Wireless Internet Finally Coming To London 115
andylaurence writes: "NTL has issued a statement on their site of their intentions to trial highspeed wireless Internet access in London. They don't seem to know whether it will continue after the trial, but they have stated that it will cost £25 a month (the same as their cable modems). One would assume that this will be based on an 802.11b network, and the questions will then arise as to how secure this is. Another company also seem to be pioneering wireless Internet access this month, with a trial due to start soon. Seems to me like this might just take off." Wait -- I thought London already had wireless access.
london privacy (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:london privacy (Score:2)
Re:london privacy (Score:1)
On the other hand if we could get together a small army and march on London
-----
They may take out LAN's but they'll never take our Firewire DVD's!!!
Re:london privacy (Score:2)
You're a bit off the mark there. (Score:3, Insightful)
We've only been putting photos on driving licences for a few years now (I forget when they were introduced, but it was =5 years ago). Most of the population still doesn't have them. Furthermore, IIRC you can't be hung for treason (e.g. burning bank notes) anymore, though this law was rarely used when it was in place anyway.
To be honest, the monarchy only has a symbolic power over the government. Technically, the monarch has the final say in which party gets elected, but I don't imagine they'd be too popular if they tried to go against public opinion. And we've got rid of monarchs before after all (search [google.com] for British Civil War).
You are, however, pretty much spot on about the prevalence of CCTV - I hear us Brits (particularly Londoners) get our picture taken by these cameras more frequently than most Americans. And our government seems to be just as willing as as the US one to eat away at our rights.
I know you were only joking (or at least both I and the moderators thought so), but I just felt like being pedantic.
For other Londoners (Score:1)
Did any other Londoner misread this first time for "by most Americans"? Gentle tourist jibe, no offence meant
Phillip.
Re:You're a bit off the mark there. (Score:1)
It was the English Civil War, Britain did not exist as a political enitity until the Act of Union in the 18th Century sometime. The Civil War was the 17th Century.
Curse those GCSE's!
Sorry about that.
Re:You're a bit off the mark there. (Score:2)
Perhaps we should form a pedants society.
I just know you're dying to tell me where the apostrophe should have gone in the last sentence ;)
Re:london privacy (Score:1)
You sound like you've been over here recently
Re:london privacy (Score:2, Funny)
No DMCA.... (Score:2)
GPRS ? (Score:1)
Rates may go as great as 144 kbps, which for mobile users may be fine, waiting for UMTS.
Re:GPRS ? (Score:1)
I don't think so; in the FAQ says they are offering 512/128kbps. I'd like to see you try that over GPRS
GPRS is a public telephone network and most major operators are deploying it right now or will be in the near future. It is basically a packet-switched, always-on addon to the GSM network.
Don't get your hopes up on those throughput speeds, though...
Re:GPRS - Nah. (Score:1)
Re:GPRS - Nah. (Score:1)
Re:GPRS - Nah. (Score:2)
The absolute basic is 512 up 256 down.
Re:GPRS - Nah. (Score:1)
Aparently, the pr0n gets a bit slow just after pub closing time, but apart from that, it's sound.
Of course, if you live in a valley in Wales then it'll always be quicker to phone someone in Reading, get them to print out the pages and post them to you.
Re:GPRS - Nah. (Score:1)
Re:GPRS - Nah. (Score:1)
Signed - impoverished of Epsom.
NTL (Score:1, Informative)
On the other hand they don't cost much really.
Claric
Re:NTL (Score:1)
I agree totally. I used to use them for cable, but it was very unreliable. They tried to get me to switch to their phone service, but as bad as BT is, there was no way I was going to trust NTL to look after my modem line!! A friend recently got a cable modem from them - they totally fscked up the installation, and for the first 2 months he was wondering why it was so slow. This guy isn't too technical, but I managed to persuade him it was broken and he should complain - seems they had switched him onto some "basic" 64kbps package, while charging him for 512kbps!
Anyway, my broadband's going through DSL...
