Yet another town is the first wireless town in Ireland

damien

This time it's Carlow.

ENet top secretly sent out a press release to some journos to have them come down to Carlow for the launch of a wireless network today. They also sent out a press release today talking up something that really isn't worth talking about.

Carlow will become the country’s very first completely wireless-enabled broadband town later today as a result of a collaboration between metropolitan area network (MAN) provider e-Net and Carlow County Council.

Completely wireless enabled of course means:

The new network will be deployed three years ahead of Dublin’s proposed Wi-Fi network and will cover 50pc of businesses and 10pc of homes in Carlow town.

I guess they don't consider Cork a town but a City in order to talk about the first wireless town. With coverage like the above, I think any town and village that has a lot of eircom broadband customers with wireless modems means they too are "completely" wireless enabled.

And in "not wanting to toot our own horn but you know the Celtic Tiger is cos of us" news, ENet said:

Pointing to statistics from IDA Ireland, he said that in 2004 only 20pc of new jobs were announced in the 27 phase one towns where MANs have been built. This increased to 40pc in 2005 and 60pc in 2006. “I would never say that that was down to the MANs on their own but I have to believe that we are having some impact.

Are there ex FF press office staff working in ENet now? ENet will soon announce they're bigger than jesus. Which is handy cos some of the MANs will need a few miracles to get backhaul, won't they now. Kiltimagh anyone?

Cabaal

I saw this, what a joke!
If its not 100% of the population of Carlow town (within the mapped out area of the town) the how the **** can they say its completely wireless,

My apparentment block is completely wireless...of course by completely wireless I mean just my apartment is covered by one FON router so its actually only 8% of the block....but sure that doesn't matter. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

lucernarian

I thought Drogheda had something like this done ages ago?? Link: BT wifi Town

And shame on SiliconRepublic for swallowing such garbage. Completely covered?? We think not.

thegills

The link in the opening thread directs to an article on Silicon Republic so how is this an e-net top secret press release? Furthermore the quotes provided by e-net (the text in inverted commas) don't refer to the Carlow WiFi network merely IDA stats.

e-net and the Council have built an open access WiFi network which means that any operator can provide services over the network without having to rollout the infrastructure; this is the 1st of it's kind in Ireland. It is only a small part of a wireless solution for Carlow and hopefully the other MAN's.

There is a better article on ENN

thegills.

damien

thegills wrote:

The link in the opening thread directs to an article on Silicon Republic so how is this an e-net top secret press release?

Never said it was. Shame on Silicon Republic for not copy and pasting from that embargoed release.

Furthermore the quotes provided by e-net (the text in inverted commas) don't refer to the Carlow WiFi network merely IDA stats.

They certainly weren't in the press release but they certainly do come from the mouth of Conall Henry, chief executive of ENet. Did he go off-message last week? Should I have this thread split into two? One for ENet taking claim for 1000s of jobs and the other about the first ever wireless town, if we ignore Cork and Drogheda and all the others who seem to lay claim.

e-net and the Council have built an open access WiFi network which means that any operator can provide services over the network without having to rollout the infrastructure; this is the 1st of it's kind in Ireland. It is only a small part of a wireless solution for Carlow and hopefully the other MAN's.

If that was the main aim of the announcement today and that was what was pushed then great. Well done on ENet trialing a wholesale wireless service in Carlow. It was not. And the fcking "We beat Dublin's wifi investment" spin to it is even more crap. At least there was more on the wholesale aspect on Morning Ireland this morning but there was still some spin even in that interview.

It's a shame that ENet are into the spin game. I'd much rather see them release something about having backhaul for all their MANs both fibre and wireless. With the cost of digging streets being so prohibitive, it'd be nice to be able to connect to the MANs wirelessly too.

There is a better article on ENN

More on-message alright.

I do think ENet are good guys, don't get me wrong and I really think Dempsey utterly screwed them with his spin about how the MANs would solve everything and ENet could not come out and say he was talking bollox or they'd never get anymore business but the comments from ENet last week and the over-hyped press release are not doing anyone any favours. It would be a shame for ENet to be put into the same spin category as eircom and ComReg.

Patrickof

Ahh so does that then answer this query:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055022726&referrerid=&highlight=carlow

damien

Nice find. Liking this quote:

The ESB are just providing power to the units.

Yet they still got space in a press release.

thegills

Providing power to the units is not as easy as you would think as some of the access nodes are mounted on top of lamp posts!! The negotiations alone took months. Well worthy of a mention.

In relation to Patrickof's question, I answered it in the same thread right at the bottom.

Cabaal

thegills wrote:

Providing power to the units is not as easy as you would think as some of the access nodes are mounted on top of lamp posts!! The negotiations alone took months. Well worthy of a mention.

Hang on, lamp posts?
Lamp posts that the ESB owns....yes I can imagine that its very hard to provide power to something thats attached to something that the ESB own.

damien

Cabaal wrote:

Hang on, lamp posts?
Lamp posts that the ESB owns....yes I can imagine that its very hard to provide power to something thats attached to something that the ESB own.

Well they would need to run new power lines for them. And it is the ESB...

watty

ESB good at Fibre.

eircom supplies DC & AC power on copper wires.

