The Diary Of A Countryman Who Needs Broadband in Ireland in 2006

thekooman

Will update this thread every so often:

hi all,
i live in a rural area about 7 miles from the nearest broadband enabled town. i thought there would be 30 houses in my area that would go for broadband. so i have put out a petition and got nearly 100 names on it so far. 20 of these would be just putting their names down, when it comes to the crunch they won't bother wit it.
anyways, i contacted a provider who deals in rural broadband.
they said they will hold a public information evening in the next few weeks and were very interested. i have only contacted this one provider as i know they have the ways of getting the broadband to us through wireless. the provider mentioned to me that they do not want political interference(contacting a local TD to push it on), and that they would take over getting people signed up after the meeting that they arrange. so my hands are clean of it after that.

Am i go about this the correct way? any pointers?
should i still contact a TD, it is an election year! will they be able to do anything? it seems the funding isn't available anymore (GBS) and the provider says there is no sign of it coming back.
looking forward to feedback.

Sponge Bob

thekooman wrote:

hi all,
I live in a rural area about 7 miles from the nearest broadband enabled town. i thought there would be 30 houses in my area that would go for broadband. so i have put out a petition and got nearly 100 names on it so far. 20 of these would be just putting their names down, when it comes to the crunch they won't bother wit it.

If you can convert 100 names into 100 contracts you have leverage , otherwise they are names ...so what . PM me as to your county and I will PM you some contacts for ISPs who should be approached in your area. Play them off then, you have the names and they do not. ALSO find a high point the 100 names can see with a deflector and/or electricity up there.

Westnet are easily the best bet in most of Mayo , but the southern and eastern fringes may have other options like Fastcom .

I fear that 100 names = 25 contracts = sometimes not worth it. How far can you see from the proposed high point ? Have you canvassed out to 5-10km from that high point , is teh high point sorted or are you feuding with that farmer ????

anyways, i contacted a provider who deals in rural broadband.
they said they will hold a public information evening in the next few weeks and were very interested. i have only contacted this one provider as i know they have the ways of getting the broadband to us through wireless. the provider mentioned to me that they do not want political interference(contacting a local TD to push it on), and that they would take over getting people signed up after the meeting that they arrange. so my hands are clean of it after that.

Good stuff, if they will come in then you have done your bit when the meeting is over. Many would kill their own mothers fot 100 punters signed up in one day

Some parts of the country are very well provided with BB operators and some not so.

In desperation there is Irishwan but as Irishwan seem to keep falling out with each other I REALLY MEAN desperation. www.irishwan.ie , see their forums .

should i still contact a TD, it is an election year! will they be able to do anything? it seems the funding isn't available anymore (GBS) and the provider says there is no sign of it coming back.
looking forward to feedback.

GBS has been abolished by minister Dempsey . If you know a TD then find out why and what that muppet Dempsey proposes to do with the money he is sitting on. Its perfectly obvious that Dempsey does not give a toss about rural Ireland .

uncle_sam_ie

I can't understand how your unable to access broadband? Accord to Minister of fish & communications and Comreg( they're the one's looking out for us) broadband is doing grand in Ireland and 85% of us can get it if we only wanted it. But see, the Irish are just stupid when it comes to broadband and its the lack of demand thats the problem. Not to worry though, Noel spent some money on a TV commercial that educates us on what broadband is and what it can do. Isn't that great.

thegills

Its always useful to get a feel for the residential / business split within your 100 names; this might provide more leverage.
In relation to the GBS, the funding is quite small and not really going to envourage an ISP to your area.
Having being involved in a GBS, the most important things for our scheme where names, a high site with good coverage, and backhaul options for any potential ISP.

Again where is your area?

thegills

thekooman

sorry guys for delay in getting back, work!

living in a place called Lahardane about 7 miles from Crossmolina, 15 from Castlebar and 15 from ballina. Westnet look like they have the backhaul in the area with a antenna in Ardagh. there is a line of sight to the village from this(about 10 miles though).
the area does have some rolling hills (and a large mountain, Nephin, 836 metres, higher than Croagh Patrick!). with some repeaters i don't think there would be a problem. there would be about 5 business lines and about 40 residental, roughly so it is a viable option for a provider to come in. Again, after initial install this should increase (" Mary and Paddy have the broadband, tis great!!" kind of scenario!)
there is also a mast on a hill nearby which could nearly service all the area if its allowed, so plenty of options.

thanks for the help
i will let ye know how it goes.

