Digiweb now 5th mobile phone company - Get 088 mobile range

damien

With their "4G" wireless licence about to be launched. "Real soon now" etc, now DigiWeb have just gotten the 088 mobile phone range from ComReg. So they will be offering a nomadic wireless broadband service and every user will have an 088 number as well. Sounds to be they are now a mobile provider without having to pay 3G licences or GSM licences. I don't think the other carriers are going to be pleased. Good. Still as has been mentioned, so far their "4G" product is nowt but vapourware.

PR stuff:

Digiweb Ltd (www.digiweb.ie) has today announced that it has been awarded the 088 mobile number range for mobile phone services in Ireland.

Digiweb will provide true mobile broadband and mobile phone services to all regions of Ireland over the next 18 months. This will effectively end the digital divide, offering state-of-the-art broadband and voice services equally throughout the country – from the heart of the largest towns and cities, into the deepest rural community.

Comreg’s decision today follows on from its prior award of a national Wideband Digital Mobile Data Service license (WDMDS) to the company, and in combining these two authorisations Digiweb will now establish a significant force for change in both the Broadband and Mobile phone markets in Ireland.

Commenting on the announcement, Colm Piercy, Managing Director at Digiweb stated “We are delighted to have been awarded the 088 number and appreciate ComReg’s foresight in seeing the potential our 4G Mobile network will have in delivering new competition and better services to the Irish consumer. We will introduce new services and benefits which are simply unavailable from today’s mobile operators including, true always-on broadband with low latency and DSL-like speeds, alongside flexible, low cost mobile phone services. Its ironic that Ireland’s first mobile number – 088 – will now become the newest and most sought after number in Ireland!”

SkepticOne

Good that a company other than Eircom is being given the chance to compete nationally with the incumbent. Obviously it is going to be 'vapourware' until they have the services up and running, just like Eircoms 300 exchanges upgrade announced on another thread.

smellslikeshoes

This is fantastic news for the consumer, This is going to introduce some real competition into the market. Digiweb are getting themselves into a nice little niche in the market created by the extortionate line rental charged by Eircom.Having them in the market will also push other mobile broadband providers harder.

kaizersoze

Ahh memories. I remember when I had an 088 mobile number all those years ago.:)
Good news.

Asok

I wonder will I be able to use my old Cancerotron ™ handset from the old 088 days.....

Couch Potato

Asok wrote:

I wonder will I be able to use my old Cancerotron ™ handset from the old 088 days.....

Or the Motorola Brick just like the yuppie Delboy

Ah the days !!

watty

It's not a phone system so the gsm/3G operators can't complain.

Pure IP. So either SIP softphone on PDA/UMPC/Laptop/PC, SIP ATA plugged into ethernet router, or a 4G "handset" with SIP built in.

I'm afraid my 088 Analogue Nokia won't be any use. Be cool though to get my old number

The 4G is not quite vapourware as it was a real demo the public saw the day the Data Centre Launched at Blanchardstown.

I imagine "Crawler" will give us a date for pilot launch as soon as he can. Elsewhere this system is on a different radio band, so imagine some testing is needed before unleashing it on the Public.

damien

watty wrote:

The 4G is not quite vapourware as it was a real demo the public saw the day the Data Centre Launched at Blanchardstown.

Their "ending the 'digital divide'" technology is not available to the public to test. Until it is, it is vapourware. Despite the claims of employees.


BTW, SkepticOne, DSL from eircom has been proven to work for 500,000 people, their timelines might be pie in the sky but I think their technology is for real.

SkepticOne

damien.m wrote:

BTW, SkepticOne, DSL from eircom has been proven to work for 500,000 people, their timelines might be pie in the sky but I think their technology is for real.

Until they deliver it it is vapourware from the point of view of the person waiting for broadband.

cgarvey

watty wrote:

The 4G is not quite vapourware as it was a real demo the public saw the day the Data Centre Launched at Blanchardstown.

