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4G deal done

Comments

  • #2
    rob180
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 324 ✭✭rob180


    Late next year hopefully, but more likely the major cities and towns will get it first then the rest of the country ( i hope ).


  • #3
    cgarvey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,889 ✭✭✭cgarvey


    Dr. Nick wrote: »
    Great. Now how long do we have to wait for decent rual broadband?

    If you're relying on 4G for rural broadband, you'll likely be waiting quite some time.

    Rural LTE coverage, if it comes at all, will likely be larger cell/sector areas in the lower 800/900 frequencies. Couple that with small spectrum allocations (10MHz), means that each sector will not see the 100Mbps speeds often mis-associated with LTE, nevermind the contended speed.

    The LTE operators are under no obligation (with 70% population coverage being the only requirement) to serve rural areas at all. County towns might not get 4G for a while, never mind rural areas / villages / small towns. As with all things in the digital divide, cities will be served first. So Ennis will likely get LTE soon enough (it being a large county town), but Kilrush might be a while waiting. Ennistymon might not get it inside this decade at all.

    An analogy to use is that of the eircom broadband (xDSL) rollout. It was down to competition & commercial viability. Towns across the country were only enabled years after cities. Villages were years, many years, later again. The larger towns were done first (commercial viability), and smaller towns were done as they could be afforded, but prioritised where there was competition. Ennistymon would never have got DSL when it did were it not for the wireless ISP (now part of Ripplecom) there in the first place.

    I think it's a missed opportunity to impose some decent geographic coverage requirements in the 4G licences (even if that meant they raised less money in the auction).

    Don't hold your breath for decent rural 4G (speed, or coverage).


  • #4
    Cheerful Spring
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,893 ✭✭✭Cheerful Spring


    cgarvey wrote: »
    If you're relying on 4G for rural broadband, you'll likely be waiting quite some time.

    Rural LTE coverage, if it comes at all, will likely be larger cell/sector areas in the lower 800/900 frequencies. Couple that with small spectrum allocations (10MHz), means that each sector will not see the 100Mbps speeds often mis-associated with LTE, nevermind the contended speed.

    The LTE operators are under no obligation (with 70% population coverage being the only requirement) to serve rural areas at all. County towns might not get 4G for a while, never mind rural areas / villages / small towns. As with all things in the digital divide, cities will be served first. So Ennis will likely get LTE soon enough (it being a large county town), but Kilrush might be a while waiting. Ennistymon might not get it inside this decade at all.

    An analogy to use is that of the eircom broadband (xDSL) rollout. It was down to competition & commercial viability. Towns across the country were only enabled years after cities. Villages were years, many years, later again. The larger towns were done first (commercial viability), and smaller towns were done as they could be afforded, but prioritised where there was competition. Ennistymon would never have got DSL when it did were it not for the wireless ISP (now part of Ripplecom) there in the first place.

    I think it's a missed opportunity to impose some decent geographic coverage requirements in the 4G licences (even if that meant they raised less money in the auction).

    Don't hold your breath for decent rural 4G (speed, or coverage).

    Actually i think its fairly pointless to start of in cities and work from there. Literally in next five years every city in Ireland will have full Fibre coverage. 4G will never match the speeds fibre can offer to customers.

    If you want to add customers and bring in new revenue. You start in rural areas just outside our major cities and upgrade every town in Ireland.


  • #5
    cgarvey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,889 ✭✭✭cgarvey


    Cheerful Spring wrote: »
    Actually i think its fairly pointless to start of in cities and work from there. Literally in next five years every city in Ireland will have full Fibre coverage. 4G will never match the speeds fibre can offer to customers.
    Full urban coverage might be a bit ambitious (right now), but absolutely that should be the aim.
    Cheerful Spring wrote: »
    If you want to add customers and bring in new revenue. You start in rural areas just outside our major cities and upgrade every town in Ireland.
    Unless you have heaps of cash, that won't be sustainable. The cost of churn (against you) would be too great to risk not investing in high demand areas. Plus, you still need 4G in the cities.


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