Swindon Borough Council recently commissioned Signal – a Digital City (UK) company, to roll out wireless connectivity across Swindon, starting with a pilot in Highworth.
Signal position themselves as a next generation wireless network provider with a difference – not just selling connectivity but many useful applications that will benefit whole communities. As part of our service they are offering limited free access (2 hours per day) into their networks.
A great consumer product and it sounds very promising – but as an IT professional I worry about mixing business and consumer users on the same network – it’s got security, support and reliability risks written all over it!
Being a wireless (shared) network, I must admit would be reserved in joining my own home network to it, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t even contemplate joining any business-related infrastructure into such a network due to the following unanswered questions and risks:
1. Wireless security – what level of encryption security is being used – there is no mention on their website.
2. Network segmentation – are business and domestic traffic networks kept separate for security – if not, they should be!
3. Reliability – What are the stats here, I appreciate that ADSL doesn’t truly have an SLA, but most businesses ISP’s will give 99.5% uptime dependant on the access solution and provide failover solutions.
4. Throughput – wireless is a shared medium which is very susceptible to interference – it’s never as good as a piece of wire – but some live ‘real-life’ statistics wouldn’t go a miss.
5. IP & DNS restrictions – businesses like fixed IP addresses and DNS they can change – so they can communicate with the outside world (Mail, VPN, FTP, etc).
6. Support – Connectivity providers will need to provide reliably 24/7/365 service for business customers – the internet is now mission critical and businesses can’t afford to be without it.
Maybe Signal wish to think a little more on their “Office User Package” which is targeted at small or medium sized companies (most people define SME as 1-250 employees) – or drop it completely, concentrate on the domestic market where they are positioned quite well and let dedicated business ISP’s service corporate networks.
