Free wifi in Dublin City: when?

Seanchai

I'm just home from yet another otherwise enlightened European city which does not have free wifi for its tourists (presumably, the natives have their own data on their respective phone networks and don't need free wifi).

It is that city's loss that I did not have free wifi while walking around the streets wanting to find out more about their histories, pubs and clubs open at night, concerts in churches and halls and so much more. I would have spent far more money. Of that, I am absolutely certain. Even in restaurants I was met with "we do have wifi but we can't give the code out to customers". Incredible.

I do not need wifi in Dublin. I hope that is clear. However, I do want to ensure that visitors to our city are given this service by Dublin City Council, even if the vast majority if not all cities in Europe do not give such a service to visitors to their respective cities. Free wifi *will* benefit Dublin City's economy, no matter what myopic, conservative people say. Yet it seems that Oisín Quinn is the sole Dublin politician promoting this idea.

Why, pray tell, is this development being held up in Dublin? We could be world leaders here.

SebBerkovich

It's obviously a really good idea with great benefits to the city, but i couldn't seen the government splashing out on any new projects considering it's had to cut so much money from so many existing ones... although if it's tourist based you'd imagine The Gathering's purse strings could be loosened a bit for it.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

I take your point, but what ever happened to a good ol' tourist office?

ProudDUB

There are only a couple of them dotted around the city. They are only open until 5 and they are run by very well intentioned, but often uninformed people. Last summer, I went into the one on O'Connell St, on behalf of a family member who was returning here after 10 years away in Canada. I was asking about pretty basic stuff (hotels and transport) and I was given incorrect information on every single thing that I asked about.

Anyhoo, back to wifi, don't Bitbuzz offer free wifi in the Henry St and Grafton St areas and their environs? Am pretty sure I availed of it last year when I lived in town and didn't want to use my own data package.

irlirishkev

It's a lovely idea, to be able to hook up to wi-fi wherever you are in the city, but do any cities currently have this in place? I've never heard of it, but that means nothing

edanto

It's on the way, but I don't know any details other than this boards thread about it last year.

Bitbuzz won a Dublin City Council tender to provide it.

Gumbo

Eircom are currently applying for permission for 100's of them throughout the city.

edanto

Great! What type of permission do they need to apply for?

Debator

If Dublin City Council provided free wi-fi they would be destroying the market for Irish ISPs such as Eircom and UPC.
Why give something away for free to a city of over 1million people when you can charge for it?

Slydice

I remember we almost got free wifi in the city but that it was scrapped.

Found this after a quick google:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0109/wifi.html
No free wi-fi for Dublin
Updated: 11:37, Thursday, 10 January 2008

A plan to provide free wireless broadband throughout Dublin has been abandoned.

Dublin City Council has decided the plan would be contrary to EU law on state aid, as well as not financially possible. The project is estimated to cost €27m.

BeerNut

irlirishkev wrote: »

do any cities currently have this in place?

Berlin has it, based on a similar sort of deal to Dublin Bikes: it's owned and managed by an outdoor advertising company, presumably in exchange for more advertising sites.

Gumbo

Debator wrote: »

If Dublin City Council provided free wi-fi they would be destroying the market for Irish ISPs such as Eircom and UPC.
Why give something away for free to a city of over 1million people when you can charge for it?

It wouldn't be unlimited free as such but aimed at tourists and that and for the occasional user. I'm sure there would be limits to what you can access and download etc

Slydice wrote: »

I remember we almost got free wifi in the city but that it was scrapped.

Found this after a quick google:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0109/wifi.html
No free wi-fi for Dublin
Updated: 11:37, Thursday, 10 January 2008

Think it has been updated since. DCC prepared a preliminary document last year outlining key wifi areas which was then used as a starting point for the roll out.

Will find out more in the coming weeks and update.

Gumbo

edanto wrote: »

Great! What type of permission do they need to apply for?

They require units to house the equipment. But I don't think they need standard planning permission, more like a part 8 or part 5 (not sure exactly which one).

edanto

kceire wrote: »

They require units to house the equipment. But I don't think they need standard planning permission, more like a part 8 or part 5 (not sure exactly which one).

Ah fair enough. If I was them I would have looked into retrofitting the WiFi gear into the existing eircom street furniture (surface cabs & phone boxes), but the coverage would be better if they were properly located, at a nice height.

But the cabling and installation costs would be far lower if they used their existing structures and they would be able to install many more devices, including a bunch of hot spares to cut down on maintenance problems.

Gumbo

edanto wrote: »

Ah fair enough. If I was them I would have looked into retrofitting the WiFi gear into the existing eircom street furniture (surface cabs & phone boxes), but the coverage would be better if they were properly located, at a nice height.

But the cabling and installation costs would be far lower if they used their existing structures and they would be able to install many more devices, including a bunch of hot spares to cut down on maintenance problems.

Maybe that's what they a doing

littleredspot

Op You could always download a lot of that info to your phone/tablet before visiting the city. Lonely Planet for example does city guides. You don't have to have data transfer on when you're in the foreign city to use it.

