Second company boards Wimax bandwagon

UK Broadband gets go ahead to rival Freedom4 as Intel prepares to support fast neighbourhood link in notebooks

A second company is poised to offer Wimax wireless access in Britain after getting approval from regulator Ofcom.

UK Broadband owns spectrum at 3.5GHz using frequencies lightly lower than Freedom4 (formerly Pipex Wireless), which is setting up Wimax services in Manchester at the start of a rollout of services in cities across Britain.

UK Broadband already offers wireless services under the brand Now, using data-optimised TD-CDMA 3g links and what it describes as a Wimax-like technology from a company called U-star.com.

Now Ofcom has extended its 3.5GHz licence for 'technology neutral' use, allowing it virtually a free rein. Freedom4 has a similar dispensation.

UK Broadband's interest in Wimax was prompted by Intel's decision to support it (as well as Wifi) on notebook motherboards next year, chief operating officer Keith Hawkins admitted today. "Having devices with the dual chip on board will make a huge difference," he said.

But he stressed that no final decision had been made. "The next to step is to see how this technology works at 3.5GHz. It looks good, but we won't know until we try."

He would not be drawn on specifics of where UK Broadband would start services. "We will build where there is demand. There is no obligation on us to offer countrywide services,"

His company has a head start in the Thames Valley and west London where it already has around 50 base stations. Freedom4 has said London will not be one of its first target cities.

Asked whether UK Broadband has the finance to roll out infrastructure, Hawkins pointed out that it is owned by PccW, the largest communications provider in Hong Kong, which operates across Asia, the US and the UK.

The licences of both rival providers allow for the use of both the fixed and mobile versions of Wimax. But currently Freedom4 has to restrict users to the area covered by one base station, providing local but not wide-area roaming.

Permission for full roaming, in which a link can be hand over from one base station to another, as in cellular networks, is expected to be granted. Hawkins said he believed Freedom4 had problems interfering with satellites in its spectrum.

"I doubt whether they will be able to offer services at the power they need, " he said.

But Graham Currier, business development director for Freedom4, said his company had more spectrum to play with and would be able to 'notch out' tricky frequencies.
"We are much further ahead than they are. We have already begun our rollout. They are still at the testing stage."

Wimax has been touted as a potential competitor to 3g, though services will be targeted initially at people wanting fixed local links. Freedom4 sees a big market among mobile-phone users who don't want to pay for a landline just to get a DSL link; another is among companies wanting a back-up system in case a DSL or cable link fails.