Irish 4g? (Please Read!)

AlanS181824

Hey guys I have a quick question here:
What with SaorView freeing up the old spectrum, does that mean that Ireland could *hopefully* get 4g? Did that auction that was supposed to happen this year ever happen? I personally would love the chance of having 4g. I was in America recently and I got a chance to use 4g on a friends phone on Verizon and wow... I'm so jelly :P
So in short my question is:
*Will Ireland ever get 4g some time in the near future similar to EE in UK?
(I know some places dont even have 2g yet but just an opinion is all I'm looking for)
Any answers/opinions would be great

machiavellianme

No. 4G wont happenhere within the next year. Probably longer.

jesus_thats_gre

It will happen here next year - trial will anyway.

AlanS181824

machiavellianme wrote: »

No. 4G wont happenhere within the next year. Probably longer.

Possibly but i was hearing talk of a possible trial to begin sometime in February next year, but we shall see. Fingers crossed

PogMoThoin

And when 4G comes here it will be nothing other than more 3G.

Watty explained it in the Irelandoffline forum. In order for 4G to be faster than 3G it needs 2 things, improved backhaul and bigger channels (20MHZ as opposed to 5mhz on 3G). Improving backhaul means getting fibre to the masts, there is no plan to do so, mobile phone masts here are fed by radio link and are already at maximum capacity. Then our wise people in Comreg are auctioning it off in 5mhz channels which make it identical to 3G.

Red Silurian

AlanS181824 wrote: »

Hey guys I have a quick question here:
What with SaorView freeing up the old spectrum, does that mean that Ireland could *hopefully* get 4g? Did that auction that was supposed to happen this year ever happen? I personally would love the chance of having 4g. I was in America recently and I got a chance to use 4g on a friends phone on Verizon and wow... I'm so jelly :P
So in short my question is:
*Will Ireland ever get 4g some time in the near future similar to EE in UK?
(I know some places dont even have 2g yet but just an opinion is all I'm looking for)
Any answers/opinions would be great

Considering the money gained from auctioning off the spectrum for 4g usage would add lots of money to the exchequer it would be a brilliant idea! Unfortunately our government are too busy cutting our welfare payments...

I was in the silicon valley part of California last week and it's amazing the kind of economic boom technology can bring to a region!

AlanS181824

PogMoThoin wrote: »

And when 4G comes here it will be nothing other than more 3G.

Watty explained it in the Irelandoffline forum. In order for 4G to be faster than 3G it needs 2 things, improved backhaul and bigger channels (20MHZ as opposed to 5mhz on 3G). Improving backhaul means getting fibre to the masts, there is no plan to do so, mobile phone masts here are fed by radio link and are already at maximum capacity. Then our wise people in Comreg are auctioning it off in 5mhz channels which make it identical to 3G.

Oh okay well thanks for a very informative post. Looks like Ireland will be once again lights years behind the rest of Europe... at least when if comes to telecommunications, but i digress

PogMoThoin

colmtheperson wrote: »

Considering the money gained from auctioning off the spectrum for 4g usage would add lots of money to the exchequer it would be a brilliant idea! Unfortunately our government are too busy cutting our welfare payments...

I was in the silicon valley part of California last week and it's amazing the kind of economic boom technology can bring to a region!

You think it will be re-invested? Unfortunately this money is already promised to the Germans

AlanS181824

colmtheperson wrote: »

Considering the money gained from auctioning off the spectrum for 4g usage would add lots of money to the exchequer it would be a brilliant idea! Unfortunately our government are too busy cutting our welfare payments...

I was in the silicon valley part of California last week and it's amazing the kind of economic boom technology can bring to a region!

Yup how our shıtty government are still in power is beyond me... but anyway yeah next time you're planning on going to America hide me in your suitcase? jk jk

testicle

AlanS181824 wrote: »

Yup how our shıtty government are still in power is beyond me...

Would you prefer Fianna Fail or Sinn Fein?

AlanS181824

testicle wrote: »

Would you prefer Fianna Fail or Sinn Fein?

Dunno what that means xD but i know they're political parties i just don't know/care what they stand for harhar

Feidhlim

PogMoThoin wrote: »

And when 4G comes here it will be nothing other than more 3G.

