Eircom - Wimax rollout

long_b

I was on to Eircom yesterday about this. The agent seemed quite sure that it was going to roll out this month.

Said something about the service having to be live for 21 days before they could sell it ?

Can anyone confirm dates on these ? Or is it just a line ?

anthony4335

I was told yesterday, after ringing to have my new line tested for DSL as the exchange was upgraded a couple of months ago, and the guy on the other end of the line gave me the bad news, but them proceeded to tell me about the WiMax, but suggested it would be summer of next year. Still Pixxed off about the whole DSL thing as I had to pay to have the line connected, a couple of months rental just to be told tough. I hate eircom.

watty

they do of course have an existing Nationwide licence & system, that is hard to persuade them to sell you. (near impossible if you can get analogue dailup). There was talk of them only offering the upgraded to WiMax in main cities where people can get DSL and fail DSL. They have never wanted their wireless to compete with dialup or DSL. Which makes excellent sense for shareholders. However if I was running eircom I would also offer wireless to people that can't get DSL at all.

long_b

Now that is disappointing.

Has anyone got any good news on this ?

bushy...

They might be going to use it to bridge the time gap until everyone has xdsl2 or fibre to the home . I suppose if they had turned on adsl2 and sent out a load of new modems last year everyone would be bored of 20meg by now

Sponge Bob

1. eircom just sold off their masts for €€s
2. they only EVER promised to use wimax to supply BB to homes in the 5 big cities whose lines fail .
3. there is no stated plan to swap out their existing 3.5ghz gear outside those cities..bar in Athlone where they are trialling Wimax and need the spectrum .
4. There is no national plan of any sort.

Believe it if you see it .

watty

Though haven't they some sort of Lease back thing from ThreeFold (who bought the masts).

Sponge Bob

they have a leaseback, yes.

long_b

Ah shucks, that looks fairly definitive then.

Thanks for the replies.

Sponge Bob

Its simple really. Eircom announce these technologies to interfere with other operators plans, thats all.

EG

19/10/2006 One Year Ago

Eircom bids to improve broadband availability
19-10-2006
by Charlie Taylor

Eircom has committed to enabling more exchanges nationwide along with rolling out WiMAX as it aims to boost broadband availability in Ireland.

The company said on Thursday that an additional 100 telephone exchanges in communities across the country are to be DSL enabled, with work expected to be completed during 2007.

To my knowledge they have 3 live and may reach 20 by end 2007 , most certainly not 100. They then announced , in March another 330 exchanges to be done . That should be finished around 2012 I should think.

In addition, Eircom announced that it is committed to being in a position whereby it will be able to take orders from all customers living in the Republic's five urban centres: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

As part of this commitment, the firm said it is to begin rolling out WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access) over the next year in order to supplement existing DSL services in these cities to ensure that residents will be able to avail of broadband, regardless of whether they are close to an enabled exchange. Such a move will also mean that customers who have previously been unable to sign up for DSL due to line failure will soon be able to subscribe for high-speed internet services.

This meant that if you failed for DSL you could get wimax, therefore eircom would provide some class of broadband to all customers in the 5 big cities within one year from the 19.10.2006 so maybe I am being hard on them because the year is only up on saturday after all

No eircom wimax customers have been connected anywhere in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford., but that was never the intention was it

Bad as Phil Nolan was he tended to stick to his announcements, a year meant a year in most cases.

mayhem#

As usual with Eircom it's just pure spin....

long_b

Come to think of it, I think they rang around my area touting WiMax just about the time 3 first came out with their BB

mayhem#

Also if and when they ever offer it do not expect it to be cheap...

great unwashed

It's annoying that eircom has such a stranglehold on the market. I wonder if the likes of mobile deals from the likes of 3 will challenge them at all?

Keith186

great unwashed wrote: »

It's annoying that eircom has such a stranglehold on the market. I wonder if the likes of mobile deals from the likes of 3 will challenge them at all?

I doubt it they seem to be very unreliale and drop the connection a good bit.
I found BT to be a good deal for the broadband & telephone.

tak

Maybe if the (deified) multinationals started demanding (en masse) that the consumers of their new age products & services be given proper continental b/band the D o Comms might listen up ?

