Further 212 secondary schools to be connected to high-speed broadband

bealtine

http://www.thejournal.ie/further-212-secondary-schools-to-be-connected-to-high-speed-broadband-417330-Apr2012/?utm_source=twitter_self

THE MINISTER FOR Communications has announced the roll-out of high-speed broadband for 200 secondary schools in Galway and in 12 rural counties will be complete by the beginning of this year’s school term.

Addressing delegates at the Labour Party Conference in NUI Galway, Pat Rabbitte said seven shortlisted contractors had been asked to submit bids so as to ensure that all the schools will be connected by the end of August.

“The Government’s investment is in industrial strength broadband for schools that is on a par with the services used by large offices and international services companies. It is completely different to the sort of domestic scale internet access that almost all schools rely on today,” Rabbite said. “It will provide access to a world of educational resources and learning opportunities for both teachers and students.”

Rabbitte said that schools in rural counties in the west and border regions are being prioritised for the first year of a three year roll out because they were “amongst the regions which have the weakest broadband infrastructure where state investment will have the greatest impact”. Rabbitte also welcomed a delegate motion calling for digital literacy to be tackled, explaining that this was a “priority” for his Department this year.

He praised the initiative of the local authorities around the country which were establishing free wifi access zones, saying that such moves send a “strong message” about Ireland to tourists and business people – adding that the trials “may provide a template for a nationwide roll out of visitor wifi zones”.

Rabbitte added that the Next Generation Broadband Task Force had now completed its work and that it was hoped its report regarding connectivity challenges would come to Government before the end of April. The report is expected to provide a basis for the nationwide roll-out of faster broadband in the coming years.

brianwalshcork

There's no mention of the bandwidth in the above article, but the related article says it will be 100 Mb/s

[url]Http://www.thejournal.ie/all-secondary-schools-to-have-high-speed-broadband-by-2014-348507-Feb2012/[/url]

What were schools getting by on before? 1-2 Mb/s with major access restrictions?

Better late than never I suppose.

bealtine

brianwalshcork wrote: »

There's no mention of the bandwidth in the above article, but the related article says it will be 100 Mb/s



What were schools getting by on before? 1-2 Mb/s with major access restrictions?

Yes it's 100Mbs as outlined previously.
Up to now a lot of schools have been sharing consumer grade broadband and some even had satellite (which must have been painful in the extreme)

Persiancowboy

Old news. There's a thread on this forum from last March on this topic. Annual Conferences seem to be the place to re-hash previously announced initiatives.

watty

In 2005 (approx, maybe 2006) about 1/2 of Secondary schools had satellite. It's fallen a lot since then.

clohamon

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/ACC/2012/05/17/00005.asp

Deputy Paul J. Connaughton: I thank the delegation for attending. Deputy McCarthy asked a question about the roll out of broadband to post-primary schools. What type of broadband will that be?

Mr. Aidan Dunning: It will be 100 megabits.

Deputy Paul J. Connaughton: How will it be delivered?

Mr. Aidan Dunning: It will be delivered under a number of platforms, such as mobile and fixed line. It will be tendered and a number of different service providers who will deliver it. The one thing the Deputy can be sure of is that it will be delivered.

Deputy Paul J. Connaughton: It will be delivered at that speed.

Mr. Aidan Dunning: Yes.

PogMoThoin

It's sad state of affairs that the Secretary General of the Department Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is so clueless. Where do we get these gobshítes?

bealtine

clohamon wrote: »

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/ACC/2012/05/17/00005.asp

fantasy stuff yet again...delivered by mobile not a hope in hell

clohamon

bealtine wrote: »

fantasy stuff yet again...delivered by mobile not a hope in hell

It's possible he just made a mistake and meant fixed wireless. Maybe someone knows the economics/possibility of providing a single user with 100Mb/s fixed wireless.

bealtine

clohamon wrote: »

It's possible he just made a mistake and meant fixed wireless. Maybe someone knows the economics/possibility of providing a single user with 100Mb/s fixed wireless.

I'd like to think you were right but sadly the DECNR has swallowed to blue mobile marketing pill and believe the spin without question or reference to the realities of the marketing or engineering. So I suspect he really did mean mobile...

oscarBravo

clohamon wrote: »

It's possible he just made a mistake and meant fixed wireless. Maybe someone knows the economics/possibility of providing a single user with 100Mb/s fixed wireless.

Very doable, not terribly cheap. In many cases - possibly a small majority - it's how it will be delivered.

Bill Shock

Pretty certain from HEANet info that all schools in pilot phase of this project were connected either by fibre or FWA. National rollout will have to be the same.

bealtine

Bill Shock wrote: »

Pretty certain from HEANet info that all schools in pilot phase of this project were connected either by fibre or FWA. National rollout will have to be the same.

That's obvious really, there's no other way to deliver those speeds. It's the delusional belief that mobile can deliver those types of speeds that is bizarre in the document/debate