Metro is Coming!

Blaster99

What's so special about this stuff that warrant all the media hype? Every WISP in the country has technology that can do what this Digiweb thing offers, and a lot of them have a lot more coverage. Maybe/Hopefully I'm missing something.

Slice

Can anyone on the website find a comprehensive breakdown of call charges or a link they can direct me to?

jubbly

Digiweb deploys 3Mbps cable/wireless broadband




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08.09.2005 - Broadband provider Digiweb has launched a new 3Mbps cable and wireless broadband service called Metro to some 1.3 million people across six initial locations – Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Dundalk.
In stark difference to the counterproductive wrangling surrounding local loop unbundling (LLU), Digiweb said it is inviting other established carriers and operators to avail of wholesale access to the Metro network from day one.

The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, TD welcomed the move. “The new service represents a major leap forward in the provision of wireless broadband to the Irish market. It bypasses the difficulties of LLU and is completely independent of the traditional telephone networks.”

Digiweb says Metro effectively addresses what has been missing in the Irish telecoms market to date – genuine telecoms platform competition.

The company says it has been engaged in the research and development of Metro for over a year, combining leading technologies and protocols from the wireless and cable modem industries. For example, the company says Metro is Ireland’s most extensive DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem system delivered on one of the most advanced licensed wireless platforms available today.

“In essence, Metro will enable selected partner companies to architect, specify and deliver their own services to their own end customers across our network,” explained Colm Piercy, managing director of Digiweb. “Those operators may package any of a wide host of services they wish to offer – the Metro network does not impose any fixed specifications, formats, or business model. With its extremely keen cost base compared to other options, we expect Metro will rapidly stimulate many new services and greatly increased consumer choice in the Irish telecoms market.”

Entry-level retail packages on the new network offer 3Mbps broadband with a full telephony service, free line rental, free voice calls to other Digiweb customers, and in excess of 50pc savings on calls to most other locations, for €35 per month ex Vat, with the option of a second phone line and phone number for an extra €5 per month.

Enhanced packages include a 4Mbps service with 1Mbps upload with low contention for €90 ex Vat and a 6Mbps download, 2Mbps upload service for €249 ex Vat per month.

Based on standard telephony protocols the phone service allows any normal phone to be used and customers may opt to either have a new geographic number assigned or to transfer their existing phone number from their current provider. However, the customer does not need to have a traditional phone line installed and for new homeowners, the long wait traditionally associated with a phone service is eliminated, the company claims.

“It’s a unique occurrence in the Irish market to launch a network of this scale and nature simultaneously in six large cities. Metro is designed to be exceptionally flexible and scalable, and immediately will also be used to deliver a number of enhanced business services such as leased line replacement technology, MPLS links, E1 and fractional E1 provision. We are now in the planning stages for our phase 2 build, which will be available in the second or third quarter of next year, with a view to providing 70pc population coverage by mid-year”, Piercy said.

By John Kennedy http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5363

pity about the line of sight thingy

tba

jubbly wrote:

pity about the line of sight thingy

build really high towers

dub45

A 12 month contract followed by a 'passive' renewal for a further 12 months is outrageous and really should be resisted as strongly as possible!!!!!!!!

irishguy

dub45 wrote:

A 12 month contract followed by a 'passive' renewal for a further 12 months is outrageous and really should be resisted as strongly as possible!!!!!!!!

its 6months they linked to there wireless t's & c's by mistake, i rang them about it. They are sorting it tommrow or so they say.

dub45

I am always sceptical about Companies who cannot get their terms and conditions right. Does nobody read these things before launching them on the unsuspecting public?

is_that_so

dub45 wrote:

I am always sceptical about Companies who cannot get their terms and conditions right. Does nobody read these things before launching them on the unsuspecting public?

http://www.digiweb.ie/broadband_metro_wait.asp?i=80&i2=81&i6=96&zzz=hm

"The website is being updated, please visit this page again later."

dub45

is_that_so wrote:

http://www.digiweb.ie/broadband_metro_wait.asp?i=80&i2=81&i6=96&zzz=hm

"The website is being updated, please visit this page again later."

