Radio frequency

shortys94

Hello

I live Between Claremorris and Knock in Mayo and have recently applied for a phone line in a log cabin. The eircom staff were very fast in arriving at the house within a week or so, upon doing so they decided to beam the phone line wirelessly from Knock airport as the house is in the line of site, I have never heard of this before, wireless phoneline.

Anyway why cant eircom just use this technique for broadband, instead of using lines just install wireless systems at the exchanges and this may give a wider field of the service from the exchange.

I know IBB and other companies provide wireless broadband but would it not suit eircom to do this, was just asking as I have tried desperately to find any broadband service in my area but to no avail, instead I am reduced to €100 euro a month broadband satellite, 512 down and 128 up with Digiweb.... The money is beginning to make a big hole in pockets.

bushy...

They use the wireless phone system in a few places, eg. theres a valley in Kerry (can' t think of name of it atm) that needed to remain "unspoilt" by poles etc .. don't think the service was great though. Eircom do/did provide wireless broadband at half a meg but needed plenty of maintenence ( water ingress/damage ).

oscarBravo

They do offer "broadband" from their FWA sites, but the install cost is obscene, the monthly cost is ridiculous and the upload speed is 64k.

shortys94

whats the highest download speed they offer over this? and price

Gone West

shortys94 wrote:

whats the highest download speed they offer over this? and price

its ridiculous.
Akin to having a leased line. Well over what youre paying for your sat

murrayj

If you are already getting the Eircom wireless phone service from, then I would strongly recommend that you opt for the Eircom FWA wireless Broadband service also. It uses the same network as their wireless phone service, so you are almost guaranteed to be able to get coverage if your phone is already working.

If you are in such an isolated area that you are getting wireless phone service, then it is very unlikely you will ever get DSL or cable options. It is also very unlikely that any alternative operator will ever build infrastructure near you, as they tend to cherry-pick the profitable areas. eircom has a Universal Service Obligation to provide the phone service - which is why they have built a wireless network in these places - even though it probably loses money for them.

Contrary to previous poster, the eircom FWA service is way better value than Digiweb satellite. It is only €45 per month compared to €99 per month for entry-level Digiweb (ex VAT). eircom is also a much better service because you don't have the latency problems associated with satellite. The download channel is 512k. The only disadvantage is that the upload channel is only 64k. However, I would bet you would still find this better than 128k on satellite because of the latency improvement. Also less likely to experience contention than on satellite, and eircom don't have any download limits, and unlike other Wireless operators, they are only using wireless in very rural areas where it won't get overloaded.

The only other issue is that you have probably wasted €1,200 or so on your Digiweb install, and the eircom FWA install will now set you back around €700. However, you might be able to shift the satellite kit on e-bay.

A friend of mine is using eircom FWA wireless Broadband in a rural area - very happy with it. You need to root around on their web-site to find details. It is not listed as a residential service - you can find it in the business broadband section on the eircom web-site.

shortys94

Do you have any idea where it is located on their site, sorry im just not familiar with it.

Sponge Bob

Its €700 install and €50 a month for 512/64 .

Its 3.5Ghz wireless They will most likely refuse to install it citing 'difficulties' It is indeed better and cheaper than satellite . Westnet.ie have Charleston covered with some decent wireless gear at a far lower cost (install and monthly) if you are north of Knock.

Is your box in the cabin an Alvarion brand or an Airspan brand by the way ???

Its in the eircom site in alternative BB options mixed in with satellite and you email them for a test.

Sponge Bob

and here is the secret Comreg map of these eircom 3.5Ghz wireless base stations

murrayj

It is quite hard to find on the eircom web-site. They clearly don't encourage this except for people who can't get normal DSL.

www.eircom.ie
Go to the "business site" on the top menu
Select "Product & Service A-Z" from the side menu
Select "Fixed Wireless Access..." under Products starting with "F"

Sponge Bob

murrayj wrote:

They clearly don't encourage this

Full Stop

Its €730 install and €55 a month, sorry about that.

eircom fixed wireless access (FWA) packet broadband

eircom fixed wireless access (FWA) packet delivers broadband Internet speeds to people in areas outside DSL coverage and also to people within DSL enabled areas, using FWA packet technology. 33% of the population can avail of this technology.

Unlike DSL, eircom fixed wireless access does not use the copper lines of your telephone to connect you to the Internet. Instead, your modem connects to an external antenna at your premises. This uses a radio channel to link into a base station, and then to the Internet.

By using a wireless connection, you can access a broadband connection up to 15km from the base station. This is a greater distance than DSL broadband can reach. However, there must be an unobstructed line of sight between the antenna at your premises and the base station.
How much does it cost?

