Telephone wires will soon be a thing of the past when dialling up to the internet.
Launched on Thursday, Sentech’s new MyWireless product is the first of its kind in Africa. The broadband wireless access tool is geared initially at the consumer market and small- to medium-size enterprises.
Two years of work have gone into the launch, which culminates in a beta test in December. The beta tests, among a group of 20 to 30 users in the Gauteng area, will iron out any problems before the wireless connection goes commercial in January.
“Simply, MyWireless is an internet service whereby users are able to send and receive data at high speeds over the air,” says Winston Smith, portfolio manager of Sentech’s wireless broadband products.
“Wireless broadband traffic is routed over our secure, world-standard high-powered radio networks. We have transmitters on several high sites and users with a Sentech wireless modem within range of these zones are able to hook up to the internet and do anything from send and receive e-mail to visit their favourite websites,” says Smith.
According to Gladwin Marumo, chief operating officer for Sentech, the roll-out phases will see Durban being connected in February, Cape Town in March and by May all of South Africa is expected to be covered.
Sentech expects to be “African” in nature as it will provide franchise opportunities as well as operating cross-border in neighbouring countries once South Africa has been covered.
“We will bridge the digital divide in a big way,” says Marumo.
MyWireless will complement exciting services although it replaces the traditional phone line for connection. Internet access will now be available through radio frequencies, with access provided in a 3km to 5km radius of stations and up to 20km outside of business districts. There are currently 16 such stations in Gauteng.
In contrast to a standard land line that provides 56 kilobits per second (Kbps), the new portable wireless broadband internet service, called MyWireless, will be offered as three packages.
The packages are: MyWireless 128, which offers a shared 128Kbps connection, mainly for residential users, and two higher bandwidth offerings, namely MyWireless 256 and MyWireless 512, aimed at the small-office-home-office and small- to medium-sized enterprises.
Other differences to standard connections include permanent internet access, a fixed fee with no per call charges, portability and no limit to internet usage, says Smith.
MyWireless pricing is good news for consumers — at an all-inclusive R649 a month for the 128Kbps service, R849 per month for the 256Kbps and R1Â 449 for the 512 product, this is apparently the most cost-effective internet connection on offer. A one-off activation fee of R500 is payable when purchasing any of the products.
It’s important to make the distinction between broadband wireless and other wireless technologies like wi-fi (wireless fidelity) and general packet radio services (GPRS), although MyWireless can complement these services.
Smith explains: “Wi-fi is an unregulated, short-range application with a small hotspot footprint that requires a connection to an internet access technology in order to allow the end user to surf the web or use e-mail.”
“GPRS is a data service offered over cellular networks but its high usage charges make it quite expensive for a primary access connection and its maximum speed is relatively slow for large file downloads.”
Access to the net will be provided through a wireless modem, plugged into your computer via a USB port or, for notebook users, a PCMCIA card.
While MyWireless seems to completely bypass Telkom, Sentech — which is a government-owned television and radio signal distributor run on commercial lines — has not yet heard any rumblings from them. Sentech is licensed to carry the traffic for local and international telecommunications operators, including audio, data and video.