By Jo Best, 21 August 2006 15:40
NEWS
Milton Keynes is to play host to a WiMax rollout.
WiMax, a long-range wireless broadband technology, will be deployed around the city in a commercial trial by Pipex Wireless, a joint venture between ISP Pipex and chip giant Intel. Local businesses and public sector organisations are expected to take part in the trial.
According to Graham Currier, business development manager for Pipex Wireless, Milton Keynes was chosen because of its sprawling geography, the technophile nature of its local council and its sub-par broadband provisioning.
Currier told silicon.com: "It has pretty poor broadband because of the way it was built - the cable lengths are long so it's not good for DSL."
The local authority is keen to adopt new technologies and is part of the Digital Challenge - a project to "create a digitally enabled society".
Currier added the ISP doesn't expect it to be hard work recruiting Milton Keynes residents to the trial. "There are people chomping at the bit, saying 'we have rubbish broadband'. I don't think we'll have a problem getting people signed up."
The trial is expected to commence before the end of the year and will not cover the entire city.
Comments
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1. Richard
Why is Milton Keynes' broadband so poor?
For such a modern, planned city, it's disturbing that the telecoms infrastructure is apparently unable to support broadband.
Are we learning the lessons about planning our infrastucture so that it can be adapted to suit future developments?
2. Tim Garnham
In answer to Richards question;
The simple answer is that when Milton keynes was being planned/built rolled out, almost no one envisaged the advent of broadband let alone the internet!
So little or scant regard was paid to the infrstrcture under the ground, as a resident all I can say is well done Milton keynes Council for at long last offering us the prospect of a solution. The telecoms companies just all seemed not to give a damn!