For sure DoC won't do it for the rest of us . . . :rolleyes:

long_b

Today the sales people are saying Galway and Waterford to get WiMax first (no date). The three other urban areas to follow. Nothing outside that.

This makes sense - I wonder what the first sales person was on.

Ruffty^

I'm in moycullen outside galway.
My line was amber so I tried to get the 2meg broadband, eventually they told me it was no good and they cancelled my order and I returned the modem.

I checked my line here.

And it still failed, but then I got this;
"Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in November 2007.

If you would like eircom to contact you should service become available to you please fill in the details below."
When I put in my details it said; "we will contact you before nov2007"

atm I have this 512k/512k wireless connection from a crowd of idiots reselling IBB for €45 a month. I get 512k, but I get so much random packet loss I can't play games.
I hope WiMAX is a different/more stable technology and cheaper!

tonton-bob

Ruffty^ wrote: »

I checked my line

And it still failed, but then I got this;
"Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in November 2007.

I used to have the same result in april/june but it was stating Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in July 2007

I haven't heard of Wimax in my area ( Glasnevin ) since then ...

Ruffty^

tonton-bob wrote: »

I used to have the same result in april/june but it was stating Good news, WIMAX technology will be available in your area in July 2007

I haven't heard of Wimax in my area ( Glasnevin ) since then ...

Lame. I tried the line test like end of sept and it said nothing about WiMAX, and that changed mid-way through october, so maybe they are actually serious, but I know well not to hold my breath when it concerns relying on dates from eircom.

Does anyone know anything about WiMax as a technology, is it any different from what IBB offer, i.e. speeds? quality of service? cost?

bushy...

IBB have some wimax gear

watty

EVERYONE has some WiMax gear.

"pre-Wimax" doesn't count.

richardw001

Regarding Wimax - I was talking to eircom during the summer - they said that they should have some news in october - Was on the phone to eircom sales today - no wimax until after christmas according to yer man.

To be honest I'm sick to death of trying to get broadband - a hour from cork city - and 35 mins from limerick - you'd think I'd be able to get it at this stage. Broadband is the 21st century equivlant of electricity - everyone should be entitled to get it - at the same price and level of service.


Someone should start a petition online regarding this - saying that
1) they are disatisfied with the encumbant Eircom - who are denying Irish people the right to 21st century communication - and are moving from Eircom Voice on principal - (to anyone)
2) they are disatisfied with the Irish Government - Green, PD and Fianna Fail - and their denial - of this right - that every Irish person is entitled to - and that due to this reason they are not voting for these parties - on principal - (will vote for anyone but them)

If everyone - did this maybe we might get somewhere
- I don't think it should be my job to chase around looking for broadband - both 1) and 2) have got my tax euros to provide a communication service
- which they have'nt provided - or provided alot of people.

Sorry for the rant !

superweld

richardw001 wrote: »

Regarding Wimax - I was talking to eircom during the summer - they said that they should have some news in october - Was on the phone to eircom sales today - no wimax until after christmas according to yer man.

To be honest I'm sick to death of trying to get broadband - a hour from cork city - and 35 mins from limerick - you'd think I'd be able to get it at this stage. Broadband is the 21st century equivlant of electricity - everyone should be entitled to get it - at the same price and level of service.


Someone should start a petition online regarding this - saying that
1) they are disatisfied with the encumbant Eircom - who are denying Irish people the right to 21st century communication - and are moving from Eircom Voice on principal - (to anyone)
2) they are disatisfied with the Irish Government - Green, PD and Fianna Fail - and their denial - of this right - that every Irish person is entitled to - and that due to this reason they are not voting for these parties - on principal - (will vote for anyone but them)

If everyone - did this maybe we might get somewhere
- I don't think it should be my job to chase around looking for broadband - both 1) and 2) have got my tax euros to provide a communication service
- which they have'nt provided - or provided alot of people.

Sorry for the rant !

no apology needed, you're completely right.

Ruffty^

hey, down here in galway it's hard enough to secure clean drinking water..

pedropumpalot

watty wrote: »

EVERYONE has some WiMax gear.

