Kent gets commercial WiMax network

Following the completion of a six-month pilot, Kent will now have its own permanent WiMax network.

Telabria, which set up a WiMax network in the Swale area of Kent earlier this year, has announced the pilot has become a permanent offering, potentially bringing high-speed broadband to 50,000 homes.

The WiMax service, known as Skylink, will be targeted at both homes and businesses and will initially cover the city of Canterbury and the area around Sittingbourne. Telabria is planning to expand coverage to more of Kent during 2005 and 2006, as well as into other counties next year.

The service will offer speeds of up to 10Mbps at a distance of up to 20 miles from the WiMax base station.

According to Telabria, just 16 per cent of telephone exchanges support SDSL - which supports high-speed transfer of packets in both directions - meaning the county's businesses and consumers are hard pressed to use broadband for applications such as videoconferencing and VoIP.

While voice over WiMax may be slowly making its way onto the connectivity radar, according to analyst house IDC, mobile over WiMax is not a sure thing.

According to a new report from the research firm, the delay in getting mobile WiMax onto the market, caused by spectrum worries and lack of hardware, could see the technology superseded by 3.5G in Europe.

Issues over hardware costs - WiMax chipsets cost comparatively more than 3G or 3.5G plus Wi-Fi - could also help to stymie the rollout of the technology, otherwise known as 802.11e, IDC found.