Microwave link as alternative to fibre to the street cabinet

I live in an area of relatively poor or non-existent ADSL speeds (owing to
distance from the BT exchange).

Ideas are being floated of fibre to the cabinet and ADSL beyond that to
subscribers' homes, in order to provide better speeds - perhaps financed by
grants of some kind.

However, this is a hilly area and we are in line-of-sight view of a major
communications mast which almost certainly has some BT dishes on it.

Setting up a microwave communications dish to the tower (approx, 5 miles
away) is likely to cost a lot less than installing over 3 miles of optical
fibre.

Would it be feasible in principle (and would it be likely to be cost
effective) for BT (or someone else under licence) to set up a microwave link
at a suitable site in our village - as an alternative to a fibre link - in
order to provide ADSL to local broadband users? The 'last mile' from the
microwave cabinet being ADSL via the local copper loop, that is.

What are the pros and cons? Any theoretical limits on download speeds, etc?
Has it been done before in this particular manner?

Comments greatly appreciated as part of our research into the problem.

Kind regards

--
Paul Clarke

In article <gmupba$13d4$(E-Mail Removed)>, Paul <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>I live in an area of relatively poor or non-existent ADSL speeds (owing to
>distance from the BT exchange).
>
>Ideas are being floated of fibre to the cabinet and ADSL beyond that to
>subscribers' homes, in order to provide better speeds - perhaps financed by
>grants of some kind.
>
>However, this is a hilly area and we are in line-of-sight view of a major
>communications mast which almost certainly has some BT dishes on it.
>
>Setting up a microwave communications dish to the tower (approx, 5 miles
>away) is likely to cost a lot less than installing over 3 miles of optical
>fibre.

The masts are usually privately owned - by a larger company. Eg. NTL or
whoever they've sold out to... I suspect it would be unusual for BT to
own one. They may rent space on one, but I doubt they own any.

The last time I rented space on a mast, at the lowest tier it cost £4000
a year and that was a special deal for experimental/non commercial usage.

Costs go up exponentially with height.

>Would it be feasible in principle (and would it be likely to be cost
>effective) for BT (or someone else under licence) to set up a microwave link
>at a suitable site in our village - as an alternative to a fibre link - in
>order to provide ADSL to local broadband users? The 'last mile' from the
>microwave cabinet being ADSL via the local copper loop, that is.
>
>What are the pros and cons? Any theoretical limits on download speeds, etc?
>Has it been done before in this particular manner?

With the right kit you can get 300Mb/sec or more these days...(At a cost
of about £25K for a pair of dishes - although you can trivially bridge
Wi-Fi over that distance, or some thing a bit better in the 5.8GHz range)

>Comments greatly appreciated as part of our research into the problem.

Good luck..

Gordon

Paul wrote:
> I live in an area of relatively poor or non-existent ADSL speeds (owing
> to distance from the BT exchange).
>
> Ideas are being floated of fibre to the cabinet and ADSL beyond that to
> subscribers' homes, in order to provide better speeds - perhaps financed
> by grants of some kind.
>
> However, this is a hilly area and we are in line-of-sight view of a
> major communications mast which almost certainly has some BT dishes on it.
>
> Setting up a microwave communications dish to the tower (approx, 5 miles
> away) is likely to cost a lot less than installing over 3 miles of
> optical fibre.
>

Dont bet on it.


> Would it be feasible in principle (and would it be likely to be cost
> effective) for BT (or someone else under licence) to set up a microwave
> link at a suitable site in our village - as an alternative to a fibre
> link - in order to provide ADSL to local broadband users? The 'last
> mile' from the microwave cabinet being ADSL via the local copper loop,
> that is.
>

yes, this can be done. However to a single pint only.


> What are the pros and cons? Any theoretical limits on download speeds,
> etc? Has it been done before in this particular manner?
>
> Comments greatly appreciated as part of our research into the problem.
>

Looked into this. Sure you can put a dish on our tower, and rent power
and a bit of rack inside it. Oh you want it backhauled - see BT. Oh the
whole package will be 20k year sir? well thats your problem.


In fact OUR tower has a dish pointing at a sub telephone exchange
serving about 500 subscribers.


Thats what you really want: BT to put in a new exchange.

> Kind regards
>
> --
> Paul Clarke
>