But we all need a break sometime and Steven’s family were delighted with the idea of spending Christmas in Australia visiting relatives and enjoying the summer sun on Bondi beach.  Maybe they might have rumbled something when he packed his lap-top but they probably understood more when he swapped Bondi beach for Bondi Junction in the heart of Sydney’s business district – on the track of the latest broadband technology, Personal Broadband Australia.

Steven returned to the UK in January and we took the opportunity to find out what exactly he’d been up to down under.

So what, Steve, is Personal Broadband and why go to Australia to see it?

It’s a wireless broadband service that’s quite unlike anything we have in Europe.  The technology is not like GSM or 3G but it is mobile, always-on and it works inside and outside buildings and across a wide area.  It is not like WiFi, because it has vastly better coverage and is more secure.  It performs much faster than 512k ADSL but it doesn’t need wires or installation effort. 

Why Australia?  Well although the underlying technology is from Arraycomm in USA, Sydney is the global launch site - the only place outside of the labs that you can buy it as a proper commercial service – and even there it’s only just been launched.

And what exactly did you need to make it work?

The guys at PBBA gave me a small box and inside there was a PCMCIA card, a CD with some software and a simple user-guide.  I installed it myself – slotted the card into my lap-top, ran the set-up process and I was on-line in 10 minutes.  It was very simple and straight forward and I didn’t need to connect or log on wherever I used it – it was just always there more or less wherever I was.

Do you really mean everywhere?

Well, pretty much everywhere in the coverage area which at present is Central Sydney plus an expanding wave outwards.  I tried it out on the water on the ferries, and in taxis, inside offices and hotel rooms and on the trains.  Mostly around town it was very fast - a good 1Mb/s.

I was particularly impressed with the consistency of coverage in Sydney’s Central Business District.  The skyscrapers seemed to reflect rather than absorb the radiowaves and the net result was consistently strong. Apparently this is expected from this adaptive antenna technology at these frequencies but it is still good to see it validated in practise.

It worked consistently well in offices and hotel rooms where I tried it although I would expect signal strength to reduce in, say, a lift-shaft in the middle of a tower block.  The performance varied a bit depending on the signal strength and the speed of travel. In taxis, for example, it was fine around town but when we hit the highway out towards the airport the download speed started to drop off once we were above 50mph.  However, it still registered 0.5Mb/s at 70mph.

But what about the reception on public transport?

Well personal broadband on the trains suffers like all wireless devices from all the usual challenges, most especially cuttings and tunnels.  It might need a bit more design effort to cover rail tracks really well.  However, these were just blackspots and most of the time I got the same fantastically fast speeds that I got in taxis.  It was OK on the buses and I hadn’t realised how much commuters in Sydney rely on the ferries - which reminds me that it also seems to be appealing to yacht owners.

It’s IP end-to-end so I’d not be surprised to see users linking it to VoIP software for Internet telephony and secure VPN applications.  I’m told that the current technology is to be upgraded to a 2Mb/s service later this year and this should also handle higher transport speeds.

What seems to be their initial target market?

Without a doubt, their marketing and PR efforts are targeted at the ‘road warriors’ – professionals who are on the move but need full access to knowledge systems and always-on email.  I imagine this group is seen as the ‘early adopters’ of this new technology.

And how does it compare price-wise with other broadband services?

According to the technology experts the cost structure should be highly competitive - it's the most spectrum efficient wireless broadband technology and should deliver the cheapest Megabyte of data to to wireless users.  PBBA are offering 1Mb/s mobile at a prices only slightly higher than 512Kb/s on a fixed line - which in value terms looks compelling.

They've developed a wholesale model that is just beginning to kick in.  They've been doing some direct selling to these “road warrior” niches, but they've also tied up various leading ISPs and GSM mobile retailers to market the products to their existing mass customer bases.  I imagine these retailers will be expected to drive the majority of PBBA revenues.  It will be interesting to see how the market assesses the value of this new wireless broadband service. Being faster and portable - well for those who need it, it should be well worth the premium.

And finally, Steve, do you see any snags?

Well there two snags really.  The first is that we aren’t used to Personal Broadband.  It would work for me at home and in the office and in between – but does that really mean I could throw away the ADSL at home and in the office?  Its often the case that a broadband connection is provided for several members of the family.  I gather that there is a different type of terminal that connects into a LAN but this needs to be thought through – maybe something for the retailers to package – maybe they’ll call it the ‘home and away’ package?

So what was the second snag?

Well, its in Australia and not here – and since I’ve been back no-one can give me any clues about when we can get this sort of service.  Apparently it only needs a very small amount of spectrum but getting this sorted out is a dead complicated business that might take years to resolve – by which time the UK will be well behind in broadband.