ARE we ever going to have Full Broaddband in the North - West ?..

Paddy20

I am fed up to my back teeth, with friends who live very close to me in the Twin-Towns of Ballybofey & Stranorlar not being able to receive broadband.

I do not understand this, from any perspective ?..

Has anyone got a logical explanation, or is this another crazy Political underhand scheme ?..:(

I was the first person to have broadband in the Twin-Towns, thanks to UTV, but that was years ago.

Since then something sinister , appears to be in control, and I am damned if I know who or what is behind the hold up ?..

Has anyone got any idea's on how we can get all of the North-West Broadband enabled, with a choice of providers.

P.:cool:

N.B. I have all the advantages of Internet Broadband, yet my friends 'DO NOT' WHY??..

muffler

It all depends on how far your friends live from the local telephone exchange

Paddy20

muffler wrote:

It all depends on how far your friends live from the local telephone exchange

muffler,

I am aware of the 'distance from the exchange' factor, but I do not accept it.
I honestly believe that if you have a landline telephone then 'Broadband' should be available to you.

It is now 2007 and I am foaming at the mouth on this issue. I wonder how many politicians who are distant from the exchange do not have broadband?..

Now, I must take a valium and have a lie down in a darkened room!.

P.:cool:

byte

Well, accept it or not, distance is a major factor for DSL services.

Of course, some can be unlucky and just have crap copper coming into the home, or worse still have a pairgain (DACS) box on their line, which ruins any chance of having DSL.

The only other options would be Wireless, but I know of no FWA operator serving the twin towns unfortunately.

We could mention satellite too, but I don't class that as broadband by any stretch of the imaginination.

b0bsquish

the major factor (imo of course, dont mean to offend any eircom employee's) but I believe its the lack of education/knowledge that our "techies" have, they neither know/ or want to know anything about broadband. Not to mention the fact that they serve who they want to serve and in the end of the day they all cover each others backs.
Of courseeeee it could just be the lack of overall infrastructure (ie copper wire) that we dont have that's holding us back.

jimmycrackcorm

b0bsquish wrote:

the major factor (imo of course, dont mean to offend any eircom employee's) but I believe its the lack of education/knowledge that our "techies" have, they neither know/ or want to know anything about broadband. Not to mention the fact that they serve who they want to serve and in the end of the day they all cover each others backs.
Of courseeeee it could just be the lack of overall infrastructure (ie copper wire) that we dont have that's holding us back.

I wouldn't agree. Basically BB equipment is standards based so any such knowledge issues really only come into play in post-installation problems. Installation problems are pretty typical as muffler mentioned re pair gains and copper quality etc. I do think that Eircom are hugely to blame though as it is possible to do better. For example they have loads of FWA licenses but have you seen the price of installation for example? It reminds me of how expensive Eircell was before Esat got their licence. Also Why do eircom not simply start installing ADSL2+ into their exchanges like other operators?

Eircom are the only company in a position to make a difference but will not make the necessary investment.

Still I'd keep the faith on future developments. Despite working for many years in IT one thing that I'm impressed with is how I can sit in a house in donegal and on my wireless laptop connected to a tv, flawlessly watch my pre-recorded tv shows via a wireless media center PC in my house living room in Dublin. Only a couple of years ago, that wouldn't have been possible on Broadband.

elshambo

EVERY , well about 95% of houses in Ireland have a full Broadband connection that works way faster than anything else on the market, Unfortunatly its the ESB and when asked why they dont provide broadband like other electrictricity providers in Europe their answer was,
"Thats not our business"
Everything that is wrong with this country summed up in one sentence!
Ask your local politician or the ESB themselves why they dont, esp the politicans when they are banging on about tech improvments in the area;)

Civilian_Target

Yeah, it's a real shame ESB connections start at the business-end of the scale

Eircom's network is shocking, which is the reason most people can't get broadband. Many of the country exchanges are connected back to the mainlines by microwave link which means that modems are slow and broadband is unachievable. Lack of cabling and residential expansion at the edges of towns have led to digital splitter boxes being installed, which means that no-one on these boxes can get broadband, even if they think they have a "new" phoneline!

Finally, there's the cost factor. It costs eircom money to roll out broadband on an exchange, and if there's no competition, they just won't bother. Since they're a private company, they haven't got an obligation to do it. Welcome to the stoneage.

magnumlady

I think everyone should be able to get broadband too and at a reasonable price.
The only way we could get it was wireless and it costs 39.99 a month. Plus 150 to get put installed, still at least we've got it.

Civilian_Target

Yeah - the government does funding for wireless broadband, and rightly so, it provides community access. Even when I was living in Dublin, I chose wireless over Eircom, it's just better.

donegalman1

I believe Eircom are quite poor in their installation responses even where broadband infrastructure is in place and often find broadband issues are their fault. They still have a monopoly and I believe the sell off by the government was badly handled. If the lines etc had been privatised to another company to look after the network and lease out without favour then competition and service would flurish. I believe the ESB sell off is to be more like this.

