iBurst – Woolloomooloo, New South Wales
Scooped an iBurst usb modem off Gumtree and connected it with Fat Free. Initial testing has been very promising. The capabilities of the service are 1 Megabit down and 384kbps up and I have been able to achieve down/ups near this in the dorm room at the hostel. Additionally, I have tested the service in Kings Cross, Sydney CBD at the library, Woolloomooloo, and on Oxford street near the library. The device has worked in doors and two floors underground at the library.
Gaming:
I have only tested it on Counter-Strike and lag spikes are prevalent even on servers hosted by Australia’s main telco, Telstra. I believe this is most likely due to the infrastructure(backhaul) behind the iBurst towers and not the iBurst technology itself. iBurst is prevalent in South Africa and gamers there have been able to reliably play Counter-Strike.
Streaming
Streaming Shoutcast radio stations is not a problem, but buffering issues have plagued my current webcasting setup from a stationary location. Mobile webcasting remains to be untested.
Competition
With the introduction of iphones and other 3G technologies being able to achieve 2 megabit per second downloads, iBurst may be past its time.
