Why pay for WiFi?

jfallon

Why pay for Wifi when you can get it for free with EMobile? Brought to you by Knob, head of questiong things.

So this is Eircom/Meteor's biggest selling point for their virtual mobile operator EMobile - getting 'free' access to eircoms nationwide wifi network? Are they serious, who the heck is paying to access wifi in 2012? Nearly 80% of smartphone users have some form of a dataplan so no need to look for a wifi hotspot. Anyone caught short and in need of a 'netfix', for the rare time this happens, there's hundreds of Bars/Cafes up and down the country offering free WiFi, even the independent ones. Not to mention you also have the bigger players Starbucks/Costa,McD's/BK offering free WiFi to customers.

So this is the best the marketing geniuses in Eircom can come up with to claw a greater market share.
Not surprising given the cringeworthy standard of Eircom adds of late... I especially loathe the one with the 'Distinguished' gentleman and lil Kid... 'So We've just switched our broadband provider'.. you can just picture him monacle and clutching brandy glass.
Followed by most annoying kid in world
'So do you get free things, like study hub and landline calls..' , almost as painful to listen to as those fooking FBD ads, but thats for another thread!

So Boardsies, Why haven't you switched??

eth0

Unfortunately becoming harder these days but go to a residential area and find an open wifi network

Biggins

jfallon wrote: »

...So Boardsies, Why haven't you switched??

Far as I know, not available in our area.

My name is URL

What's a kid doing at a cocktail party in the first place?

Melion

I'm on emobile and have never used a Wifi hub because I have a 15gb monthly allowance.

NufcNavan

Eircom are complete dog sh*t. No doubt there will be issues with this.

ciano1

Eircom seem so desperate these days!

marco_polo

More importantly who are the 20% of smartphone users who don't have a data plan, and why did they get a smartphone

1ZRed

eth0 wrote: »

Unfortunately becoming harder these days but go to a residential area and find an open wifi network

The days of ripping off your neighbour's wifi are truly behind us

Stheno

I work from home a lot and need wifi at home?

omahaid

I'd like to think that some of the people in Eircom that decided to hold off on rolling out DSL so they could shaft people with dial up around 15 years ago are still around to see the "successful" company they made. I doubt it though

I've said it before - what this country needs is WiMAX, that way you wouldn't even need to worry about data plans, as you can theoretically (don't know if it's been fully practiced?) access an Access Point from pretty much a kilometre away.

Sergeant

The very definition of a first world issue.

omahaid

Deleted User wrote: »

I've said it before - what this country needs is WiMAX, that way you wouldn't even need to worry about data plans, as you can theoretically (don't know if it's been fully practiced?) access an Access Point from pretty much a kilometre away.

LTE is the up and coming thing, WiMAX is on the way out I fear...

ejmaztec

marco_polo wrote: »

More importantly who are the 20% of smartphone users who don't have a data plan, and why did they get a smartphone

They should market a Thickphone for those people.

omahaid

omahaid wrote: »

LTE is the up and coming thing, WiMAX is on the way out I fear...

It was never given a chance unfortunately. Had the potential to be great, but would have obviously taken far too much money away from the mobile network providers.

1ZRed

omahaid wrote: »

LTE is the up and coming thing, WiMAX is on the way out I fear...

Yeah and when will that come? 2020 along with rip off data plans and low caps?

jfallon

omahaid wrote: »

LTE is the up and coming thing, WiMAX is on the way out I fear...

WiMax isn't true 4G, it utilises some of the same modulation and channel sharing techniques as LTE but it failed to get the major backing it needed to be a sucess.
LTE on the other hand is true 4G, it has been in development for a lot longer than WiMax and also has the backing of the Telcos and service providers. WiMax's sponsors' missed the boat!

Madam Marie

Deleted User wrote: »

I've said it before - what this country needs is WiMAX, that way you wouldn't even need to worry about data plans, as you can theoretically (don't know if it's been fully practiced?) access an Access Point from pretty much a kilometre away.

Faster, better, cheaper., no line-rental fee - for more information see Imagine.ie

Madam Marie

Madam Marie wrote: »

Faster, better, cheaper., no line-rental fee - for more information see Imagine.ie

I was wondering about that. Is Imagine actually WiMAX and what regions have it? I wasn't aware it was implemented in many places.

h57xiucj2z946q

jfallon wrote: »

WiMax isn't true 4G, it utilises some of the same modulation and channel sharing techniques as LTE but it failed to get the major backing it needed to be a sucess.
LTE on the other hand is true 4G, it has been in development for a lot longer than WiMax and also has the backing of the Telcos and service providers. WiMax's sponsors' missed the boat!

Although marketed as a 4G wireless service, LTE as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series does not satisfy the technical requirements the 3GPP consortium has adopted for its new standard generation, and which were originally set forth by the ITU-R organization in its IMT-Advanced specification. However due to marketing pressures and the significant advancements that WIMAX, HSPA+ and LTE bring to the original 3G technologies, ITU later decided that LTE together with the aforementioned technologies can be called 4G technologies. [6] The LTE Advanced standard formally satisfies the ITU-R requirements to be considered IMT-Advanced.[7] and to differentiate LTE-Advanced and Wimax-Advanced from current 4G technologies, ITU has defined them as "True 4G".[8][9]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_(telecommunication)

stateofflux

NufcNavan wrote: »

Eircom are complete dog sh*t. No doubt there will be issues with this.

agreed, god i hate eircom & their deliberately confusing & complicated billing & offers & crap broadband that does'nt even work properly half the time

PogMoThoin

Guys, LTE is going to be crap here, Watty outlined why before. In order for LTE to be better than 3G it needs increased backhaul and 20Mhz channels. Comreg are auctioning off the spectrum in 5Mhz channels and there's no plan to bring fibre to the masts. It's all going to be marketing hype, when in reality it'll just be the same as 3G.

Mobile Wimax doesn't work here as the 3.6Ghz frequency they use is very poor for it. Fixed wimax works well with this frequency, lots of providers use it successfully where everyone is guaranteed a good signal. In other countries mobile Wimax was given much lower frequencies (2.5, 2.1 and 1.7Ghz) and worked well.

Everything in this country gets fcuked up by a regulator who makes stupid decisions.

A Primal Nut

jfallon wrote: »

Why pay for Wifi when you can get it for free with EMobile? Brought to you by Knob, head of questiong things.

So this is Eircom/Meteor's biggest selling point for their virtual mobile operator EMobile - getting 'free' access to eircoms nationwide wifi network? Are they serious, who the heck is paying to access wifi in 2012? Nearly 80% of smartphone users have some form of a dataplan so no need to look for a wifi hotspot. Anyone caught short and in need of a 'netfix', for the rare time this happens, there's hundreds of Bars/Cafes up and down the country offering free WiFi, even the independent ones. Not to mention you also have the bigger players Starbucks/Costa,McD's/BK offering free WiFi to customers.

Wi-fi is 100 times better for watching videos or streaming - its nearly impossible to do so on a 3G Network. It's a good idea by Eircom as it takes some of the load of the 3G network and moves some of their customers onto Wi-Fi, without having to go to Starbucks or McDonalds. The less people use the 3G network (by switching them onto Wi-fi) the easier and cheaper it is to run the 3G network which makes it cheaper and more profitable in the long run.

WiMax isn't great either - you can't beat a broadband connection distributed via Wi-Fi, particularly for high bandwidth tasks such as video streaming or downloading.