broadband

greglo23

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_hecht123103.asp
anybody interested in broadband would do well to read this article !!!

OfflerCrocGod

We will never get that in Ireland (maybe 50 years from now).

Ripwave

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
We will never get that in Ireland (maybe 50 years from now).

Did you bother to read the article?

Even in the US, FTTH isn't happening, except where small groups do it for themselves. That means rural co-ops, town councils (local government in the US is radically different in the US from anything that exists in Ireland), rural utilities.
From the article: "An odd mix of public utilities, small telephone companies, and real estate developers are backing the new technology".

I seem to remember that Cyber Plains in Kildare was built with FTTH. If so, then Ireland has, proportionally, about the same level of FTTH communicties as the US does ("At the end of September, the nonprofit Fiber-to-the-Home Council counted 94 communities in 26 states with fibers already running direct to the homes of some customers"). I wonder how successful that experiment was, and why no developers have repeated the experiment (that I'm aware of)?.

By the way, the last couple of paragraphs absolutely hit the nail on the head, and could have been written about oreillycom. Telecommunications company, like just about any privately held company, have developed extremely short term outlooks, because of the change in culture on the stock market from "income" to "share price" as the major determinant of shreholder value. Compare the €6 billion (?) investment package that the ESB recently put together for infrsatructure upgrades with anything that any "private" company is likely to do.

The next time there's an election, ask the candidates what their parties policy is on the privatisation of public companies like the ESB and Aer Lingus, and think about how this has impacted telecommunications in Ireland before you cast you vote.

OfflerCrocGod

I did read the article, did you read what I said? - it's a pipe dream it wont be mass-market in Ireland for a very long time.

spongebob

feasible in Limerick

OfflerCrocGod

It's feasible on the moon - doesn't mean there will be any fibre put down any time soon.

Capt'n Midnight

An odd mix of public utilities, small telephone companies, and real estate developers are backing the new technology .. . the big telephone and cable companies see the rural fiber trend and they don't like it. They want to wring the last drops of profit out of their old lines before spending anything more ...
That record raises a very troubling question—are today's giant stockholder-owned communications companies incapable of the massive investment needed to build a new network? Are they limited to nickel-and-dime patches until aging infrastructure falls apart because managers don't dare to tell Wall Street they need to spend on long-term rebuilding? The mega-corporations that operate today's networks are not the same ones that built them. They know how to milk the old cash machine, but there is distressingly little evidence that they are capable of building a new one to meet tomorrow's needs. I hope they can prove me wrong.

Can you imagine any real estate developer in this country spending ANY extra money ?

So we're stuck at 11 mb for the moment.

spongebob

Limerick mandates carrier neutral ducting in all developments nowadays in addition to the Eircom ducting.

The holes in the ground with Eircom hatches do not actually belong to Eircom within housing estates. They belong to the builder until they are taken in charge by the local authority. If your development has not been taken in charge yet you may install fibre in there with only the permission of the developer required.

Once a development is 5-10 years old the local authority will take it in charge if it is complete and substantialy intact. Technically the ducts come into this being under the pavement for which the local authority is responsible . Therefore it would be permissible to install fibre around your local housing estate if the council said OK.

As long as the fibre is put in for data the licencing is simple and inexpensive....€25 a year to Comreg is all that is required. Dont get into voice in other words.

In rural areas the wires hang off poles which belong to Eircom and are installed by Eircom to start with therefore you must ask Phil Nolan for permission or maybe 'Helpful' Dave McRedmond. Even I would baulk at this.

M

Ripwave

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
I did read the article, did you read what I said? - it's a pipe dream it wont be mass-market in Ireland for a very long time.

So, Ireland is in pretty much the same position as the US and most of Europe, then.

FTTH is a solution looking for a problem.

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by Ripwave
So, Ireland is in pretty much the same position as the US and most of Europe, then.

FTTH is a solution looking for a problem.

The problem IS not enough bandwidth it's a real problem and Fibre is a lovely solution:); not going to happen though.

iwb

What about a positive outlook on it? There are several ways it could happen here. It doesn't have to be all fiber either. Gigabit can be delivered at 90 meters using Category 5e copper cable. One fiber pair dropped to a row of houses with copper cable running between them would be an inexpensive gigabit solution that could grow from estate to estate. In any of the MAN towns, it would then be possible to link different estates together throughout the town. That is one way of relatively inexpensively developing a real high speed network.