Launched in a blaze of publicity with wrong terms and conditions on the website?????????

Chaz

Are you targetting this at consumers or business mainly?

No, all clients.

Why the ludicrous price on the 6Mb package? Stymie demand till you can definately provide the bandwidth?

As before - this is the price - it has better contention, and there are already orders for it showing that it is well priced considering the amount of bandwidth on this and the cap of 120Gig.

Low cap on the 3Mb service? You could of at least equalled ntls.

As above, we feel this is the right package / cap. Of course, like with any of these packages, we may change and tweak as the market requires.

How big is the aerial (I live in a protected house so can't have any dishes or anything on the front of it)?

Approx 300mm x 300mm x 80mm.

Where are your masts located so people can figure out if they might be able to get the service?

In which city? In Dublin 3 Rock and Finglas are first phase sites, 2 others busy being planned / rolled out and then we will start to target dead spots and fill in cells.

How big are the modems?

+- 150mm x 100mm x 40mm.

Do you need a wired link from receiver to modem or can this be done wirelessly out of the box or with a wifi link from receiver to mast?

Wireless to our mast via the CPE, down a CoAx cable to the Cable Modem. You can then share this as you wish behind the modem.

Timescale from order to installation?

We are starting to install tomorrow with non beta test clients. All depends on demand - we are trying to turn around installs within 10 working days.

What VOIP kit does customer get?

No VOIP, normal RJ11 Analog Port on the modem as per normal land line from other providers.

Full list of call cost to all destinations both on and off peak?

I dont have this with me now - will get something from the voice service guys ASAP.

I take it you don't ten to aggresively compete with the likes of blueface with those call costs quoted on your website and rather just by undercutting eircom a bit?

As before - no comment on pricing.

I'll think of more later

:-)

Cabaal

is_that_so wrote:

"The website is being updated, please visit this page again later."

Certainly very offputting,
I check it work today got that message, got home and same thing

is_that_so wrote:

What VOIP kit does customer get?

No VOIP, normal RJ11 Analog Port on the modem as per normal land line from other providers.

So its either a Modem/ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) or you need a standard PSTN line that you connect the modem too so you can use Digiweb Phone...such a setup would make no sense. Which is it?

Nuphor

I appreciate the feedback Chaz. I don't suppose you could us give an extremely rough estimate as to when a WiMAX service will be available?

johndanielmoore

Does the cable modem include NAT + DHCP?
If it does is the user allowed to log into it to change port forwarding?
Is their an upload limit?

Chaz

Cabaal wrote:

Certainly very offputting,
I check it work today got that message, got home and same thing



So its either a Modem/ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) or you need a standard PSTN line that you connect the modem too so you can use Digiweb Phone...such a setup would make no sense. Which is it?

The Cable Modem acts as a broadband and voice device. It is a ATA.

Chaz

Nuphor wrote:

I appreciate the feedback Chaz. I don't suppose you could us give an extremely rough estimate as to when a WiMAX service will be available?

Nope, we are part of the WiMax forum and have regular input - however we are not just yet climbing onto the WiMax bus.

Chaz

johndanielmoore wrote:

Does the cable modem include NAT + DHCP?
If it does is the user allowed to log into it to change port forwarding?
Is their an upload limit?

The Modem is only a termination device. It does not do NAT or port forwarding and has no user accessable menus.

Upload is standard traffic and counted as same.

johndanielmoore

Thanks for the reply.

On the Metro €35 service is the 30gb limit for download and upload or 30gb each way?

If a computer is directly connected to the modem does the computer use dhcp or a static public address.

Chaz

johndanielmoore wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

On the Metro €35 service is the 30gb limit for download and upload or 30gb each way?

If a computer is directly connected to the modem does the computer use dhcp or a static public address.

I stand to be corrected - 30 Gig in total - but i will confirm.

