Eircom - Wimax rollout

long_b

I was on to Eircom yesterday about this. The agent seemed quite sure that it was going to roll out this month.

Said something about the service having to be live for 21 days before they could sell it ?

Can anyone confirm dates on these ? Or is it just a line ?

anthony4335

I was told yesterday, after ringing to have my new line tested for DSL as the exchange was upgraded a couple of months ago, and the guy on the other end of the line gave me the bad news, but them proceeded to tell me about the WiMax, but suggested it would be summer of next year. Still Pixxed off about the whole DSL thing as I had to pay to have the line connected, a couple of months rental just to be told tough. I hate eircom.

watty

they do of course have an existing Nationwide licence & system, that is hard to persuade them to sell you. (near impossible if you can get analogue dailup). There was talk of them only offering the upgraded to WiMax in main cities where people can get DSL and fail DSL. They have never wanted their wireless to compete with dialup or DSL. Which makes excellent sense for shareholders. However if I was running eircom I would also offer wireless to people that can't get DSL at all.

long_b

Now that is disappointing.

Has anyone got any good news on this ?

bushy...

They might be going to use it to bridge the time gap until everyone has xdsl2 or fibre to the home . I suppose if they had turned on adsl2 and sent out a load of new modems last year everyone would be bored of 20meg by now

Sponge Bob

1. eircom just sold off their masts for €€s
2. they only EVER promised to use wimax to supply BB to homes in the 5 big cities whose lines fail .
3. there is no stated plan to swap out their existing 3.5ghz gear outside those cities..bar in Athlone where they are trialling Wimax and need the spectrum .
4. There is no national plan of any sort.

Believe it if you see it .

watty

Though haven't they some sort of Lease back thing from ThreeFold (who bought the masts).

Sponge Bob

they have a leaseback, yes.

long_b

Ah shucks, that looks fairly definitive then.

Thanks for the replies.

Sponge Bob

Its simple really. Eircom announce these technologies to interfere with other operators plans, thats all.

EG

19/10/2006 One Year Ago

Eircom bids to improve broadband availability
19-10-2006
by Charlie Taylor

Eircom has committed to enabling more exchanges nationwide along with rolling out WiMAX as it aims to boost broadband availability in Ireland.

The company said on Thursday that an additional 100 telephone exchanges in communities across the country are to be DSL enabled, with work expected to be completed during 2007.

To my knowledge they have 3 live and may reach 20 by end 2007 , most certainly not 100. They then announced , in March another 330 exchanges to be done . That should be finished around 2012 I should think.

In addition, Eircom announced that it is committed to being in a position whereby it will be able to take orders from all customers living in the Republic's five urban centres: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

As part of this commitment, the firm said it is to begin rolling out WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access) over the next year in order to supplement existing DSL services in these cities to ensure that residents will be able to avail of broadband, regardless of whether they are close to an enabled exchange. Such a move will also mean that customers who have previously been unable to sign up for DSL due to line failure will soon be able to subscribe for high-speed internet services.

This meant that if you failed for DSL you could get wimax, therefore eircom would provide some class of broadband to all customers in the 5 big cities within one year from the 19.10.2006 so maybe I am being hard on them because the year is only up on saturday after all

No eircom wimax customers have been connected anywhere in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford., but that was never the intention was it

Bad as Phil Nolan was he tended to stick to his announcements, a year meant a year in most cases.

mayhem#

As usual with Eircom it's just pure spin....

long_b

Come to think of it, I think they rang around my area touting WiMax just about the time 3 first came out with their BB

mayhem#

Also if and when they ever offer it do not expect it to be cheap...

great unwashed

It's annoying that eircom has such a stranglehold on the market. I wonder if the likes of mobile deals from the likes of 3 will challenge them at all?

Keith186

great unwashed wrote: »

It's annoying that eircom has such a stranglehold on the market. I wonder if the likes of mobile deals from the likes of 3 will challenge them at all?

I doubt it they seem to be very unreliale and drop the connection a good bit.
I found BT to be a good deal for the broadband & telephone.

tak

Maybe if the (deified) multinationals started demanding (en masse) that the consumers of their new age products & services be given proper continental b/band the D o Comms might listen up ?

