Letterkenny to become wireless broadband town ?..

Paddy20 · 06-10-2005 5:12pm #1

Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce and Eircom yesterday announced a major broadband development that will make Letterkenny into a wireless broadband town.From The Donegal Democrat ,page 14a, 6th October 2005. .

Approximately 20 to 30 hotspots will be installed over the coming months providing 'wireless broadband access' to businesses and residents.

Cathal Magee, Managing Director, Eircom retail, said " Creating wireless broadband communities places businesses and residents at a competitive advantage that adds real economic value to these communities ".

24 towns have been selected for this, the largest wi-fi rollout ever in Ireland.

The 24 towns are: Galway, Dundalk, Mullingar, Cobh, Navan, Cootehill, Ennis, Wexford, Athlone, Clonmel, Swords, Tralee, Kilkenny, Carlow, Tullamore, Limerick, Bray, Westport, Letterkenny, Naas, and Castlebar.

P. :cool:

oscarBravo · 06-10-2005 5:55pm

Hotspots == pay as you go, at the rate of a fiver an hour or less if you buy more.

Excuse me while I'm underwhelmed.

lucernarian · 06-10-2005 7:04pm

BT have the same idea in use in other places, namely Drogheda:
"Drogheda to become first Irish WiFi town"
I have yet to come across a person who has used it. At its very best, the price to use it is €40 ex vat for 4000 minutes with a charge of 12 cent for each minute up to a maximum total charge of €80 ex vat. 1.21 cent per minute for 66 hours is good but for non-subscription offers the prices are very expensive.

Eircom would be better off enabling areas that do not have broadband than offering an expensive product in areas that already have access to ADSL.

Paddy20 · 06-10-2005 7:43pm

I totally agree, just giving them enough rope 'To hang themselves with'

As for 'The Chamber of Commerce', I am saying nothing !.

P.

SkepticOne · 06-10-2005 10:19pm

It is the same old story with Eircom. When they introduce new services it is either going to be very expensive as with this hotspot thing or else it is going to be artificially hobbled in some way like their 20 hour broadband deal. What they aren't going to do is bring out services that compete with one another. What would be the point of that?

It is the same story with dial-up vs broadband. When they were making hundreds of euros a month from dial-up from potential broadband customers, there was no way they were going to bring out 30 euro broadband. Hence we got the 100 euro 512k broadband with the 3 gig cap when it initially came out.

<edit: in fact the early 512k broadband was both hobbled and expensive.>

Sponge Bob · 07-10-2005 12:54am

fecks sake Paddy, its €3 an hour minimum, are ye that rich up there????

ednwireland · 07-10-2005 2:14pm

Paddy20 wrote:

As for 'The Chamber of Commerce', I am saying nothing !.

i remeber after unifi closing that the head of the chamber was interviewed saying letterkenny needs high tech jobs such as call centers !

i wasn't impressed if thats the height of his understanding or ambition

the thing is it makes the chamber look good to your ordinary joe

Paddy20 · 07-10-2005 2:54pm

Sponge Bob,

My home town of Ballybofey is not listed for this Wi-Fi initiative. So, it will be costing me nothing

Although I am a bit concerned about the interview Eircom did on Highland Radio News. IMHO it was misleading as there was a lot of emphasis on Letterkenny becoming a 'Wireless Broadband' town, which certainly gave me the impression, that those who could not get ADSL broadband in their homes/businesses at present would soon be able to have the new 'Wireless broadband' option.

There was little talk about 'Hot Spots''OR COST' ! and I no little about them, but I believe if I was in business, or a Sales Rep on the road, these wireless hot spots would be a blessing. I wonder, will other ISP's be able to provide their own 'Hot Spots' at competitive rates, in competition with €irCoN , or are we looking at another €irCoN monopoly being created ?....

P. :cool:

Sponge Bob · 07-10-2005 6:39pm

Digiweb would contend that Letterkenny is ALREADY a wireless BB town Paddy

Blaster99 · 08-10-2005 1:40pm

Eircom offers unlimited hotspot usage for existing BB customers for €10pm. Which is very good. This hotspot rollout plan is good news. I got a two month free trial the other day but I haven't gotten around to using it.

Paddy20 · 08-10-2005 3:51pm

Blaster99 wrote:

Eircom offers unlimited hotspot usage for existing BB customers for €10pm. Which is very good. This hotspot rollout plan is good news. I got a two month free trial the other day but I haven't gotten around to using it.

Is that for **existing '€irCoN' broadband customers only !..or can other ISP broadband customers avail of this ?...i.e. UTV Clicksilver users like me etc

P. :cool:

Blaster99 · 08-10-2005 10:24pm

No that deal is only available for Eircom customers. They might have other deals for non-Eircom BB customers.

As for Eircom creating a monopoly on hotspots, I doubt it. I haven't looked at hard figures but just looking around in cafe's and pubs and stuff, companies like Bitbuzz would have a lot more hotspots. While the tenner a month is nice, there is in reality not that many Eircom hotspots. In Dublin you're generally limited to the hotspots they run out of payphones and McD.

eircomtribunal · 08-10-2005 11:29pm

Blaster99 wrote:

No that deal is only available for Eircom customers.

So why has the Chamber of Commerce gone to bed with the one company which as the de facto monopoly player is on the forefront of fecking up Internet and Broadband development in Ireland?
P.

Blaster99 · 09-10-2005 12:06am

Who knows, ask them? Perhaps no other hotspot provider has approached them? Perhaps Eircom offered the best revenue share deal?

byte · 09-10-2005 9:49pm

Sponge Bob wrote:

Digiweb would contend that Letterkenny is ALREADY a wireless BB town Paddy

Heh, yeah, as would Irish Broadband too.

Letterkenny to become wireless broadband town ?..

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