AirPort Extreme and the british law

[kwfl]

it seems that the british law does not allow the use of wide channels at 5GHz which the airport extreme operates at (as well as the 2.4GHz mode)

so, what is gonna happen in the UK?
is apple shipping airports not capable of 5GHz mode?
or it is just, dont use the 5GHz mode?

and about the law, if i operate in the 5GHz mode, will the authorities have some magic means of detecting it?

thanks

 

[kolax]

It is illegal to operate on the 40MHz bandwidth when using the 5GHz frequency - but legal to operate on the 20MHz bandwidth when using the 5GHz frequency in the UK.

The UK version (aswell as several other countries) use the 20MHz instead of 40MHz bandwidth when using the 5GHz frequency. This means that the US version is 5x faster than the original Airport Extreme, where as the UK version is just 2.5x faster.

So you can use the 5GHz option, it just won't be as fast as the US Airport Extreme on 5GHz.

Linky.

 

[weckart]

It still leaves the question open, are UK AEs firmware locked to prevent operation on 40MHz on the 5GHz frequency or if not, would you be easily detected if you were, for example, to use an Irish bought AE in the UK?

 

[kolax]

It still leaves the question open, are UK AEs firmware locked to prevent operation on 40MHz on the 5GHz frequency or if not, would you be easily detected if you were, for example, to use an Irish bought AE in the UK?

The transmition range isn't huge - does your house and maybe your neighbours if you are very lucky, and that's it. It isn't a case of "getting caught" - because they can't really catch you.

The FM transmitters were originally illegal in the UK because you had to have a license to broadcast on the range of frequencies involved. That has since been updated and are now fully legal, but you couldn't get caught using one because the transmision range was literally 5 feet.

I'm not sure the full reason why it is illegal - that frequency is reserved for something but not sure what.

The UK laws are really really crap to be honest - it is the same reason as to why we can't broadcast terrestrial HDTV.

We are really behind, and something really should be done about these laws.

 

[macleod199]

It still leaves the question open, are UK AEs firmware locked to prevent operation on 40MHz on the 5GHz frequency or if not, would you be easily detected if you were, for example, to use an Irish bought AE in the UK?

I'm pretty sure it only locks you based on what country you select in the setup, or at least that's what people were reporting when it first came out. I haven't seen anyone mention it recently, though... I think very few people are using 5 GHz overall. I was going to, but I could only find Draft-N PCI cards for my desktop that did 2.4 GHz.

 

[kwfl]

I'm pretty sure it only locks you based on what country you select in the setup, or at least that's what people were reporting when it first came out. I haven't seen anyone mention it recently, though... I think very few people are using 5 GHz overall. I was going to, but I could only find Draft-N PCI cards for my desktop that did 2.4 GHz.

so, i dont have to buy an AEBS from the US to get it work in the UK illegally?
that seems good to me as i dont believe in these crap rules and i have no neighbours to spy on me.