Product Speed Download allowance Support Number Connection Rental
FWA Packet 512k download / 64k upload Unlimited. 1890 457 048.** € 732.05 (inc. VAT) / € 605 (ex. VAT). € 54.45 (inc. VAT) / €45 (ex. VAT).
** Calls charged at local call rate. Minimum charge of 6.35c (inc. VAT) eircom fixed wireless access frequently asked questions.
eircom fixed wireless access frequently asked questions

Q1. How much is the connection fee (once off charge) and what does it cover?

You pay a once-off connection of €732.05 (inc. VAT) / €605 (ex. VAT). This covers the cost of the modem, antenna and full technician installation.

Q2. How much are my monthly costs?

Prices start at €54.45 (inc. VAT) / €45 (ex. VAT).

Q3.What operating system supports fixed wireless access?

We recommend Microsoft Windows 2000 upwards or Macintosh OS X.

Q4. Are there any upload / download limits?

No, there are no upload or download limits as the product is unlimited.

Q5. What speeds will I get?

You get upstream of up to 64k (64 kilobits per second). You get download speeds of 512k (512 kilobits per second).

Q6. What is the maximum distance from the Antenna to the FWA modem?

The maximum distance from antenna to modem is 30 meters. Given this limit, and assuming 10 meters for internal wiring, the max antenna height will be less than 20 meters. 20 meters is rarely used but can be achieved.

Q7. How big is the antenna?

The antenna dimensions are: Length - 22cm, Height - 22cm, Depth 15cm.

Q8. How do I find out if my home is suitable for eircom fixed wireless access?

Contact eircom 1800 503 303 - Your details will be captured and we will perform a desk survey. If your premises is suitable, we will place your order. If your premises is not suitable, we will contact you with the next alternative - eircom broadband satellite.

A site survey is required for any premises requesting eircom fixed wireless access. Our technicians need to assess your premises and check if it is suitable for the modem and the antenna.

Q9. When I order, how soon does this arrive?

When you place your order, the lead-time will be 28 days.

Q10. How long do I have to sign up for?

You need to sign up for a minimum of 12 months.
How do I order?

Call us for FREE on 1800 503 303.

or

1890 457 048.

They claim 63 locations and the map shows about 63 locations . Its not available at all from most of them though. You should ring up for the crack and compare excuses in here

Funny they mention homes in the business section too.

shortys94

Not sure whether Id be near enough to get it, certainly is cheaper, Im paying 120 euro inc vat a month for mine, I dont know what box is in cabin, if you mean for the telephone, it hasnt been installed yet, they are still trying to figure out where to drill a hole in cabin :P

anyway do you need a phone line for this service, thanks for help sponge bob, really appreciate it, if you know of any other services that would be great too, Ill give ericom a call, but they dont seem to be interested in the west, they cant really ever give me any info, they always say they are limited to info and I should ask an engineer.....

Edit,

Well called up and rep sounded optimistic about FWA, I am going to look into it further and ask to carry out a site survey if the engineers installing the wireless phone line cant tell me anything. The rep suprisingly told me normal broadband is available in my area although the lines are not suitable, well not entirely sure yet as I have no phone line activated, but I gave a number to test just down the road from me yet the house is further from exchange than I am, so I may still have a slight chance.

Can I use the FWA with a wireless phoneline?

Sponge Bob

what the feck is costing you €120 ???? I'm lost now. The phone will 'break out' of a box inside the house . Do tell us the manufacturer after its installed The FWA broadband is a crippled wireless DSL equivalent (512k down not 3Mb)

shortys94

Sorry for bad post, the satellite bb is costing me 120 inc vat a month....

Is there any latency issues with FWA?

Sponge Bob

You would replace sat with FWA. while the cost is similar in year one it does fix latency and is usable for gaming and voip .

Your choices out there are Westnet (charlestown side of Knock airport) and eircom FWA

How long into the digiweb contract are you , that vsat stuff is usually a one year contract .

You may also be on the fringes of Irishwan who are active south of you but not if you basically live in a hole between 2 drumlins, you will need line of siight for all those options.

Lastmile are to the SE of you towards the east of Ballyhaunis inside roscommon.

shortys94

Ive been using the satellite for a few years, I think west net ar eplanning to set up a station in Knock, I am between Claremorris and Knock

I am pretty high up, as I overlook a valley and can see knock airport over it.

Sponge Bob

If you can 'see' Knock Airport what else can you see (don't say Kilkelly ) and how far away can you see a town and which one ?

shortys94

I can see Kiltimagh, Knock Airport And Knock.

I am going to wait until Eircom guys install Wireless phone service, hopefully they will, as I was just onto ericom rep and he stated that the FWA station was in Knock airport, so hopefully all goes well.

Will get a survey of site once phone is installed.

