Fixed Wireless Internet?

[mjr]

I'm not talking about any specific company here, more so than I am the technology.

Are any of you familiar with it? Do any of you have it?

I'm thinking of switching my Internet service to Fixed Wireless. My current provider offers it, but they also have it "data capped" and it's slower than another company I found in my area.

I get the basic concept, and I would be OK with the speed they offer (50 Mbps is the max speed right now that this one company I am considering offers).

However, what I'm really concerned with is how it performs in different types of weather. It's not satellite, and it uses radio waves.

I'm trying to convince my wife, because our current Internet is painfully slow (less than 1Mbps download), and I have tried asking my current company about an "upgrade" in speed (the max they offer in my neighborhood is 6Mbps, I think), and they have told me that I can't be upgraded because of some kind of device in our neighborhood called a "matrix box".

Anyway, I'm trying to convince the Mrs. that this will be fine, but she wants something stable, since we use the Internet a lot. And I'm a software developer, and I have a lot of large programs that I need to download/upgrade from time to time. I think Fixed Wireless it stable. And she's said she also doesn't really "want another dish on the roof". And since fixed wireless is (to my knowledge) a transceiver system, there would be a dish on the roof.

Anyway, do any of you have experience with Fixed Wireless? What did you think of it?

[AdamAnt316]

I've never heard of fixed wireless internet before now. However, if it purely uses radio waves, a bit of weather shouldn't affect it too much. Radio waves are more likely to be affected by obstacles in their path, or (depending on the frequency) atmospheric conditions. If the frequency is in the GHz range, it's most likely line-of-sight, so as long as the antenna has a reasonably clear path to base, it should work fine rain-or-shine (well, this page does suggest there might be some weather-related issues, though it doesn't go into detail except to say that fixed wireless is affected less by weather than satellite internet is).
-Adam

[TheSHAD0W]

It'll work except in the worst of downpours. If your net is out for more than a few minutes, look out the window; you might see an ark full of animals go by...

Seriously, should be plenty stable, assuming no one in the neighborhood starts violating FCC guidelines and broadcasting at jamming levels. (If that does happen, that company had better be able to track down that sort of interference and file a complaint.)

[mjr]

I'm trying to convince my wife that we should upgrade. She's concerned about speeds and outages, but our internet is already slow enough, and we have an "outage" for a few seconds to a few minutes about once every few days/once a week or so anyway.

I'm willing to pay for the faster Internet. It's just convincing the Mrs...

[Zeddi]

Depending on the rates and cancelation times you could try both for a time and cancel the worse one.

Did this when my girlfriend really needed the internet for work. We got the option to get switched from DSL 6Mbit to 100Mbit, from another company, but here in Germany that often means a lot of outtime during the switch - sometimes weeks. So i paid the additional 35 EUR for a few month. It was well invested money as the "new" line needed weeks to get installed.

[Bandit]

If I could get away with it, I'd take the chainsaw to every tall tree between me and the closest tower to get fixed wireless internet. It would cut the bill by 2/3rd over the satellite service I have now, but the neightbours might not like it too much.

Nor, I suppose, would they like the 100' tower I'd have to put up...

B