Give over!

It's an exciting technology with lots of potential. BUT! But, it was a rigged and controlled demo, with little real-world impact. I.e. similar to eircom demonstrating DSL with the exchanges/DSLAM and 1 telephone line in the same room.

We've no details on price/service/geographic availability (including spread/reach)/timeline of availability. So, whilst it might not be vapourware by the strict definition, it's very much closer to vapourware than it is to a public service/product offering.

I'll probably be a very early customer of this, don't get me wrong, but the amount of PR BS all of the "we're going to save the world" hype is tiring, and Digiweb employees coming on here to defend the BS/lack of detail is of no use to IoffL or its members.

So when the BS turns in to reality, then by all means sing, dance, drink and shout.. but until then it's buzzwords and bull****. If it wasn't, Digiweb would be releasing some figures however ball park. It's not about protecting competition. It's about keeping investors sweet. This is not the place for that!

Zoney

RTÉ have picked up on it, story here.

SkepticOne

I would be inclined to believe that Digiweb's plans are not vapourware. Unlike Eircom they have little to gain by putting this sort of thing out without real plans behind it.

Hacketry

I was talking to a few senior people who work in mobile phone companies about this today, and they seemed genuinely surprised about the 088 reallocation.

Surprising really.

Can any of you guys who attended the demo describe the hardware to me, i'm intrigued to know what it looks/feels like. Is it a PCMCIA card for a lappy or what?

Urban Weigl

I posted a link to the hardware that was used on a previous thread about Digiweb. It's basically a USB dongle type device, that will work with most computers that have USB connectivity.

As far as handsets for voice, I don't think there are any yet, hence why they are only talking about "early" 2008 for those.

watty

Well Digiweb ALREADY has a phone network, on Metro. It's not very mobile, but is nomadic and wireless. It's on pure IP, so technically VOIP based as the 4G will be but not in Vonage/Blueface/Skype sense as it is more like VOIP only on your own LAN to your own PABX. The voice traffic doesn't go on the public Internet like Blueface, but only on Digiweb's backhaul to their own softswitch and interconect.

1huge1

kaizersoze wrote:

Ahh memories. I remember when I had an 088 mobile number all those years ago.:)
Good news.

ya I liked how they said irelands first network is about to become the most modern one
nice touch

Blaster99

I guess the handy thing with an 088 number is that people are conditioned to think that paying 20c a minute is acceptable.

watty

I would think that call fall into 3 main categories:
1) Calls to other Mobiles. The Mobile companies decide the price basically, not much potential for cost cutting.
2) Calls to Landlines. eircom has some influence on this, but obviously potential to be much cheaper than GSM/3GM.
3) Calls to other 088 and Metro users.

crawler

cgarvey wrote:

Give over!

It's an exciting technology with lots of potential. BUT! But, it was a rigged and controlled demo, with little real-world impact. I.e. similar to eircom demonstrating DSL with the exchanges/DSLAM and 1 telephone line in the same room.

We've no details on price/service/geographic availability (including spread/reach)/timeline of availability. So, whilst it might not be vapourware by the strict definition, it's very much closer to vapourware than it is to a public service/product offering.

I'll probably be a very early customer of this, don't get me wrong, but the amount of PR BS all of the "we're going to save the world" hype is tiring, and Digiweb employees coming on here to defend the BS/lack of detail is of no use to IoffL or its members.

So when the BS turns in to reality, then by all means sing, dance, drink and shout.. but until then it's buzzwords and bull****. If it wasn't, Digiweb would be releasing some figures however ball park. It's not about protecting competition. It's about keeping investors sweet. This is not the place for that!

Hi CG - I agree in the sense, it's not launched until it's launched and I guarantee it will be launched with the first area going live before then end of summer. I also guarantee it has nothing to do with investors but you only have my word on that.