Eircom's treatment of Smart was a prime example of what is wrong with this policy. An eircom representative visited my home on the night I was cut off making what I believe a threat that I would not be able to get broadband again if I didn't move there and then. I stuck it out for that reason alone.

What though is the whole cable situation (MANN). Does anyone in Letterkenny use this at all and if not why are Govt bothering to extend the programme. Could a better solution be found

Has to be said the future influence of VOIP on telephone calls may force Eircom to concentrate its efforts on the internet business

jimmycrackcorm

elshambo wrote:

EVERY , well about 95% of houses in Ireland have a full Broadband connection that works way faster than anything else on the market, Unfortunatly its the ESB and when asked why they dont provide broadband like other electrictricity providers in Europe their answer was,
"Thats not our business"
Everything that is wrong with this country summed up in one sentence!
Ask your local politician or the ESB themselves why they dont, esp the politicans when they are banging on about tech improvments in the area;)

Broadband over Power Line technology is realisitically not yet at a workable sage.

emmemm

would this help us dial-up outcasts


http://www.3ireland.ie/ihandsets/datacards.html



is 3 available here yet?

jimmycrackcorm

emmemm wrote:

would this help us dial-up outcasts


http://www.3ireland.ie/ihandsets/datacards.html



is 3 available here yet?

3 is here but HSDSPA is only going to be 85% population coverage in Feb. Basically only in the areas shown in their coverage map...

http://www.3ireland.ie/iexplore/icoverage/IrelandZoom2.html

I've a friend working on a similar top secret HSDPA rollout for O2 coming up soon.

emmemm

vodafone's unlimited data comes with small print


Customers who are on an unlimited tariff with respect to the Service are advised that Vodafone operates the following Fair Usage Policy for use of this tariff: It is important to Vodafone that all eligible Vodafone customers are able to access our services. Accordingly, we have devised a fair use policy which applies to the Service. Vodafone may rely on this fair use policy where your usage of the Service is excessive or unreasonable as detailed in this paragraph. Vodafone has developed the Service and the related tariffs by reference to average customer profiles and estimated customer usage of the Service (particularly the estimated volume and length of free calls likely to be made by users). If, at the absolute discretion of Vodafone, Vodafone is of the opinion, that your usage of the Service materially exceeds these estimated use pattern over any month, Vodafone may contact you to advise you that your usage exceeds its fair use policy. If the excessive usage continues after receipt of a request to desist from or alter the nature of such usage, Vodafone reserves the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at your price plan's standard rate or to suspend, at its absolute discretion, modify or restrict your use of the Service or to withdraw your access to the Service.

nanook

should this not be in irelandoffline or a broadband forum. I understand the initial topic was concerned with the twin towns but it has deviated away from the original topic of "The Twin Towns"

byte

Well, the thread title relates to the North West.

muffler

It is going off the straight and narrow a wee bit but some of the content of the previous posts may be relevant to the North West.

However if it doesn't come back on topic again shortly and be more specific about the NW it will be locked

djDaithi

I live between Ramelton and Milford where there was a much trumpeted introduction of wireless broadband, guess what? I cant get it! no reception apparently.... I wanted to get wireless and then use skype for calls but it looks like I'm going to have to get a landline to get broadband, although I have no interest in a landline and its outrageous rental charge. That is if Eircom can confirm to me that I WILL be able to get broadband that way. The only other option now available to me is satellite and the charges for that are astronomical.

byte

Well, if you had your phoneline and knew you could get ADSL on your line, you could use a different ISP, like BT, etc who offer bundled broadband/phoneline deals.

Satellite really is the last straw and shouldn't be classified as broadband in my opinion.

jimmycrackcorm

djDaithi wrote:

I live between Ramelton and Milford where there was a much trumpeted introduction of wireless broadband, guess what? I cant get it! no reception apparently.... I wanted to get wireless and then use skype for calls but it looks like I'm going to have to get a landline to get broadband, although I have no interest in a landline and its outrageous rental charge. That is if Eircom can confirm to me that I WILL be able to get broadband that way. The only other option now available to me is satellite and the charges for that are astronomical.

You'll have as much chance of getting DSL there as finding a sheep in a miniskirt in Kilmacrennan...

djDaithi

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

You'll have as much chance of getting DSL there as finding a sheep in a miniskirt in Kilmacrennan...

So you are 100% sure i'll get it then?

byte

Was in Donegal Town earlier, and near the VEC is a Digiweb sign saying it's available in Donegal. I'm not sure if the sign was referring to Metro wireless service or just DSL, which is basically Eircom's resold.