Guides

One of the key advantages of wireless broadband is, of course, the ability to take your Internet connection with you. Although many people think that all wireless broadband services are mobile, an important distinction needs to be made, between mobile broadband and portable broadband. Even fixed wireless broadband (ie, confined to one building) is portable because you can move anywhere in the building and have constant access without being confined to a power point or external modem.

Portable broadband means that you can access the Internet anywhere within a certain coverage area. This normally means that you are in a hot-spot, near a base station or have an antenna to connect you to a base station.

Mobile broadband is a phenomenon which is growing rapidly. Mobile broadband enables you to access your wireless broadband while on the move, meaning you can use it while on the train, bus or ferry. In Australia, mobile wireless is available through the likes of Unwired, iBurst, and telcos such as Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and 3 Mobile.

If mobility is important, be careful to check with your ISP about mobility options. OzEmail, for instance, which resells both Unwired and iBurst, makes the distinction between mobile and portable wireless Internet. Veritel, another reseller of both services, calls its Unwired service "fixed wireless Internet", while its iBurst product is called "mobile wireless Internet". (Incidentally, we find the Veritel nomenclature a little confusing, since it is possible to take the Unwired modem from place to place and use the account wherever you may be -- you just can't use it while actually moving).

Wi-Fi Hotspots

The idea of being able to access your wireless broadband outside your home began with Wi-Fi hotspots. These are places where you can access the Internet from your notebook through a local Wi-Fi access point. Wi-Fi hotspot services are popular in cafes, restaurants and other public places. A number of service providers have set up networks of such wireless hotspots around the country. To access the Internet through one of their Wi-Fi hotspots, you need an account with the provider and a notebook, phone or PDA with built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g).

However, wireless hotspots have largely fallen out of favour as wide-area mobile broadband services gain popularity.

Originally led by iBurst and Unwired in Australia, as well as Australian telcos, some of these services offer metropolitan-wide reception areas In Telstra's case, their Next G service offers HSDPA broadband speeds of up to 7.2Mbps.

A single iBurst account, for example, gives you broadband access to the Internet from nearly anywhere in metropolitan Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide (along with several other cities as the network constantly expands). This is made possible by their network of aerials which act like uber Wi-Fi access points, delivering blanket coverage of wireless networking over the metropolitan areas.