PCCW, owner of Hong Kong Telecommunications, is giving...
PCCW, owner of Hong Kong Telecommunications, is giving Londoners its first taste of what it calls “fiber-fast broadband without the wires.” This week, PCCW subsidiary UK Broadband launches the “Relish” plug-and-play service, which uses 4G mobile broadband to give homes…
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and offices in the city’s central zone up to 65 Mbps and on average 30 Mbps of broadband with no landline needed. A home Ethernet/Wi-Fi router costs 50 pounds (about $84 at 1 pound = $1.67) to buy and 20 pounds ($33) a month for service with unlimited data. A pocket hub costs 35 pounds ($59) to buy and serves up to 10 devices for 10 pounds ($17) a month. Users who sign up for a year for both services get free hardware and reduced prices. The home router works only in London (with other urban areas promised), but the pocket hub roams for free on the “Three” 3G network outside London. Customers order from Relish by phone or online and get a ready-to-use device delivered, in a pizza-style box, the next day. A postcode database advises where in London the devices should and should not work. If reception is impossible, such as in a basement, there is a money-back guarantee. PCCW Group and UK Broadband are licensed to use six 20 MHz channels in 4G LTE Bands 42/43 (at 3.5 GHz). Relish is only using one channel for the London service. The cost of the hardware, made by Huawei, is kept down by dedication to a limited range of channels. Relish cites data by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, showing London homes and small businesses are paying 193 million pounds a year on landlines they neither want nor use, just to get broadband, and that 47 percent of Londoners would prefer broadband without a landline.