LANs WANs and MANs

Local and national governments face a problem in their bid to provide Internet access to as many people as possible. DSL and Cable modem services are expensive to install even in urban areas. The installation costs for rural areas is exorbitant . So it is necessary for governments and local councils to look for other solutions.

Here at Villas Andrea some of us subscribed to a satellite based system. For an individual to install such a system would be very expensive so what we had was one satellite installation which was then transmitted to individual homes by wi-fi. The limited range of existing wireless technology meant that we had three repeater stations to provide adequate coverage. To say that the system was problematical would be an understatement.

Whilst we were waiting for Telefónica to lay cable up to the estate, a company called Aeromax came and promised a solution to our problems using WiMAX technology. The technology uses microwaves to extend the wireless range outdoors. It is used throughout the world to set up MANs (metropolitan area networks).

For WiMAX to work though you need to have line of sight of the base station. Aeromax currently has base stations at Crevillent, Hurchillo and San Miguel de Salinas. Originally all users were pointed towards Hurchillo but now some users are directed to the other base stations to improve connectivity.

Within a short time of people signing up to the Aeromax system, Telefónica arrived with cables to provide us with landline phones and ADSL internet. However, the cost of a Telefónica package is high. For example; the Duo package which includes telephone line, 3Mb ADSL, cost of local and national calls and ADSL maintenance costs about 74€ per month.

For casual users of the Internet, this was far too expensive. Some people therefore opted for just a telephone line. They use dial up access for their Internet use.

Unfortunately, dial up connections are far too slow for many of today's applications on the Internet. As the speed of connections improves so the demand for speed increases. For some applications even a 1Mb connection, which would have been fine a couple of years ago, is inadequate today.

Whilst all this was taking place, the Ayuntamiento in Bigastro were rolling out a wi-fi system they called Bigastel to offer internet access to everyone in Bigastro.

Bigastel was to use existing 802.11bg wireless technology to provide a 1Mb connection. This type of connection will only work at short ranges and so was confined to an area in the centre of the town. In effect Bigastel is a higher powered version of the wireless access that you get from a wireless router.

To connect to Bigastel all you needed was a cheap and easy to install wireless bridge. After that you'd pay 120€ per year for your subscription.

Clearly, providing access to Villas Andrea via 802.11bg technology wasn't going to work so the Ayuntamiento have now decided upon a WiMAX system to provide us with broadband Internet. The advantages of their WiMAX system to Aeromax's is that this one will be local to Bigastro. The range of coverage and the number of subscribers will be much less thus ensuring a much better quality of service. Bigastel WiMAX will also run at broadband speeds of up to 2Mb in both directions.

The bad news is that the cost of setting up and the monthly subscription will both be higher than for existing clients of Bigastel in the middle of the town.

In their letter, the Ayuntamiento quote:

Broadband installation 98€; VoIP telephone installation 59€ and then a monthly subscription of 29€. Calls via the VoIP phone will then cost 2.9 cents per minute. They will even offer you a UK phone number for an additional 5€ per month.

Actually we use a VoIP phone via our ADSL connection by subscribing to VoIPtalk in the UK. We pay in sterling £4.99 per month for a package which includes a UK landline number and 1,000 minutes of call time to European landlines.

VoIPtalk also offer a free package i.e. with no monthly charges. The call rate for the free package is 1.4p (1.7 cents) per minute to European numbers. They also sell phones from £43.99 upwards and adapters to use with an existing analogue phone from £29 upwards.

PS having a UK number causes some confusion for people in England who can't understand how we can have a Manchester number here in Spain.

PPS For those of you who haven't worked out the acronymms; a LAN is a local area network, a WAN is a wide area network and a MAN is a metropolitan area nework.