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UK bandwidth restrictions to affect Airport Extreme use


Macworld UK reports that UK bandwidth restrictions may negatively impact Airport Extreme use in that country. Airport Extreme uses both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies to communicate. In the UK, Japan, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia and Spain, regulatory restrictions prohibit wide-channel operations, so Airport Extreme users won't be able to use part of the 5GHz frequency. Macworld's article suggests that this puts a limit of a 2.5x speed increase over 802.11g rather than the 5x increase that's achievable by using the entire 5GHz frequency with 802.11n. It's hard to say how noticeable this will be in practice or whether users will be able to "work around" these restrictions. Anyone with better knowledge about how channel operations work and how wide-channel restrictions will affect performance, please jump in in the comments.



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Macworld UK reports that UK bandwidth restrictions may negatively impact Airport Extreme use in that country. Airport Extreme uses both...
 

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james

to writer of comment 12: the U.K is made up of constintuent states. they are not countries in their own right.

March 31 2007 at 4:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

Comment 9 is about the quality of this article, which should have been reviewed by someone with an engineering background before it went out.

You should mention that spectrum allocation (not "bandwidth restriction" varies from territory to territory, and that equipment designers and marketers should bear this in mind if they want to make a universal product. By all means set up your region incorrectly, but don't be surprised if your phone, baby alarm, other kit doesn't then work.

February 22 2007 at 11:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeem

"negatively impact". Ha! Six syllables where one would do: 'hurt'.

And I second #12.

January 30 2007 at 4:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maff

"UK bandwidth restrictions may negatively impact Airport Extreme use in that country"

you mean "those countries" don't you?

the UK is made up of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, all countries in their own right, the UK is not a country

January 30 2007 at 9:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Pixelbender

Well I know I'll be selling mine on eBay and offering shipping to UK, Japan, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia and Spain.

Doh....

January 28 2007 at 5:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sevenupcan

Ok so I re-read the article and it makes a little more sense. However if this is true then how have current 802.11n draft routers like Netgear coped with this?

January 27 2007 at 8:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sevenupcan

I don't understand why bandwidth restrictions would effect what frequencies we are allowed to use? It doesn't make any sense to me.

January 27 2007 at 8:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
eric

Hey, if i buy the unlimited version from Hong Kong and bring it back to UK ebay do you guys think i can make a fortune on it?

January 27 2007 at 1:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Panzarino

But what is the likelihood of the UK authorities finding out that you are using your Airport Extreme Base Station at 5 GHz in your own home?

I don't like in the UK but I'm guessing that it is very low.

January 26 2007 at 8:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jon Moss

Hmmm .. not good at all. Seriously considering cancelling my order.

January 26 2007 at 5:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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