Re:NTL (Score:2)
Well... (Score:2)
Why 802.11b? (Score:1)
I'm curious as to why "one would assume that this is based on 802.11b" ... ? Their page clearly says that your PC must already be Ethernet-capable; if it were based on 802.11b, I would think they would use one of the widely available 802.11 adapters and an external antenna.
The fact of the matter is that this is not what 802.11 is intended for. It is intended for local LAN access. While many organizations are trying to (and having some success) move it into the long distance market, that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for an ISP. There are plenty of other ways to push bits over the airwaves, guys.
EthanRe:Why 802.11b? (Score:1)
oh come on, focus your brain and think back to what the internet was intended for...a world wide pr0n stash? a business network? history [isoc.org]
geeks have always took cool technology and adapted it thats why we have such cool toys to play with.
No, he's quite correct. (Score:2)
With 802.11b, sure, you could have access points all over the place... but it's by no means the most efficient or best way to do it.
Re:But will there be the money? (Score:1)
AOL costs 14.99/mo here (about 20 bucks, you guys pay 23 and some cents).
It costs me 2p (3 cents) / min to call the US from my cellphone. You guys wouldn't even consider that.
We don't pay for incoming cellphone calls.
Actually I'll stop now. I think you were a troll.
Re:But will there be the money? (Score:1)
So does much of Portugal.
U.K. / Portugal GNP (or are you a troll?) (Score:2)
UK GNP = $1042.7 billion
Portugal GNP = $77.7 billion
UK Population = 58.2 million
Portugal Population = 9.8 million
Therefore, GNP per capita =
$17,900 in UK
$7,900 in Portugal
Sure, there's a lot of poverty, but there's a lot of rich people too. With a population of 58.2 million (probably more now) there's always going to be a lot of people at either end of the bell curve. It sucks that we can't all be well off and have a high standard of living, but we're a G7 country for goodness sake - there's not really much question of whether we're a first-world country or not.
Yes, the telecomms infrastructure is still lagging at the moment (cellular networks not included, because they're pretty good) - that's largely a hangover from the days of British Telecom's rule. But every major aspect of the telecomms that's opened up has been invaded by companies who're willing and able to offer cheaper options. And there's plenty of companies (particularly in London, but elsewhere too, like Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester) who're prepared to invest in telecomms.
I'd also like to know how many people (percentage) in Portugal use the net, and what percentage of those are on broadband, and how that compares to the UK, but since I've already looked up some statistics, I think it's your turn.
Whoah! let's check our definition. (Score:2)
Portugal may have a low GNP, but they are certainly not in 'Poverty'. They work the land; are largeley self sufficient from region to region, and simply are not that modernized; they don't HAVE to be. They are comfortable, healthy people from what I've seen. I've seen MUCh worse living conditions in the US
It's the nature of their economy; their self-sufficiency and lack of exports that makes them 'appear' poor.
My point _wasn't_ that Portugal are in poverty.... (Score:2)
Re:But will there be the money? (Score:1)
Re:But will there be the money? [OT] (Score:1)
Re:But will there be the money? [OT] (Score:1)
1st world country? (Score:2)
Also.... beelive it or not, a good wireless system is the *answer* to lack of telecom infrastructure; it's much cheaper to deploy.
http://www.waverider.com
Re:But will there be the money? (Score:1)
Unlike, er...?
But then you, like the large majority of the United States, probably don't own an international passport.
the welfare state (Score:1)
Just add the bill onto the taxes and provide it to all citizens in grande British tradition.
Seriously, it is cool to see this technology spreading. The best way for security to increase is for it to become commonly used.
Re:the welfare state (Score:1)
Re:the welfare state (Score:1)
Q. What happens after the trial?
A. At the end of the trial ntl will evaluate your feedback and decide on whether to continue the service or not. If the service is continued then you will be contacted and asked if you would like to become a customer. If you do, you will be charged the standard high-speed access tariffs (currently £34.99 per month). Installation fees will be waived. If you choose to discontinue the service we will make an appointment to remove the outdoor equipment and retrieve the cable modem and you will owe us nothing.
so perhaps not as cheap as the original poster suggested. Hopefully the uptake will be sufficient to keep it going. However I have heard pretty bad things regarding customer support from people who currently use NTL.
