Swindon now the technology epicentre?
Another technology first for the UK in Swindon, Last week it was the first Hydrogen Refuelling station.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/22/uk-gets-first-hydrogen-refueling-station-honda-lot-graciously-p/
Swindon council will be getting an LTE network next year, just as residents lose access to what free Wi-Fi the council's last networking project managed to provide. UK Broadband will be kitting up Swindon council offices with LTE connections next year, using the 3.4GHz spectrum it acquired more than a decade ago – and which it …
There's a 2.6GHz network in Swindon (3 sites, anyway), although it's used for drive testing and not available to anyone outside of Nokia-Siemens Networks. Same deal though - there's a network that's available exclusively to a single entity...
Admitedly the existing network goes up and down like a yoyo....
"UK Broadband will be kitting up Swindon council offices with LTE connections next year, using the 3.4GHz spectrum it acquired more than a decade ago – and which it has been filling with a variety of technologies ever since."
More than a decade ago?
Are we talking about the company then known as PCCW? The company which won a handful of licences in the UK fixed wireless access broadband auctions, bought the rest afterwards, and then as far as anyone can tell, simply sat on them, doing basically nothing with them?
Meanwhile Ofcom stood on the sidelines for years, pleased at the income they'd "achieved", ignoring the fact that no matching service was delivered in any meaningful way?
From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/06/pccw_broadband_netvigator/
"UK Broadband - the wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong telecoms giant PCCW - has finally launched its wireless broadband service in the UK. The Netvigator service is to be made available in the Thames Valley first, in Aldershot, Maidenhead, Reading, Slough, Windsor and Wokingham. "
See also:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/15/pccw_uk_broadband_wireless/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/25/pccw_broadband/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/01/pccw_cautious/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/02/pccw_now/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/12/pccw_vodafone/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/23/ofcom_pccw_spectrum/
etc