will revolutionize not just
the way we surf the net but the way we
use our telecommunications systems
and infrastructure.
For more information, visit www.
unwired.com.au
SC
COMING NEXT MONTH
Satellite TV reception – the downside of Unwired
Those who remember the first
(VHF) television bandplan implemented in Australia will remember
that it was a total debacle, with
channels 3, 4 and 5 bang-smack in
the middle of the international FM
broadcast station allocation.
“It’s OK,” they said at the time.
“Australia doesn’t have any FM radio
stations. . .” Not then, we didn’t.
It’s taken the best part of fifty
years to unscramble those particular eggs.
Believe it or not, the Government
has done it again, with wireless
broadband.
Our satellite TV writer, Garry Cratt,
will tell how the powers-that-be have
managed to auction off chunks of
the international C-band Satellite TV
spectrum for data communications.
The net result is that people who
have gone to considerable expense
to set up their own C-band receiving
systems (dishes, LNBs, receivers and
so on) are now complaining long and
loud about wireless broadband.
The spread of frequencies is again
right on top of many of their favourite
satellite signals and in this case,
Goliath wipes out David every time.
“Too bad” say the authorities.
“You’re not supposed to be watching
overseas satellite television programs
anyway. . .”
In some cases, the problems can
be cured, or at least eased, as Garry
explains next month.
November 2004 13
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