I'm quite interested in this since I live in London and fall into a "service is likely" postcode. Anything would be better than my crappy BTInternet dialup service at the moment
...now if I can only convince my landlady to let me install the box on the outside of our house...
Re:the welfare state (Score:1)
What about other operating systems ? (Score:1)
Windows 95, 98, ME, and 2000 Professional. What about all other operating systems supporting 802.11 ?
I'm sure people with a Titanium, iBook, Linux or BSD laptop would like to join in too
Re:What about other operating systems ? (Score:1)
Re:What about other operating systems ? (Score:1)
Internet maybe but... (Score:1)
Their claim to be the first wireless Internet service in London may or may not be correct. However the post-production houses of Soho have had their own private wireless network for a number of years now.
(\/)atthew
Re:Internet maybe but... (Score:1)
You are referring to Sohonet, which is a MAN
catering to media companies in the Soho area.
It originally started as an ATM network, using fibre connections.
Now uses a mix of fibre connections and 2Mbps Breezecom wireless links over the roofs of Soho and Fitzrovia.
See http://www.sohonet.co.uk
NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:2)
Quality...
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:1)
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:1)
Whoops - I didn't read the original properly - my mistake. The second link I posted might still be of interest though.
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:2)
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:2)
It includes a broken picture link on the front page, back text on a black background (in netscape 4.7 on mac, ymmv) and when I enter my postcode (the whole point of the site is to see if you are in an area that has broadband cable available by doing a postcode look-up) I get a 400 error.
If that's not enough to convince you that you shouldn't touch NTL with a bargepole, let me tell you about the cable TV I get from them - they have been deliberately adding noise to the picture on their analogue service to make their 'more-money-for-worse-channel-selection' digital service look better by comparison! I can now get better reception on some terrestrial channels with an old coathanger suffed in the arial socket of my tv than through NTL's cable feed!
Imho the only thing in NTL's favour is that it isn't BT - who are (if such a thing is possible) even less competent. My office adsl connection (through BT's monopoly) has a mtbf of less than a week over the 3 months I've had it. Well, at least I can add the compensation claims to the £3,000 I've already recieved this year from BT's customer service guarantee scheme
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:2)
I noticed that too. That frameset in full:
<frame src="http://www.andylaurence.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
But Blueyonder isn't a free ISP; it's a pay ISP. thier website is (Somewhat obviously) blueyonder.co.uk - a look at http://info.blueyonder.co.uk/promo/index.html reveals they resell broadband... Quote from one of thier info pages: "Every blueyonder customer has access to 30MB of free personal webspace."
My gusee is this guy has a 512kbit/s broadband connection into his house, and he's going to get some long-range 802.11b equiptment, and offer some service along his line. You can jump to http://www.andylaurence.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ and look at other bits on his website.
Obviously, this could well work. But equally, it could suck royally. We don't really have enough data to come to a firm conclusion.
Personally, I don't feel that places like London are that important for wireless... In London, you can get all manner of wired solutions, which are actually availiable at the moment. I think fixed wireless access would have more application in locations where it would be too costly to run new cabling (cable modems) and/or BT doesn't think it would be profitable to convert the exchange for ADSL. If someone could arrange a long-range wireless solution that would provide such people with access, the uptake could be quite high.
That's just my opinion, of course; I could be wrong.
Michael
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:1)
Cynical in extremis
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:1)
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:1)
Andy
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:1)
Re:NTL fine, but 'Wireless ISP' (Score:2)
Hats off to the guy for being so brass!
Re:Unlikely to be 802.11 (Score:1)
Re:Unlikely to be 802.11 (Score:1)
No, not rubbish (Score:2)
Is this what they call Coverage ? (Score:1)
Wonder what kind of technology that is
Given that 802.11 only reaches about a 100-300 meters with an open view, they probably need MANY access points
Re:Is this what they call Coverage ? (Score:1)
cards used without an external antenna.
