Anyone here on Eircon Fixed Wireless Access??

makeorbrake

A relative of mine gets Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for home phone and broadband. She has received a letter in the post from Eircon saying that they are switching her phones over to cellular based technology. It was unclear as to whether this would mean that she wouldn't have access to broadband anymore - or if she has, what form will it take? Will it be 3G coverage - and will this not cause all manner of problems?


Has anyone come across this? If so, what exactly is it that they are proposing

PogMoThoin

Their licence for FWA is about to run out, they need to change her to a phone that uses mobile technology the same as your mobile and Meteor/Emobile 3g for her broadband

Sponge Bob

3g is rubbish, it can never deliver the same consistent speeds as Fixed Wireless. Get her to confirm whether it is even 3g, EDGE over 2g is hardly what I would call broadband.

eircom has 2 types of Fixed Wireless, a limited amount of Wimax (in Athlone I think) and an older type all running on a slab of 3.5ghz spectrum. The licence should be expiring around now.

They have absolutely loads of 2.3ghz spectrum in some areas (mainly along the west coast) where they could easily provide Broadband and telephone service on Fixed Wireless.

makeorbrake

@Spongbob & PogMoThoin: Thanks for the info - understand what's happening now - but what a disaster for the poor folks that are on this deal. FWA has it's limitations as it stands...nevermind going backwards!

Area in question is Tuam, Co.Galway. I understand that airwire and imagine wimax are options. Which of these is likely to be the best for the average home user?

funnyname

Check Lighthouse networks and digiweb as well

makeorbrake

funnyname wrote: »

Check Lighthouse networks and digiweb as well

Thanks for that - but those two are out of coverage for the area in question.

Sponge Bob

Imagine can have quiet areas and oversubscribed areas so check their local reputation. If quiet they can be rather good because their backhaul is basically OK.

Airwire are the main ISP in East Galway and can also have oversubscribed areas.

eircom 3.5ghz support was notoriously crap, even Imagine is better. eircom only had around 200 customers on that product in 2006......5 or 6 years after initial rollout.

Sponge Bob

OH!!, and she can port her phone number from eircom to Blueface..no matter which of those ISPs mentioned above that she chooses.