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Australia takes Mesh: only Antarctica left to link!

It's a strange figure on a rooftop. Is it Dunny-Spider-man? no - it's the Man of Steele - Locustworld's new Australian Mesh representative, MakeMeWireless director Simon Steele.

The Locustworld marketing folks are somewhat over-excited about the move onto The Fifth Elephant or The Last Continent: "Only Antarctica to go," said an ebullient Richard Lander, announcing the appointment of his Antipodean distributor.

The Mesh is technology which uses standard WiFi wireless to take broadband into areas where telcos are reluctant to roll cable broadband out. Or, as Simon Steele quips in his marketing www.makemewireless.com brochure and his rolling mesh networking road show and marketing campaign: "A wireless mesh network can be used to create networks where wires can't go."

He appears to be doing OK, because he started by buying ready-made meshboxes, from LocustWorld; but has reached the point where he can justify putting together his own machines. The MeshBox is, very simply, a PC - a very low power and compact PC, usually based on VIA Technology's mini-ITX motherboard, with a Flash memory instead of a disk, running a variant of Linux.

To start with MakeMeWireless focussed on the market for rural broadband in Australia's wide open spaces.

The company now has a wide range of projects, including rural broadband, business parks, campus, corporate and municipal projects.

Simon recently spoke at a rural broadband conference, "and he has been given strong reviews by the local press too," reports Lander at Locustworld.