Future of Rural broadband

daithicarr

Im using the last bit of my horrendous data allowance to ask this question.

Has anyone heard of any sort of replacement or upgrade mentioned or even suggested for the national broadband scheme.

I would rank Internet access as an essential utility along with water and electricity. Any modern business is going to require it and frankly the rural broadband scheme with intermittent connections , low speeds and miniscule data allowances of as little as 10 GB a month are in no way suited to the task and massively hinder the availability of work to rural dwellers.

Has anyone come across any schemes where local community's have provided their own broadband service in Ireland , much like the ones I have read about in Scotland ?

bealtine

daithicarr wrote: »

Has anyone come across any schemes where local community's have provided their own broadband service in Ireland , much like the ones I have read about in Scotland ?

There are a number of Fixed Wireless Access (not mobile) providers dotted around the country they are usually much better than anything mobile.

If you give us some idea of where you are we can tell you what might be available

daithicarr

Living in Fheothanach, north west of Dingle.

Was curious to see if there were any concrete efforts being made to improve the system, I have seen some press releases about a national broadband plan with 30meg download speeds for harder to reach rural areas which id imagine ill fall under.

Has there been any actual implementation of these goals ? Can i sit tight and wait for it to arrive, or should i get my shovel out and start laying out my own fibre optic cable .

bealtine

daithicarr wrote: »

Living in Fheothanach, north west of Dingle.

Was curious to see if there were any concrete efforts being made to improve the system, I have seen some press releases about a national broadband plan with 30meg download speeds for harder to reach rural areas which id imagine ill fall under.

Has there been any actual implementation of these goals ? Can i sit tight and wait for it to arrive, or should i get my shovel out and start laying out my own fibre optic cable .

Well that's a complicated question...in short not really, however the Dept of comms are starting a mapping project to "find out" areas that are not covered and then probably ignore those areas.

In the interim (and that will be a long time) I'd suggest Kerry Broadband

http://www.kerrybroadband.ie/

daithicarr

Is it really that hard for them to find out what areas aren't covered ? Im sure given a week I could tell them.

I have seen that kerry broadband before i rang them a few times, no answers, left messages, no reply. no very inspiring , that and their map shows that my house lies outside their green coverage area on the map.

And many of the houses in this area seem to be outside their coverage, the mountain tops seem well covered though. might have to get an extension lead and a bin liner to wrap around the lap top to make my skype calls. That or ask them to put up a mast to bounce the signal into this valley.

Stereomaniac

In Ireland, traditionally I think it's very difficult for anyone in a position that gives them any sort of power to find out what's going on. Hence, we have politicians passing the blame and pretending that they weren't notified of certain issues. Perhaps you should volunteer your services to let them know. I think that true change can only be brought about when the people that are actually affected by the issue become involved. Just be sure to check out Waterford!

shane7218

Broadband in this country is a disgrace in rural Ireland. I have tried every wireless provider I could find and no service is available and I live only 10 minutes outside of tullamore in county offaly. I am now stuck with a satellite connection thats SUPPOSED to give me a 20mb connection. This is it in general
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2774187666.png

bijou

shane7218 wrote: »

Broadband in this country is a disgrace in rural Ireland. I have tried every wireless provider I could find and no service is available and I live only 10 minutes outside of tullamore in county offaly. I am now stuck with a satellite connection thats SUPPOSED to give me a 20mb connection. This is it in general
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2774187666.png

That's woeful/heartbreaking speeds - I feel for you I really do. Reminds me of my speeds with o2 before putting the equipment up on the roof - immense improvement since (no where near "proper" BB speeds but better).

I couldn't avail of the NBS so this was my last resort.

Off topic slightly but to make matters worse - reading the thread about the eircom efibre roll out with absolutely no chance of it coming to my area is like rubbing salt into the wound :rolleyes:

shane7218

bijou wrote: »

That's woeful/heartbreaking speeds - I feel for you I really do. Reminds me of my speeds with o2 before putting the equipment up on the roof - immense improvement since (no where near "proper" BB speeds but better).

I couldn't avail of the NBS so this was my last resort.

Off topic slightly but to make matters worse - reading the thread about the eircom efibre roll out with absolutely no chance of it coming to my area is like rubbing salt into the wound :rolleyes:

I know and when I hear people complaining about there 70mb connection and there only getting 40 I die a little inside

bijou

shane7218 wrote: »

I know and when I hear people complaining about there 70mb connection and there only getting 40 I die a little inside

lol I hear ya alright

siblers

Im just praying when 4g is rolled out, us folk in rural areas wont be completley forgotten.

bealtine

siblers wrote: »

Im just praying when 4g is rolled out, us folk in rural areas wont be completley forgotten.

eh 4G won't save anybody...unless there's a 4G mast on every corner/hill of the country it'll be much the same as 3G now, hit and miss

Irish Henry

Hi,

I am in Wexford countryside. Anybody got any ideas of a good internet provider apart from PermaNET and Eircom?

marno21

Irish Henry wrote: »

Hi,

I am in Wexford countryside. Anybody got any ideas of a good internet provider apart from PermaNET and Eircom?

http://www.carnsorebroadband.com/
http://www.ripplecom.net/broadband-coverage-map
http://www.rocketbroadband.ie/index.php?id=13
http://www.alphabroadband.ie/services.php
http://www.rbb.ie/
http://www.regionalbroadband.ie/

Spoilt for choice.

