Broadband in Rural Galway

Madame Razz

Am posting this here as I would like to get as many responses as possible and the Galway county forum always seems much quieter than here.

A friend has taken a position here in Galway and has moved to a rural part of Clarinbridge. Eircom promised him a 7mb connection but then turned around and said that because of his location they could only do a 1mb. He needs minimum 5mb because of his area of work etc. Can anybody advise on the possible alternatives. He has looked at Airwire but the price for the service he needs is enormous. However where he has moved to has little or no mobile phone/3g signal either so what's most important is finding him a fast broadband service that will actually work, and work well.

I would be most grateful for anybody's input; I visited him today and the 1mb connection is driving him nuts; it's not even 1mb most of the time!

Cheers guys:)

MeerKat17

I think Airwire have reduced their prices recently...when did you contact them?
You should try Irish broadband, I just looked at their website and they offer 7.6Mb DSL for 35euros a month....

lookinbusy

Clarinbridge Boradband or 'Bay Networks' as I think they are know now have a pretty good wirelss service, I used to use them before I got BB over the wire, I found them fine but if he keeps hassling Eircom they will eventually upgrade the line, that what I did and then when they upgraded the line I got perlico :pac:

JohnCleary

WiMAX or directional 3G.

That's as much free advise as i'm giving on the subject, research the rest yourself

I think there is company called Bay Networks doing local wireless broadband.

The other solution - if he wants services currently only available in urban areas - move there.

Madame Razz

MeerKat17 wrote: »

IYou should try Irish broadband, I just looked at their website and they offer 7.6Mb DSL for 35euros a month....

He is too far from any exchange to support a DSL connection he was saying today.

Deleted User wrote: »

The other solution - if he wants services currently only available in urban areas - move there.

That's not an option. But I'll pass on details regarding Bay networks

biko

Galway city -> Broadband
Satellite?
NTL/UPC?
Digiweb?

Sponge Bob

What class of an eejit would move to the wilds of Clarinbridge if they NEED fast Broadband.

eircom are putting an exchange in Maree sometime ....when they get around to it.

Tell him move to the village or Kilcolgan village or Craughwell , IE where the exchanges are.

How far away is he (by road) from the centre of each of those villages anyway ??

yuloni

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Madame Razz

Sponge Bob wrote: »

What class of an eejit would move to the wilds of Clarinbridge if they NEED fast Broadband.

eircom are putting an exchange in Maree sometime ....when they get around to it.

Tell him move to the village or Kilcolgan village or Craughwell , IE where the exchanges are.

How far away is he (by road) from the centre of each of those villages anyway ??

About 3km as the crow flies probably. He has moved there as he was left a cottage there and in ways is living a dream(shattered by the lack of decent broadband:pac:)

Condi wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No idea whether he qualifies for that scheme or not; where would he find that out??

He would be a very heavy user of all of what you have listed above and needs to be able to stream HD video. Very heavy monthly download also >100gb.

When is the new exchange planned for Maree?? He's probably equidistant between the two places sort of I would think.

(I'm not 100% sure of the roads out around there really:o)

Sponge Bob

No NBS in Clarinbridge.

At 3km length a line should handle 5mbits but as eircom does not employ crows I actually asked you "How far away is he (by road)"

eircom does not deploy repeaters or 'reach extenders' that would regenerate the signal.

Best I have seen is around 3mbits at 5km , more at 3km line length obviously

What speeds do his next door neighbours get ??

Sean-Tom

Sorry for butting in but I also would really like to know when the eircom exchange is comming to maree.

Sponge Bob

Last year which in in eircom project management terms means whenever they get around to it. The good news maybe is that it will support 24mbits unlike the exchanges to teh south of it.

Listed

Madame Razz

Sponge Bob wrote: »

No NBS in Clarinbridge.

At 3km length a line should handle 5mbits but as eircom does not employ crows I actually asked you "How far away is he (by road)"

eircom does not deploy repeaters or 'reach extenders' that would regenerate the signal.

Best I have seen is around 3mbits at 5km , more at 3km line length obviously

What speeds do his next door neighbours get ??

Probably about 4-5kms?? Eircom described it as an 'extended reach' area

His neighbours seem to have some sort of Wimax service; he should ask them really I guess; He's not been living there all that long you see...