"pre-Wimax" doesn't count.

Just to clarify, IBB's BreezeMax product operating in the 3.5GHz band is WiMax compliant and so is the Navini Ripwave other than that, thats it. From what I've seen out there Eircom have no intention of rolling out a WiMax network, it would cost them an absolute fortune with vendor equipment, licences, acquiring sites, RF planners and the whole lot.

bushy...

pedropumpalot wrote:

From what I've seen out there Eircom have no intention of rolling out a WiMax network it would cost them an absolute fortune with vendor equipment,

copper and poles aren't free

pedropumpalot wrote:

licences,

have them

pedropumpalot wrote:

acquiring sites,

have sweet sites

pedropumpalot wrote:

RF planners

look at an Eircom tower , i'm sure those round yokes aren't decorations

pedropumpalot wrote:

and the whole lot.

watty

Navini Ripwave is pre-wimax. i.e. Not WiMax. Either something really is WiMax* or it isn't. Navini is or will be a WiMax supplier, and for that reason Cisco has bought them.

Alvarion Breeze is not Wimax. Alvarion BreezeMax is WiMax. There is little difference for the user, the main difference is increased sector capacity for the Operator.

* There are two different types of Wimax: Fixed and Mobile. The Mobile version to compete with 3G or Flash-OFDM is still in the trial/debug phase.

The main aspects of WiMax are OFDM transmission and time slot base station scheduling once the user has attempted to connect. This is pretty much how any modern Wireless system works and is not unique to WiMax.

The issue is not eircom using WiMax or not, the issue is that they have had nationwide masts and 3.5Ghz licences yet have virtually provided no service when other Operators with those masts & Licence would have provided maybe 180,000 connections in the same time scale. One can only conclude they make more money out of dialup.

They already have a network and have upgraded very little to WiMax as they don't need the capacity. They don't need the capacity because mostly they won't sell you FWA if you can be fitted with dialup.

pedropumpalot

bushy... wrote: »

copper and poles aren't free
have them
have sweet sites
look at an Eircom tower , i'm sure those round yokes aren't decorations

Hi Bushy,

Just so you know, rolling out a wireless network using wooden poles and copper buried in the ground doesn't really work :eek:

Fair enough on the licenses point, I wasn't aware of their 3.5GHz license.

In terms of sweet sites they have an SDH/PDH Transmission and fibre backbone network to connect the main cities with branches off these to exchanges around the country. From here their wired network operates on their high tech copper and wood infrastructure. Most of these site are rural and consist of one story buildings. :rolleyes: Oh yeah by the way Three Fold own these sites now!

And finally those round yokes don't provide you with your wireless, they are point to point links for backhaul and not access. The majority of the round yokes belong to the likes of VF O2 3..... Transmission planners is what they have not RF planners.

bealtine

richardw001 wrote: »

To be honest I'm sick to death of trying to get broadband - a hour from cork city - and 35 mins from limerick - you'd think I'd be able to get it at this stage. Broadband is the 21st century equivlant of electricity - everyone should be entitled to get it - at the same price and level of service.


Someone should start a petition online regarding this - saying that
1) they are disatisfied with the encumbant Eircom - who are denying Irish people the right to 21st century communication - and are moving from Eircom Voice on principal - (to anyone)
2) they are disatisfied with the Irish Government - Green, PD and Fianna Fail - and their denial - of this right - that every Irish person is entitled to - and that due to this reason they are not voting for these parties - on principal - (will vote for anyone but them)

That was the raison d'etre of Ireland Offline now sadly defunct.
If enough people are really interested it could be resurrected...

richardw001

Well I for one would get involved - if Ireland offline came back into the active realm - Does anyone know - how many eircom subscribers can't currently avail of the fancy broadband offerings that are advertised on tv every ten minutes ? if everyone of them moved to another provider in protest - and at the same time signed a petition saying that they will not vote for any of the government parties until they address this issue (and deliver results). Until Eircom start losing money and the government start losing potential votes because of this - I don't think that this will be taken seriously.

