What BB packages do ye have?

great unwashed

Currently on dial-up but getting eircom dsl BB in a week or so, hopefully.

I don't consider this true BB which should mean that you get fibre to your home instead of a service hacked over copper. ShannonBroadband are laying big green Phase II MAN pipes near my home in west clare currently and the network should be up and running in the next two or three months, maybe sooner.

Many of you have had Phase I MAN piping available to you for well over a year now, mainly in the larger towns and especially the cities and I'd like to know what I can expect - will I be able to get a dedicated connection, independent of my telephone line if I want? Will it be fibre or is there a wireless option?

I'm particularly interested in boycotting eircom by using a bb line for phonecalls. Am I deluding myself?

watty

yes

Only ISPs and very large outfits connect to the MANs. Some MANs have no connection to the internet!
DSL is actually real broadband. The line rental is too expensive and too many people can't get it and buy things that are flat rate mostly always on and thus sold as broadband, but often no faster than ISDN which is offically "narrowband".

great unwashed

thanks watty

sorry, i didn't mean connect directly to the MANs but rather through ISPs to them but you must be joking that the MANs don't connect to the internet!? what are they then - massive isolated wans?


the govt site www.dcmnr.gov.ie gives plenty of info on the subject and the uptake and demand and i understand from this that the govt networks getting rolled out are as much an alternative to eircom as they are more bandwidth in the national pool. the dcmnr site says they are 'carrier neutral' networks which sounds like they will be available for big outfits to sell on services.

we need LLU to bypass eircom so, do we?

RangeR

Whre in the counrty are you?
What Eircom exchange are you on? [putting your phone number into Smart Telecoms number checked will tell you the exchange as it's not always the closest exchange to you]. Hell, Smart Telecom would be your best bet over copper. That or Magnet.

watty

great unwashed wrote:

thanks watty

sorry, i didn't mean connect directly to the MANs but rather through ISPs to them but you must be joking that the MANs don't connect to the internet!? what are they then - massive isolated wans?


the govt site www.dcmnr.gov.ie gives plenty of info on the subject and the uptake and demand and i understand from this that the govt networks getting rolled out are as much an alternative to eircom as they are more bandwidth in the national pool. the dcmnr site says they are 'carrier neutral' networks which sounds like they will be available for big outfits to sell on services.

we need LLU to bypass eircom so, do we?

Most of the MANs are connected. Each MAN is essentially fibre for one town or city. Backhaul to internet amazingly was not in the MAN plan.

BT/CIE and ESB fibre is nearly more useful to ISPs.
Some MANs are very important to ISPs.

You need UPC cable, Wireless, direct fibre or two way Satellite to bypass eircom. LLU does not exactly "bypass" as the other ISPs gear has to be the exchange and eircom charge a higher monthly rent on the LLU than retail line rental in other countries (in addition to initial unbundling charge which is high), also backhaul needed from exchange and rent of electric and space for the ISP in the eircom exchange. So very little takeup of it and little of innovative services as a result of the high costs and awkwardness of the process.

great unwashed

IrishTLR wrote:

Whre in the counrty are you?
What Eircom exchange are you on? [putting your phone number into Smart Telecoms number checked will tell you the exchange as it's not always the closest exchange to you]. Hell, Smart Telecom would be your best bet over copper. That or Magnet.

Wesht Clare. I'm only able to get eircom BB, well, any provider as long as it is over my landline which i don't like because i'd like to have the choice of getting away from eircom.

Back here in West Clare there is currently no alternative to getting BB over your landline unless it's via satellite but a company, ShannonBroadband ,are laying big pipes with lovely fibre going through them and are very near completion of phase II of the national MANs in this area. I guess you living in Naas can get BB in ways other than over your landline?

jbkenn

great unwashed wrote:

ShannonBroadband ,are laying big pipes with lovely fibre going through them and are very near completion of phase II of the national MANs in this area.

