Technology:
All current wireless internet equipment used in
Alberta including expensive proprietary
equipment is 802.11 based equipment. This is basically the same standard that is
used in home and business wireless networks. There have been significant advances
in this technology in the last 2 years that allows us to provide very strong signals
over distances up to 30 km with the right client unit and the right antenna and
enough height on either end to provide good line of site. All of our serving and
client equipment takes full advantage of this technology.
In the future, within 3-4 years, 802.16 technology a more powerful technology that
is less dependent on line of site will be available in quantity. 802.16 will allow
us to deliver even higher speed connections. It will also improve the reliability
of wireless links. Our plan is to deploy a low cost 802.11 network including 802.11
customer equipment exclusively for the next two years. As 802.16 equipment starts
to dribble into the market we will incorporate it into our system first to improve
the size and distance of our point to point shots from tower to tower and then from
tower to serving site and eventually when 802.11 equipment can't meet customer demand we will provide 802.16 service to customers and offer by that time low cost 802.16
customer equipment. 802.16 will be able to use your existing antenna
if it is still
in good condition so all that would be required is to replace the radio which we
expect to be a low cost upgrade.
Equipment:
Nowfast Internet does not use proprietary equipment for either serving equipment
or customer equipment. We build our own serving equipment from high quality carrier
grade components. This allows us to carefully choose the platforms and components
for reliability and performance. Basically we custom build equipment for each serving
point based on the specific need of that location. While that sounds expensive in
fact it allows us to deploy serving sites at about half of the cost of those using
proprietary equipment. It also allows for more flexibility. It allows us to serve 360 degrees at every site.
The other important feature is our serving equipment will talk to a large variety
of customer equipment including notebook computers. Basically any wireless device
that supports ad hoc connections and can receive a signal can be used to receive
our service. It is not a requirement that you buy any of our equipment. Those who
don't need our equipment will only have to pay $279 for their startup package. Our
equipment comes in two flavors. It could be USB connected or it could be an access point connected by a network cable. Both options can be outside mounted.
There are also several antenna options that will be dependent on your specific location.
The basic equipment comes with its own small antenna which may in some cases work
without any further antenna. Some may only need an indoor range extender which would
be connected to your radio unit by the cable which is usually included with these
units.
If your antenna has to be mounted outside there are two options. First just
run a cable through the wall to an antenna mounted on the side of your home or at
the eve or on the roof of your home aimed at the serving location.
Option 2 is used when the antenna has to be mounted in a location 70 to 150 ft away.
In this case we use a radio mounted in an outdoor enclosure that is either part
of or attached to the antenna. The USB option can be as far away as 70 ft from your
computer. The network cable option can be as much as 150 ft away. In both cases
the power required to power up the radio unit comes over the wire connecting the
radio to your computer. The network cable option requires a separate Power over
Ethernet power unit but is the only option that can be connected directly to a router.
Connecting through a router is often a very good idea. We do offer firewall services
for an additional $2.95 per month that would allow you to be protected by our router.
For a single computer we recommend that you add this inexpensive service for your
own protection. The startup package includes the firewall service for the first
10 months at which time you can decide whether or not you want to continue it.
Our customer equipment has been very carefully chosen for its power and reliability.
In all cases we do not make any profit on the customer equipment. Basically the
startup package budgets $220 CDN for basic customer equipment. There will be some
cases where the actual cost will be less, much less. In those cases we credit the
difference toward your account where it can be used to pay for any other service
like installation or a gig package. We also have more robust customer equipment
options for as few extra dollars.
The startup package does not include any towers or pipes. It does include a basic
roof mount or wall mount device.
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