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WBA: a solution to your net problems
IN Pakistan, most of the users who connect to the Internet for personal or commercial usage, benefit from customary dial-up or cable connections. These services however, fail to deliver the high speed data-transfer that is required by the users presently. The speed of the computer systems has increased by almost 50 per cent in the last decade and nowadays a normal PC processes data at a minimum of 300 to 500MHz. Modems however, only provide a maximum connection speed of 56.6Kbps.
This is a main international as well as a national problem for frequent net users. Keeping that in view, recently, Pakistan’s leading ISP, Paknet, an auxiliary of PTCL has introduced Wireless Broadband Internet in the country.
A common description of broadband can be stated as:
“Broadband (also known as Wideband) refers to telecommunications that provide a variety of channels of data over a single communication medium (wire).”
Now, with the introduction of wireless broadband, we can say, “Broadband (also known… …variety of channels of data.” Period.
Wireless Internet is a bi-directional connection. Unlike Satellite Solutions, where you can download via the dish antenna, but you are also connected by a phone line to the internet for your uploads. Wireless solution eliminates the need for any dedicated phone lines or copper wires, thereby reducing costs, while providing data transfer rates faster than any other technology presently in use.
Wireless Broadband Internet service works on the same principal as cordless phones. A small receiver/transmitter antenna is installed on the outside of your building and a wireless card is implemented in your computer. This unit communicates with one of your ISP’s main transmitters located in your locality.
From the speed point of view, Wireless Internet service is the fastest Internet connectivity solution in the world. It is faster than xDSL, ADSL, DSL, Satellite and Cable Modem service. Wireless Broadband Internet access can range anywhere from 64k to 100Mbps, depending on the package you are being provided by your ISP.
For using WBA on your Personal/Desktop Computers, all you need to do is install PCI Cards (Wireless Modem) in your system. Without any Ethernet wires or copper pairs, you would be connected to the Internet at Ethernet speed. In case of a LAN, Access Points are installed at desired locations in a building and these access points connect to a “bridge” in your premises. This bridge connects you promptly to your server. Thus enabling you to transfer data directly from the Internet.
Similarly, if you install the wireless PCI card in your laptop you can connect to the Internet wirelessly anywhere in your building. There is no need to find a phone line for your laptop or plug in an Ethernet cable.
This connection’s independency on any telephone line eliminates any possible hindrance of busy signal or no answer. Presently, there are 500,000 Internet users in Pakistan. The figure is expected to increase by large margins with the introduction of Wireless Internet in the country because of the same reason i.e. full-time connection availability. Currently, the Service is working in only Four major cities; Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. But is soon expected to expand to other habitats.
Paknet first launched wireless connectivity to broadband Internet in Islamabad in the end of July of this year. Paknet, a subsidiary of PTCL, provides Internet Service to 18% of the Internet users in Pakistan and has 21 percent of the market share, is the first and only ISP providing Wireless Broadband Internet connection throughout the country. This has been achieved through the joint ventures of PTCL and Proxim Corporation, an American company.
Not only the service provided by Paknet is the fastest broadband wireless connectivity in Pakistan, it is said to be more economical than dial-up connections or cable Internet. The ISP claims that the service is not affected by rough weather conditions, nor, unlike DSL, does it lose its speed with the increase in distance between the server and the end-user.
Apart from the Internet, Wireless Broadband connectivity can be put to large use in forming a LAN in a building. This will be work with the same system of installing Access Points to make the whole site wireless.
Besides that, it is said that through this technology, all wireless function like wireless printing can also be done.
PTCL also says that WBA will be used for audio-video conferencing and video-audio streaming directly from the net. Bulk data transfer for companies involved in research, medical transcription, multi-player games and secured connections will be available for institutes and universities.
The launch of Broadband Wireless Internet in Pakistan is expected to make the use of Internet throughout around the country much less complex, easier to access, faster, economical and is estimated to increase the quantity of net users in Pakistan by large figures.
Wireless Internet has the fastest growth rate in the world for broadband connectivity and is predicted to be the most widely adopted networking solution in the world.
The writer is a young geek
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