Yes, the local PC to the Modem gets a DHCP IP Address. I will confirm if they are static or not - and on which packages - cant remember off hand.

is_that_so

Chaz wrote:

I stand to be corrected - 30 Gig in total - but i will confirm.

Yes, the local PC to the Modem gets a DHCP IP Address. I will confirm if they are static or not - and on which packages - cant remember off hand.

You can get a static IP on the basic package at an extra cost although more likely to be business from the way they describe it.

http://www.digiweb.ie/broadband_metro_services.asp?i=80&i2=81&i6=91&zzz=hm
(one of the few pages working )

johndanielmoore

Thank for that. I was just trying to figure out how to use a router with this service. If I understand it correctly I would use DHCP on the WAN port and could use private static ip's on the LAN side with port forwarding and firewall on the router.

Chaz

johndanielmoore wrote:

Thank for that. I was just trying to figure out how to use a router with this service. If I understand it correctly I would use DHCP on the WAN port and could use private static ip's on the LAN side with port forwarding and firewall on the router.

Yep, exactly like that.

Surprised no one has asked about latency yet :-)

feylya

Hmmm Chaz, could you tell us all about latency?

Chaz

feylya wrote:

Hmmm Chaz, could you tell us all about latency?

LOL,

Basically, as its a cable system, typical latency is 10-15 ms stable. Due to it being licensed frequency - no chance of interferrence - so this is what can be expected as the norm.

SkepticOne

Hi Chaz,

Can the consumer level product price be quoted inclusive of VAT rather than ex VAT as is the convention.

crawler

FAQ from me (a little later than I thought, apologies!)

1) What is the upload speed

The upload speed is half a meg, 512Kbps on the 3MB package

2) Will caps be strictly enforced and will you charge for going over them

Digiweb want to be fair to ALL users on the network at all times. Provided users don’t abuse the service then we see the caps as a good guideline. It is not the intention to charge but people who constantly abuse limits may be rate limited. It's not because we are mean people, we simply have to be fair to all users.

3) Does the cap include uploads?

Uploads are measured separately and have an additional upload limit pro rata to the download speed

4) What is installed in my home/business and what ports does it have?

We install an EMTA (Enhanced multimedia terminal adapter) in your home/business. It has an Ethernet, USB and 2 X RJ-11 ( phone) ports in one single device

5) Why would I buy the 6Mb service? Surely 2 X 3Mb services are better value?

This thought did naturally cross our mind . It's a question of quality. The 6Mb service is a Business service ( although if someone wanted it at home we would provide it). There are different latency, Quality, Priority settings the higher up the ladder you go. This service can also be used for Leased line replacement services. Many professional IT Companies expressed a massive interest in this type of product at this price for Centrex type services and Frame relay replacement technologies etc.

6) Why are all prices excluding VAT?

There is NO intention here to confuse and prices do clearly say Ex VAT. Originally the entire product suite was designed for business and we expect a large number of our Customers to be SME, SOHO users etc. We will make this clearer if people feel it is confusing, as is NOT our intention to confuse the consumer in any way.

7) Is your voice service a standard VoIP service?

No. Our voice service follows the principles outlined by cable labs for Packet voice. It is a PATS replacement technology and our network is optimised to guarantee voice quality.

8) Why were terms and conditions not on the Website?

They will be very shortly. Apologies for this, it is a new Website and there is a lot of work going on to bring all the components live today. Again, certainly no intention to confuse.

9) Why would I choose Metro over another provider / another provider is cheaper

This network is about Quality. It is built on a Cisco Powered MPLS backbone and fed on fibre to the pops. The 10.5Ghz spectrum is LICENSED spectrum and therefore unlikely to suffer form interference. Only Tier 1 transit carriers are used and we use a class 5 voice switch for voice termination. We feel the products are excellent value for money and as they say the proof of the pudding etc...

10) Will coverage increase?

