Minster Ahern responds to Eircom's call for rural broadband funding diversion.

Dangger

The government has welcomed the decision by Eircom to introduce broadband into every town in the state by March 2005 but insisted that it is committed to it's own plan to deliver high-speed Internet access.

A Department of Communications spokesman disagreed with comments by Eircom that the EUR140 million extension to the goverment MAN project to extend it to a further 80 towns would result in the duplication of networks. He commented the measures announced last week by the Minster were "future proofed", as they involved investment in fibre and not just DSL technologies.

It was always going to be a slim chance considering how little Eircom are investing back into their own infrastructure and how much money they have taken out for their shareholders over the past 12 months (EUR500 million). But the Minister obviously has his sights set on the future delivery of broadband in Ireland and far beyond the 512kb and 2mb services Eircom pride themselves on currently.

spongebob

No Surrender

Beëlzebooze

When they say town, do they mean town or household? Because I, just like many other families live more than the magical 3 miles from anywhere.

shinzon

hmm

the more i read about dermot the more im beginning to like him

oh and that reponse is a big up yours to eircom

shin

Fallschirmjager

if they are going to enable the exchanges...now i am not great at math and perhaps Muck can help here (he been the resident expert on what has been done , exchange wise that is, to date) but i believe they have only enabled 100 of something like 2000 exchanges (these figures are from memory, so dont bollock me if they are wrong)

so if we assume 1900 to go and as i recall, again from school, that we have 24 months to the end of 2005.

that works out ar 80 or so telecom exchanges per month to be converted


Hands up all those that believe (if i have me maths right) eircom cound organise this....? is it possible? now is the time to share with the group if you know.


still anyone know somethign i dont.....other then what Beëlzebooze has rightly pointed out...what qualifies as a definition of a town for eircom.

spongebob

There is a large Decca mast there as well, also owned by Dermot Ahern (in his Marine capacity) and unused since 2000 . Forgot about the Marine related structures.

http://webhome.idirect.com/~jproc/hyperbolic/decca_uk.html

Moriarty

All the urban/rural debate has been moved here. Lets try to stay on topic this time

bminish

Originally posted by Muck
There is a large Decca mast there as well, also owned by Dermot Ahern (in his Marine capacity) and unused since 2000 . Forgot about the Marine related structures.

http://webhome.idirect.com/~jproc/hyperbolic/decca_uk.html

I don't know about Irish Decca masts but elsewhere (UK) they have been dismantled already.

.Brendan

dahamsta

You learn something new every day.

adam /absorbing decca history

spongebob

Dermot Ahern also owns all the lighthouses in Ireland through the Commissioners of Irish Lights .

The Galway DEcca mast is still there, BIG MAST, LOS to 100,000 people or so. Totally unused for the past 3 years. They are building the Marine Institute beside it. Dermot Ahern owns this unused mast!

M

thegills

The Galway DEcca mast is still there, BIG MAST, LOS to 100,000 people or so

Hopefully the Galway MAN picks it up.

If these DEcca masts are any use why aren't any of the 2G operators on it??
Why don't the wireless internet telcos go after it too??

have only enabled 100 of something like 2000 exchanges

AFAIK only 1100 exchanges.

dahamsta

Originally posted by Muck
Dermot Ahern also owns all the lighthouses in Ireland through the Commissioners of Irish Lights .

I hope someone in the Department is writing all of this down?!

adam

wexfordman

If these DEcca masts are any use why aren't any of the 2G operators on it??

2 reasons,

Either its too high, and would caue to much interference to surrounding cells.

100,000 people is a lot of mobiles to manage and would probalby cause the cells to block (network busy). Populations of this size need to be covered by more than one cell/Site. A site this high up and covering this manby people would be way to dominant to manage properly.
Wexfordman

spongebob

Departmental People.

Ye were all on a jolly to Galway in October 2003, less than 2 months ago, and ye all SAW THE MAST back then. It is too big to miss !

M