Gumbo

kceire wrote: »

They require units to house the equipment. But I don't think they need standard planning permission, more like a part 8 or part 5 (not sure exactly which one).

kceire wrote: »

Maybe that's what they a doing

kceire wrote: »

It wouldn't be unlimited free as such but aimed at tourists and that and for the occasional user. I'm sure there would be limits to what you can access and download etc



Think it has been updated since. DCC prepared a preliminary document last year outlining key wifi areas which was then used as a starting point for the roll out.

Will find out more in the coming weeks and update.

On checking DCC's planning, it seems that the Eircom applications are only to upgrade their broadband network to fibre power. I may have jumped the gun with the Eircom wifi units in my previous posts, sorry.

Slunk

According to Rte Dublin is to get twelve new free wifi spots. Grafton street, Henry street and a few other busy places. The full list is in the link but what pisses me off is in the article they say these spots will be signposted by images that represent Dublin. A Viking, a tourist and a pyjama girl. Yes, a ****ing pyjama girl. What retard was incharge of this decision. Is it now acceptable and normal and a representation of Dublin for people to walk around in pyjamas ffs. We shouldn't be encouraging this behaviour

Link: http://m.rte.ie/news/touch/2013/0131/365427-dublin-city-centre-wifi/

Gumbo

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0131/365427-dublin-city-centre-wifi/

A free WiFi service in Dublin city centre will be available from today, with access at 12 different locations in the capital planned.
The first locations will go live from 11am beside the Dublin City Council Civic Offices at Wood Quay, at City Hall and at St Patrick's Cathedral.
Dublin City Council had been trying to provide free WiFi for some years, but was told it would be in breach of EU rules on State aid.
But it found a way around that by allowing a commercial company to run it as a concession.
The new service is being provided by Gowex, which runs similar schemes in other European and American cities.
The service will provide free download speeds of around 500Kbps, while higher speeds will require payment.
The locations will be marked by mosaics featuring figures from Dublin, including a viking, a tourist and a pyjama girl.
The full list of locations to be included are: Smithfield Square, Barnardo's Square, Clarendon Street, St Patrick's Park, O'Connell Street Plaza, Temple Bar Square, Wolfe Tone Square, the area in front of the Convention Centre Dublin, Merrion Park, Henry Street, Grafton Street and the outdoor amphitheatre located at Civic Offices.

Gumbo

Yeah knew about this for a while now, only heard it was going live this wek during a meeting last week.

Should be good for the city and free aswell.

Might help with the new DCC Walk Dublin App too.

D1stant

Jaysus. Who's bright idea was that?


What next? fat bankers, grinning poiticians, shuffling junkies

edanto

That's great news! I wonder who's paying who.... I wonder are Gowex paying for the rights to be the DCC WiFi, or are DCC paying Gowex for provide the service and then sharing profits? Would be interesting to know how it's set up.

SebBerkovich

I'm gonna go looking for some WiFi at lunch later!

Gumbo

D1stant wrote: »

Jaysus. Who's bright idea was that?


What next? fat bankers, grinning poiticians, shuffling junkies

:eek: WTF

SunnyDub1

is it actually free though?

Or is it one of these connect to the wifi then sign up to one of those site where you have to pay €4.99 to actually use it :rolleyes:

When in the states the amount of "free wifi" signs around, I'd connect to one then be redirected to a site where I would have to sign up and pay to avail of the "free" wifi :rolleyes:

Gumbo

edanto wrote: »

That's great news! I wonder who's paying who.... I wonder are Gowex paying for the rights to be the DCC WiFi, or are DCC paying Gowex for provide the service and then sharing profits? Would be interesting to know how it's set up.

From reading online it looks like DCC opened a tender for it and Gowex are providing it free of charge, so i'd expect some advertisemtn thrown in, you also have to register with Gowex to use the wifi, so they must be getting some marketing out of it.

Free to the end user, so thats the main thing i suppse.

Gumbo

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

is it actually free though?

Or is it one of these connect to the wifi then sign up to one of those site where you have to pay €4.99 to actually use it :rolleyes:

When in the states the amount of "free wifi" signs around, I'd connect to one then be redirected to a site where I would have to sign up and pay to avail of the "free" wifi :rolleyes:

its supposed to be free. We will know for sure at 11.30am when it goes live, you do have to register with Gowex though.

The free Wi-Fi service is being provided to Dublin City Council by Spanish technology company Gowex. It will be available 24/7 at a speed of 512kbps, according to the company. Those who wish to use the free Wi-Fi will have to register with Gowex

Seems the base pack is free, upgrade to 8MBPS etc will cost - http://www.gowex.com/en/free-wifi/rates/

SunnyDub1

quote from article

The service will provide free download speeds of around 500Kbps, while higher speeds will require payment

Defo a money making scandal IMO

Tabnabs

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

quote from article



Defo a money making scandal IMO

:rolleyes: yeah, you called them out pretty good!

More info including a map here
http://www.dublincity.ie/Business/DublinFreeWiFi/DublinFreeWiFi/Pages/DublinFreeWiFi.aspx

Gumbo

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

quote from article



Defo a money making scandal IMO

Money making scandal you say? Weird view on life right there...

Mountjoy Mugger

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

quote from article



Defo a money making scandal IMO

WTF do you want? The scrounger mentality is still alive and well.