Sponge Bob

Extended reach means 1mbit max. What did you say the neighbours have again ??

Madame Razz

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Extended reach means 1mbit max. What did you say the neighbours have again ??

He seems to think they have some sort of Wimax; but he's only going by the type of aerial/signal box type thing he has seen on their gable.

JohnCleary

Madame Razz wrote: »

He seems to think they have some sort of Wimax; but he's only going by the type of aerial/signal box type thing he has seen on their gable.

Some sort of WiMAX? Don't be fooled by the antenna

If you're in a 'far reach' situation you'll be using a directional antenna - you might not be able to tell the difference between a Wi-Fi/Wi-MAX antenna, they can look identical. The only difference is the frequency. LOS WiMAX starts at about 10Ghz

Sponge Bob

JohnCleary wrote: »

. LOS WiMAX starts at about 10Ghz

In Clarinbridge :eek:

The only 10Ghz LOS service out there is likely to be the DOCSIS Digiweb Metro. There are no 10ghz+ Wimax services out there save north of Clarinbridge at a high point perhaps.

However them old people who built cottages in Clarinbridge were not stupid and I take it the OPs mate lives in a hole...well maybe a hollow and therefore cannot see the nearest Metro mast in Oranmore.

Eircom does not do extended reach over wireless. But as the OP has not troubled me with any GIS data I cannot really advise any further because I have absolutely no idea who provided this antenna they mentioned.

Madame Razz

So he needs to get onto Digiweb then? No point in giving Airwire or Bay networks a call?

Sorry I can't be more specific lads, I honestly haven't a clue about this sort of stuff; was just sort of hoping somebody could give me the name of a company to pass on to him that would sort him out.

Sponge Bob

Digiweb, Irish Broadband, Airwire, Bay, and the Kinvara Group BB Scheme all touch some part of Clarinbridge and possibly Lighthouse Networks too.

Do them in that order.

JohnCleary

Sponge Bob wrote: »

In Clarinbridge :eek:

The only 10Ghz LOS service out there is likely to be the DOCSIS Digiweb Metro. There are no 10ghz+ Wimax services out there save north of Clarinbridge at a high point perhaps.

However them old people who built cottages in Clarinbridge were not stupid and I take it the OPs mate lives in a hole...well maybe a hollow and therefore cannot see the nearest Metro mast in Oranmore.

Eircom does not do extended reach over wireless. But as the OP has not troubled me with any GIS data I cannot really advise any further because I have absolutely no idea who provided this antenna they mentioned.

Yeah I was just stating that LOS WiMAX starts at about 10Ghz, up to 60'ish Ghz

Airwire: Martin

Madame Razz wrote: »

So he needs to get onto Digiweb then? No point in giving Airwire or Bay networks a call?

Sorry I can't be more specific lads, I honestly haven't a clue about this sort of stuff; was just sort of hoping somebody could give me the name of a company to pass on to him that would sort him out.

You were saying earlier, that he needs minimum 5 mbit/s broadband.

I'd just like to set things in picture here:

7 mbit dsl would typically be 384 kbit upload, at either 24:1 or 48:1 contention. It's rate adaptive (slower, the further you get from the exchange) on top of that.

Airwire's 2 mbit/s package is the same speed up and down, 16:1 contention.

3G (if available) can be up to 7.2 or 14.4 mbit, but is contended with the amount of users that are in the same cell. This could easily be 100 (so 100:1 contention in that case)

Neither of the products available in Clarinbridge would be uncontended. I'd say your friend need to be more clear on, what he really needs. If he needs 5 mbit/s uncontend it will be very costly, that's for sure.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Digiweb, Irish Broadband, Airwire, Bay, and the Kinvara Group BB Scheme all touch some part of Clarinbridge and possibly Lighthouse Networks too.

Do them in that order.

The Kinvara Group Broadband Scheme is part of Lighthouse Networks as of some time ago. So is the ACGBS, who also would have covered east of Clarinbridge.

Neither Digiweb nor Irish Broadband cover that area, but you can always try.

Leap (now Magnet Business) also covers the area, but costs quite a bit more than us.

And yes, we do cover the area.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire