Leap expands broadband coverage

dahamsta

Leap expands broadband coverage

Irish fixed-wireless broadband provider Leap Broadband has expanded its coverage dramatically and says it is on the verge of signing its 200th customer.

The firm, which provides broadband Internet services, has attached base stations to two of RTE's biggest towers, including the state broadcaster's site on Three Rock Mountain in County Dublin. From these sites, Leap says it can offer Internet services in a radius of up to 15km. Moreover, the company claims that its service can go as far as 20km, stretching from Swords to Clondalkin to the northern boarder of County Wicklow, for users who are willing to purchase special equipment.

Within the last two weeks the firm placed its base station on the tower at Three Rock, and the company's station on RTE's tower in Donnybrook has been in place since late December. It was around that time that Leap said it had reached its 100th customer milestone, and according to Director Charlie Ardagh, the firm is now nearing the 200 mark.

"Things are going well," Ardagh told ElectricNews.Net. "Growth has been consistent. We're no Telewest, but I think we are making an impact on the Dublin broadband market."

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Saruman

Nice but too expensive

thegills

I believe they have a list as long as your arm for LOS testing off 3 Rock so hopefully the prices will come down soon.

ando

can we soon hope to see a dish up on howth head for us north dubliners?

phoenix2181

I'm using the three rock base station as I write this, I think we were one of the first on this ariel, the connection is very very fast even for 512kbps (I was downloading at about 200kb/s the other night) its expensive but well worth it

MDR

so hopefully the prices will come down soon.

Hum, don't know if it will,
anyone have any expierence with leap,
are they aiming at making money through the mass market or through high priced niche market ?

Jorinn

Originally posted by phoenix2181
I'm using the three rock base station as I write this, I think we were one of the first on this ariel, the connection is very very fast even for 512kbps (I was downloading at about 200kb/s the other night) its expensive but well worth it

Hmm, isn't that impossible since 512kbps speeds generally denote bits so ytou'd end up with a max download speed if you looked in your download app of circa 80KB/s down? if you're actaully saying that in bits then that's a very poor download speed really.

phoenix2181

yes I know what your saying but i'm paying for 512kbps connection but in fact I'm getting much faster then this, it feels like I'm downloading from a 1mb or 1.5mb line, i'm not complaining.....

quozl

can you post some ping times to
clarity.jolt.co.uk and
games2.iol.ie
please, I'm thinking of moving to leap
Greg

Saruman

are they aiming at making money through the mass market or through high priced niche market ?

I think its more high priced.. as far as i can tell from www.irishwan.org Leap are actually good lads helping them out too! They are happy with groups setting up wans to take on the leap service and then resell it out to other members of ther wan. They know this and are happy with them doing it it seems... i could be wrong and missread it though.

spongebob

I know that Leap have offered assistance to Community based groups , they have no philosophical problem with it unlike Eircom and ESAT who do not want their Broadband drops shared unless you pay them well over €100 a month.

thegills

are they aiming at making money through the mass market or through high priced niche market ?

Maybe Rory from Leap could comment here.

I don't see why they wouldn't reduce the price if the demand increased significantly. From the sounds of it the demand is there especially off the 3 Rock site.
Leap are also deploying P2P SDH radio soon (backhaul) so should be able to expand their network to other parts of Dublin soon.
I think the site/mast on Howth Head is privately owned and over-crowded so could be difficult to get on to.
thegills

ando

Originally posted by thegills
Leap are also deploying P2P SDH radio soon (backhaul) so should be able to expand their network to other parts of Dublin soon

sorry but whats P2p Sdh mean?

Jokah

What equipment do Leap attach to your house? Will it require drilling? what equipment will be required for your modem?

vinnyfitz

They fix a thing about the size and shape of a bathroom scales onto the exterior of your house - chimney or somewhere - using an ugly metal bracket and maybe a short pole. Then they need to run a cable in to the house and it ends up plugged into a router. Takes power through the router so does not need separate plug and power cable.
Careful though - they use external contractors to do the work and can be a bit messy and unimaginative in positioning and fixing.

Serbian

Originally posted by ando
sorry but whats P2p Sdh mean?

Well P2P generally stands for Peer to Peer. As for SDH, I imagine it is some kind of fiber technology since it seems that it is being used for backhaul, according to thegills post. How this allows them to expand the service all over Dublin, I do not know

Jokah

"using an ugly metal bracket and maybe a short pole"

Could you elaborate please Vinny.

"plugged into a router. "

Where is the router attached? To a wall on the inside of the house or just to your laptop/pc?

Is there drilling involved?

Thanks for your help, you see If i fail the DSL line Test for Eircom, ( im in blackrock) then I have to look at alternatives. I will be in a rented house so I want to have the proper information for the landlord so I can persuade him to let me use the BB.

And in LOS do u actually need to see the Towers? Leap especially

kamobe

THERE IS ANOTHER HALF TO THE F*CKING CITY!!!!

*growl*

Jokah

"THERE IS ANOTHER HALF TO THE F*CKING CITY!!!!"

What you mean?

azi

Originally posted by Serbian
As for SDH, I imagine it is some kind of fiber technology since it seems that it is being used for backhaul, according to thegills post.

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy is a hierarchy used by telcos to carry data streams of varying capacity over a fixed frame fibre connection (eircoms/esats national rings would use SDH, for instance). The bit rate is standardised at 52MBit'/s and multiples thereof, IIRC.

azi.

vinnyfitz

...peeps pick up on the old arguments rather than just answering your question.

Yes you do need line of sight - that is the point. If it is a marginal case the exterior mounting needs to be such so as to ensure the receiver can "see" the transmitter. The work is not anything I'd expect a landlord to worry about...

In terms of damage to the building all you need is one hole (thru a window frame or something) for the cable to come in. They supply a modem which you just plug into a socket, their cable and a cable linking to your router/firewall. It is a small device say4" by 3" by 2" high. No need to fix it to a wall. You can sit it on a shelf or something.