BroadBand in Clonmel

omathuna

In the Clonmel area they are currently digging up all the roads to install Broadband.

Does anyone know what this is and who will suply the service.

Currently we can get Chorus BB via Cable and Eircom ADSL, so what is all the digging for?

thegills

SERA - South East Regional Authority are rolling out MAN infrastructure in 6 towns; Clonmel, Waterford, Carlow, Dungarvan, Wexford, Kilkenny.

As per all MAN projects it's carrier-neutral dark fibre. The MSE will eventually manage it and the usual telco's will light the fibre.

Clonmel will be connected nationally via the recent Esat BT / DCMNR deal announced recently (I think ESBT is too far away)

thegills

Lookout

Does anyone know what this is and who will suply the service.

This means SFA to you and me. As thegills said it is the supply of dark fibre in a ring formation around various towns in ireland. It will be 'managed' by the MSE which is a public private partnership.

What the government fails to understand is that each of these towns still need cheap backhaul to an ISP, all of which are in Dublin, and the dark fibre needs to run in to every house and business for everyone to benefit.

Just 'cos there is a dark fibre running down the middle of your street doesnt necessarly mean that you will have cheap broaband.

I do beleive that it is a step in the right direction, but if falls way short to the governments vision of 5Mbits to each and every household. Having said that I'm sure that come election time, the muppets in government buildings will be ranting and raving about the amount of broadband that has been deployed.

Anyway, rant over, ..... god I feel much better after that..!!

omathuna

OK, so it is a fiber ring around and through the town. It is for Hospitals, Library, Gov offices to connect to the WWW. It also seems to allow businesses to connect.

It seems that the residential customer will not be allowed, or will the MSE provide ISP servises? (What does MSE stand for?)

Is it possible to have some business connect and then provide a wireless hot spot across the whole town? What about a community based/run hot spot?

Lookout

(What does MSE stand for?)

MSE is Managed Service Entity......

I'm not sure what the full scope of the MSE will be, as yet, apart from a dark fibre provider. The MSE is meant to enable OLO (other licensed operators) to provide Broadband services in the towns that it covers, so if it were to provide ISP services then it might compromise it’s neutrality, which might upset the OLO's.

I have heard rumours that our (beloved) government might be dishing out some cash to towns with populations over 15,000 for broadband access. I have heard that amounts of up €100,000 in grants are available. So that is another positive.
This could be spent on Wireless access and the like.

Is it possible to have some business connect and then provide a wireless hot spot across the whole town? What about a community based/run hot spot?

YES.

iwb

Lookout,
I think you heard wrong. The will be making funding available to communities under 1,500 population to a maximum of 50% of costs and also a maximum of €80k, both depending on the area of the country.
They are also making funding available to 88 more towns (all above 1,500 pop) which is extending the MAN initiative but it is a bit confusing for now. They say it will be technology neutral and may be wireless, fibre, copper, whatever suits the town best. It's harder to figure out how to lease connectivity that it is to lease dark fibre.

Also, while the MAN initiative isn't in itself a solution for most of us, it does present more hope and options for many. You do say it is a step in the right direction and I agree. Smart Telecom for example has pledged to 'light up' all the rings as customers sign up for them. While they are looking for business customers at E1 (2Mbps) levels and above, they will of course sell an E1 to a local wireless provider too and presumably get the connection to them on fibre or close on fibre. That means that when the local provider needs more bandwidth, it is easily available and the sky is the limit.

One thing which is worthy of mention also and isn't often. The first/last mile is also a much discussed issue when MAN's are mentioned. It is true that there is no direct connection from the fibre to any homes in the towns but 10% of the build money was put aside in each town to build a final connection to a number of premises in each town. The buildings were chosen by each town but include schools, business parks, large companies and other obvious potential customers. This means that once bandwidth is available on the rings, it will be immediately available at these premises. (once a service provider signs a deal and puts the relevant equipment online)

Here is the DCMNR site dedicated to the MSE