Castlefin Businessman Lashes Broadband Service

DonegalMan

Article Text:

Castlefinn Businessman Lashes Broadband Service
By Pat Holland

Castlefinn business consultant Martin Harran is angry that he has been forced to turn to Northern Ireland for Broadband service

Mr Harran, who was first of Chairman IrelandOffline, a national campaign group set up 3 years ago by Internet users throughout the country to lobby for improved Internet access, says that the Eircom attitude to Broadband seems to be "don't call us, we'll call you."

He also says that as a major resource for small businesses, full Broadband access is vital to towns like Castlefinn.

"Some time ago, Eircom set trigger levels for various towns and villages throughout the country," Mr Harron told the Finn Valley Voice. "The trigger level for Castlefinn was set at 245, that means that 245 households would have to register a willingness to subscribe. The population of Castlefinn in the last census was 783 which probably equates to only about 200 households so I regarded the Eircom trigger level as something of a 'Don't call us, we'll call you' message.

"Then I discovered that StrabaneBroadband.com, in partnership with NTRBroadband were offering a new wireless broadband service from the TV mast outside Strabane, just across the border in County Tyrone. I could see the mast from my front door but thought that, as I was about 7 miles from the mast, the chances of getting the service were slim.

"In a spirit of nothing ventured, nothing gained, however, I contacted StrabaneBroadband. They agreed with my assessment that distance would probably rule it out but offered to come out and do a trial anyway.

"Two hours later, they had Broadband up and running. Whilst this solution is terrific for me on a personal basis, it highlights how bad our service is in national terms. Here am I in Donegal, getting a service from a company seven miles away, across the border. It shows that these issues can be solved if people are willing to make the effort."

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My Andy Worhol 15 minutes ....:)

Mr_Man

Martin,

just to let you know, you can also get this service in Raphoe, which according to the folks at StrabaneBroadband is 17km from the mast.

M.

damien

The power of the media.

Local media I think is definitely something that needs to be used as a key resource. It educates those around you and it being a smaller market means more people will know you personally and so the story will carry more weight and stick in the minds of the people more.

There's a lesson there. Use the local paper, the local radio, anyone that can get the message out.

DonegalMan

Mr_Man wrote:

Martin,

just to let you know, you can also get this service in Raphoe, which according to the folks at StrabaneBroadband is 17km from the mast.

M.

That doesn't surprise me in a way because Raphoe is quite high up and you can see the Strabane mast clearly from it.

These guys seem to be playing down the distance thing for some reason, I've heard a whisper that the service from the Strabane mast can (potentially?) cover up to a 30 mile/50km radius ... I've also heard a rumour that they could be transmitting from Letterkenny soon

I'm now totally convinced that Wireless is a major part of the answer for the country - rural areas at least - just imagine the coverage if every TV mast had this service.

I really hope that IrishBroadband/NTRBroadband get their act together and quickly get this rolled out nationwide to really screw Eircom for once and for all.

Ronan|Raven

DonegalMan wrote:

I'm now totally convinced that Wireless is a major part of the answer for the country - rural areas at least - just imagine the coverage if every TV mast had this service.

It would be great alright but with the prices most mast owners want to get access to them it will never happen. Would be an ideal solution though.

De Rebel

DonegalMan wrote:

.......says that the Eircom attitude to Broadband seems to be "don't call us, we'll call you."

Martin, I suggest you copyright the above before ComWreck gets hold of it and makes a full page of it!!! Good one, it really does sum up eircom's attitude.

Congrats on the headlines. All good.

Paddy20

Goody goody . Now let's just hope the rest of the local Press/Radio etc, pick up on this. It's still early in the week which leave's plenty of time for the Thurs/Friday weekly edition's ?...

DonegalMan

Ronan|Raven wrote:

It would be great alright but with the prices most mast owners want to get access to them it will never happen. Would be an ideal solution though.

Don't know what they're up to in the South (apart from the rumour I picked up about Letterkenny) but they seem to be making it happen in the North. From www.irishbroadband.ie website:

NTR Broadband currently operates a live site in Derry with several sites awaiting planning permission, including Belfast, Strabane, Lisburn, Omagh, Carrickfergus, Craigavon, Antrim, Armagh, Newry. The objective of NTR Broadband is to have coverage all over Northern Ireland connecting homes and businesses to our network. *

I know Strabane and Derry are off TV masts, not sure about the rest but I'd assume at least some of them are.

As a sidenote in this, remember NWE Wireless posted here over a year ago talking about expanding into Donegal? I talked to them at the time and they sounded very enthusiastic. Their core business was fitting out mobile phone masts so they had country wide access to masts. Their wireless broadband service evolved out of their initial need for a service themselves. Dunno what happened with them, they never seemed to get outside the immediate Derry area.

Coming off existing masts just seems so ... simple


Martin

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*Footnote: this is obviously out of date - the website is really poor and the one at www.ntrbroadband.com is even worse - not accessible most of the time. There are issues with IrishBroadband and NTRBroadband about customer support, it's only available 9-5 Monday to Friday at present which is total crap for a service provider; I know they are working on this sort of stuff but they really need to get it sorted quickly or they run the risk of ruining what appears to me to be a wonderful business opportunity they have grabbed.

DonegalMan

De Rebel wrote:

DonegalMan wrote:

.......says that the Eircom attitude to Broadband seems to be "don't call us, we'll call you."

Martin, I suggest you copyright the above before ComWreck gets hold of it and makes a full page of it!!! Good one, it really does sum up eircom's attitude.

Congrats on the headlines. All good.

I hereby give Comwreck full permission to use it as they wish

Martin

Eurorunner

Nice one Martin. This is the first time i'm aware of good press at a local level. Hopefully, this can be mirrored by the regional press around the country,

Blaster99

Maybe they're playing it down because they probably exceed the transmission power restrictions on longer distances...

DonegalMan

Eurorunner wrote:

Nice one Martin. This is the first time i'm aware of good press at a local level. Hopefully, this can be mirrored by the regional press around the country,

Well that's down to our members. Local press and radio* are always looking for local stories that are a bit different from the run of the mill; stories like this appeal to them because it allows them to dip into technological issues without having 'techie' staff.

We've had loads of Broadband horror stories submitted here, I think local media around the country would really jump at some of these stories, so get writing guys'n gals!

Don't underestimate the power of the local media, the local politicians read them avidly and you can be sure that they feed the issues back up to their national executives.

Also, national press will sometimes pick up on a story from the local press.

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*Local radio are constantly on the hunt for stories about wider issues involving local people. Highland Radio in Letterkenny decided not to cover this story (dunno why) but I've done two stints with them, one as Chairman after the formation of IOFFL and they later called me back as the local "computer expert" (God luck to their wits ) the time of the Sasser virus outbreak to give some general advice to listeners.

MDR

dunno, they seem to be picking up in Dublin again, my area is now ripwave enabled, and they have put up a mast ontop of the omada building not far from me (on the opposite side from the mast thats providing the ripwave service), but aren't doing anything with it yet.

I am very much enclined to believe again, that they aren't just talking things up ...