[article] Water towers to help provide rural Broadband service in Co. Limerick

Jilm

From the Limerick Post:
http://www.limerickpost.ie/dailynews.elive?id=7753&category=Daily-Mon

Hopefully this iniative amounts to something and maybe other county councils might follow their example.

County water towers to filter rural Broadband service

LIMERICK County Council is to make over 50 water towers available to broadband providers in an effort to speed up the delivery of the service in the county.

The water towers, which are to act as transmission towers, are to play an integral part in providing broadband in rural areas of county Limerick.

At a meeting of Limerick County Council, it was agreed to seek tenders from wireless providers for a countywide service.

The council will make available to the preferred service provider, its infrastructure of approximately 55 water towers for transmission purposes.

They will then licence the most suitable provider to use the publicly owned facilities and it is envisaged that other service providers will be allowed access to the network after an initial period of one year to promote price competition.

Cllr Niall Collins said that he welcomed any move which will speed up the delivery of a broadband solution.

And he added that this is one of the top issues raised on the doorstep.

"The present roll out and delivery of broadband by Eircom is a complete failure and the public are very frustrated. So, too, are the business community, who can’t expand and develop because of the lack of this basic infrastructure.

"But whoever gains access to the publicly owned facilities to provide a broadband solution must be accessed on the basis of their price competitiveness and quality of service.

"I will not stand over Limerick County Council as a public service organisation allowing unrealistic pricing structures which may be prohibitive to the public whilst using public property,” said Cllr Collins.

Donal Brennan, senior engineer with the Water Services Department of LCC, said it was very difficult to get access to broadband in many parts of rural Limerick.

He added that most wireless broadband transmitters do not require planning permission, and it was estimated such a service could be up and running in 12 months.

Asked what was in it for the local authority, Mr Brennan said that this is basically a public service and there will be a very nominal fee for the first three years. He added that this proposal has already generated interest from suppliers.

Calling it "a very welcome development,” Cllr Kevin Sheahan said that "there is a very real need to bring broadband to every corner of co Limerick, as many of these parts were excluded”.

"And every village and town seems to be mentioned in this proposal,” he said.

Cllr Patrick O’Donovan stated that "the privatisation of Eircom was a complete disaster and you simply cannot get a decent service these days outside the Pale”. He also called the privatisation of Eircom as "anti rural community”.

Mr_Man

IMHO,

it would be better for the council to provide masts on each tower and let the WISP's rent space on them for a nominal fee. This would allow the WISP's to extend their existing networks in an organic fashion, and do so at reasonable cost.

If you restrict competition for a year then you run the risk that the incumbent will have mopped up all of the early adopters increasing the cost for any subsequent entrants, and this in turn will reduce the likelihood of new entrants coming in.

Hopefully the scheme will result in BB being available to anyone who wants it,

M.

watty

Anyway don't they know it is Comreg that issue licences and in many cases only the licenced operator for an area can make use of the water tower?

If I'm not mistaken they have been selling space to Mobile phone operators already. I've seen someone's aerials on Limerick Water Towers.

Many of the 50 water towers will not be suitable sites.

Hacketry

Jilm wrote:

Hopefully this iniative amounts to something and maybe other county councils might follow their example.

See: http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-10026083.html