Sponge Bob

Do keep us up to date on progress. Its for Noel and Comregs edumacation . They think Ireland is up there with the rest of the developed world when it comes to Broadband.

Keep an eye out for GBS in case Dempsey relaunches it (it would give ye capital funding which would really lower the install costs ...not the per month costs) .

And beware of the snake oil satellite system salesmen now you have posted here.

watty

Has ANYONE ever got BB/Internet via IrishWAN? I thought the MidWestWAN part of it was just a fun thing for lads to play Network Doom between Galway & Limerick and share files with each other.

oscarBravo

thekooman wrote:

Westnet look like they have the backhaul in the area with a antenna in Ardagh. there is a line of sight to the village from this(about 10 miles though).

Almost - we're still working out the final details with Mayo County Council before we can move on Ardagh. As you say, there's LOS from there to Lahardane, and it's firmly on our radar.

Sponge Bob

Were one near Irishwan one maybe could Watty ...but the OP is not.

Irishwan is a good place to discuss how to roll your own local wan using your own backhaul as well . Eg string a bit of wireless gear together and plug it into a DSL line a mile away .

It would not be for carrier grade 10 Mile links though, these should be professionally done and / or a link on which 100 people relied. If you must roll your own small network you must fix it .

You would be amazed at the number of 'proper' carriers who started off on Irishwan or in Irishwan and spun out of it . I will not name names save to say that Westnet are a proper carrier who did not start off in Irishwan. The other nexus of accesible expertise (apart from Irishwan) is the Amateur Radio Community .

If you live in rural Ireland you should be nice to that fella up the back with the big aerial in his garden !!

jbkenn

Sponge Bob wrote:

I will not name names save to say that Westnet are a proper carrier who did not start off in Irishwan.

Not true Sponge Bob, some of us did, and the germ of the GBS was as a result of an Irishwan meeting in Limerick, attended by the then Chairman of IoffL, Christian Cooke.

jbkenn

Sponge Bob

My real point is that they are a good starting point for research if you MUST build your own, small, network. Not every rural community will have 100 names signed up before they even go to a carrier like the OP did.

Many will have to provision 5 homes or 3 homes and the carriers will take no interest in that scale of deployment .

BTW Has anybody see Noel Dempseys funky new website, you would know there is an election coming up from that EH ??!!!

uncle_sam_ie

I love the sound effect!:D

Xian

jbkenn wrote:

as a result of an Irishwan meeting in Limerick, attended by the then Chairman of IoffL, Christian Cooke.

Before anyone asks, no I didn't charge £8k for the appearance

Blaster99

watty wrote:

Has ANYONE ever got BB/Internet via IrishWAN? I thought the MidWestWAN part of it was just a fun thing for lads to play Network Doom between Galway & Limerick and share files with each other.

IrishWAN did its thing but as ADSL availability has increased significantly in rural Ireland over the last year, there's much less demand for hobby solutions. Small wireless operators face this problem also.

Anyways, hopefully Westnet can work some magic for the original poster.

watty

Sponge Bob wrote:

Were one near Irishwan one maybe could Watty ...but the OP is not.

.....

You would be amazed at the number of 'proper' carriers who started off on Irishwan or in Irishwan and spun out of it . I will not name names save to say that Westnet are a proper carrier who did not start off in Irishwan. The other nexus of accesible expertise (apart from Irishwan) is the Amateur Radio Community .

If you live in rural Ireland you should be nice to that fella up the back with the big aerial in his garden !!

Like my 4.5m long motorised yagi, 20m long end fed wire, 12m mast with dualband colinear, 3 sat dishes and Trapped 80m .. 10m hygain vertical?

trekkypj

thekooman wrote:

Will update this thread every so often:

hi all,
i live in a rural area about 7 miles from the nearest broadband enabled town. i thought there would be 30 houses in my area that would go for broadband. so i have put out a petition and got nearly 100 names on it so far. 20 of these would be just putting their names down, when it comes to the crunch they won't bother wit it.
anyways, i contacted a provider who deals in rural broadband.
they said they will hold a public information evening in the next few weeks and were very interested. i have only contacted this one provider as i know they have the ways of getting the broadband to us through wireless. the provider mentioned to me that they do not want political interference(contacting a local TD to push it on), and that they would take over getting people signed up after the meeting that they arrange. so my hands are clean of it after that.

Am i go about this the correct way? any pointers?
should i still contact a TD, it is an election year! will they be able to do anything? it seems the funding isn't available anymore (GBS) and the provider says there is no sign of it coming back.
looking forward to feedback.

