subject: Fast Symmetrical Broadband With Guaranteed Speeds [print this page] Already well-established in the USA and in countries like India by the giants of telecommunications, in Britain it has been left to smaller specialist providers to invest in the infrastructure and to develop services. The downside of this is that not many areas in the country have the service available to them but, because the providers own their own networks, they are very responsive and keen to ensure that their clients get prompt and reliable service.
WiMAX uses the latest technology to provide broadband, data and voice communications by microwave from a series of base stations located on high buildings. Most broadband currently arriving on our screens is delivered by telephone lines - copper wires, designed and intended to carry analogue signals of our conversations back to the telephone exchanges to be switched to the appropriate destinations. It was never envisaged that these fragile strands of wire should be required to carry the enormous digital traffic needed by broadband or the data transfer that occurs when downloading films etc.
The speed at which broadband arrives is contingent on factors such as the distance from the exchange and the fluctuating weight of traffic being carried. The consumer rarely gets the speed which the service provider advertises as being nominally available. In selected areas, many of our streets are equipped with fibre optic cabling, which is purpose-designed to carry the volume of today's digital traffic at high speed. With the proviso that this cable still goes under ground where it may be subject to road works or impact, it must rank with WiMAX, which is also unimpeded by the tangle under our streets, as the best means of delivering signals across the last mile.
