Drogheda on the broadband?

n00bizme

What with all this newfangled interest towards Drogheda from RTE and the like, would it not be a nice little publicity stunt for UPC to cable up our town and maybe make a few jobs in the process? At the moment Drogheda is stuck with 24 mb at most, which costs too much for most people.

lucernarian

n00bizme wrote: »

What with all this newfangled interest towards Drogheda from RTE and the like, would it not be a nice little publicity stunt for UPC to cable up our town and maybe make a few jobs in the process? At the moment Drogheda is stuck with 24 mb at most, which costs too much for most people.

I've heard of no interest from UPC up to now on this. The two largest towns in Ireland will continue with no alternative to the miles of copper phoneline used for most homes.

pvt

so basically, 24 mb package is the fastest one can get in Drogheda? That's not fun...

lucernarian

And only if you live near the exchange on Patrick St. As the distance increases (and the way the phone wires cross the river in particular if you're on the southside), the maximum speed really falls off.

The title doesn't mention anything about UPC and drogheda, could it be changed?

MugMugs

I heard this was due to UPC being blocked at Balbriggan from laying further. Dundalk has an ESB fibre optic Exchange not available to residential

positron

pvt wrote: »

so basically, 24 mb package is the fastest one can get in Drogheda? That's not fun...

Pfft, you will get no sympathy here mate, I am getting all of amazing 2.4 mbps (while paying for 8mbps) here in southside of the town. What would you do with 24 mbps anyway?!

/sarcasm.

lucernarian

MugMugs wrote: »

I heard this was due to UPC being blocked at Balbriggan from laying further. Dundalk has an ESB fibre optic Exchange not available to residential

UPC haven't bothered their asses from investing further north. Blocked indeed! There's UPC cable in Navan sure and that's further north than Balbriggan and nearly as far as Drogheda.

It's a legacy issue, cable was never laid back in the 80s in Dundalk or Drogheda as aerials could pick up the then 6 channels. And when digital TV came along and it became more expensive to build networks from scratch and with the superior service offered by sky all came along, there never was much desire to roll out cable when MMDS would do the job for Chorus.

n00bizme

I would change the title, but seeing as I'm new and have no idea how to, I can't. I heard something about moderators being able to?

Also, to stay on topic with the thread, there is fast internet in Drogheda. Problem is, it costs 1299 euro a month for 100MB internet. I would link to the site but it seems to have escaped my memory at the moment. It's that wireless internet that goes through dishes.

( and no, the 1299 is not the install fee, the install fee is seperate from montlhy price )

MugMugs

You missing a decimal place there? 12.99?

LH2011

n00bizme wrote: »

I would change the title, but seeing as I'm new and have no idea how to, I can't. I heard something about moderators being able to?

Also, to stay on topic with the thread, there is fast internet in Drogheda. Problem is, it costs 1299 euro a month for 100MB internet. I would link to the site but it seems to have escaped my memory at the moment. It's that wireless internet that goes through dishes.

( and no, the 1299 is not the install fee, the install fee is seperate from montlhy price )

you are probably thinking of airspeed, www.airspeed.ie install fee is between 1000-3000 depending on kit used.

pippam

pvt wrote: »

so basically, 24 mb package is the fastest one can get in Drogheda? That's not fun...

Who provides 24 MB in Drogheda?

pvt

eircom has such package, it costs 80 euro (just the broadband). Speed measured with speedtest.net is about 12-14 mb (depending on the time of the day). Actual download speed is about 800-900kbps. Actual upload speed on average is 72 kbps.

Darksaga87

I tried to get 24mb with eircom on both sides of town, couldnt get it. Its not worth it anyway. You will never see 24mb, 16 is the highest ive ever seen anyone get, and thats pretty good.

sarahbro

Possibly slightly off topic but i read somewhere that there was free wifi now available on west st and Laurence st??
It's to do with the local heroes project?
Can't find it anywhere while on town? (and i work in the middle of west st!)

Darksaga87

sarahbro wrote: »

Possibly slightly off topic but i read somewhere that there was free wifi now available on west st and Laurence st??
It's to do with the local heroes project?
Can't find it anywhere while on town? (and i work in the middle of west st!)

That was ment to be launched the other day. It will prop take a while before its up and running.

pvt

Is that free wifi internet working for you, guys? Saw a big sticker on the door to the shopping centre, but haven't got a chance to used it, yet. Is it any fast?

sarahbro

pvt wrote: »

Is that free wifi internet working for you, guys? Saw a big sticker on the door to the shopping centre, but haven't got a chance to used it, yet. Is it any fast?

I've only been on it on my phone. speed is grand just keeps knocking me off line every while

BlueArsedFly

Buy a smart phone.

Sign up with 3.

