Project founder Paul Young believes a wireless intranet could dramatically cut connection costs for Internet users, particularly those in rural areas. Members of his proposed service, currently called Xnet Wireless (www.x.net.au), would be able to join forces and buy Internet bandwidth at wholesale prices.
It's an idea that has gathered impressive initial support. After inviting expressions of interest from his Web site, Young has been inundated with correspondence -- mostly from regional areas of Victoria and New South Wales, but also in Queensland and Western Australia.
"We've had about 300 prospective relay sites registered in eight weeks and many more end users. It's a huge job sorting through them finding genuinely good locations for the wireless servers," Young told ZDNet Australia.
"We're got about seven ISPs interested in joining the network and we'll commence surveying the sites for suitability this week," Young said. Each wireless server is estimated to support an average of 250 users, though of course, not all at once.
XNet Wireless is operating as a pilot now with about 15 antennas joined to the network. Relay sites range from building rooftops to structures such as water towers in rural areas.
End users would join the network free, or incur a minimal membership fee to cover costs, according to Young, a former ISP, who runs a family-owned computer store in the Victorian suburb of Mornington. Communicating with others on the network would be free.
The final decision on cost structure depends on the support the project can gather from the general business community or the Australian Government. The expressions of interest gathered so far may help qualify the service under the Australian Government's regional communications grants scheme Networking the Nation, "because we have so much support from rural areas," Young said. However, "there's a lot of red tape to go through".
"The spectrum we're using is licence-free ISM band. You need a good line of sight (to connect to the network). That's where we need companies or private individuals to help by sponsoring these server sites. All we need is space for a small computer and access to put an antenna on the roof. At the moment we're paying for the antennas and servers ourselves, which means a (host site) only provides electricity and space," Young said.
Young said he has spent about $50,000 over the last two years investigating different wireless networking products, but now "there's been a huge price drop and it's getting to the stage where consumers should be able to participate". A suitable antenna costs between $150 and $200.
"We sell the wireless products and we've got plenty of work just putting up this idea," Young said.
End users also need PCMCIA wireless network cards (and adapters for desktops) to use an antenna.
"In some instances you don't even need an antenna if you are close to the wireless servers," Young said.
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