Fibre over WiFi : Best Option ?

lexor

lexor

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Just need some guidance from the forum please.

I can get 4mbps uncapp( 150GB FUP) Fibre over WiFi for about the same price I'm currently paying for my 4mbps Telkom phone/ADSL line including 150GB from VOX and free FNB uncapped.

Do you think I should cancel the Telkom / Vox setup and rather go for the Fibre over WiFi option ?

Will the fibre option be "faster" and or more reliable ?

Thanks
 
Fibre over WiFi is a term that's being bandied about by many WISPS.


In our opinion, unless there's fibre to the tower and the link from the tower to you is on a licenced frequency, it's not Fibre over WiFi.

AirFiber / AirFiber 5x / AirFiber 2x / 17GHz is not fibre over the air. It will eventually fail. We started offering some of these services a couple of years ago, using the theory that the hardware is so expensive that the airwaves would not be congested.

Turns out we were wrong.

High end 5Ghz links were eventually replaced with 17GHz links but with the price of those dropping to under R70K for a link, that spectrum has also become flooded, meaning the only real option is a licenced frequency. Here one also has to be careful, as 28GHz links drop out in the Cape Town rain. We have had to remove some of those and replace them with 8 or 18GHz licenced links.

Either go "cheap and cheerful" with a WISP point to multipoint, wait from ftth to reach you, or stay with what you have.
 
Technically WiFi is only at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz since that is what the standard specifies. Other protocols, and other frequencies are thus technically WLAN an not WiFi. But this is just nitpicking :-)

Wikipedia said:
The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any "wireless local area network" (WLAN) product based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 standards.
Click to expand...

Fibre over wireless to me is an oxymoron. One cannot have something that specifies a wired technology over a wireless technology. It would be more accurate to say internet over wireless, or wireless internet. Depending on which base station your phone is connected to your 3G / LTE may very well be "Fibre over Wireless" already.

This link below shows the attenuation experienced at different frequencies due to the atmosphere and rainfall rate (mm/h) which explains why wireless is not that reliable in all weather conditions.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/ra/topics/research/rcru/project28/Atten.gif
 
As far as i know, there is no "Fibre over Wifi" industry standard. So it would very much depend on what the product offering consists of on the equipment side, and the network topology.

Is it not maybe an FTTc connection? Because those work pretty well when configured correctly.
 
I would say that with 5Ghz Airmax equipment you are probably looking at a pretty much stock standard WISP solution offering. Unless there is a distribution tower VERY near you with great backhaul and VERY low saturation, fibre is going to be a better bet.

A point to multi-point link on unlicensed band is always a risky solution. Could work great. Could be trash.
 
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