Intel touts long-distance WiFi for rural areas

While some companies are busy exploring other options for bringing wireless connectivity to rural areas, Intel's apparently been hard at work pushing plain old WiFi as far as they're able to, and they're reportedly now seeing some rather impressive results. According to Technology Review, the company's so-called "rural connectivity platform" (or RCP) is able to beam WiFi signals from one antenna to another located more than 60 miles away, and at data rates up to 6.5 megabits per second, no less. To do that, Intel whipped up some software that effectively rewrites the way the two radios communicate with one another, in particular by eliminating the extra data sent confirming transmissions. Of course, those high-powered antennas also come into play considerably, but Intel says the entire system is both inexpensive (it's aiming for below $500 when it starts selling it in India later this year) and low-power, with two or three radios in a link requiring just five or six watts.

[Via The Inquirer]

[ByronGman @ Mar 18th 2008 6:03PM]

Neato!

Hopefully, there is more development in this respect. I live in the city now, so I am thoroughly spoiled with broadband, but I remember the horrid days of rural dial-up.

I simply can't imagine using that now; the disconnects, the phone line all f'ed up, and no speed to boot. That's a gap that can't close quick enough.

[Erik @ Mar 18th 2008 6:17PM]

*insert dial-up sound here*

[Aguiluz @ Mar 18th 2008 6:18PM]

Yeah... When I joined up Engadget, I was browsing it on a sucking 28.8K. Now, I have 1Mbps! Yay me!

I can remember the phone line dead, me unwrapping an internet card, horrid downloading and all that crap.

[Grandalf @ Mar 18th 2008 6:55PM]

Meh ... and here I am being impatient with my 24mbit internet, considering upgrading to 100mbit soon...

[chad @ Mar 25th 2008 2:40AM]

What are you complaining about? My (broadband!) internet is currently sitting on 4.36K. It's a very good day if I get 10.

[Todd @ Mar 19th 2008 7:01PM]

I'm still looking at engadget on 28.8k internet, and it still sucks. I live in the middle of the united states on top of that! I could totally use this!!

[Iain @ Mar 18th 2008 6:22PM]

$500 are you kidding me?! People using DDWRT have made 40+ mile links with some old 54g buffalo gear 19dBi antennas and ddwrt loaded on the routers.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27812

[justin.m.silver @ Mar 18th 2008 7:02PM]

but not at 6.5mbps

[Aguiluz @ Mar 18th 2008 6:23PM]

Erik: *insert dial-up sound here*

Here:
http://www.lazylaces.com/56Kmodem/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtqz0bdq30Q

YEAH! Brings back the memories!

[ByronGman @ Mar 18th 2008 6:34PM]

No! No! NO!!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!

Lol,


There is only part of my memory missed by those videos.... the inevitable "Fuck you AOL" muttered under my breath as it attempts to connect for the 6th time...

[Aguiluz @ Mar 18th 2008 7:44PM]

Hee hee hee... I can remember ISP Bonanza (my dial up ISP) and PT&T (My Telco) dropping my downloads and I have to restart from the beginning. I was like dropping the WTF-bomb on their support line. XP I worked around it by accidentally discovering a Download Manager.

[Fruition @ Mar 19th 2008 1:16AM]

Has there ever been made a techno remix of the dial-up sound? Because if not, someone really needs to get on that.

[Fruition @ Mar 19th 2008 1:16AM]

Has there ever been made a techno remix of the dial-up sound? Because if not, someone really needs to get on that.

[Fruition @ Mar 19th 2008 1:17AM]

Damnable comment system.

[Layne Holt @ Mar 18th 2008 7:05PM]

Parked in front of the conference hotel, the founders were able to show Intel's chief executive, Craig R. Barrett, that their technology was capable of offering Internet access to the entire hotel as well as to the homes on a ridge behind the conference center.
http://www.etherlinx.com/news/nytimes61002.html

[Fed @ Mar 18th 2008 7:42PM]

Cool, I can always use another wireless network for all my torrent needs.

[Jason B @ Mar 18th 2008 8:23PM]

Man, I would love to see this around my place. I'm living in a rural town a long way out from the city, and, being a developer, I had to go with satellite broadband. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to at least have 1.5 down, but I'm jealous of the cable and DSL guys' rates.

