UPDATE: Following an upgrade of the receiver fixed wireless is now 12Mbps upload and download, or higher, at over 5 miles from the transmitter. If you're in east Essex and stuffed with BT's poor infrastructure as I am (limit to 3.5Mbps download at less than 3 miles from the exchange due to dodgy underground local loop with FTTC, never) then look at the local Fibre WiFi. (QoS can be good too with Pings around 10 compared to the Orage up to 200, and packet delay up to 120ms compared to above 400 on Orange!)
Original post (edit): I have what I suspect is a not unusual experience of Orange LLU (recited elsewhere on the forum) not bad when it's good (4 Meg at 3.7km from exchange/0.6Meg upload), but when it's not so good atrocious: massive speed drops and dodgy exchange DSLAMS, and a load of complete bull when Orange CS deign to talk at you; regular periods of a week with no internet or for hours at a time; and no body really knowing what is going on. Worse, escalations were worse than 1st tier! Heck they can't explain their own monitoring like when "rebuilding" my line for over one week, with the engineers (whoever they are: do they exist, they certainly can't be reached) in a little world of their own hidebound by their inflexible procedures!
Today (16/12/09) I escaped OpenReach, Orange, their dodgy infrastructure, call centres and the wasting asset of the local loop (that being what the customers travel round in, no doubt when they try to find out what's going on) for LOCAL fixed wireless (W20 in Mid-Essex). I even have the bosses mobile number: when they had a little problem with a supplier delay I was made to feel like their highest priority customer: updates every time and they threatened to move their business elsewhere if it wasn't sorted. Connection monitoring 24/7, no download limit, a FUP that only applies if the overall service is actually affected (no chance), 99%+ SLA (as its a business class service), solid backhaul, and on a 4Meg SDSL service the speedchecker is giving me 5.7Meg download and 3.7Meg upload and pings well below the 50 that Orange might manage on a good day (normally 150+). The main point a long standing (5 year) customer tells me is that it's CONSISTENT. Sure I had to pay for the equipment to get service to my premises, but now the internet is free of subscription.
Fixed wireless seems to me to be a system designed from the ground up (as it were) for broadband, and the air doesn't get damaged and has no joints, no DLM as there's no line or noise margin/attenuation, the system is designed with capacity to cope with bad weather conditions (not that they are usually a problem in the east). Compare that to an ancient (in techno terms) phone system designed for data if at all at 28kbps and the complexity of the stuff in the exchange, or adapting a mobile network which predates broadband and for much of the country is probably connected through the same exchanges, and with horrible contention. Is broadband regulated in this country for the benefit of BT and the ISP's who are effectively BT's salesmen? Local is good for shopping and perhaps no different for telcos. These alternatives I think need encouragement, and have to look after their (local) customers rather than waiting like the big boys for another load of suckers they can churn through their marketing gibberish. (By the way ISP Review is the only site that I've found that has up to date details on local wireless: good on 'em)
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