IFJ Rural Broadband Campaign

Rovi

From the 23 September 2006 issue-

Comment

There are a number of pressing issues that surround Rural Ireland. One of the most urgent is the provision of broadband to the entire country. The importance of the availability of broadband cannot be underestimated. Technology has simply taken over our lives, and without a proper broadband facility we will be left behind.

Unfortunately, we are already seeing this happen in Rural Ireland. Farmers who need to register new calf births online, farmers who need to download a manual for a new piece of machinery, farmers who need to see milk record reports are just three of the practical examples of where we are falling down. The impact on families is also huge, with many at a severe disadvantage due to living in a broadband blackspot. The time and money being lost to this anomaly pales when we consider that no new business can realistically contemplate setting up in an area that does not have broadband.

Rural Ireland is losing out every day on new investment, at a time when our cities and towns are clogged up with traffic, prohibitive property prices and quality-of-life issues.

We need to move the jobs outside of Dublin. We need to give our children the option of living and working close to their homeplace. We simply cannot do this without adequate broadband coverage. Rural Ireland needs this to survive and thrive.

A quick scan of our countryside map on Page 7 will show just exactly where the broadband blackspots are. You will not be surprised to see that, once again, Rural Ireland has been left behind.

Your eyes might wonder towards Northern Ireland, where you will discover the entire six counties are now covered by broadband. How can this be, you might ask? Surely, in this age of untold exchequer riches, we can provide broadband for the entire island?

Apparently not.

As usual, we have been failed by lack of foresight, planning and priority. When our Government, in their wisdom, sold off Eircom, they neglected to safeguard our rights. The cost of covering all of Ireland for broadband has now fallen to a private company, and they are not too keen to spend their money on infrastructure to enable broadband to be rolled out to Rural Ireland. Not economically viable, we are told. So we must wait until a deal can be worked out where our Government spends your money to subsidise the roll-out of broadband, giving it to a company that you, the taxpayer, used to own.

The Journal must ask: What about us? Why is Rural Ireland being treated in this manner? What can we do about it?

The Journal is taking this campaign to the Minister in charge of Communications in this country, Noel Dempsey. We are asking you to play your part. Let your voice be heard. Read our petition and please sign it and send it back to us. Alternatively, you can e-mail your comments. Why not visit us at The Farmers Journal stand at the International Ploughing Championships and sign our petition demanding that Minister Dempsey act to provide broadband for all of Rural Ireland. Now.

Let’s do something about this.

There's a thread on this over in Hosted > Technology > IrelandOffline-
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054993627

With more and more Dept of Ag. stuff available online, this is getting to be a bigger and bigger issue with farmers (and other rural dwellers) all the time.
I'll be signing the petition at the Ploughing, I hope everyone else here does too.

.

Schuhart

We need to move the jobs outside of Dublin. We need to give our children the option of living and working close to their homeplace. We simply cannot do this without adequate broadband coverage. Rural Ireland needs this to survive and thrive.

In fairness, this is complete ****e. Its this kind of thinking that created the problem of Dublin's unplanned growth, because there was no political will to acknowledge the need to urbanise.

Continuing a rural development strategy based on some cock-eyed notion that this is an alternative to urbanisation will fail, just as it has failed so far. What we will have is more of what we have - all the disadvantages of rural living coupled with all the disadvantages of urban living.

This kind of rhetoric blathers on without recognising, for example, the way that the kind of development they envisage actually causes traffic in towns. It supports the creation of an unsustainable car based culture, as if all that stuff about oil prices and global warming was happening on some other planet.

By all means, people should produce some class of rhetoric to get their broadband. But this stuff is positively harmful as it leaves a dangerous mindset unchallenged.

Occidental

Most farms around our area are on carrier lines, split between 5 or 6 neighbours. Anything above 32k would be unheard of and regular fallover/redial would be the norm.

A few people on higher ground have gone for Wireless ISP(Lastmile), but this is not an option where the farm is in a dip or surrounded by trees. I know of one farm on two way satellite, but the cost would be prohibitive to most farmers.

I can't see wired broadband ever being possible on most farms, as the cost of rewiring every country lane would be enormous. For the moment, Wireless or Satellite ISPs seem to be the way to go.



Agree with Schuhart on the jobs outside Dublin mantra.

Clare gunner

Well, there is a system in Germany,dont ask me how it works,but it works thru the power grid!Apprently any domestic socket can become an internet connection port.Why that couldnt work here would be intresting to hear.

Rovi

Clare gunner wrote:

Well, there is a system in Germany,dont ask me how it works,but it works thru the power grid!Apprently any domestic socket can become an internet connection port.Why that couldnt work here would be intresting to hear.

Hi CG, fancy meeting you here

Is this what you're talking about?-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication

The technology appears to work, and is getting better/faster.
It certainly looks like it could be a solution here.


That said, Northern Ireland has full wired coverage, and the landscape/demographics are very similar to here.
So it can be done.

.

Occidental

Rovi,

I've no doubt it can be done, but when you're dealing with Eircom and the ESB, the likelyhood isn't great.

valtra2

Maybe if they just fixed it this would not happen

Fatal Except1on

valtra2 wrote: »

Maybe if they just fixed it this would not happen

How was your 14 year cryostasis?

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mod note: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I think we'll close this one and put it out of our misery:)

Buford T. Justice