Sorry to burst your bubble, great unwashed, but that white elephant won't be of much use to you or anyone else either, the only available source of fibre in Clare is via ESBT fibre which breaks out in Drumline (the ESB sub station in Shannon) and it is a long way from Drumline to Kilrush. see map here http://www.esbtelecoms.ie/infrastructure/south_west.htm
and here http://www.esbtelecoms.ie/infrastructure/limerick.htm

Just another "Bob the Builder" job, and a steal at €1.2 million, from Shannonbroadband.

jbkenn

Sponge Bob

Kiltimagh has a MAN for the last 4 years , its as far from the ESB fibre as Kilrush is . Its unlit to this very day because of that

http://www.westernpeople.ie/email/printer.asp?j=37706

( 08/08/07)

The Kiltimagh Island



However, the Kiltimagh MAN remains unconnected to the national grid, but it is hoped that the Mayo element of Phase 2 will prompt the completion of the project in the town.

(SB Little Note , dream on Mayo, the dept of comms has no money and is spending next years money today on a 'Green 'project )

According to Joe Kelly, the Chief Executive of I.R.D. Kiltimagh Ltd., the Kiltimagh MAN has been an expensive ‘white elephant’. “The disruption caused during the summer of 2003, and the •400,000 spent on the Kiltimagh project has been a waste so far”, said Mr. Kelly. He sees too many ‘cogs in the wheel’ that are hindering the proper roll-out of the MAN.



“We wrote to the previous Communications Minister, Noel Dempsey, as to the status of the Kiltimagh MAN, only to be told that it was up and running, something that the operators of the MAN later denied”.



There are plans for a new 32,000 square feet Office Park in Kiltimagh, and the MAN has the potential to provide the necessary broadband infrastructure for this important development - once it is connected to the national fibre backbone that is!

No doubt Eamonn Ryan , dempseys sucessor , will tell ye wesht Clare folks that the Kilrush MAN is 'up and running' next summer sometime .

In fact I am supremely confident that he will because Eamonn Ryan does not give 2 sh1ts for proper telecommunications networks in rural Ireland.

If you are on the coast of west Clare there is a WISP to your north who may have some plans to do something, see

http://www.lightnet.ie/

you could always ask. As for the MAN, forget it . Sorry. Thats the reality of it.

Marlow

Lightnet does only cover the Arann Island in West Clare according to their coverage map.

Airwire (http://www.airwire.ie) covers from the Clare/Galway border in the West to the south of Fanore and then the Clare/Galway border south of Gort all the way west along the New Line. (http://www.airwire.ie/coverage)

In regards to the MAN's, it's fairly costly to connect (anywhere between 7.5k and up) and your minimum commitment is 10 mbit/s if you buy it of e-net. This is unconteded transit bandwidth without internet connectivity, but if the MAN you are connecting to has a ESB (or BT, but would be more expensive) breakout, you get a connection to the INEX in Dublin, where you can buy your Internet connectivity.

Loughrea and Gort MAN's are currently being completed as well and it doesn't seem like there will be an ESB or BT drop soon. And well, if it was down to Eircom, they would try to convince the government to let'em control the MAN's, too

/Martin

great unwashed

jbkenn wrote:

Sorry to burst your bubble, great unwashed, but that white elephant won't be of much use to you or anyone else either, the only available source of fibre in Clare is via ESBT fibre which breaks out in Drumline (the ESB sub station in Shannon) and it is a long way from Drumline to Kilrush. see map here http://www.esbtelecoms.ie/infrastructure/south_west.htm
and here http://www.esbtelecoms.ie/infrastructure/limerick.htm

Just another "Bob the Builder" job, and a steal at €1.2 million, from Shannonbroadband.

jbkenn

Shannon and Kilrush are far apart alright jbkenn but I've seen the broadband pipes getting buried in Kilrush with my own eyes. I hope there will be optical fibre threaded through them and it says so here:

http://www.shannonbroadband.com/FibreRoutes/KilrushFibreRoute/

great unwashed

Marlow wrote:

Lightnet does only cover the Arann Island in West Clare according to their coverage map.

Airwire (http://www.airwire.ie) covers from the Clare/Galway border in the West to the south of Fanore and then the Clare/Galway border south of Gort all the way west along the New Line. (http://www.airwire.ie/coverage)

In regards to the MAN's, it's fairly costly to connect (anywhere between 7.5k and up) and your minimum commitment is 10 mbit/s if you buy it of e-net. This is unconteded transit bandwidth without internet connectivity, but if the MAN you are connecting to has a ESB (or BT, but would be more expensive) breakout, you get a connection to the INEX in Dublin, where you can buy your Internet connectivity.

Loughrea and Gort MAN's are currently being completed as well and it doesn't seem like there will be an ESB or BT drop soon. And well, if it was down to Eircom, they would try to convince the government to let'em control the MAN's, too

/Martin

What are the MANs for at all, then? Surely ISPs will sell-on connectivity to business and consumers at a competitive rate (as long as eircom don't get their winklepicking fingers on the new networks)

Seriously, what are the MANs for at all if the Kiltimagh one is not even connected? We might as well have connections made from string and beans cans.

Marlow

great unwashed wrote:

What are the MANs for at all, then? Surely ISPs will sell-on connectivity to business and consumers at a competitive rate (as long as eircom don't get their winklepicking fingers on the new networks)

Seriously, what are the MANs for at all if the Kiltimagh one is not even connected? We might as well have connections made from string and beans cans.

The MANs primarily allow high-speed connections for multiple locations within the MAN. Obviously the most usefull for the MANs in Ireland is Internet distribution. It might be, that some MANs aren't connected yet in any way, but that's just is down to getting a carrier that either will invest in fiber or a microwave link and peer bandwidth into the MANs.

At least the distribution infrastructure is in place.

/Marlow

Sponge Bob

great unwashed wrote:

Shannon and Kilrush are far apart alright jbkenn but I've seen the broadband pipes getting buried in Kilrush with my own eyes. I hope there will be optical fibre threaded through them and it says so here:

You will have no problem running Gigabit fibre from one end of Kilrush to the other.....just like Kiltimagh people have great speeds within Kiltimagh.

Your problem is getting a big connection to the big h-Internet over yonder. To all intents and purposes its 30 miles away. That 30 mile gap can be bridged by wrapping fibre around the power lines to Moneypoint and digging from Moneypoint to Kilrush...say 4 miles extra digging ???

The moneypoint power lines are already used to get Fibre from Dublin to Clare.....east Clare only though. Here is a Map if its any help



There is no plan to do that. Kilrush will assuredly have another stranded MAN.

If you want to read some utterly specious waffle and lip service you could always email minister@dcmnr.ie to see what class of complete BS Eamonn Ryan wafts in your direction.

watty

great unwashed wrote:

thanks watty

sorry, i didn't mean connect directly to the MANs but rather through ISPs to them but you must be joking that the MANs don't connect to the internet!? what are they then - massive isolated wans?

I sometimes try to be funny to avoid being depressed. But you can see that I was not joking. MAN = Metropolitan Area Network.

It's for when Kilrush gets to be a Metropolis.

great unwashed

Whatever Kilrush becomes, it will never become a metropolis (unless it features in a future version of GTA:Ireland as a bad neigbourhood)

I've emailed the crowd ShannonBroadband to find out a little more about this because you've shattered my dreams, watty , but luckily for me, i don't believe you. by the time i hear it from the horses mouth, i will have subconsciously become innured to the unavoidable peripherality of this small backwater, west clare, and to your truth about connecting it to the rest of the world.

cheerio and thanks all

J

watty

I'm sometimes wrong but the Great Sponge is rarely wrong.