iBurst'n my way to the internet

Among the many ancient and mysterious brotherhoods of which I am a member, AUUG is one that is generally pretty good value. This week, as one of the perks of being Grand High Vizier (or something like that), I've got access to the iBurst that one of our sponsors has donated for a stint. And it's pretty damn good.

Of course, it's made even better because for me, it's free as in beer. But I'm now weighing up my options in my new abode ... where I can get ADSL2+ at 24Mbps (yes, that's not a typo, I've checked the DSLAMs in the local exchange, and I'm within the critical radius of a few hundred metres for peak transfer rate), at under $100 a month. A damn site better than the 2400 baud modem I first used to connect to a BBS twenty years ago.

I was tempted to wait for the WiMAX hardware that iBurst will be rolling out (thanks to $37m from Intel), but the recent field trials reported in New Scientist, /., etc show that far from getting the promised 70Mbps claimed, the real bandwidth will be typically 1.5Mbps ... yep, about as good as a 3G mobile.

Now if only I could get a "feed", as in Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age. My first selection? Beer!