Would you feel it better if we did not interact here at all? Genuinly would appreciate your guidance - I am not one to hi-jack a forum, in particular a not for profit one and I have no problem at all backing down...

Regarding pricing etc - what I can say is that will be very competitive but agian until I know the full capabilities of the system with new software etc I honestly dont know what this will be.

Urban Weigl

crawler, I know you didn't ask me specifically, but I think your interaction here is very much valued. On the other hand, there will always be people who complain.

dahamsta

I agree with Urban. The more vendors in here the better, just as long as cheerleading is kept to a minimum. Just the facts ma'am.

cgarvey

crawler wrote:

Hi CG - I agree in the sense, it's not launched until it's launched and I guarantee it will be launched with the first area going live before then end of summer. I also guarantee it has nothing to do with investors but you only have my word on that.

(mod hat off) Good news on the timeline (and it better be Maynooth/Celbridge first!). I've no doubt ye fully intend to launch it (hence my vapourware clarification above)!!

'Nothing to do with investors' implies that it is competition ye're worried about. I was hoping that ye'd break the mould (of mobile operators, with their high call charges - good point Blaster - and generally less-than reliable service levels). I was hoping this would be a new mould-breaker like Metro was (and I love my Metro, bar the phone part, maybe!).

crawler wrote:

Would you feel it better if we did not interact here at all?

(mod hat on) Not at all. Personally, I think it's great. Officially, it's acceptable by the charter, but watch the SNR, because since the 4G license has been announced, there's been lots of "it'll be great, wait & see" rather than actual fact. I take that as offering nothing back to the community and simply using it for advertising/PR. That's not acceptable. I hope you can see the difference I'm talking about.

crawler wrote:

Regarding pricing etc - what I can say is that will be very competitive but agian until I know the full capabilities of the system with new software etc I honestly dont know what this will be.

(mod hat off again) You got investors to invest multi-million sums without know ball park subscription rates? I must write up my great ".com boom v2.0" plan!

Zoney

watty wrote:

I would think that call fall into 3 main categories:
1) Calls to other Mobiles. The Mobile companies decide the price basically, not much potential for cost cutting.

The EC is getting a bit interested in mobile termination rates as far as I know. Maybe some hope there for the future.

Urban Weigl

Zoney wrote:

The EC is getting a bit interested in mobile termination rates as far as I know. Maybe some hope there for the future.

I think it's mainly mobile termination rates as far as roaming is concerned that they are interested in. I may be wrong.

watty

Yes, only Roaming. But it is a start.

Urban Weigl

Beyond a very limited range of handsets for Digiweb's Flash OFDM based network, there is one concern in particular that I have: roaming will not be widely supported. At least that's what I thought initially. Now I realise that just like UMTS (3G) phones, Flash OFDM phones could also include a GSM radio. I wonder if that's going to be the case, or too early to say?

seamus

Urban Weigl wrote:

Beyond a very limited range of handsets for Digiweb's Flash OFDM based network, there is one concern in particular that I have: roaming will not be widely supported. At least that's what I thought initially. Now I realise that just like UMTS (3G) phones, Flash OFDM phones could also include a GSM radio. I wonder if that's going to be the case, or too early to say?

I think it's a reasonable assumption to make. The two main GSM incumbents in this country are (obviously) years ahead of any new player to enter the market. While patchy coverage was accepted back when mobiles were just taking off, nowadays nobody is going to accept a handset that they can't bring on their stag down to Kilkenny or that jumps in and out of coverage while they drive across the country.

Although the services possible on a 4G handset will massively outstrip those on 3G, the initiative will crash and burn if people can't make a simple call on the phone. It would be suicide for Digiweb to *not* partner with a GSM provider. I still don't trust VoIP for reliability*, but I do trust GSM so having a GSM network to fall back on when the local 4G AP goes down is a must IMHO.

*Actually I trust VoIP perfectly, it's the reliability of the ISP/Internet Connection that I generally don't trust for standard telephony services