Sponge Bob

and the masts west of Kiltimagh as indicated here would be roughly how far ?????

shortys94

Hmm, id have to ask somebody in the family, Id say roughly a good few miles.....

Sponge Bob

any more than 8 miles and you are in trouble I'll wager

shortys94

ah nuts, yea but theres a station/mast in Knock, and eircom rep again stated that if wireless phoneline goes smoothly then I most likely will be able to avail of FWA, as wireless phone line mast is in Knock

I just went outside to take a pic of valley but camera needs to be charged, anyway I think i have just saw the kiltimagh masts, there are two or three on an elevated site, but i would say the knock mast is alot nearer..... hopefully things go well with wireless phone line

murrayj

Latency on 2-way satellite is worse than on 1-way satellite because the both up-link and downlink signals have to make the 80,000km round trip to the satellite. 1-way satellite uses dial-up for the up-link to the Internet - which is much lower latency. Of course, the bandwidth on the up-link can be higher with 2-way satellite - this is why you are paying double - but most users don't need much bandwidth on the up-link. You can also use ISDN on the up-link - clean 128k upstream channel with low latency. Of course, with 1-way satellite, you will still have some dial-up charges.

FWA Broadband is much lower latency because it doesn't have to go by satellite - all links are terrestrial.

shortys94

Yea, if you are in the line of sight, whats the maximum distance you can be from station, does this distance apply to all stations/masts, would the signal be similar to the phone signal

murrayj

The 3.5GHz Wireless technology that eircom use can go up to around 15km, in theory, if there are no obstructions. They use the same network for both phones and Broadband, so if you get your wireless phone service, then you should be able to get Broadband also.

The big problem most operators have with Wireless is that they cram too many customers on to it. However, since eircom are only using the technology in very rural areas where they havent rolled out DSL, they are probably being careful to avoid overloading it.

shortys94

ok, could you answer me this, could i use the wireless bb on the wireless phone line?

Sponge Bob

Oh God ! What a question .:(

Have you not clarified this with Eircom ???

murrayj

shortys94 wrote:

ok, could you answer me this, could i use the wireless bb on the wireless phone line?

Yes - you can use the wireless bb on the wireless phone "line". (I wouldn't quite call it a "line".) However, the eircom wireless Broadband uses exactly the same wireless spectrum as their phone system, and it shares the same antenna. The only difference is the "modem/router" device that they provide to connect to your computer.

shortys94

got wireless phone installed fine,

wanted to as a few questions, is the 512kbps on the FWA constant, and does it vary with usage around area? also would the 64kbps upload be as fast as my 128kbps upload on satellite....

what would my ping be on counter strike say for FWA

murrayj

shortys94 wrote:

got wireless phone installed fine,

wanted to as a few questions, is the 512kbps on the FWA constant, and does it vary with usage around area? also would the 64kbps upload be as fast as my 128kbps upload on satellite....

what would my ping be on counter strike say for FWA

You never get totally "constant" speeds on any sort of Broadband. Even if your access pipe is uncontended, you are sharing the route to the server with other Internet users somewhere. Depending on traffic levels, it is always possible that your download speed gets throttled somewhere.

I don't know what the contention rates are on the satellite service you are using, but since the satellite footprint probably covers most of Europe, the host satellite company(Digiweb are just a reseller) can probably cram quite a few users into their bandwidth, before they need to add more capacity. By comparison eircom are only using FWA in rural areas to deal with the tiny proportion of customers they can't get to with cable. They have FWA base stations dotted all over the country, so chances are that you will be sharing your Broadband with very few other users.

eircom also has the best backbone fibre-optic network, so once you get into your exchange you will have access to the fat pipes that are used for their ordinary DSL broadband. I use eircom DSL and I never have problems with contention and get download speeds close to spec. if I download directly from the eircom.net site.

Are you actually getting a consistent 512k download/128k upload at the moment on satellite? If so, then of course you will experience a slower rate for uploads with FWA (64k). However, my guess is that the contention on satellite is probably worse than on FWA and that you may not get close to 128k at busy times? However, for most people, uploading speeds are not that critical, and latency is a much more painful issue. Personally, I would trade a nominal 128k upload speed for 64k in order to get an order-of-magnitude reduction in latency.

Regarding pings - I average about 16ms(to eircom.net) on eircom DSL in Dublin. I would guess that this is at least an order of magnitude better than what you are getting on Satellite. FWA will probably be a bit higher but nothing like satellite. I have a friend using eircom FWA but he his on hols at the moment so I cant check what ping times he is getting. I know one of his kids uses gaming a lot and finds the ping rates very good.

shortys94

Is it possible to ask eircom to do a site survey to tell whether or not I can get the FWA, without going ahead with an order if they say I can get the service?

I can rephrase