BCL links remote school to world

By PETER GRIFFIN

Broadcast Communication's multimillion-dollar wireless broadband network may have only a handful of customers, but at least one rural school is surfing at high speed for the first time.

The Youth with a Mission school 5km from Matamata is at the coverage limit of BCL's wireless network, 55km from the nearest transmission tower.

But an antenna on the school's roof feeds a 256kbps internet link into the school's IT network allowing students to use the internet at reasonable speeds.

BCL's Extend network, which is being resold through internet provider Iconz, has enabled the school to install a wireless network, letting students with "wi-fi" laptops connect to the internet from around the school grounds.

Previously, getting a reliable dial-up internet connection was difficult in an area where mobile phone coverage is also patchy.

Expert Web Services is a niche internet provider which is servicing the school.

Its managing director, Lee Watson, said Telecom's refusal to upgrade lines in the area meant fixed wireless and satellite were the only options for getting high-speed internet access into the area.

"The copper was in bad shape. It's in a very rural area and electric fences were a cause of grief."

With a proxy server to cache commonly used web pages, Watson was confident the network could serve 50 people at a reasonable connection speed.

Up to 350 students can be attending the school.

Watson said the school was on a 256kbps plan with a monthly download cap of two gigabytes.

The Iconz pricing schedule says that costs $115 a month, plus excess data downloads charged at 12c a megabyte.

The access charges were reasonable, but Watson said the set-up cost of connecting to Extend - around $1500 - was expensive.

BCL would not say how many customers its broadband network has.

"We've been very encouraged by the early interest shown and the level of subscriber uptake, but we're not disclosing numbers," said BCL spokesman Matt Bostwick.

Industry sources indicate there are around 100 Extend customers in total, split between resellers Xtra, Iconz, ihug and Inspire Net.