25 May 2006

Ofcom, the Office of Communications, has published proposals that would make more broadband fixed wireless services available to the public.

It said new technology enables applications to be developed for the 71-76 gigahertz (GHz) and 81-86 GHz bands for the first time and so it has said they should be made available for commercial use.

These applications could include extremely high capacity wireless networks between points where people could access a range of Internet services and they could be used as alternatives to fibre optic cable.

Possible data speeds range from one gigabit (Gb) per second to ten Gb a second, which would be a marked improvement on the general connection speeds of copper loops of between one and 24 megabits per second.

Ofcom stated that these bands should be licensed to the first operators that agree a deal instead of an auction process.

This is because demand is very unlikely to be bigger than the supply available, as the high bandwidth and narrow beam means that a large number of users could co-exist without interference.

A consultation period has begun on these proposals and it will run until August 2nd 2006, after which a decision will be made.

© Adfero Ltd

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