Why can't ireland do this?

Dicky Pride

http://www.visitestonia.com/en/about-estonia/maps-of-estonia/wireless-internet-map

Why must we always be a follower and never a leader.

We really should become an e-country with free wifi everywhere.

franktheplank

Don't push it bro. We only got the lecky workin proper in 2003.

MagicMarker

Dicky Pride wrote: »

http://www.visitestonia.com/en/about-estonia/maps-of-estonia/wireless-internet-map

Why must we always be a follower and never a leader.

We really should become an e-country with free wifi everywhere.

We don't deserve it when some people still can't fúcking hyperlink.

franktheplank

MagicMarker wrote: »

We don't deserve it when some people still can't fúcking hyperlink.

Saucer of milk for MagicMarker

HeyThereDeliah

MagicMarker wrote: »

We don't deserve it when some people still can't fúcking hyperlink.

Play nice MM.

Defiler Of The Coffin

I believe there was a plan by Dublin City Council to introduce free Wi-Fi along certain streets but it was blocked by the Café owners.

Would be extremely useful for tourists or anyone who can't get a decent data connection on their smartphones!

Gumbo

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

I believe there was a plan by Dublin City Council to introduce free Wi-Fi along certain streets but it was blocked by the Café owners.

Would be extremely useful for tourists or anyone who can't get a decent data connection on their smartphones!

A proposal was put forward by DCC planning Dept alright, and now, Eircom are currently lodging applications for WiFi units throughout the city. There will be hundreds of them which should provide a city wide wifi access. will it be free....I dont know tbh.

Dicky Pride

MagicMarker wrote: »

We don't deserve it when some people still can't fúcking hyperlink.

I copied and pasted it from my phone. No idea why it didn't automatically show up as a hyper link

Gumbo

Dicky Pride wrote: »

I copied and pasted it from my phone. No idea why it didn't automatically show up as a hyper link

when you paste it from the phone, you generally have to hit the return key to activate the hyperlink.

frag420

In Estonia the return key hits you!!

Dicky Pride

kceire wrote: »

when you paste it from the phone, you generally have to hit the return key to activate the hyperlink.

I did that.

squod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R0oXjIzOx4

Hannibal Smith

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

I believe there was a plan by Dublin City Council to introduce free Wi-Fi along certain streets but it was blocked by the Café owners.

Would be extremely useful for tourists or anyone who can't get a decent data connection on their smartphones!

Yep they had people in trinity working on it....they had a prototype running from dame
Street up to Thomas street...great idea but never happened.

Dicky Pride

MagicMarker wrote: »

We don't deserve it when some people still can't fúcking hyperlink.

You hyperlink it for me so. Thanks

Gumbo

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

Yep they had people in trinity working on it....they had a prototype running from dame
Street up to Thomas street...great idea but never happened.

The document i seen was produce in-house by Dublin City Council.

Senna

How could we do that when some people still cant get broadband and even mobile coverage all over?

Gumbo

Senna wrote: »

How could we do that when some people still cant get broadband and even mobile coverage all over?

In Dublin city, thats not a problem.

philologos

Dicky Pride wrote: »

http://www.visitestonia.com/en/about-estonia/maps-of-estonia/wireless-internet-map

Why must we always be a follower and never a leader.

We really should become an e-country with free wifi everywhere.

If you look at those links, it seems like it is just a list of places that have free wifi. This isn't that radical. There should be more of a concerted effort to get wifi enabled in more places.

the purple tin

A lump sum could be raised from EU or wherever and handed over for it, then the gov and hordes of super high priced "consultants" etc dip their beaks and clear out most of the fund before ever doing a tap of work, the project is then scrapped because it's "financially unfeasible".

That's why something like this could never happen in Ireland (although they're working on it in Belfast, so I should really say -the Republic of Ireland)

Victor

That site is just a list of locations.

The Eircom scheme puts a wi-fi antenna in every phone box, that Eircom account users can use.

The city council scheme was knocked on the head as an 'abuse' - the council has the city's largest cabling network.

xper

Dicky Pride wrote: »

http://www.visitestonia.com/en/about-estonia/maps-of-estonia/wireless-internet-map

Why must we always be a follower and never a leader.

We really should become an e-country with free wifi everywhere.

Ah don't be so gullible. "e-country" is a meaningless gimmicky label. That's a tourist website which naturally paints a positive picture of the country its promoting. Even so, it does not say Estonia "has free wi-fi everywhere", it just describes an availability, pay/free mix and use of wifi that would apply to nearly all European countries, Ireland included. Go on, read it again with the word "Estonia" substituted by "Germany" and then "Ireland". It reads pretty true in each case. Then click on the link to the map they are talking about and select the 'wifi' option and then you'll see just how saturated Estonia is in wifi hotspots.

Anyway, wifi is not the solution to 'internet everywhere', its range is far too short. 3G does a fairly decent job for now but it will take a new generation of wireless technology to create what we might think of now as 'interent everywhere'.


This kind of thread really galls me. Lord knows there is a lot of problems in this country but the readiness of many people to pick any random subject matter about a policy, activity or technology in another country and just assume, without any thought or analysis, that it is s portrayal of perfection incarnate and our equivalent must be non-existant or crap is extremely irritating. Its just self-loathing ignorance (and, no, its not unique to Ireland either).