Get a month's free internet with unlimited data, free calls to 3 & free texts to any network when you top up by €20 a month.

Set your phone up as a router.

Only 3mb download speeds, but can't beat another bill less.

Darksaga87

Can anyone advise on decent BB for Grange Rath? I moved in a month ago, ordered digiweb before I moved in, still haven't got it, so im considering cancelling the order in a favour of eircom. 8mb NGB. works out about the same price i was going to pay digiweb, plus i might get better service.

Anyone got any advise?

glack

im using vodafone - €40 per month for up to 8mb ngb. includes free evening and weekend calls to landlines and 200min off peak calls to vodafone mobiles too. works well for me in grange rath

Lantus

The speed any house can get is dependant on the cables installed and the distance from the exchange. Eircoms next gen 8mb nonsense doesn't mean you will get 8mb just that you 'could' get it IF it's available which in most parts of the country it isn't.

Replacing cables and exchanges is a supremely expensive business and no one can really afford it except in city centres.

Other factors that can affect your speed are spliter you use for the phone and internet, these cancel out interference and better ones can make a difference.

As all people say, even IF you were within 1m of an exchange you'd never get 8mb all other things being perfect. It would be 6-7.5mb at best subject to interference and cabling issues.

I think the average is about 2.6mb which is what I get around Drogheda and to be honest we are lucky to get that. Further down the road your limited to 1mb or less as you enter the wilds of the country.

delly

Darksaga87 wrote: »

Can anyone advise on decent BB for Grange Rath? I moved in a month ago, ordered digiweb before I moved in, still haven't got it, so im considering cancelling the order in a favour of eircom. 8mb NGB. works out about the same price i was going to pay digiweb, plus i might get better service.

Anyone got any advise?

I have the Eircom 8mb NGB pack and it is bulletproof as the estate more or less sits on the exchange. Download speeds are around 700kb or so and I have never had slow downs. I would not touch Digiweb unless a decent fixed line option was unavailable, which in your case it should be.

Darksaga87

delly wrote: »

I have the Eircom 8mb NGB pack and it is bulletproof as the estate more or less sits on the exchange. Download speeds are around 700kb or so and I have never had slow downs. I would not touch Digiweb unless a decent fixed line option was unavailable, which in your case it should be.

Why would digiweb be no good for up here? Would eircom be worth the extra few quid?

delly

There service is wireless which is inferior to a fixed line alternative. If you found it to be a lot cheaper then fair enough, but if costs are the same I wouldn't see why you would.

Darksaga87

No its DSL (phone line) with digiweb. Cant get the metro (wireles) signal up here.

delly

Ah sorry, my mistake. I've only ever known Digiweb to do wireless, so I stand corrected.

Mylow

Darksaga87 wrote: »

Can anyone advise on decent BB for Grange Rath? I moved in a month ago, ordered digiweb before I moved in, still haven't got it, so im considering cancelling the order in a favour of eircom. 8mb NGB. works out about the same price i was going to pay digiweb, plus i might get better service.

Anyone got any advise?

I had ADSL with UTV but decided to change to Vodafone...it has been a disaster.....If you can get ADSL with UTV take it. I was with Digiweb afew years ago in Grange Rath...it was rubbish then (2007)

Darksaga87

Got digiweb set up today, its 8 mb.

If it remains at this quality, I wont have a problem with them. I had wimax a year ago and the speeds were great for about a week, then it just dropped like a brick from overselling i presume.

Scotty #

I see Digiweb are doing 30mb now for €30/month...

anyone use this? any good?

What always turned me off digiweb was the caps.

Darksaga87

Scotty # wrote: »

I see Digiweb are doing 30mb now for €30/month...

anyone use this? any good?

What always turned me off digiweb was the caps.

afaik, in Drogheda the max you can get is 8mb.

lucernarian

The 30mb digiweb product is with Metro and the cap is lamentable.

The Digiweb in 2007 in Grange Rath were supplying broadband with wireless technology with far less spectrum (i.e. wireless broadcasting space) than Metro. And as half the estate wanted broadband, it was heavily oversubscribed and worked poorly. I suffered from the same thing in Monasterboice at the time as so much of rural south Louth couldn't get DSL at the time.

Lantus is wide of the mark. With nearly every line I've seen with attenuation under 30 (i.e. less than 2km-ish long) the 8 mbps speed is reached. Which is 7 mbps in reality thanks to extra data used up for connection purposes etc.

Also, city centres are often more expensive to work in due to age of ducting, limited capacity of ducting and it being more difficult to arrange digging on roads and so on. There's other technical reasons too. All it requires is space in the ducting to the roadside cabinets from the exchange, electricity supply, and 100 or 200 served lines in the vicinity. A big housing estate in Bettystown would qualify for that kind of service as much as one in Blanchardstown would.