For sure DoC won't do it for the rest of us . . . :rolleyes:

long_b

Today the sales people are saying Galway and Waterford to get WiMax first (no date). The three other urban areas to follow. Nothing outside that.

This makes sense - I wonder what the first sales person was on.

Ruffty^

I'm in moycullen outside galway.
My line was amber so I tried to get the 2meg broadband, eventually they told me it was no good and they cancelled my order and I returned the modem.

I checked my line here.

And it still failed, but then I got this;
"Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in November 2007.

If you would like eircom to contact you should service become available to you please fill in the details below."
When I put in my details it said; "we will contact you before nov2007"

atm I have this 512k/512k wireless connection from a crowd of idiots reselling IBB for €45 a month. I get 512k, but I get so much random packet loss I can't play games.
I hope WiMAX is a different/more stable technology and cheaper!

tonton-bob

Ruffty^ wrote: »

I checked my line

And it still failed, but then I got this;
"Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in November 2007.

I used to have the same result in april/june but it was stating Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in July 2007

I haven't heard of Wimax in my area ( Glasnevin ) since then ...

Ruffty^

tonton-bob wrote: »

I used to have the same result in april/june but it was stating Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in July 2007

I haven't heard of Wimax in my area ( Glasnevin ) since then ...

Lame. I tried the line test like end of sept and it said nothing about WiMAX, and that changed mid-way through october, so maybe they are actually serious, but I know well not to hold my breath when it concerns relying on dates from eircom.

Does anyone know anything about WiMax as a technology, is it any different from what IBB offer, i.e. speeds? quality of service? cost?

bushy...

IBB have some wimax gear

watty

EVERYONE has some WiMax gear.

"pre-Wimax" doesn't count.

richardw001

Regarding Wimax - I was talking to eircom during the summer - they said that they should have some news in october - Was on the phone to eircom sales today - no wimax until after christmas according to yer man.

To be honest I'm sick to death of trying to get broadband - a hour from cork city - and 35 mins from limerick - you'd think I'd be able to get it at this stage. Broadband is the 21st century equivlant of electricity - everyone should be entitled to get it - at the same price and level of service.


Someone should start a petition online regarding this - saying that
1) they are disatisfied with the encumbant Eircom - who are denying Irish people the right to 21st century communication - and are moving from Eircom Voice on principal - (to anyone)
2) they are disatisfied with the Irish Government - Green, PD and Fianna Fail - and their denial - of this right - that every Irish person is entitled to - and that due to this reason they are not voting for these parties - on principal - (will vote for anyone but them)

If everyone - did this maybe we might get somewhere
- I don't think it should be my job to chase around looking for broadband - both 1) and 2) have got my tax euros to provide a communication service
- which they have'nt provided - or provided alot of people.

Sorry for the rant !

superweld

richardw001 wrote: »

Regarding Wimax - I was talking to eircom during the summer - they said that they should have some news in october - Was on the phone to eircom sales today - no wimax until after christmas according to yer man.

To be honest I'm sick to death of trying to get broadband - a hour from cork city - and 35 mins from limerick - you'd think I'd be able to get it at this stage. Broadband is the 21st century equivlant of electricity - everyone should be entitled to get it - at the same price and level of service.


Someone should start a petition online regarding this - saying that
1) they are disatisfied with the encumbant Eircom - who are denying Irish people the right to 21st century communication - and are moving from Eircom Voice on principal - (to anyone)
2) they are disatisfied with the Irish Government - Green, PD and Fianna Fail - and their denial - of this right - that every Irish person is entitled to - and that due to this reason they are not voting for these parties - on principal - (will vote for anyone but them)

If everyone - did this maybe we might get somewhere
- I don't think it should be my job to chase around looking for broadband - both 1) and 2) have got my tax euros to provide a communication service
- which they have'nt provided - or provided alot of people.

Sorry for the rant !

no apology needed, you're completely right.

Ruffty^

hey, down here in galway it's hard enough to secure clean drinking water..

pedropumpalot

watty wrote: »

EVERYONE has some WiMax gear.

"pre-Wimax" doesn't count.

