Opinion: RIP bushband WiMax

They were going to use WiMax, which has copped its fair share of criticism and argument about whether it was appropriate. The new government says no, it wasn’t going to give the coverage promised in the tender. The OPEL consortium begs to differ. We’re yet to learn whether the lawyers will be the real winners if/when OPEL challenges the cancellation in court.

Well, as a real live rural and regional broadband user, I can reveal the unspoken secret out here which is that NextG already reaches more places than WiMax was designed to reach, and does it faster now (than the initial WiMax rollout promised). All the government needs to do for the bushies who can't get ADSL is subsidise the outrageous NextG broadband fees or smack Telstra with a large loofah until they drop their fees on NextG across the board. Heaven forbid the government should decide to take the NZ option and split Telstra into retail and wholesale. That’s far too sensible. Maybe if they win another election?

For those who haven’t tried NextG outside the cities, it really does work in the most outrageous places, boldly giving signal where no other mobile network has had signal before. This network not only gives good signal at my place, no longer requiring me to hop across the upper level driveway on one leg while using the phone, but even works while standing in the downstairs shower cubicle. We won’t get into a discussion over why I would be using my mobile phone in the downstairs shower cubicle. This is research, OK? Suffice to say, it also works in all manner of dodgy locations, whereas the GSM and CDMA phones dragged along for reference get no signal. Heck, the GPS doesn’t even think there are roads out here, but NextG can rustle up a rescue chopper.
Don’t cry over WiMax, get on board the NextG bandwagon and push!