iBURST: The Future of Wireless Broadband in Africa?

The future is wireless
Hi there!
How's 2006 coming along for you so far?
Today, I have seen the future.

I have some very exciting news to share with you in the wireless broadband arena. I'm sure you've heard all the rage (or hoopla) about WiFi (define) and WiMAX (define). Right? Well, add iBURST to your vocabulary - courtesy of the savvy engineers at Japan's Kyocera Group.

I'm convinced this technology would be perfect for many regions in Africa considering how costly it is to dig and install fibre for broadband Internet access. Furthermore, this is the correct solution for small islands like my homeland, Barbados, which is only 166 square miles and relatively flat. This is why I'm so excited!

iBurst draws first blood against WiMAX in Africa
In a nutshell, iBURST gives you fast wireless Internet access - anywhere, 24/7 - without any complicated requirements. Aaah, simplicity at work. :-)
Best of all, the technology uses the licensed 1.7 Ghz frequency, which means that your connections will never have any interference with other wireless technologies - unlike WiFi (also known as 802.11).

All I can say is "seeing is believing." Thanks to a buddy (Gunnar Hillgartner) of mine who works at Africa Online, I was able to get a bird's eye view of their new infiNet Broadband Wireless service offering. Again, I have to stress how simple it was to connect and start surfing on the Net.

All Gunnar did was insert a tiny PCMCIA (define) card into his Sony Vaio laptop, start up the Access Manager application, and he was surfing the Net at around 128 Kb/s (Note: other foreign ISPs provide 256K, 512K, and 1 Mb iBURST access). Then he proceeded to lauch Skype - my favourite VoIP (define) application - and had a crystal clear conversation with his parents in Puerto Rico.

No complications, no silly configuration headaches...nada. This is the way wireless broadband technology ought to work. Most importantly, customers will always beat a path to the doors of companies like Africa Online who can provide such an easy path to high speed wireless Internet access.

Advantage: You, the customer
If I were part of the management team at Telkom Kenya, I'd be looking over my back because the competition just got a little stiffer, and much more competitive. Chalk one up for the little guy! :-)

Another reason I'm so keen on iBURST (and WiMAX technologies) is because there are lots of rural areas in Canada that would benefit from it. Most of the time, the telcos and cable TV operators don't bother to service these areas that are 30 minutes travel outside the big markets. And don't forget, Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world with a population hovering around 30 million people. It just isn't cost effective to wire most of these rural areas. I understand that.

Well, I'll be meeting with some other folks at Africa Online to delve in more about the technology and what is required to implement it in other parts of the globe. I'm told that it's in their best interest to see iBURST installed and used around the world so that it'd be easy for customers from similar wireless ISPs to "roam" since the hardware is the same.

An interesting WiMAX meeting
By the way, I was invited to a presentation last month by Italy's Selex Communications to find out more information about their upcoming WiMAX product offerings. Although it was only a PowerPoint presentation given by Annamaria Raviola (Senior VP and resident Mathematician), the implications of the company's robust, military-grade wireless technology are huge. Having the ability to transmit any where between 30-70 Mb/s over a distance of 30-50 Km will get any one's attention.

Once again, the customer is ultimately the winner as all of these remarkable wireless technologies compete with each other further applying pressure on incumbents like Telkom Kenya to shape up or ship out.

Stay tuned as 2006 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the wireless broadband market.

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Related links:

• iBurst bursts into Melbourne
• Cap Gemini first to trial iBurst wireless broadband
• iBURST testimonials (read opinions from the Australian operations of Yahoo, Citigroup, Fujitsu, and much more)
• Personal Broadband Australia iBurst
• Developing a fiber optic backbone for Africa (PDF file)
• Rural firms hungry for high-speed Internet
• Internet Economics: What Things Cost (in different countries) and who pays
• Interconnection in Developing Countries (or "The Missing Links")
• Broadband Socialism
• Chapter 3: Free Internet Phone Features That You're Paying For Now (PDF) (from Talk Is Cheap: Switching to Internet Telephones)
• (new) Flashcom Bets On Wireless Fixed Phones (Flashcom introduces new CDMA wireless broadband service)
  

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