Also people that have had to spend 000's of euros in the past few years in getting satellite etc. should be recompensed - Its Eircoms duty to provide this service - they should'nt have a God given right to the last mile of voice unless they are prepared to provide an adequete communication service.
If the E.S.B did the same then half the country would be lightling oil laterns.


Just getting back to the wimax discussion - has anyone heard any update on an Eircom rollout ? - from what I can see in the discussion the customer service person I was talking to early in the week might not be correct in saying that it will be well after christmas ?

smellslikeshoes

richardw001 wrote: »

Well I for one would get involved - if Ireland offline came back into the active realm - Does anyone know - how many eircom subscribers can't currently avail of the fancy broadband offerings that are advertised on tv every ten minutes ? if everyone of them moved to another provider in protest - and at the same time signed a petition saying that they will not vote for any of the government parties until they address this issue (and deliver results). Until Eircom start losing money and the government start losing potential votes because of this - I don't think that this will be taken seriously.
?

It is completely unrealistic to expect people to change providers out of protest. People will go to where they get the best service and best value and thats the bottom line. Petitions do nothing and would promptly be binned.

Also people that have had to spend 000's of euros in the past few years in getting satellite etc. should be recompensed - -

It is also completely unrealistic and downright ridiculous to even think that people would be recompensed for paying for an expensive service. It won't happen and honestly can't happen.

Its Eircoms duty to provide this service

No its not Eircoms duty to provide broadband, they are a private company and what they wish to provide is their own choice. They are bound by a universal service obligation for a working phoneline suitable for phone calls and a minimum of 28 kilobit rate for data but nothing more.

they should'nt have a God given right to the last mile of voice unless they are prepared to provide an adequete communication service.

The infrastructure was sold by the government and is owned by Eircom so they own the last mile. All they are required to do is meet their U.S.O. as I mentioned above and provide access(for a price) to it for other providers.

Duiske

Mike Byrne of Comreg has commented on WiMax today on Silicon Republic.

Byrne is already looking beyond technologies like WiMax and 3G to a standard called WiBro (Wireless Broadband), a portable broadband service that can allow for 50Mbps download and 5Mps upload even if you are travelling at 50Km/h.

Grommet

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Its simple really. Eircom announce these technologies to interfere with other operators plans, thats all.

EG

19/10/2006 One Year Ago



To my knowledge they have 3 live and may reach 20 by end 2007 , most certainly not 100. .

SB - I've got to pick you up on this post on this thread from a couple of weeks ago - I know for a fact that eircom has launched DSL so far at 35 out of the 100 announced exchanges and I understand that they are on target to get to 75+ by the end of the year, with a commitment to get the remainder completed in Q1 2008.

Yeah, they have not reached the 100 number by the end of 2007, but I think 75 is not that far off given that these are mainly rural locations and inevitably can be difficult to connect at the necessary capacity into their core network.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

They then announced , in March another 330 exchanges to be done . That should be finished around 2012 I should think.
.

I know for a fact that internally in eircom, they are planning for mid 2009 to get all of those sites finished. They are ramping up their resources in those areas at the moment to try to hit a run rate of 25 a month by early next year.

richardw001

So does anyone actually know when (if ever) wimax is going to be rolled out by Eircom ?

watty

Duiske_Lad wrote: »

Mike Byrne of Comreg has commented on WiMax today on Silicon Republic.

WiBro is just the Korean version of Wimax.

(You have an extra http in your link).

To get more speed on WiMax, Flash-OFDM, WiBro, LTE etc you need MORE bandwidth. Currently operators have 4 to 10MHz. They need to roll out DTT and allocate 50MHz to 150MHz bandwidth at 800MHz to have these hyped speeds.

There is nothing new and much hype in that article.

Exactly what network last mile and network backhaul will eircom use for IPTV?

watty

richardw001 wrote: »

So does anyone actually know when (if ever) wimax is going to be rolled out by Eircom ?

It doesn't really matter. It mostly allows an upgrade of number of users, with some speed upgrade, for pre Wimax Breeze (BreezeMax is WiMax) but not compared with Metro.

The point is that eircom have had a national licence and gear for years and don't sell it. Now they have sold the masts to Threefold (though done some lease back deal).