I would imagine this service uses directional
antennas to get the range they need.
BTW, Guys Hospital, one of the locations, is
a 27 storey high tower, easily seen from many parts of SE London.
Does anyone know for sure what technology they are planning yo use?
Re:Is this what they call Coverage ? (Score:2)
I've had 802.11b connectison going 10 MILES using the proper antennas (and staying within the regulations). You are only limited to 100-300 meters using 0db gain omnidirectional cheap antennas.
and another one... (Score:1)
NTL's press release says you must "Have unobstructed view of one of our transmitter locations"
this sounds similar to tele2 as it also requires line-of-sight.
Duncan
finally! (Score:1)
With the population density of London, I would think that one or two loosely affiliated 802.11b networks [toaster.net]would give coverage would rival any commercial offering.
It can't be 802.11b (Score:2, Insightful)
Probably fixed-wireless access (Score:3, Informative)
We're not talking wireless in the home here, just wireless *to* to the home, replacing the NTL cable. As the FAQ points out:
"A signal is transmitted from various locations throughout London and is received by the outdoor transceiver on the side of the property. The cable modem recognises this signal and converts it into standard data packets that your PC will recognise."
As a previous poster has mentioned, charging for 2.4 GHz bandwidth in the UK is currently against the licensing regulations anyway.
Re:Probably fixed-wireless access (Score:1)
At my college, we are playing around with wireless connections for the CS building, and we are paying close attention to who is able to get the signal. Are these people paying the same kind of attention?
Re:Probably fixed-wireless access (Score:1)
802.11b to cover a city? Natch. (Score:2)
True, Ricochet failed, and 128Kbps is starting to seem paltry, but there are plenty of other wireless standards out there that are far more suitable for high-speed wide area wireless coverage, G3 being one of them.
If London is creating a new network from scratch, I would assume they'd use a current technology, and one geared specifically for their type of needs, and not create a piecemeal solution with microcells which either all have to be individually wired to the net via high-speed connection (every 100 yards) or act as repeaters (ala Ricochet) resulting in 500ms ping rates on good days.
Anyone know any other standards that would better apply to a high-speed wide-coverage omnidirectional wireless net?
Wonder why London? (Score:1)
I have their cable modem service which is *excellent*. My friend 1 mile away is green with envy as his long country road hasn't been cabled up. If they offered wireless here then he would be able to swap mixes with his fellow DJs over the 'net instead of burning CDs and petrol.
Phillip.
Re:Wonder why London? (Score:2, Interesting)
If you look at some of their coverage maps for this trial NTL are actually ovvering their service across a fairly large part of Croydon from the Crystal Palace transmitter - Croydon is a telewest area!
Re:Wonder why London? (Score:1)
Re:Wonder why London? (Score:1)
Re:Wonder why London? (Score:1)
I guess that the NTL service will operate on the same 3.6/4.2GHz service that Tele2 offers. There will probably be the same LOS problems that keep Tele2 out of London however.
Fixed Wireless? (Score:1)
Will we see pirate internet access in the future. (Score:1)
Will it come to pass that big business will control the internet to such a extent that I'll have to get my mates mate to host my anti-DMCA website in a van doing loops around nelsons colium.
Not wireless LANs (Score:4, Informative)
They are using some variant of 'fixed wireless', also known as wireless local loop (WLL) - this is intended only to serve fixed sites, as the name implies, and uses a variety of spectrum from 2 GHz up to 30+ GHz - these technologies go by various names including MMDS and LMDS.
The good news is that this is licensed spectrum, so performance is determined by the network operator, not by the number of people near you with wireless LANs, and coverage is generally much better (802.11b would be quite an expensive way to try to cover a whole city).
