Square aerials (OT)

Photos??

The latter sounds like line-of-sight lasers. We used them in central London as backup for the main fibre links between buildings.

In article , DerbyBorn scribeth thus

Most likely a 5.8 GHz radio link for well, CCTV use. There're getting quite poplar with councils as they are very cheap to run but can like

Here's one her in Cambridge you can see the rather temporary rigged aerial pointing back to the base station from the camera..

tony sayer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bancom.co.uk:

Yes - here is one I see often.

The larger ones that looked like (old large) CCTV cameras used to be on some multi storey car parks - but seem to have gone now.

there is one of the large ones on the side of this building. I don't believe it to be a camera as it is pointing wrongly.

DerbyBorn wrote in news:XnsA2628A177465Djohnplant90ntlworldc@81.171.92.236:

Is this better:

In article , DerbyBorn scribeth thus

Yep thats one, looks possibly like a Ligowave make...

Tho these are every bit as good...

Prolly gone from the 1.394 Ghz slot to 2.4 G thence to 5.8 ...

In article , DerbyBorn scribeth thus

Thats either a Laser or Infra red one they can and do have thruput's in the Gigabit region but are affected by optical disturbances and the range is strictly line of sight and not that much either..

bit like these. Note the price isn't given, can't think why;!....

tony sayer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bancom.co.uk:

Many thanks - mystery solved. A number of the civic buildings had these - so would it be internal telephone system / Intranet type applications.

These will be line of site laser links with a RF backup, for when the Laser links fails.

In message , tony sayer writes

Strangely enough Tony I will be on the roof on the other side of the road to that one tomorrow morning!

In article , Bill scribeth thus

U have mail...

This made me think of the failed telecomms supplier sometime in the '90s who rolled out a system with a base station and mini aerials on the houses

- these were either hexagonal or octagonal and (I think) called squarials at the time.

This was an attempt to get phone services to houses without having to lay any kind of cable.

Supplier had (IIRC) based the business case on third world rollouts where there were no land lines and this was the cheapest way to deploy.

However this business case didn't work against an incumbent with an existing wired network. IIRC BT took over the subscribers when the company failed, and ran the system, for a short while as they migrated the customers to land lines.

Google is not being my friend - 'squarial' gets me to BSkyB and 'failed telecomms' gets me all sorts of road kill but not the one I am looking for.

Does anyone remember the name of the supplier?

There are loads of houses round here with the aerials still up - no point in taking them down, I suppose.

Cheers

Dave R

"David.WE.Roberts" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Dolphin?

Sounds like Tele2, who trialled wireless broadband in a few areas in the UK. I had it around 1999 or 2000 in Reading. It was good of its time - faster than typical BT DSL, assuming you could even get BT DSL in your area - but was rapidly overtaken by fixed-line ADSL improvements, and in my experience suffered from line of sight issues involving trees etc. When I looked on Google Streetview recently the squariel was still there above what had been my front door until 12 years ago ...

Nick

Ionica..

Failed miserably as it was grossly mismanaged and too late into the marketplace.

Well it did then .. but seems there still around!...

If it had been around a few years earlier before the cable TV and phone boom it might just have stood a chance but it also had serious capacity limitations in that the most they could supply off the one aerial was Two 64 K/bit channels which was sufficient for Two phone lines and nothing else, no broadband or anything like that ..

You can still see the odd aerial around in Cambridge.

They were based here in the science park area in fact their old office still has some of their kit up there on the mast in front!...

And one of their bast station sites with the base aerials still up there. Rumour was that the site owners were being paid long after the company went t*ts up from some investors fund!...

Well they certainly got the customer base from hell, the ones that BT and the Cable co's had disconnected for unpaid bills!...

Yes thats what the squarial came from that lot. Off the Marco polo satellite with D2 MAC vision...

Well some Aerial rigging firms did a service where they would remove them!.

Hi Dave. Are you thinking of Ionica?

Regards, Ian.

No that was a two way radio supplier which offered national coverage using a TETRA system in the UHF bands.

System wasn't that good or competitive and it failed after a few years in existence...

In message , Nick Leverton writes

Any votes for Ionica?