Just to clarify, IBB's BreezeMax product operating in the 3.5GHz band is WiMax compliant and so is the Navini Ripwave other than that, thats it. From what I've seen out there Eircom have no intention of rolling out a WiMax network, it would cost them an absolute fortune with vendor equipment, licences, acquiring sites, RF planners and the whole lot.

bushy...

pedropumpalot wrote:

From what I've seen out there Eircom have no intention of rolling out a WiMax network it would cost them an absolute fortune with vendor equipment,

copper and poles aren't free

pedropumpalot wrote:

licences,

have them

pedropumpalot wrote:

acquiring sites,

have sweet sites

pedropumpalot wrote:

RF planners

look at an Eircom tower , i'm sure those round yokes aren't decorations

pedropumpalot wrote:

and the whole lot.

watty

Navini Ripwave is pre-wimax. i.e. Not WiMax. Either something really is WiMax* or it isn't. Navini is or will be a WiMax supplier, and for that reason Cisco has bought them.

Alvarion Breeze is not Wimax. Alvarion BreezeMax is WiMax. There is little difference for the user, the main difference is increased sector capacity for the Operator.

* There are two different types of Wimax: Fixed and Mobile. The Mobile version to compete with 3G or Flash-OFDM is still in the trial/debug phase.

The main aspects of WiMax are OFDM transmission and time slot base station scheduling once the user has attempted to connect. This is pretty much how any modern Wireless system works and is not unique to WiMax.

The issue is not eircom using WiMax or not, the issue is that they have had nationwide masts and 3.5Ghz licences yet have virtually provided no service when other Operators with those masts & Licence would have provided maybe 180,000 connections in the same time scale. One can only conclude they make more money out of dialup.

They already have a network and have upgraded very little to WiMax as they don't need the capacity. They don't need the capacity because mostly they won't sell you FWA if you can be fitted with dialup.

pedropumpalot

bushy... wrote: »

copper and poles aren't free
have them
have sweet sites
look at an Eircom tower , i'm sure those round yokes aren't decorations

Hi Bushy,

Just so you know, rolling out a wireless network using wooden poles and copper buried in the ground doesn't really work :eek:

Fair enough on the licenses point, I wasn't aware of their 3.5GHz license.

In terms of sweet sites they have an SDH/PDH Transmission and fibre backbone network to connect the main cities with branches off these to exchanges around the country. From here their wired network operates on their high tech copper and wood infrastructure. Most of these site are rural and consist of one story buildings. :rolleyes: Oh yeah by the way Three Fold own these sites now!

And finally those round yokes don't provide you with your wireless, they are point to point links for backhaul and not access. The majority of the round yokes belong to the likes of VF O2 3..... Transmission planners is what they have not RF planners.

bealtine

richardw001 wrote: »

To be honest I'm sick to death of trying to get broadband - a hour from cork city - and 35 mins from limerick - you'd think I'd be able to get it at this stage. Broadband is the 21st century equivlant of electricity - everyone should be entitled to get it - at the same price and level of service.


Someone should start a petition online regarding this - saying that
1) they are disatisfied with the encumbant Eircom - who are denying Irish people the right to 21st century communication - and are moving from Eircom Voice on principal - (to anyone)
2) they are disatisfied with the Irish Government - Green, PD and Fianna Fail - and their denial - of this right - that every Irish person is entitled to - and that due to this reason they are not voting for these parties - on principal - (will vote for anyone but them)

That was the raison d'etre of Ireland Offline now sadly defunct.
If enough people are really interested it could be resurrected...

richardw001

Well I for one would get involved - if Ireland offline came back into the active realm - Does anyone know - how many eircom subscribers can't currently avail of the fancy broadband offerings that are advertised on tv every ten minutes ? if everyone of them moved to another provider in protest - and at the same time signed a petition saying that they will not vote for any of the government parties until they address this issue (and deliver results). Until Eircom start losing money and the government start losing potential votes because of this - I don't think that this will be taken seriously.

Also people that have had to spend 000's of euros in the past few years in getting satellite etc. should be recompensed - Its Eircoms duty to provide this service - they should'nt have a God given right to the last mile of voice unless they are prepared to provide an adequete communication service.
If the E.S.B did the same then half the country would be lightling oil laterns.


Just getting back to the wimax discussion - has anyone heard any update on an Eircom rollout ? - from what I can see in the discussion the customer service person I was talking to early in the week might not be correct in saying that it will be well after christmas ?