They have 400+ exchanges on list for DSL upgrade. WiMax announcements are mostly to rattle the other operators.

richardw001

Okay - I guess the only thing that we can hope for is that do Eircom lease out their masts (presumably these are the big red and white FWA ones - one of which I've been looking at from my house for the last couple of years?) - whoever they lease to - has only to put christmas lights on them - to improve their level of usefulness

watty

They are sold... read the earlier posts. Quite recently. All of them. They have leased back what they are using.

Sponge Bob

Grommet wrote: »

SB - I've got to pick you up on this post on this thread from a couple of weeks ago - I know for a fact that eircom has launched DSL so far at 35 out of the 100 announced exchanges and I understand that they are on target to get to 75+ by the end of the year, with a commitment to get the remainder completed in Q1 2008.

Fine, name the ones that are live so and thanks for confirming what I know which is that they will not be completed on schedule ....which schedule of over 13 months was not too onerous in the first place .

I did say elsewhere, recently , that one was done to my knowledge.

I had heard in the spring/summer that 15 a month were due for release starting July .

I was somewhat nonplussed when Rex Comb , who really should know whats happening , Told Silicon Republic the following in early september

Eircom last week revealed that it has spent €369m on capital investment in the past 12 months, an increase of €103m on the previous year. Comb said that 400 additional exchanges have been earmarked for broadband-enabling and that at present the company is enabling at least 25 exchanges a month. This will bring Ireland to 96pc broadband coverage by 2009.

Now I am told that 35 are done in TOTAL 8 weeks after the boss said that the company was banging out 25 a month .

I am one bewildered Sponge and as you can imagine there is a lot of moisture hissing out of my many orifices at the myriad information at my disposal .

grommet wrote:

I know for a fact that internally in eircom, they are planning for mid 2009 to get all of those sites finished. They are ramping up their resources in those areas at the moment to try to hit a run rate of 25 a month by early next year.

Again, these were announced in March 2007 and none of the 330 are done.
I expected them to trail the 100 of course.

Please forgive me Grommet when I say that I will believe
eircom only when the line passes and the DSL light goes GREEN 2 weeks later.

Everything else, IMHO , is primarily designed to create FUD in the wireless and cable space .

Grommet

Sponge - Fair enough - you have reason for your cynicism towards eircom.
I presume from what you said that you do not have eircom DSL then? is it because you are at an exchange that is not enabled? If so, what exchange is it?

Sponge Bob

I have Bitstream Grommet , I am Ok in that respect although I have no choice as it happens ...maybe EDGE , maybe !

Yes I am a cynic an no its not in the least insulting

rebel.ranter

watty wrote: »

They are sold... read the earlier posts. Quite recently. All of them. They have leased back what they are using.

Sorry to be a pedantic Pete but they really only sold half of them. They retained approx. 50%. It's true they have leased back though. The fact that they sold the masts is not a good enough explanation why they haven't kicked some sort of WiMax plan into gear.

watty

Since they have had a licence for years and still have access to all the masts you must conclude that their interests lie elsewhere

Grommet

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Fine, name the ones that are live so and thanks for confirming what I know which is that they will not be completed on schedule ....which schedule of over 13 months was not too onerous in the first place .

For the record - here is the list of exchanges from the list of 100 that have been launched so far (total = 39). As said, these are coming on line much more slowly than eircom planned, but at least there is some movement.

ARDMORE
ANNESTOWN
BALLA
BALLYBRITTAS
BALLYCLOUGH
BALLYGARVAN
BALLYMAHON
BALLINDINE
BALLYLINAN
CHARLESTOWN
CARRIGART
CASTLEGARREN
CASTLEMARTYR
DUNMORE
DUNLAVIN
DONERAILE
FRESHFORD
FAHAN
GARRISTOWN
GREENCASTLE
JULIANSTOWN
KILMACRENAN
KILCORMAC
KILLESHANDRA
KILLUCAN
KILLYGORDON
LOMBARDSTOWN
MOUNTCHARLES
MANORCUNNINGHAM
MUFF
NOBBER
PALLASKENRY
QUIGLEYS POINT
RATHKEALE
ROSSCAHILL
RATHVILLY
TIERMACLANE
TIMOLEAGUE
TURLOUGHMORE

For completeness, the following sites have also been launched in the last few months (not included on the published list of 100)

ARDREW
COLPE CROSS
DEEPFORDE
GRACEFIELD
KILBRECK
NUTGROVE
NEWHALL BUSINESS PK
ST JOHNS ROAD

bealtine

Grommet wrote: »

For the record - here is the list of exchanges from the list of 100 that have been launched so far (total = 39).

