Big Air - Wireless to apartment blocks

BigAir, offers what it calls a fixed wireless service. It is targeting business customers and consumers living in apartment blocks who often have trouble getting traditional broadband services.

The technology used by BigAir is a variant of the 802.11 (WiFi) technology used in hotspots and home wireless networks. It requires line-of-sight between an antenna on the customer's roof and one of the company's 10 base stations. Currently the service is only available in Sydney.

BigAir has a range of plans to suit corporate and residential customers. Prices start at $29.95 monthly for users with modest speed and download requirements, increasing to a whopping $499.95 monthly for speeds of 10Mbps and a data limit of 100GB.

BigAir co-founder Jason Ashton says the company will install a service in an apartment building with as few as five expressions of interest from residents.

"Our technology makes it very cost-effective to offer a service," he says. "We put an antenna on the roof and use the building's existing copper wiring to deliver broadband signals to individual apartments."

Ashton says the low latency (the delay between sending and receiving a signal) of the network makes it very suitable for voice over internet protocol services, which are becoming increasingly popular with consumers.

VoIP services allow telephone calls over a broadband internet connection, greatly reducing the cost of national and international calls.