back to article Ready for Glasto-net? Cheap, local low-power networks up for grabs in the UK

Some technologies lurking under the 5G umbrella promise to reshape the entire communications sector, creating new uses and businesses we can't imagine today. Ofcom showed it was hip to a few of these this week with a radical new way of opening up the airwaves. Ofcom is allowing bidders to run their own local low-power networks …

  1. Only me!
    Happy

    Local Network for local people

    IF the costs are going to be so low, I wonder what the options are for setting up a local ISP for say your 50-100 closest friends....i.e. next door....all contribute to the one network. 50*£15-£20 per month is a tidy sum and may allow this to happen.

    It may get over the FTTC.....set up the base station right next to the cabinet....one can dream, it is Xmas after all

    1. Suricou Raven

      Re: Local Network for local people

      It's not just the spectrum. You'd need to pay for a business connection that comes with permission to resell, plus you'd need to contract a legal firm to handle compliance issues and the inevitable discovery requests, takedown notices, police requests for information, etc. Some businesses really benefit from economy of scale, and internet service is one of them.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Guard bands....

    BT toyed with the idea of using DECT Guard bands (it owns Frequency here) for GSM. Technology has moved on well enough that bleed into neighbouring frequencies is now not a problem, so proximitry to 2.4GHz is not a problem. Your wifi doesn't stop working when you turn the microwave on....

  3. Suricou Raven

    Here's an idea.

    The 2.4GHz band is the most efficiently utilised, right?

    Could it be extended a tiny bit? Just enough to give us 'channel 14,' the uppermost part of the band which is available for unlicensed use in some countries but not in the UK. Most wireless network gear is already physically capable of using it, it's just configured in crippled Brit-mode by default.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't try it near Glastonbury

    That's the place where a free wifi trial in the town centre had to be abandoned because it was causing headaches and interfering with chakras.

    Before it was switched on...

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Don't try it near Glastonbury

      That is quite amusing.

      If I was desperate to provide network services around my locale (I'm not, but that's 'cos I'm a lazy cow) I could of course just put a 5GHz WiFi AP on a 10m pole and manually turn the transmit power up to 26dBm.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Glasto phones?

    If you've got your head stuck in a phone at Glasto you're kind of missing the point of the place...

    1. Glen 1
      Joke

      Re: Glasto phones?

      Farming?

  6. 89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921

    Great... even more EM radiation... my tin hat will need a tin hat

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: like selling electricity you generate at home back to the National Grid.

    great idea but if implimented, I hope that the rate you get a decent rate for the power you generate and not the FIT rate.

    I've generated almost exactly twice the amount of grid electricity I've consumed this CY.

    If I can get to close to the same rate I'm paying for leccy I'd be very happy and be willing to invest in more panels on my Garage.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: re: like selling electricity you generate at home back to the National Grid.

      You need to get what we have. Non-electronic twisty dial meter with no back rotation protection.

      A/C because...

  8. Horridbloke
    Pint

    I attended some sort of festival in August. It was near Gloucester.

    We all got a badge that was also a phone (no, really) plus a sim card. There was an intention to provide a site-wide cell network. The conference organisers said they'd bought the necessary license from a bloke in a pub.

    Sadly the network didn't work. It was a noble failure though.

  9. Christian Berger

    The guardband is now regularly used for GSM in Germany

    It used to be unused. In Germany you can get any patch of unassigned spectrum for "test purposes". In reality that meant that operators like Eventphone (the only German reputable telephony provider) teamed up with Osmocom to run a public test network. Unfortunately since that guard band has been auctioned off, they now have to beg at non reputable mobile telephony providers for temporary spectrum use.

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