Meteor may launch broadband product

dahamsta

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9370717.html

Ireland's third mobile operator, Meteor, is planning to use its network to introduce a broadband offering for customers, according to a report in the Sunday Times. The plan would involve giving customers access to the Internet via "hotspots" in their homes. It is understood that Meteor is considering offering the product in partnership with US firm Qualcomm. Such a development would allow Meteor to use spare capacity on its network, said the paper. However, Meteor cannot consider any plans until telecoms regulator ComReg decides if Ireland's three mobile networks can be used for purposes other than voice, text and WAP Internet access.

Grow up, kids

Not gonna happen.

The posibility was explored extensively, but fell apart a couple of weeks ago when Comreg refused to allow the bandwith be used for anything but mobile traffic. Pity, it looked really good too.

Urban Weigl

There was an article about Meteor's plans in last Sunday's Sunday Times, so perhaps this is still a possibility. I sort of doubt it though, drawing from past experience. After all, it seems to be ComReg's position to do everything they can do prevent broadband from becoming widely available in Ireland.

milltown

Had a good roffle @ "spare capacity" , they should have that in spades!

spongebob

Originally posted by Grow up, kids
Not gonna happen.

The posibility was explored extensively, but fell apart a couple of weeks ago when Comreg refused to allow the bandwith be used for anything but mobile traffic. Pity, it looked really good too.

WRONG. Comreg has earmarked a chunk of bandwidth around 1800Mhz for Nomadic Broadband . It tried to get Vodafone/O2 to show an interest in it. They refused. Comreg essentially proposed a rural/urban bandwidth split for the frequency. 2G in the cities and BB in Rural areas using the same bands.

Meteor is a less desirable proposition given its more limited Geographic coverage but if the duopoly wont do it then Meteor should be given a chance. As it happens, the final consultation on the disposition of the frequencies finished 2 weeks ago . Now lets see what Comreg does .

M

Da Man

There was a reasonably good article on www.sbpost.ie about this, might still be there. From memory there was talk of using a CDMA related technology.

spongebob

Yes. A subset of the 3G standard in the US (aka CDMA) deals with data. It is known as 1EV-DO (or 1xEV ) . By subset I mean that an mp3 is the audio subset of the Mpeg standard. Comreg did lead them on earlier this year by cooing and purring over 1EV-Do in this doc Here

Qualcomm are big in 1EV-DO . The problem is that it runs around 900Mhz ISTR. Therefore Meteor would have to take the 1800 band, use it for 2G (not quite what Comreg offered) and not use a few channels around 900Mhz for 1EV-DO instead. They are shifting the Rural/Urban split in effect.

They would not get any new bandwidth around 900Mhz and have about 20Mhz or so there already as I remember it. On the other hand, 1EV-DO may run at 1800Mhz by now so I could be wrong.

Fair play, Meteors customer service are the nicest bunch in Ireland in my experience, gwan lads.

M

Tazz T

This would be brilliant - if Comreg lets em do it. Assuming the product is less than my monthly eircom bill (perhaps with mobile minutes thrown in) I could get rid of my landline - no more eircom.

C'mon Comreg - this is a chance to boost competition - that's your job - isn't it?

jesus_thats_gre

Are they going to use the basic CDMA standard that has been in operation in the states for a few years now? Its a step up from GSM but not enough of a one to offer BB speeds. I am guessing they are considering the likes of CDMA2000, W-CDMA or TD-CDMA or some other variation of the standard.

NeoSlicerZ

I hope Meteor manages to produce a reasonable product with this

spongebob

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Are they going to use the basic CDMA standard

Precisely what bit of "Subset" do you not understand then?

thegills

Its all down to backhaul lads. Meteor may have loads of spare 900 & 1800MHz spectrum but their national backbone is predominantly radio (@ 2 x STM-1 I think). That means that they have about 2 x 155MB/s capacity on their national backbone. If 50% is used by their 2G n/w then there is only 155Mb/s left for broadband. Doing the maths that doesn't equate to a whole lot of broadband customers each looking for 512k. They could of course link into the 19 fibre MAN's but that would mean spending cash of which they don't have much!

thegills

Urban Weigl

Doing the maths that doesn't equate to a whole lot of broadband customers each looking for 512k.[/B]

15500 at 1:50 contention.

It's a start.

spongebob

or 1EV-DO , the names are used interchangeably. Article about it on Ars Technica .

Speeds can top out at 2.4Mbit Down and 153.6 up . Meteor will more than likely give us a contended 512/128 or even as little as 256/128 if their backhaul is really bad. They will not be allowed to run this technology in the 5 large towns but will have the same spectrum with which to run 2G instead should they choose.

On the plus side it will be as portable as the IBB Ripwave kit and can be rolled out fairly nationwide very quickly. There will be a choice of Modems, from PCMCIA to brick size, and it will be usable anywhere outside the big towns with Meteor coverage.

Other than the modem costs it will be competitive with RADSL .

The service will likely not be available NEAR the big towns either, creating a sanitised zone around them to keep the 2G and the 1xEV services apart because they are on the same frequency.
Subtract the 5 big towns and a 5-10km zone around them from this Network Map . That is where the coverage will be .

The 5 big towns and the 5-10km of country past them will be well sorted with 3.5Ghz services instead.

M

Tazz T

Have you ever tried getting a signal outside the Big Five with Meteor? That map is the coverage they reckon they have - my map is somewhat different.