How to get a Group Broadband Scheme

jwt

So you've seen the blurb, get enough registered users in your area interested and a BISP will join forces with you and apply for a GBS.

Great but how do you do it. Strangely enough its amazingly simple.
Get enough registrations, contact BISP and agree to GBS. Voila

Kinnegad is a good place to start to see how it has been done.

Although Viking put up a very good and detailed website you can just put up a webpage with an email address for people to register.

Leaflets should contain an email address and preferably a contact number. (remember some people don't have internet access )

It would appear that approx 40 - 60 registrations of interest are required to obtain funding.

Have a look at the sticky at the top of the forum to get an idea of which providers are operating near you.

Contact the local community bigwigs explaining what you want and ask for help or permission to put up flyers. There are three people you should talk to the parish priest, the head of the local GAA and the local headmaster. Between them these three have access to 90 percent of you target population. Get them on side and life will be a lot easier.

Once you have enough registrations you are in a position to approach BISP and they will listen. Once a BISP you are happy with joins; your work is pretty much done. You will have to attend some meetings both with the BISP and with the DMCNR but you as a person are not legally responsible for any of the agreements between the BISP and DMCNR

Ask for help here or mail IrelandOffline. Lots of people are willing to help. Thanks to Viking we now even have an old hand



John

SkepticOne

It's good that IOFFL is supporting this scheme. One thing I suggested when Viking was setting up his scheme was that the names and details be kept private until sufficient number had been built up. This increases the bargaining power of the local scheme with the various broadband companies. When there is a firm commitment to supply proper broadband (i.e. not satellite ), then the names can be released.

I would be interested in Viking's views on this. Would he recommend this course of action?

viking

SkepticOne wrote:

It's good that IOFFL is supporting this scheme. One thing I suggested when Viking was setting up his scheme was that the names and details be kept private until sufficient number had been built up. This increases the bargaining power of the local scheme with the various broadband companies. When there is a firm commitment to supply proper broadband (i.e. not sattelite ), then the names can be released.

I would be interested in Viking's views on this. Would he recommend this course of action?

It is imperative that the names and details are not released until the GBS application has been successful and the service is launched. As Skeptic said, the list equates to bargaining power with the various BISPs and any premature release of this list to a BISP, who fail to bring BB to your town, will weaken this bargaining power in future discussions with other BISPs.

Viking

spongebob

viking wrote:

It is imperative that the names and details are not released until the GBS application has been successful and the service is launched.

I have been told that it is a VERY VERY VERY GOOD IDEA to contact the department when you have about 20 names on that list and to set up a meeting there and then . These take about 3 weeks to come through.

While you are waiting for the meeting you get the other 20- 40 names you require and approach a BISP for an agreement to provide backhaul.

By the time the meeting comes around the Department will see that you

1. Have enough people onboard anyway
2. Have found a BISP who will play ball (Wired or Wireless)

If you have a good meeting the Department may require a second meeting with the BISP present . The Department may also suggest at this early stage that you join forces with x or y nearby who are also getting a GBS running which is a suggestion not an order BTW . A good meeting is where yoiu answer simple questions and indicate that you have thought the imnplications out. Half an hour.

Most of the Dept. are back from their holidays now and are prepared to ppopulate their diaries with meetings again. The alternative is to prepare an application and post it in, they feel like they are being ambushed when they see these and are inclined to seek clarifications that a good meeting could have sorted out early on.

HTH

M

jwt

In an effort to see how easy or difficult it is to get a GBS I am preparing to see if I can walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

What I am proposing to do is kick off a blitz campaign today for broadband for Clonard (about 3-4 miles east of Kinnegad).

The plan is as follows:

Today contact the parish priest, headmaster and local publicans re announcements

Print out some leaflets

Print out some registration sheets, simple ones name address, telephone number and email.

Do a quick door to door in the estate, and get the parish priest to announce that people can register by filling in the sheets either at the church notice board, school or in the local pubs.

Ideally I will have 40 plus registrations in a few days.

Contact the DMCNR as per MUCK

Contact a BISP (probably Last Mile)
Chase the GBS hard and see how fast I can get Clonard from Zero broadband to GBS. Days, weeks or months?

I think it will be a good lesson one way or the other just to see how easy or difficult the process is and what pitfalls there are if any.


John

damien

JWT, this is a fantastic idea. May I suggest that you start a blog and document everything on it. It would be a great insight into how this process works.

eircomtribunal

And the DCMNR will even post a pic of the event on their website.
P.

Moriarty

Any chance of resizing that?

jwt

jwt wrote:

In an effort to see how easy or difficult it is to get a GBS I am preparing to see if I can walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

Hmmmmmm

well so far I'm talking

For a couple of reasons I am holding on kicking this project off.

1 I am working 14-16 hours a day atm so between work an IOFFL committee work I'm not going to have time for the next 10-14 days

2 Given Martin's comments about interaction between IOFFL committee members and WISP's and GBS I want to wait till this is confirmed denied or I'm declared a totally paranoid idiot.

3 The EGM is going to take priority from now till the 11th

4 I'm getting a little punch drunk from the above and would'nt exactly be presenting a sane and rational appearance for IOFFL and GBS etc. (Imagine a wild haired scruffy bloke with bloodshot eyes preaching the mysteries of GBS appearing in your driveway and nailing his manifesto of all things broadband to your door and you get the idea)


John

DonegalMan

jwt wrote:

2 Given Martin's comments about interaction between IOFFL committee members and WISP's and GBS I want to wait till this is confirmed denied or I'm declared a totally paranoid idiot.

As explained in the other thread, the comments were not at all directed towards someone in your position - on the contrary, the three of us at the meeeting think that community iniatives like this should be actively encouraged by IOFFL - they were directed at anyone involved in a commercial operation providing GBS to communities outside their own.

Martin

viking

Any chance of resizing that?

Strangely, I agree with this suggestion...

If only for the 56kers...

V

oscarBravo

jwt wrote:

Imagine a wild haired scruffy bloke with bloodshot eyes preaching the mysteries of GBS appearing in your driveway and nailing his manifesto of all things broadband to your door and you get the idea

I dunno... it worked for me...

viking wrote:

Strangely, I agree with this suggestion...

Aww, I thought you looked purty!