Fixed wireless access (FWA) is already being deployed by various operators in the US (Sprint, Worldcom) and UK (Tele2, around Reading). It has a chequered history with various bankruptcies (Teligent in the US, Ionica in the UK), but if the costs come down and standards are agreed, it could be a useful competitor to Cable and xDSL, particularly for areas they don't address (e.g. industrial/business areas, and rural areas).
For more information, see http://www.watmag.com/technologies/Broadband/ovum
Why ntl are doing this (Score:2, Insightful)
The key to understanding this announcement is that ntl own all the transmitters up and down the country that are used to transmit all non-BBC television and radio.
If ntl can get this trial working in London, they should be able to roll other the service nationwide.
This would beat anything done on any cabled (both cable TV and phone lines) service, and be cheaper too.
Re:Why ntl are doing this (Score:1)
Don't want to be pedantic, but that was the case until the 70's or perhaps early 80's - the days of VHF TV, but these days the BBC (or their subcontractors Crown Castle) own about half of the transmitters, NTL the rest, but all of the sites transmit both BBC and commercial services.
Kind of a reciprocal agreement, so that only half as many masts are needed, and so that you only need one receiving aerial.
(Transmitter Gallery [mb21.co.uk])
This means that there are some areas where only Crown Castle/BBC operate transmitter sites who could be left out under your assertion.
802.11b (Score:2)
Some people will doubtless think that 802.11b is still an attractive protocol. These people might argue that people won't be sniffing wireless ethernets anytime soon, as the exploit requires a high degree of technical proficiency. However, it only requires one person to discover a network's password.
So, I am totally against any move anywhere which entrusts the public's data to a broken standard like 802.11b with WEP. I think it is important to convince people of WEP's almost total lack of value.
Help convince people not to trust 802.11b WEP. Use AirSnort [sourceforge.net] to crack 802.11b networks. I won't be happy until hardware manufacturers are pressured into releasing a standard which doesn't suck (what a novel idea.)
And remember, friends don't let friends fall victim to a partially known key attack.
Re:802.11b (Score:2)
802.11b gives you basic a TCP/IP connection. It's up to you to make it secure.
Or something.
...j
There is already one wireless provider in england (Score:2, Informative)
They charge £39.99 ($60) for 512k downstream/256k upstream, which compares pretty well with the fixed UK broadband (I have a 512/128k cable modem from NTL which is £19.99 ($30) a month).
Website submission broken (Score:1)
Register interest using email [mailto] instead
Why London? (Score:1)
They should trial things like that over here in the Lake District. The cable companies simply refuse to lay any cable down in most of this area (because it'd cost too much to do so), and BT are dragging their feet too much with ADSL. Which means we're stuck with 56K or (if you're lucky, like me) ISDN.
But with wireless access, we'd be bypassing the need for expensive cable-laying, and also bypassing the incredibly slow BT. Just what we need.
Re:Why London? (Score:1)
Broadband Satellite also in the pipeline (Score:1)
Isn't wireless blockable? (Score:1)
-tfga
It's probably not 802.11 (Score:1)
Sprint has similar "line of sight" requirements, and a range of (last I checked) 35-40 miles from the broadcast point.
Been there, done that (Score:1)
Oh yeah, they've also been in business for since 1997ish...
Single most popular service in the world! (Score:1)
"Sorry, squire, our wireless is a bit runny."
NTL say a lot of things (Score:2)
In our particular case it took 23 phone calls and 2 weeks to arrange for a telephone and a cable modem in our new house which the previous occupants had already had NTL installed in!
NTL are and talk shit.
TWW
WHy do you assume it must be 802.11b? (Score:2)
There are other protocols that are more suited towards wide-area distribution of internet access....
http://www.waverider.com
London already has a wireless network... FOR FREE! (Score:1)
http://www.consume.net/ [consume.net]
"Fed up with being held to ransom in the local loop, phased by fees to ISP's, concious of community? OK so lets build a fresh network, one
that is local, global, fast, expanding, public and user-constructed.
This website outlines the strategy for such a network and the progress being made toward its establishment.
We now have a searchable database of CONSUME nodes operational or proposed.
Please Register your NODE..!"