Marian Walsh

daithicarr wrote: »

Im using the last bit of my horrendous data allowance to ask this question.



I would rank Internet access as an essential utility along with water and electricity. Any modern business is going to require it and frankly the rural broadband scheme with intermittent connections , low speeds and miniscule data allowances of as little as 10 GB a month are in no way suited to the task and massively hinder the availability of work to rural dwellers.

Does the government really care if anyone in rural Ireland has water or electricity?

shane7218

Marian Walsh wrote: »

daithicarr wrote: »

Im using the last bit of my horrendous data allowance to ask this question.



I would rank Internet access as an essential utility along with water and electricity. Any modern business is going to require it and frankly the rural broadband scheme with intermittent connections , low speeds and miniscule data allowances of as little as 10 GB a month are in no way suited to the task and massively hinder the availability of work to rural dwellers.

Does the government really care if anyone in rural Ireland has water or electricity?

I have given up hope tbh. I am in the middle of a degree in Computer Science and cant even go home as the internet is unusable. What annoys me is every where else is getting fibre and rural ireland doesn't even have 1mb available through an eircom line :mad:

bealtine

shane7218 wrote: »

Marian Walsh wrote: »

I have given up hope tbh. I am in the middle of a degree in Computer Science and cant even go home as the internet is unusable. What annoys me is every where else is getting fibre and rural ireland doesn't even have 1mb available through an eircom line :mad:

That's why IrelandOffline exists:)

See the forum here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?forumid=60


www.irelandoffline.org

SpaceTime

What you need to do is get a bunch of neighbours together and explain to your local TDs why you will not be voting for them next time around unless this issue is resolved.

If they felt that there was a serious election issue, you'd have broadband sorted out in no time.

uncle_sam_ie

SpaceTime wrote: »

What you need to do is get a bunch of neighbours together and explain to your local TDs why you will not be voting for them next time around unless this issue is resolved.

If they felt that there was a serious election issue, you'd have broadband sorted out in no time.

They'd just promise the world and then do nothing like always.

bk

Funny thing, I'm actually more optimistic then ever about rural broadband finally being sorted.

I'm particularly impressed by Eircoms VDSL rollout, not only is it going very quickly, but much to my surprise it is going much deeper into rural towns and villages then I expected it would.

Ok, that doesn't help people in one off houses in rural areas, but at least it is a good start. I have a feeling that once Eircom finishes the current VDSL rollout in two years time, that they may start looking at filling in the missed areas and more rural areas with small sized mini VDSL DSLAMS.

Now they might need to get gap funding, to get all the rural areas, but BT has already proven it can be done in Northern Ireland, so I see no reason why it can't be done here.

Very rural homes can be connected with fixed wireless with fibre feeds from the VDSL going to the local town or village.

Now of course this isn't going to happen over night and that is frustrating for people currently stuck on 1mb. But I see absolutely no reason why 100% of homes in Ireland can't have 40mb/s by 5 years from now.

And that should absolutely be a government goal.

lucernarian

bk wrote: »

Funny thing, I'm actually more optimistic then ever about rural broadband finally being sorted.

I'm particularly impressed by Eircoms VDSL rollout, not only is it going very quickly, but much to my surprise it is going much deeper into rural towns and villages then I expected it would.

Ok, that doesn't help people in one off houses in rural areas, but at least it is a good start. I have a feeling that once Eircom finishes the current VDSL rollout in two years time, that they may start looking at filling in the missed areas and more rural areas with small sized mini VDSL DSLAMS.

Now they might need to get gap funding, to get all the rural areas, but BT has already proven it can be done in Northern Ireland, so I see no reason why it can't be done here.

Very rural homes can be connected with fixed wireless with fibre feeds from the VDSL going to the local town or village.

Now of course this isn't going to happen over night and that is frustrating for people currently stuck on 1mb. But I see absolutely no reason why 100% of homes in Ireland can't have 40mb/s by 5 years from now.

And that should absolutely be a government goal.

I really don't see the evidence of this. Take for instance the village of Tullyallen in Louth before 2 large new estates were built over the last ten years. It is served by a cabinet about 3 to 4 km away on the edge of Drogheda. Now, did eircom move the cabinet to a sensible location like near the edge of the village, putting VDSL in the range of about 100 businesses and homes? No, they actually enabled the existing cabinet, capable of serving about ten houses in its vicinity. The sheer ineptitude and wasted opportunities for areas surrounding larger towns is palpable. There are still people waiting in the middle of Drogheda for VDSL and can't get it for various stupid reasons. One I read mentioned that they were so near Patrick St. that there was no cabinet provided between them and the exchange!

Comic geniuses, eircom:rolleyes: