Fixed Wireless ISDN

oscarBravo

which forum, which forum...? I'll put it here, someone can move it if necessary

Call off the hounds, recall the flock of pigs that flew past the blue moon last night: I might just be getting ISDN!

Some of you may remember that it was revealed recently that Eircom's narrowband FWA license stipulated that they were required to provide basic rate ISDN; that I promptly ordered an ISDN line; and that I was told it wasn't going to happen.

Today I got a phone call asking me if I was still interested - am I wha? The order has been placed, and subject to a site survey and up to one month lead time, I should be upgraded.

I'm confident about the site survey, because I know I have a very strong signal here, and I'm pretty sure the month lead time is a worst-case ass-covering exercise, so this could be the best news I've had for some time.

On the flipside, there's something kinda sad about getting excited about ISDN in 2003... :rolleyes:

spongebob

had you reminded comreg of the terms of the licence that they themselves awarded to eircom for FWA by any chance?

oscarBravo

Yup. I don't know if that was the deciding factor, but I wrote to Pat Galvin enclosing the relevant sections of the license, with a copy to ComReg.

Big thanx to yerself Muck for the pointer to the license.

spongebob

seeing as its in the same licence, could you get your 'line' tested for the 384k asymmetric service while Pat is on the case?

384/128 would be tolerable at a flat rate of course.

M

oscarBravo

That thought has been floating around the back of my head. I'll get the ISDN in, and pick the engineer's brain while he's here.

ganam

Any chance someone could post the url of where I'd find Eircom's narrowband FWA licence? Searched comreg but no luck there.

I ordered an ISDN line 3 weeks ago and haven't heard a word since.

I didn't know about any licence requirements.

Thumbs up for posting that info.

spongebob

Originally posted by ganam
Any chance someone could post the url of where I'd find Eircom's narrowband FWA licence? Searched comreg but no luck there.

I ordered an ISDN line 3 weeks ago and haven't heard a word since.

I didn't know about any licence requirements.

Thumbs up for posting that info.

Oscarbravo Wrote to Pat Galvin. Pat was the Head of Regulatory Affairs , Eircom, St Stephens Green House, Dublin 2

You should not bother Pat about these things any more. He has been replaced recently by

David McRedmond
Head of Regulatory Affairs
Eircom
St Stephens Green House,
Dublin 2

cc to Comreg as always.

Make SURE you get the full name of the Biddy who sez "We dont provide wireless!" and the full name of the Biddys supervisor as well. Make SURE you know what office Biddy is in and what office her supervisor is in too.

The relevant background information for you is largely in This thread or in any thread discussing FWPMA Narrowband ....there have been a few this year so far. There are links there to the docs you may choose to remind David McRedmond of....he knows about them but may need to be reminded.

Oscarbravo reminded Pat of the fact that Eircom have a licence which....inter alia.

1. Obliges them to provide Wireless ADSL to 20% of the land mass of the state at speeds of up to 384k

2. Obliges them to provide Wireless as a seamless alternative to wired with the 'same level of customer service' ....IE Biddy should be fully trained up on it (a laugh when you think of how thick Biddy is, I can hear the dentures rattling at the back of the conference room already )

3. Has obliged Eircom to have done this for 3 years so far in regulatory terms....but cannot oblige Eircom to publish a map of Which 20% of the state is covered .......or so I heard.

Do post some snippets from Davids replies in here because we all enjoy a good laugh.

M

oscarBravo

Originally posted by Muck
Do post some snippets from Davids replies in here because we all enjoy a good laugh.

Unless David is substantially chattier by nature than Pat, I can save you the trouble. The reply will be:

"We're looking into it. We'll let you know."

Interestingly, the first meaningful reply I got to my letter was yesterday's phone call offering me the ISDN connection.

OHP

I have and ISDN line but whats a Fixed Wireless ISDN then? And when was it made available by Eircon? And why wasnt anyone informed? Like ME!

OHP

SkepticOne

Originally posted by OHP
I have and ISDN line but whats a Fixed Wireless ISDN then? And when was it made available by Eircon? And why wasnt anyone informed? Like ME!

It is a wireless service providing the equivalent of ISDN i.e. two 64k digital lines.

OHP

Originally posted by SkepticOne
It is a wireless service providing the equivalent of ISDN i.e. two 64k digital lines.

I have to be honest here Skep I am lost! I am told anything to do with wireless is ok for downloading but terrible for gaming. The ISDN line I am on is just about average and just about usable. So is the Wireless ISDN any better then?

OHP

bk

Originally posted by OHP
I have to be honest here Skep I am lost! I am told anything to do with wireless is ok for downloading but terrible for gaming. The ISDN line I am on is just about average and just about usable. So is the Wireless ISDN any better then?

OHP

Satellite is useless for gaming (and anything else interactive), due to very high pings.

Wireless on the other hand is usually excellent for gaming, with very low pings.
However quality can differ from company to company, based on their expertise, investment and network arrangement.

Urban Weigl

Wireless is worse for gaming, for example I get 1.8ms on my wireless network, and 0.2ms on my ethernet network. There you go.

Seriously though, wireless is extremely good for gaming, usually producing far better results than ADSL or ISDN could ever hope for (depending on the provider of course). You probably got it mixed up with satellite, which is not.

oscarBravo

Just to clarify "wireless" in this context: I'm referring to a technology known as Fixed Wireless Point-to-Multipoint Access (FWPMA), which is simply a way of delivering things wirelessly that normally travel over wires. It's not a wireless networking standard like 802.11.

Some background might help to clarify: I'm at the ragged edge of the 094 area code, which is basically Claremorris/Castlebar, although I'm much closer to Ballina (096). My local exchange (Knockmore) is a tiny spur from a sub-exchange from the Castlebar exchange, and I'm about 8km from even that. I have one phone line from that exchange, with patchy quality and reliability.

About a year and a half ago, I applied for a second phone line. It wasn't feasible to supply it over copper, because the wires have been split and pairgained pretty much to the limit already. Some friends in the telco business mentioned FWPMA to me, so I started bugging eircom about it, and eventually they installed the second line using FWPMA. This involves a small panel antenna mounted on my gable wall, connected to a black box in the house, into which a phone is plugged. The final presentation is just a phone socket: it really doesn't matter whether it's a copper pair or a wireless connection from my perspective.

When this was installed I tentatively inquired about ISDN, but I was told that it wasn't possible over FWPMA. I left it at that until Muck pointed me to Eircom's FWPMA license, and the rest is history.

HTH.

OHP

Thats exactly what I was looking for oscarBravo I am between a Rock and a Hard place myself but I was able to get ISDN eventually. But if this Wireless ISDN is as good as people are telling me then im going to hassle Eircon big time tomorrow about it. Where I am BB will never become available. The only thing you have not mentioned yet is the cost of it I cannot find it anywhere on the Eircon site


OHP

spongebob

Originally posted by OHP
Thats exactly what I was looking for oscarBravo I am between a Rock and a Hard place myself but I was able to get ISDN eventually. But if this Wireless ISDN is as good as people are telling me then im going to hassle Eircon big time tomorrow about it. Where I am BB will never become available. The only thing you have not mentioned yet is the cost of it I cannot find it anywhere on the Eircon site


OHP

. Why do I bother posting links!

Oscarbravo and I and others had a long discussion on Eircoms
FWPMA Narrowband obligations in March or so.

Unlike DSL, available in around 10% of the State by land area...on a good day if you believe Eircom, Wireless is available in around 20% at the moment.

Eircom are obliged to provide POTS ISDN and ADSL type services on this......and have been for 3 years or so.....and had their licence restated earlier this year lest there be any doubt in their mind about it.

M

oscarBravo

Originally posted by OHP
The only thing you have not mentioned yet is the cost of it

It's ISDN. It costs whatever ISDN costs. The fact that it's delivered wirelessly is effectively completely transparent to you, the user, from the point of view of both presentation and cost.