ARDMORE
[..]
TURLOUGHMORE



39% wouldn't get you a pass in the leaving cert...so by definition eircom have failed (again)

Grommet

Yeah but to use your analogy - the exam is still sitting.

The press release announced the launch of the 100 by end of the year - there are still two months to go. So, let's see if they reach a pass mark by the time the bell goes ;-)

Stix108

anthony4335 wrote: »

I was told yesterday, after ringing to have my new line tested for DSL as the exchange was upgraded a couple of months ago, and the guy on the other end of the line gave me the bad news, but them proceeded to tell me about the WiMax, but suggested it would be summer of next year. Still Pixxed off about the whole DSL thing as I had to pay to have the line connected, a couple of months rental just to be told tough. I hate eircom.

The first thing that you should know is that eircom do not have Wimax!!!
Irish Broadband was bought over by Imagine a year ago and have spent a lot of time developing wimax.. It is up and running and will be available at the start of next year. It is being tested right now and up and running in certain areas in Dublin. I have seen it working. If you are talking to eircom again ask them to send you out information in writing and you will then get a different story about them having wimax. The best thing about wimax is that you will no longer need eircom phone lines or their network to make phone calls as wimax does it all.

PMC999

Quote:
Originally Posted by anthony4335
I was told yesterday, after ringing to have my new line tested for DSL as the exchange was upgraded a couple of months ago, and the guy on the other end of the line gave me the bad news, but them proceeded to tell me about the WiMax, but suggested it would be summer of next year. Still Pixxed off about the whole DSL thing as I had to pay to have the line connected, a couple of months rental just to be told tough. I hate eircom.

Stix108 wrote: »

The first thing that you should know is that eircom do not have Wimax!!!
Irish Broadband was bought over by Imagine a year ago and have spent a lot of time developing wimax.. It is up and running and will be available at the start of next year. It is being tested right now and up and running in certain areas in Dublin. I have seen it working. If you are talking to eircom again ask them to send you out information in writing and you will then get a different story about them having wimax. The best thing about wimax is that you will no longer need eircom phone lines or their network to make phone calls as wimax does it all.

anthony4335's post is almost 2 years old!

gdael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNQof9TUeSI

Sponge Bob

Stix108 wrote: »

The first thing that you should know is that eircom do not have Wimax!! Irish Broadband was bought over by Imagine a year ago and have spent a lot of time developing wimax.. It is up and running and will be available at the start of next year.

Eircom trialled fixed wimax , Imagine have launched mobile wimax not fixed wimax . What is it with all the N00bs who have registered in the past 2 days to PIMP Imagine ....as well as dragging up old threads ..ugh ?????

But we should revisit this eircom trial I suppose. This technnology was promised in teh main cities by eircom as a BB for all guarantee .

Furthermore eircom have 4 or 5 times more 3.5ghz spectrum in Dublin than Imagine do .

I have seen it working.

Thought so

If you are talking to eircom again ask them to send you out information in writing and you will then get a different story about them having wimax.

Wimax Trial over in Athone is it ??

What happened to the Irish Broadband Wimax Rollout promised in 2005?? or is this it 4 years later and 12 cities short ???

http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/1110/broadband.html

Irish Broadband has today announced a major initiative for the immediate rollout of WiMAX broadband networks to 14 of Ireland's major urban centres. The initiative is in association with Intel.

Irish Broadband have launched WiMAX broadband services in Athlone, Arklow, Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Ennis, Galway, Kilkenny, Killaloe, Letterkenny, Limerick, Newbridge, Portlaoise and Wexford.
'This development will enable Irish Broadband to expand its network coverage area as well as further enhance its ability to provide services such as VoIP, video broadband and other IP data and voice services',