Personal Broadband Australia (PBBA) (formally CKW Wireless) is in the final stages of testing for its iBurst wireless broadband network, which is due for a soft launch around mid-December. The five-year deal with Telstra Wholesale Ethernet is to provide PBBA with a flexible IP connection between its centralised equipment -- also hosted by Telstra -- and its network of iBurst base stations.
"It allows us to buy direct IP bandwidth, and we can choose how much bandwidth we want to each base station," Jonathan Withers, chief technical officer at PBBA told ZDNet Australia .
Withers said Telstra was a good partner because its operations covered the whole of the metropolitan area and would be able to provide a connection wherever PBBA decided to erect a base station. He said he was unconcerned about recent performance levels at Telstra.
"This is a core service, a transport service rather than an application service," said Withers. "They're pretty good in this area, so that's not a key concern."
PBBA has finished its trials of the iBurst service, and allowed customers of the trial to continue using it until the commercial version became available. The service has generated strong interest in Sydney, and Withers said there were still some places left on the trial network. Interested parties should contact PBBA through its Web site. Although the commercial network is due for launch in mid-December, PBBA plans a stronger, higher-profile launch after summer.
PBBA plans to wholesale the service, and Withers said the company would transfer customers to its distributors once the system was properly launched.
A fixed computer wireless broadband connection is expected to cost the same as a fixed xDSL connection, while a PC card modem designed for laptops will be priced higher, at around double the cost of a fixed connection.
"To provide a fully mobile service, that requires a lot more base-station planning and so on," said Withers. "Technically, it's a more exacting activity." He also said mobile wireless broadband was a unique service, and therefore could attract a premium.
PBBA plan to have 10 base stations operational by mid-December, and 15 by the end of January, when the network will cover the area between Brookvale and Mascot, and out to Parramatta. Withers said the company was already looking at sites for base-stations in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.