This would certainly get my attention if it were rolled out in my area. Go Intel!

[Ryan Waskewich @ Mar 18th 2008 10:05PM]

I wonder what the latency on these bad boys are from 1.5 miles away...

[Eric @ Mar 18th 2008 11:56PM]

7.92e-8 seconds.

Of course that's in a vacuum. YMMV.

[webon @ Mar 18th 2008 10:26PM]

wooohoo Brain cancer for the town people, wooohooo!

[Kyelek @ Mar 18th 2008 11:48PM]

I was using a radio based internet service back when I was in Idaho, and it worked out great. We were about 5 miles from the transmitter, and the latency was low enough for all my gaming needs ^_^

So assuming that this isn't worse than existing technologies, I doubt there will be a huge problem with latency. At least, not until you start maxing out that 60 mi range.

[Kronk @ Mar 19th 2008 10:35AM]

Eric, you should take a look at the 3.65GHz band.

[Eric @ Mar 19th 2008 12:05AM]

That's great for the parts of the world that don't have the ISM band restrictions we have in the US, good luck to them.

I wish the FCC would set up a licensed data band similar to GMRS, that would allow higher power, but specifically not allow commercial interests to hog it up. Long distance point to point wireless is very easy when you can run a gain antenna and 5-10 Watts.

Instead we get milliWatt power and more auctions.

[dg @ Mar 19th 2008 12:16AM]

The goal here is to enable the 600,000 small villages in India. What happens when we give another billion people a voice?

[ap @ Mar 19th 2008 2:38AM]

People, please, for one second give up thinking what this means for you and consider how important technology like this is for underdeveloped countries . It's easy to knock the speeds they're providing and pick holes in it because it doesn't suit your circumstances but you aren't the target market.

We tend to sit here in the developed world taking the availability of information for granted. Any effort to bring internet connectivity to the kinds of places where school classes are held under a tree and books are a novelty is to be applauded without reservation imho.

"The goal here is to enable the 600,000 small villages in India. What happens when we give another billion people a voice?"

dg, hopefully they'll drown out yours.

Before I hop off my soapbox, check out this link for a cheaper means to extend the range of wireless networks...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6646469.stm#3
I reckon these people would treasure an RCP!

[tekdroid @ Mar 19th 2008 6:31AM]

these articles, more than any other tech stories, make me glad to see technology marching on.

Pracical problem-solving done with a bit of brainwork and ingenuity. Totally relevant and totally meaningful low-cost solutions in the real world.

Great stuff.
Oh and put me down for a couple of those white boxes :)
In the meantime:
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

[applefreak @ Mar 19th 2008 8:36AM]

why did they put it next to a lake, water sucks up WiFi like you wont believe...

anyway, this is really really cool!

[Dean W. Armstrong @ Mar 19th 2008 12:54PM]

Las Vegas has had wireless broadband service delivered by a similar system for several years: 802.11b Cisco radios modified with special software. I don't know what their distance limit is, but for the system I worked on the towers were almost always several miles away. The service is described at http://www.lv.net/Las-Vegas-Wireless-Internet-Service.htm. I wonder if they have any patents to their technology.

[Zempter @ Apr 5th 2008 1:29PM]

There was the same thing at the city I live in quite a while ago from some other company, It died. I think the idea is convenient though, I hope it works this time. The company that came here had it set up as a huge messed up mesh topology, and they had to compete more since it wasn't a rural area.

[Nick @ Dec 7th 2008 5:31PM]

Hah the good old days of 56k.... damn those dreaded phone lines.. remember pick up the phone one time only to get it blaring "Screeeee eee ee ooooo" and w.e. the damn shit did.. just cause my dad had his desktop connected on the net.. ahh the good days of AOL and getting kicked off followed by the cursing out that my dad did..


Nowadays. 100Mbps on Cable.. I dont see any slowdowns from here on out! :D

I really hope this becomes as popular as cell phones, paying for 3G and HSPA and whatnot just isn' worth it.. damn all those companies that make us pay for the wireless.. we have enough on our hands paying for the ISP connection at our homes!