Watty explained it in the Irelandoffline forum. In order for 4G to be faster than 3G it needs 2 things, improved backhaul and bigger channels (20MHZ as opposed to 5mhz on 3G). Improving backhaul means getting fibre to the masts, there is no plan to do so, mobile phone masts here are fed by radio link and are already at maximum capacity. Then our wise people in Comreg are auctioning it off in 5mhz channels which make it identical to 3G.

Watty needs to get off boards and working for the government. Guy is a legend and is wasted here.

AlanS181824

Feidhlim wrote: »

Watty needs to get off boards and working for the government. Guy is a legend and is wasted here.

I completely agree

Red Silurian

AlanS181824 wrote: »

Yup how our shıtty government are still in power is beyond me

They've been more concerned with the digital switch over and Saorview (Another joke by the way)

AlanS181824 wrote: »

but anyway yeah next time you're planning on going to America hide me in your suitcase? jk jk

No problem... Hopefully you're less than the baggage limit of 24kg lol

testicle wrote: »

Would you prefer Fianna Fail or Sinn Fein?

Nobody wants to go back to the dark days

Max Power 2010

PogMoThoin wrote: »

And when 4G comes here it will be nothing other than more 3G.

Watty explained it in the Irelandoffline forum. In order for 4G to be faster than 3G it needs 2 things, improved backhaul and bigger channels (20MHZ as opposed to 5mhz on 3G). Improving backhaul means getting fibre to the masts, there is no plan to do so, mobile phone masts here are fed by radio link and are already at maximum capacity. Then our wise people in Comreg are auctioning it off in 5mhz channels which make it identical to 3G.

Not quite, Meteor/eMobile have already Fibre to 80% of their Masts, also O2 who are Network sharing with Meteor are almost their also, O2 and Meteor are currently sharing base stations that are 4G ready and all that needs to happen now is the Spectrum auction.

Also didnt H3G sign a contract with BT last year to provide Fibre to their masts? Not sure where they are with that. Also this year H3G signed a Net Share contract with Vodafone, this reduces costs but gives them the opportunity to roll out 4G alot quicker.

PogMoThoin

Max Power 2010 wrote: »

Not quite, Meteor/eMobile have already Fibre to 80% of their Masts, also O2 who are Network sharing with Meteor are almost their also, O2 and Meteor are currently sharing base stations that are 4G ready and all that needs to happen now is the Spectrum auction.

Meteor/eMobile have a tiny network so 80% of this isn't that great. They mostly rely on Vodafone 2G and have very little 3G coverage outside the larger towns.

Max Power 2010 wrote: »

Also didnt H3G sign a contract with BT last year to provide Fibre to their masts? Not sure where they are with that. Also this year H3G signed a Net Share contract with Vodafone, this reduces costs but gives them the opportunity to roll out 4G alot quicker.

The sharing of infrastructure without the sharing of spectrum does nothing for the customer where you end up with 2 side by side networks. The ideal situation would have been for a state body to build the network and rent it out to all the mobile phone companies.

Comreg also moved the goalposts with regard to 4G licencing, there is no longer a 70% geographic coverage stipulation like there was with 2G, but now 70% population, see this article: http://irelandoffline.org/2012/06/comreg-and-70-population-coverage/

For all these reasons 4G in Ireland will just be more of the same.

Max Power 2010

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Meteor/eMobile have a tiny network so 80% of this isn't that great. They mostly rely on Vodafone 2G and have very little 3G coverage outside the larger towns.


Not exactly, Meteor/eMobile have 1200 masts compared to 800 two years ago, there 3G coverage is 83% compared to 50% (Geographical Coverage) two years ago, so it is not so tiny anymore.

Regards Vodafone, they don't rely on Vodafone 2G in the west as much as they used to, with the Site share agreement with O2 they are now jumping on O2 masts in the west thus slowly reducing the need for a Roaming agreement with VF.

AlanS181824

colmtheperson wrote: »

They've been more concerned with the digital switch over and Saorview (Another joke by the way)



No problem... Hopefully you're less than the baggage limit of 24kg lol



Nobody wants to go back to the dark days

yup SaorView is a load of shıte... hehe i think i might be pushing that 24kg limit a bit