go
glocal!
[play]
featuring
Adam
Burns
Alexei
Blinov
Pete
Gomes
Ian
Morrison
Kass
Schmitt
Terry
Schmidt
James
Stevens
narration:
Mukul
interviews
London: Manu
interviews
New York: Ilze
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go glocal!
Radio Programme
[realaudio,
40min, english]
When New
Labour announced their policy aim for the UK to be the leading nation
in terms of broadband infrastructure by the year 2005, the resulting media
buzz rendered the term broadband - high speed internet access, typically
for a flat rate - into daily vocabulary. However a recent report about
broadband penetration by the OECD listed the UK 22nd out of 30 nations.
28 people out of 1000 use broadband in the UK, compared to over 140 per
1000 in the leading nation, South Korea. In the UK, delays in provision
and high prices have left the cybercitizens feeling short-changed. Some
have taken matters in their own hands.
In the
last few years, some of the more technically minded internet users had
experimented with data transfer using microwaves in order to enable fast,
cheap, and wireless access to the internet. Fast, because under an internationally
agreed protocol named IEEE 802.11b, microwave transmission has a theoretical
bandwidth of 11 MBps - that's over 20 times a typical ADSL (wired broadband)
connection. Cheap, because a broadband connection can be shared among
many users, and a portion of the microwave frequency spectrum - around
2.4 GHz - is available for use without license .
Networkers
with broadband who want to share their bandwith create a network node
by installing an antenna on their roof or window sill. The antenna connects
to a dedicated traffic-control computer called a router, which in turn
is linked to the broadband connection and the networker's other computer
systems. Anyone with an antenna that is in line of sight of the first
antenna can log on to the internet through a microwave link between the
antennas. Some laptops and palmtops have antennas built in. And this convenience
and speed comes relatively cheaply - with some care, a good antenna can
be made at home, and the required wireless card bought for less than £80.
If you're building a wireless access point (or gateway to the internet)
and need to have a router, you can reconfigure an obsolescent PC that
is being thrown out by your neighbourhood office.
Wireless
broadband enables you to download video onto your laptop while sitting
in the park, check your emails from your palmtop while strolling the streets,
or simply to deal with getting online in a foreign country when you don't
have the right modem adapter for the hotel telephone socket. Wireless
networks are also an ideal solution for homes and offices. Such internal
networks, or intranets, can give you online access in every room and enable
you to share printers and other peripherals without the cost and clutter
of metres of cable. And wireless networks could even radically change
the face of broadcast media.
In this
programme, ambientTV.NET talks to participants of DIY wireless network
initiatives in London and New York.
[play radio
programme]
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