Gerhard Potgieter

Rumor has it that Telkom will be launching a 8mbps ADSL trial anytime soon. According to several users from the MyBroadband forum, Telkom techies told them that Telkom will soon be launching a 8mbps ADSL trial.

This comes to no surprise as cellphone companies MTN and Vodacom has launched their 7.2mbps HSDPA services as a trial a month or 2 back.

According to the techies the 8mbps will be first run as a trial to current 4mbps users. My question is just with all this speed when will we have uncapped accounts or high cap account to accommodate all that speed for a fraction of the cost it currently goes for.

So lets just have a look at what the requirements are to have a 8mbps line running at its full speeds. Currently there are various 4mbps users that can’t even achieve their full line speeds, this is cause of the fact that they live far from a exchange. ADSL works at a maximum distance of about 5km from the exchange for normal low end speed. According to the graph below to achieve a speed of 8mbps you’ll need to live about maximum 1.8km from the exchange and that is the worst case to sync at 8mbps. Just take in consideration that there are other factors that can also influence sync rates to the exchanges such as.

• the length of copper wire from your premises to the exchange - this is always higher than the distance ‘as the crow flies’.
• the number and type of other digital services being used by other customers over copper pairs within the same cable sheath.
• the configuration and line quality of the copper wire pair between the exchange and your premises.
• electrical interference from outside sources (such as electric motors).
• the configuration of the copper wiring within your premises (ie use a central splitter for optimal performance).
• the software configuration and application on your computer (in particular how it uses the uplink back to the exchange).
• your ADSL hardware.
• the capacity of, load on, and access data rate of the destination host computer which you are accessing.

All and all I wont say no to a 8mbps line, and sure the majority of users out there won’t either. Maybe this is just what is needed to bring down the cost of faster ADSL speeds and maybe introduce cheap uncapped or high cap accounts. You can follow the MyBroadband thread here.

Vodacom in collaboration with Vodafone is bringing the Apple iPhone to South Africa. Vodafone signed a contract with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten markets including Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. The iphone is expected later this year — thats all thats made public for now.

Mikrotik announced the release of the RB433 early this week. The RB433 is a high performance AP (Access Point) with a 300mhz Atheros CPU. With the announcement of the RB433 came the EOL (End of line) announcement of the RB333 a performance AP that was based on the PowerPC CPU.

The RB433 is the replacement for the RB333, which is weird cause the RB333 hasn’t been in production for that long. Mikrotik probably used the RB333 to test the PowerPC CPU in their devices. We at CTWUG have a RB333 on one of our highsites and it perform very well.

Back to the RB433, it is kinda a exact replica of the RB333 with exception to its hardware specs and price. The RB344 boasts a Atheros AR7130 300MHz CPU, 64MB Memmory, 3 x 10/100 Ethernet ports with one POE (Power over ethernet) enabled, 3 miniPCI slots for wireless radios, 12~28V DC power jack aswell as POE, and the great RouterOS level4. One thing that it doesn’t support is remote voltage monitoring, something that is expected in a later hardware release.

I spoke to william at Scoop Distribution earlier today and they expect stock arrival by the end of May. The best thing about the RB433 is the price, it will be sold for just under R800 here in SA as apposed to the RB333 that is currently going for R1300 exlc vat. Scoop also told me that they will be selling the RB333 for R1150 as they are trying to clear our the RB333 in expectation of the new RB433.

All and all I’m looking forward to this new High Performance AP from Mikrotik and know they won’t dissapoint as always. Im sure CTWUG will be stoking up on on the RB433 for new highsites and even relay nodes as soon as these babies goes on sale.

So this is the NanoStation2, it gets described as “The Ultimate CPE for the Global WISP Community” but lets see what makes its manufacturers think that this device is so leet. Firstly this is the NanoStation2, where the hell was the NanoStation1? Me being part of CTWUG I have all my doubt in this little device as all devices I know that really packs a punch in the wireless industry is Mikrotik Routerboards. So lets have a look at the NanoStation2 specs as given by the Ubiquiti website.

• Processor Specs: Atheros AR2316 SOC, MIPS 4KC, 180MHz
• Memory Information: 16MB SDRAM, 4MB Flash
• Networking Interface: 1 X 10/100 BASE-TX (Cat. 5, RJ-45) Ethernet Interface
• Wireless Approvals: FCC Part 15.247, IC RS210
• RoHS Compliance: Yes
• TX Power: 26dBm, +/-2dB
• RX Sensitivity: -97dBm +/-2dB
• Antenna: Integrated 10dBi Dual Pol + External SMA
• Outdoor Range: over 15km
• TCP/IP Throughput: 25Mbps+
• Max Power Consumption: 5 Watts
• Power Supply: 12V, 1A (12 Watts). Supply and injector included
• Power Method: Passive Power over Ethernet (pairs 4,5+; 7,8 return)
• Operating Temperature: -20C to +70C (System PCB optimized for hi-temp)
• Operating Humidity: 5 to 95% Condensing
• Shock and Vibration: ETSI300-019-1.4
• Weight: 0.4 kg

Out of personal experience with wifi networking I dont think this devices comes close to the Mikrotik Routerboard 133c, and just to mention the 133c is not being produced anymore as its being replaced with the RB411 that packs a powerful 300Mhz Atheros Networking processor. And the lack of a high gain antenna puts me off, as 10dbi is not worth it for a CPE. The throughput listed there is hard for me to believe, maybe in a lab at a distance of 5m but still then i have my doubts as a 175Mhz Atheros cpu maxes out at about 14mbps. Sure it has a kinda powerful radio, but that anway illegal in South Africa. If I must take a guess the NanoStation would retail at about R700 - R900 here in South Africa and for that price I would rather buy a custom Routerboard CPE from scoop. All in all the NanoStation looks good from the outside but with the multitude of CPE enclosures you get nowadays there is better designs out there.

Just to sum it up, I dont forsee this device competing with any Mikrotik produk in the near future as Mikrotik has a good OS on their devices and has allot of power behind their devices that overtakes the NanoStation by far.