NI to get two-way satellite under stg100/month

Fergus

In the Reg:

BTopenworld's broadband satellite service kicks off next month

"Details of the offer are still being kept under wraps but it's understood that the monthly subscription for the service will be less than £100 but more than the current pricing of DSL, which stands at around £40 a month."

rymus

An interesting question would be "if they can offer this in Northern Ireland, why cant they offer it in the Republic?" It would be quite interesting to see BT offering 2 way broadband satellite in the republic. It would at least serve to undermine Eircom's ill-fated DSL service. That said however, if BT were to launch the service in the republic, they would without doubt be harassed by the ODTR and have to fight legal battles with Eircom before they even got chance to install the first dish. Sad situation really.

Fergus

And one wonders why the govt would be giving grant aid to encourage such VSAT stuff in more remote areas.. you would think it would be reasonably 'commercially viable' anywhere within the sat footprint..

It would be nice to hear from Esat as to why they aren't launching the same service here for the same price. What legal battle is there to fight on this?

yellum

Yeah Esat , give us an answer. You know we know you read these threads. Gis a reason why you won't allow us to have sat access !

Urban Weigl

Indeed.

I don't think there is any reason why Esat couldn't offer 2-way satellite Internet across the Republic for 99 punts a month, inclusive of VAT.

If there is, Esat, please answer this forum, or contact IOffL.

dahamsta

Good points. I'm not really up on the technical or regulatory side of satellite to be honest, but I've asked about it on the committee mailing list. If there's no technical or regulatory reasons why the service can't be offered in Ireland, I'm sure one of us will be in touch with Esat for a comment. I'll get back to you if I have anything concrete.

adam

ando

I'd love to see if BT have any plans to offer the 2 way Sat service over here with Esat... I mean, look at SKY Digital. Their having huge success over here with their Digitial satellite dishs... there all over the place, well in dublin anyway

Red Moose

Maybe it can't be offered because traditional geostationary sats can have ping times of a few seconds, and the solution in the guise of low-earth orbit satellites were meant to be the Next Big Thing, but most of the companies making the LEO systems have gone bust.

I think Microsoft is still on for 2005 though, which will be a pity if there is no broadband here by then (not too unlikely) as it means having to probably pay $500 a month for Passport access to what will inevitablt be called "LEO .NET" or something.

Fergus

Well, the reg claims the service is being provided to BT by Gilat, so I assume this is the spec they're talking about:

http://www.gilat.com/gilat/satip/html/skyb.html

The antenna is a fixed parabolic dish, so the sat is geostationary alright (as previously established thats about a 250ms round trip).

Still, I could live with it if it was reasonably priced!

BoneCollector

i dont think regulation can stop you getting bt satalite serivce, since the signal is a foot print, there is nothing stoping someone from registering for the service in NI then sending and recieving data from the Rep Ire. :cool:

bkehoe

BoneCollector, yes there is . At the time of install, the VSAT (setup in your home) is synchronised to the hub station exactly. This is so that the HTTP boosting software can do its work (the web page you access if first completely downloaded to the hub, and then completely sent to the vsat so that the issue of lag is avoided). Move the Vsat over 30 miles, and they'll be out of sync, and you won't be able to use the http software, and only 'normal' connections. This wouldn't affect downloading, but would affect normal web browsing. Expect pings from 400ms - 600ms.

A good resource is www.starbandusers.com. I've been subscribed to this since Beam first announced their 2 way offering (also Gilat), and have come across a lot of things there. If there are any more specific questions about Gilat, I'll do a search, or ask there if you want.

BT are probably not offering it here as they have no installers here (installing a 2 way system is nothing like a normal dish; 1mm could make the difference of it working or not).

If you did decide to get it, then you'd need someone in the North willing to pay the monthly subscriptions, and initially have a dish and kit installed in their home, and then ripped out by you.

Brendan

Moriarty

Originally posted by Fergus

The antenna is a fixed parabolic dish, so the sat is geostationary alright (as previously established thats about a 250ms round trip).

Geostationary connections have a ping time under ideal situations of around 450ms.

Fergus

Geostationary connections have a ping time under ideal situations of around 450ms.

Indeed. I was just quoting time for radio wave to travel 2 x min path to geostationary orbit.

Sesshoumaru

Has anyone heard anything from TiscaliSAt yet ? I thought they were suppose to launch a satellite service in Ireland/UK and Europe around about now.

dahamsta

> Tiscali announced a two-way satellite service some months ago, and that it
> would be launched around this time. Can you tell me if Tiscali still have
> plans to launch the service, and if so, when?

we are very grateful about your interest towards our TiscaliSat system.
However, TiscaliSat is currently proposed exclusively in some of the
countries in which Tiscali is operative. If TiscaliSat will be also proposed
in other countries, we'll inform you
about coming news.
For further informations, please have a look at the following address:
http://satellite.tiscali.it

*yawn*

adam

Praetorian

Would it be possible to ask a relation in the North to order the satellite service from BT and then install the equipment down in the south?

Would they know that Im actually using it from the Republic?

I would get this straight away if there were no caps and good upload / download speeds!

Am I getting desperate......YES I FU(KING AM!

p

Originally posted by Praetorian
Would it be possible to ask a relation in the North to order the satellite service from BT and then install the equipment down in the south?

Would they know that Im actually using it from the Republic?

I would get this straight away if there were no caps and good upload / download speeds!

Didn't you read the above posts,
they have a locked position in order for it to work, so you can't move the dish.

- Kevin

Praetorian

P. Do you read every single line of threads?? Well I missed Bkehoe's post :P

I am approximately 30 miles from the North

Just that bit too far I guess. Although my cousin in Dundalk shouldnt have a problem. We had slagging matches over who would have broadband first.....looks like he is gonna win