Ah. A fellow rural sufferer.

Let us know how you get on. I was considering doing a petition for our area, but I don't know how far the exchange connects lines to. I know the exchange in my village (Coon, Co. Kilkenny) connects our line but not sure how far the lines spread from the village... i.e. in the surrounding area.

Like you the nearest enabled exchange is within six miles in Castlecomer/Clogh.

thekooman

hey trekkypj,
ya, best thing to do is put some feelers out if anyone is interested so thats why i went with the petition/interested people list. put up a few notices in shops and church bulletin. households with families that are secondary school going seem to be the most interested.

will let you know how it goes from my side.

Altreab

Xian wrote:

Before anyone asks, no I didn't charge £8k for the appearance

We know you didnt charge but did you receive £8K for your Appearance

thekooman

a quick update:

have spoke with Enda Kenny(local TD) and he says there are many places just like mine! he got a letter back from Noel Dempsey saying that funding is available through the GBS! don't know what he is smoking but thats finished ages ago. the letter was a complete load of cods wallop, it didn't tell me anything only that MANs are the "new black"! i don't live in "Metropolis"!
as for Westnet, they are waiting to get use of a local water tower to pump the signal in and Mayo CoCo are stalling! so its looks like i could be in for a long haul! have had a few calls from Enda so at least he isn't forgetting us. he also said he is meeting with the Eircom area manager soon but that will be a waste of time as well.

I haven't sent anything to Noel Dempsey, should I? waste of time?
I have about 170 names plus on the petition now.

smellslikeshoes

thekooman wrote:

a quick update:

have spoke with Enda Kenny(local TD) and he says there are many places just like mine! he got a letter back from Noel Dempsey saying that funding is available through the GBS! don't know what he is smoking but thats finished ages ago. the letter was a complete load of cods wallop, it didn't tell me anything only that MANs are the "new black"! i don't live in "Metropolis"!
as for Westnet, they are waiting to get use of a local water tower to pump the signal in and Mayo CoCo are stalling! so its looks like i could be in for a long haul! have had a few calls from Enda so at least he isn't forgetting us. he also said he is meeting with the Eircom area manager soon but that will be a waste of time as well.

I haven't sent anything to Noel Dempsey, should I? waste of time?
I have about 170 names plus on the petition now.

Dempsy would do nothing id say but theres no harm in trying, Its not too long till an election so you might get lucky, At the very least you could show that dempsy is a waster.

bealtine

thekooman wrote:

I haven't sent anything to Noel Dempsey, should I? waste of time?

Welcome to Franz Kafka world...

All you'll get from Dempsey is some crap about it being a "fully liberalized market" (in his mind anyway) and there's nothing he can do. Should you require more information get onto Comreg, who will tell you its a "fully liberalized market" (in their collective tiny mind) and there's nothing they can do.

So yes it's a complete waste of time the man (Dempsey) wouldn't know a fibre from a rock and yet somehow (mysteriously) he's in charge of telecommunications...
Still you should write to him and use the response in the appropriate manner (leave in your small room in case of emergency)

thekooman

thought i would give this an update:

since last november not much has happened.
until 3 weeks before the election, the government decide to enable the exchange in our village. it'll be done in 2 years!! then a local TD, whom i gave the petition to, send a letter to everyone who was on the list saying:

"Broadband is now available in lahardane!"

when its not!! fool!

so i've been onto Westnet several times; still waiting on them......
next month, next month, next month.......

oscarBravo

Still waiting for Mayo County Council to give us permission to put equipment on Ardagh water tower. The response so far has been along the lines of:

"..."

"..."

"..."

All very helpful. We're looking into other ways to get into Lahardane, but it's not that easy.

Micky Finn

I have sent you a PM on this.

Skyuser

thekooman wrote: »

thought i would give this an update:

since last november not much has happened.
until 3 weeks before the election, the government decide to enable the exchange in our village. it'll be done in 2 years!! then a local TD, whom i gave the petition to, send a letter to everyone who was on the list saying:

"Broadband is now available in lahardane!"

when its not!! fool!

so i've been onto Westnet several times; still waiting on them......
next month, next month, next month.......

Did you get broadband yet?

thekooman

Skyuser wrote: »

Did you get broadband yet?

got it last October Skyuser from Westnet. several other houses in the area also have it now as well and everyone is delighted!

oscarBravo

To be fair, I should also follow up my last post in this thread with a "thank you" to MCC for a favourable conclusion to the water tower negotiations.