Can i get broadband in rural areas now with eircom wimax???

fdiddy

hi,i got an email from ireland offline today saying the following:

"Good morning and a belated happy new year from IrelandOffline.

It was announced yesterday that those connected to a broadband enabled
phone exchange should recheck their line if it previously failed the
broadband line test. From this week onwards many lines that were
failing because of distance from the exchange or other issues, can now
pass the line test.

There are a few scenarios that can now happen when checking your line:

1. The line checker or eircom person you call will tell you that your
line passes. An order can be placed.

2. The line checker will give you a "conditional" pass. This means you
can place an order but there is no guarantee your line will take a
broadband signal. You will be sent a modem and you must plug it in and
check. If the line still fails you have the option of asking for a
technician to call-out or sending the modem back. The fee for a
technician call-out is around 80-90 euros. If the technician is unable
to get the broadband connection to work then you do not have to pay
for the call-out.

3. The third option is that you are told your line is failing but you
can put your name down on an "expression of interest" list. eircom are
said to be rolling out wireless broadband in 5 main urban centres
around autumn and this option will be available to those who cannot
get broadband on their phone line.

Unfortunately these scenarios do not apply if your exchange is not
enabled.

You can check your line online on a providers website or by ringing
any of the providers such as eircom, BT Ireland, Digiweb, UTV,
Imagine, Perlico etc

Other Options:

More and more alternative providers are setting up in Ireland, mainly
providing wireless broadband in more rural areas. If your line cannot
get broadband or you are not in an area with an enabled exchange then
check the Government broadband site for alternative providers in your
area. The website is http://broadband.gov.ie


I hope you find the above information useful."


i decided to check was my phoneline available for broadband so i rang eircom,they said it wasnt at the moment but then they said they would be rolling out a new wimax system that would enable broadband enabled exchanges to offer dsl to residents that were at a range of 4 to 5 miles,i am living in a village outside mitchelstown called kilbehennyn that is about 4 miles away.can anyone shed some light on what this wimax system is and will it be available for all rural residents in the next few months??

damien

Yeah it was me that sent that email and what eircom told you re:Wimax is bull. The 5 major cities are getting Wimax.

fdiddy

i think there is a test version of dsl broadband going around to eircom employees at the moment that are outside the broadband normal range,but eircom wont roll it out because it is only a test version but i wouldnt care if it wasnt perfect,all i need is broadband in some shape or form that is affordable!!would this be the wimax in test version maybe??

damien

Wimax is a wireless solution not DSL. The test broadband you mention is possibly ADSL2+ but I'm not sure is that being tested by some eircom households. eircom have extended the range of their broadband as of Monday. I'm not sure how far more they can extend it.

fdiddy

when i was talking to eircom they said it would be the same as if you had dsl but now it can work on a bigger range from the exchange.3 weeks they said it will be coming out,then i rang them again and they said august.mixed messages or what!

watty

Various wireless schemes can work as well as DSL or even faster (for fewer people usually) or further.

Other wireless systems are really just dialup replacements.

So what eircom is saying is true. Unfortunately rather than offer their nationwide Wireless (which they use maybe 3 different systems on) to rural or urban that has no hope of DSL they are only offering WiMax (wireless) in maybe 5 places to people that are on DSL exchange, but line fails.

WiMax is the best wireless eircom has, but other operators has as good or better non-WiMax. Previously eircom only offered sort of 2x ISDN speed wireless.

EircomAgent

it will be acive in July for orders then how ever long it will take to get it to you. Honetly we haven got any training on it at all.......not knowing how much etc...just told us it will come to effect in july.....also by this time next year eircoms MAX speed will be 16m on residential lines. We are upgrading the phone lines undergrond,

OfflerCrocGod

16Mb?! I find that hard to believe - I mean Eircom know they can keep notching up 1 Mb every upgrade until someone seriously competes with them so why go for such a large jump in speed? A significant percentage of the lines will not be able to support it and if they are upgrading the lines to support such speeds it must be FTTC as there is no way that we could have ADSL2+ successfully deliver such speeds to people without actual physical upgrades to the network. Such work is not cheap either - I was under the impression that Eircom were deeply in debt how could they pay for such massive upgrades? Is this for the entire country or for certain areas only i.e. Dublin, Cork, Galway etc?

Have you any technical details about this or is this purely rumor - are you certain of the times and speeds?

watty

If it is real at all only some choice areas close to exchange. Speeds up to 100Mbps have been possible maybe six years ago up to 2km from exchange on good lines. The existance of the technology is thus not in doubt. The issue is exchange distance and state of copper.

I can't beleive eircom will replace much copper pairs anywhere.

We don't need fibre to the home or even curb. Fibre to a small cabinet at end of each street or pair of streets with existing copper rest of way to home will do 100Mbps or more. It is sad that the MAN fibre outside of Dublin was not installed in such a fashion.

mayhem#

Using Wimax as a stopgap for their crappy broadband service in urban areas of all places is just laughable..
I would also love to see some pricing info on the proposed Wimax service...

E.

thefinalstage

SO...January 20th next year!

Sticky that date!

OfflerCrocGod

thelastangryman wrote:

SO...January 20th next year!

Sticky that date!

Don't hold your breath this is Eircom. My thoughts are exactly like watty's I just don't see Eircom replacing anything in terms of infrastructure.

shortys94

Are eircom upgrading their FWA service, or reducing the cost?

watty

As far as I can see the Wimax so far is only planned for DSL areas of those that fail DSL! So FWA cost (high) nor speed (poor) is likely to change?

BigglesMcGee

Whats the word on Eircom Wimax these days.

Whats the range. Has anyone ever got it.?
Where are the base station?

Very hard to find info about it that is up to date.

smellslikeshoes

This press release was just Eircom propaganda to keep people waiting on Eircom to provide broadband and not go to an alternative provider.