Yes, this is phase 1 build. Phase 2 begins next week. To be fair we would love to have this available to 100% of the population, why wouldn’t we? In reality we need licenses, backhaul etc...it is a product for population centres to be honest...who knows if uptake is high enough them maybe things would change

11) Will it work with monitored alarms?

We don’t recommend it with a monitored alarm and we do not believe it will work (anyone like to test it ?). We are talking to several security Companies to offer our own security services.

12) Will it work with a Digibox?

It has been tested and it works but we don’t officially say it will.

13) What About WiMax?

This product will act as a feeder for WiMax cells for both Digiweb and other ISPs ( if they wish) WiMax has some issues of it’s own to sort on standards first really. Digiweb also use equipment from Airspan and both Digiweb and Airspan are heavily involved in the WiMax Forum

14) Can I port my Number and its there a charge?

Yes and Yes. There is a once off charge of €55.00.

15) What number do you provide?

Standard phone numbers...01 for Dublin 021 for Cork etc..076 if asked for. There is no charge for the number we provide

16) Will you listen to people on Boards?

Yes, naturally but we may not always agree with what is said and we may not always post replies but we will take on board comments suggestions etc. If they make sense we will enhance the product set. Remember, it is a first cut at this for us too, there is no other product really on the market in Ireland like this.

17) How will it compare to “xxxx” competitor product

In fairness, we couldn’t comment on that – we respect and watch our competitors while at the same time get on with doing our own thing.

18) So what is the technology actually called ( as opposed to marketing name) ?

It’s a full DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem system delivered to the end user on an EMTA (see above). It is not “kinda” DOCSIS 2.0 , it IS DOCSIS 2.0

19) I already have a Digiweb product delivered on DSL etc, can I migrate?

Yes but it depends on when you started your existing service etc. We are trying to provide costings for all possible options (within reason – we do use 3 different access technologies)

20) What about latency

Should be typically under 50ms to all popular sites and as low as 10ms.

21) Is Crawler our new Garfield?

Sorry guys but "no" (and my hat off to Garfield, the man with the shades !) I will post a FAQ about once a week but I don’t actually spend enough time on Boards to answer questions! Crawler is a regular boards general poster too.

Anyway, I hope this is useful....till next week.

johndanielmoore

Since there's a download limit is their a site to check usage.

dub45

8) Why were terms and conditions not on the Website?

They will be very shortly. Apologies for this, it is a new Website and there is a lot of work going on to bring all the components live today. Again, certainly no intention to confuse

Surely the intention from the start should be to inform potential customers clearly? To me it sends a very iffy message if clear Terms and Condtions are not a priority from the start. The terms and conditions form the basis of the relationship betweem customer and company. If a Company is confused about its Terms and Condtions on its launch day it would not give me much confidence in where its priorities lie.

People may say whats he on about but a perusal of the the BB boards will show that ultimately Terms and Conditions come back to haunt both customer and Company eventually.

spartacus93

crawler wrote:

I will post a FAQ about once a week but I don’t actually spend enough time on Boards to answer questions! Crawler is a regular boards general poster too.

Anyway, I hope this is useful....till next week.

Crawler is a regular boards poster too? Who are you so? I thought the aim was not to confuse.............

Chaz

Dub45, point taken (Again). Things have been extremely hectic and not everything was completed on time and put in the public domain. We are getting this sorted out and trying to ensure, by posting on here that the info is as accurate as possible. We could always just dissapear into the woodwork and give absolutely no info here - however both myself and Crawler would prefer to keep interested parties informed - if it gets to a bashing session or where assumptions are being made about certain items - it gets messy and confusing to a point where any of our involvement will be a waste of time.

Ask any question - we will try and answer as best we can.

JohnDanielMoore, nope - not publically. Consider using Download Meter or something similar? It is not something we get asked for often - therefore havent really put any work on a public system.

Chaz

spartacus93 wrote:

Crawler is a regular boards poster too? Who are you so? I thought the aim was not to confuse.............

Its his 3rd personality .... dont mind him - been a long day :-)