Hmm.

Cabaal

damien.m wrote:

Well they would need to run new power lines for them. And it is the ESB...

jesus, how could I be so stupid, I forgot its a big job for Jimmy to go out and string a new wire down to power the access point.

Amazed they've done it during 2007 at all.

Hacketry

To_be_confirmed wrote:

And shame on SiliconRepublic for swallowing such garbage.

LoL
Don't be so naive.

SilcRep have a new reporter you know? She's from Carlow. I kid ye not.

Patrickof

I just find it incredible that the council are spending public money on delivering broadband into an area that already has plenty of choice for people. There even already is wi-fi (eircom) in Carlow town centre.

Surely a priority would be to get broadband to those who have no providers before worrying about increasing competition in denser areas. In fact, the market can probably sort out competition in denser areas by itself.

thebman

They only care about denser areas because they are trying to get costs down for business IMO. More competition should mean lower prices and better services which will help them attract businesses to the area.

Patrickof

Apologies in advance for going slightly off topic, but isn't it the local business' rates that are ultimately funding this "drive to reduce costs for business".....

Maybe if the council didn't all swan off to the USA for March 17th they could reduce rates.....

lucernarian

Hacketry wrote:

LoL
Don't be so naive.

SilcRep have a new reporter you know? She's from Carlow. I kid ye not.

Where's the editor? And what they published was still a lie. Naieve would be expecting them to take the article down and rewriting it.

damien

Someone alerted me to this bit from the Irish Times which was not in other publications:

Plans to extend the service to other towns is dependent on "appropriate funding". The Carlow start-up project has cost €3 million, with 90 per cent of the cost provided by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and 10 per cent by the local authorities.

lucernarian

Plans to extend the service?? 3 million to slightly cover a largish town. What a fcuking disgrace. That was an utter failure of a scheme. And the people of carlow can't even use it freely.

Mabye the DCMNR should have kept that money instead of proving that it takes 3 million to build a wifi network in part of a town, once you have idiots running a project. Running fibre everywhere, only to end up as the backup supplier to some comms providers and a commercial wifi supplier. Well done.

And how about an even brighter idea. How about this. Would they pay for every exchange in Carlow to be DSL enabled, and give grants with the change to wireless providers or 3G providers to offer competiton and fill-in coverage??

Or would that be admitting that they put a very significant cart before the horse?? I needn't really ask that...

thegills

Lads,
You really need to get your facts right and not rely solely on press articles. The €3M relates to the Carlow MAN, the other new MAN's in Carlow, and the WiFi project; not just the WiFi project. And the Council should be applauded for taking such a hands-on approach to broadband for Carlow; they could just as easily done nothing.
thegills

Boston

Cabaal wrote:

jesus, how could I be so stupid, I forgot its a big job for Jimmy to go out and string a new wire down to power the access point.

Amazed they've done it during 2007 at all.

Spoken like someone without a clue. Here is an image of a lamp post


Notice that it's not a case of "Stringing down a wire", but rather laying new power cables in the ground to supply the access point. Now if you think thats a simple job accross a large town, maybe you should take a course in project management.

damien

thegills wrote:

Lads,
You really need to get your facts right and not rely solely on press articles. The €3M relates to the Carlow MAN, the other new MAN's in Carlow, and the WiFi project; not just the WiFi project. And the Council should be applauded for taking such a hands-on approach to broadband for Carlow; they could just as easily done nothing.

I can't seem to find exact costings for the WiFi project on the ENet site. Or the MANs. Or anything much at all. Where did the paper of record get these details from?

lucernarian

thegills wrote:

Lads,
You really need to get your facts right and not rely solely on press articles. The €3M relates to the Carlow MAN, the other new MAN's in Carlow, and the WiFi project; not just the WiFi project. And the Council should be applauded for taking such a hands-on approach to broadband for Carlow; they could just as easily done nothing.
thegills

Just so you know, I did consider the cost of the MAN itself in Carlow town. E.g when I said "Running fibre everywhere, only to end up as the backup supplier..."

I didn't think of the other MANs around Carlow. But even if there is another MAN or two in the county, which are not mentioned on the E-net site, it's still an outlandish sum of money.

And part of my point is that they would have been better if they did nothing and reserved the money for something more urgent or a broadband project that would actually make a difference.

Patrickof

Have to say I agree with to be confirmed, I've seen council IT deparements strategy plans (not Carlows admittedly) and they talk about delivering broadband - since when is that their responsibility?

thegills

3 million to slightly cover a largish town. What a fcuking disgrace. That was an utter failure of a scheme. And the people of carlow can't even use it freely.....it takes 3 million to build a wifi network in part of a town

This sounds like a reference to the Carlow WiFi project only.

The scheme has only been launched so give it a chance before deeming it an utter failure and calling those involved idiots.

The figure of €3M was mentioned by the Council at the launch as the cost to date on broadband initiatives.

Any refernece to Phase 2 MAN's will not appear on e-net's website as e-net's remit is only for the current 27 MAN's. There will be an MSE tender for Phase 2 soon I believe.

thegills