Kent to get UK's first WiMax network

The garden of England is to see the installation of UK's first WiMax network.

Trials will begin in January 2005 with a commercial launch of business and residential customers expected before the middle of the year.

Networking company Telabria is building the WiMax backhaul, intended to support its Wi-Fi hotspots, based on the 802.16 standard. Once the network is live, it will replace the satellite backhaul the company has set up to supply broadband to rural customers.

Jim Baker, Telabria's CEO, said WiMax "will fundamentally change the structure of broadband networks" in the next few years and described it as "a revolutionary standard".

A recent report by research company Heavy Reading, WiMax Reality Check, predicts that the use of WiMax to support Wi-Fi in rural areas will be the dominant application for the technology initially, but it may go on to support mobile services and threaten 3G before 2010.

Telabria already has already put its footprint in Kent's wireless soil by adding Wi-Fi hotspots to Kent's Shepherd Neame-owned pubs, in order to boost rural broadband use.