UCDVet

I don't see any point in providing free wifi.

First, consider the implications of using tax dollars to pay for everyone's free internet access. By doing that, you are saying 'It is the right of our citizens to access the internet, for free!'

That sounds great. And sure, sure, it'll cost a lot of money. But what about the people who don't have devices to access this wifi?

It's not 'free wifi', it's 'something nice for well-off people'. You're shutting out the poor. There are people who don't have iPhones and laptops. What about them. Give them fancy electronics so they can surf the web? That's expensive too!

And what about the companies that offer wifi in public places? Well, I suppose we'll just put them out of business, right? How could they possibly compete with the 100% free wifi you're going to install? Why would anyone pay O2 or any other provider, to get internet access on their laptop on the go, when there would be free wifi everywhere?

And who will be liable when hackers use a MITM attack to get all of your bank details and execute a large transfer to Nigeria? One that could have potentially been avoided if they'd only enabled some setting on the router, but didn't.

Since we don't currently have a budget surplus, adding free wifi means either cutting something else or increasing taxes. What other service would you abandon....or will you support increased taxes for this? I don't use wifi. I pay for internet access at my home. Why should I pay more money so that others can avoid paying for their internet access?

I don't see what Ireland stands to gain from this.

Eathrin

Known locally as wi-fi (pronounced “wiffy”)

What? :eek:

Dicky Pride

People are easily irritated.

pabloh999

Bit of a waste of resources. Who doesn't have a data plan on their phones?

slimjimmc

pabloh999 wrote: »

Bit of a waste of resources. Who doesn't have a data plan on their phones?

People with pre-paid phones?
I don't bother with data plans because I use WiFi mainly. In the rare times I use mobile data instead of Wifi I'm content to have a €1 deducted from my credit balance. Works out cheaper than paying for data services when I don't really need it.

ballsymchugh

pabloh999 wrote: »

Bit of a waste of resources. Who doesn't have a data plan on their phones?

people who are roaming may not be able to access 3g depending on their plan. be interesting to see if it's actually free wifi, or just open access points where you have to open an account and pay to browse, like boingo or bt openzone.

the wifi in gdansk and poznan city centres was free to browse during the summer.

Pottler

franktheplank wrote: »

Don't push it bro. We only got the lecky workin proper in 2003.

You have lecky?? I've heard we're getting it round here in a year or two but they keep telling us that. Our tinternet is turf powered and only works once the fires been lit for a few hours.

stimpson

Victor wrote: »

The Eircom scheme puts a wi-fi antenna in every phone box, that Eircom account users can use.

They can still stick their network up their hole.

Let's just get 4G off the ground and get on with our lives.

bb1234567

MagicMarker wrote: »

We don't deserve it when some people still can't fúcking hyperlink.

I guess youre right, I dont even know what a hyperlink is:o

Duggys Housemate

UCDVet wrote: »

That sounds great. And sure, sure, it'll cost a lot of money. But what about the people who don't have devices to access this wifi?

It's not 'free wifi', it's 'something nice for well-off people'. You're shutting out the poor. There are people who don't have iPhones and laptops. What about them. Give them fancy electronics so they can surf the web? That's expensive too!

The whole "shutting out the poor" argument, is never a reason to not go through with something. Eventually whats normal for the rich becomes normal for the middle classes and then normal for the poor - think of other electrical equipment, like refrigerators, or fridges, or televisions. In fact smartphones will replace phones worldwide within a decade, probably a lot sooner.

the real reason not to do this is this: wifi is *crap* technology for large spaces. It is designed for an average house, and you might even have trouble in a large house. The best router might transmit - ignoring walls etc. - a hundred, or two hundred feet in diameter - but you will probably try using it inside some other shop and there will be walls. Clonmel has town sponsored WIFI and when visiting a friend there I could use it outside where it transmits - the Main Guard in the town centre, and not about fifty feet away in a pub which didn't have it's own wifi. And I needed this as I was data roaming, otherwise.

Nor does wifi hand off to another router behind your back, it will just kick you out. Even if you had a wifi transmitter every fifty feet and every wifi had no password, and you had logged onto all of them before, you would still lose connection walking along, as your phone will lose one wifi before trying to take another, and the latter only if you are lucky. If you weren't in the area before you will have to chose a wifi signal every few seconds, even walking. And of course the average wifi router doesn't scale that well, even at home I rebot my router once a week as it goes into some kind of spin or other, or starts vending self assigned IP addresses. When that happens to council owned wifis you will wait a week to get it fixed, the council have other things to fix.

We have technology which does this better, private companies have built radio transmitors for cell phones, used a lot of wattage and built them high to increase their radius, and use low level software built into the phone to hand off from one cell to the other in a way you wont notice a stutter, unless travelling at high speed. Even then it is far from perfect. And LTE is on the way.

afatbollix

Company's who provide mobile phone masts are buying up public wifi schemes they say that phone networks will be joining up and giving tyere users passwords soon to get as much Internet traffic through wifi as 3G is jammed with traffic.

Orange do this with BT who have turn everyone's BT wifi box into public wifi connections.

J_E

I think we should wait for the likes of 4G/LTE before going for this idea.