4G Vodafone Improvements Nationwide

MrLucidLJ

I currently live in Macroom Cork and atm I am with Vodafone through DSL at roughly get around 15mbps download speeds. I recently got the Vodafone Smart Turbo 4 phone a few months back and only just topped it up there a few days ago and did speeds tests with the 4G capabilities I was amazed :eek: with the results I saw. I will post later images with some of the speeds I was able to get. With a €30 top up I think Vodafone offers a good offer with Unlimited Calls & Texts to All Irish networks (probably a fair use on that) but with the broadband side it only give s 3GB allowance which seems very meek. If you want to get an add on its €15 for an extra 3GB which doesn't seem great either.
I think its something similar if you go out get the dongle/ wireless modem on Vodafone as well. I was wondering if anyone knows if there are future plans to upgrade the usage limit and or why there are current caps on the 4G system when the speeds are so much better then average DSL speeds. With the Vodafone at Home package allows up to 1000GB of an allowance but speeds are lower. If people could get packages with high allowances on 4G and the coverage is there why don't they offer deals while Eircom improves the infrastructure of its Fibre around the smaller towns.

ED E

The speeds are so much better because of the caps.


If you have an LTE mast with say 200Mbps net throughput(just an example figure) and 100 subscribers in the cells area. If you allow unlimited usage then they'll all go on youtube and netflix all day long and you'll only ever get a few megs per subscriber. But put in low usage limits and consumers conserve their allowance, boom, 50-100Mb when you do a speedtest(a short burst of usage).

The other model is to sell cheap unlimited like Three, but then speeds are only slightly better than 3G.

Wireless cant replace wired. Its a shared medium. When 5G comes along it'll be 800Mb with a 50GB cap. Thats physics.

MrLucidLJ

Thanks for getting back to me about that and explaining. I would ask though why not put up tonnes more masts and charge more. Lets say there was a 500GB allowance on those speeds and a €50-€100 monthly charge I would think people will pay it I would pay up to €100 for a better service. Its good the speeds are better but the caps are far too low there not even semi decent like 100GB or so. And when will 5G even be implemented in Ireland 2020 or beyond? From what your saying a 50GB allowance on that system after another 5 years plus of waiting with the improvement of technology seems very meek.

ED E wrote: »

The speeds are so much better because of the caps.


If you have an LTE mast with say 200Mbps net throughput(just an example figure) and 100 subscribers in the cells area. If you allow unlimited usage then they'll all go on youtube and netflix all day long and you'll only ever get a few megs per subscriber. But put in low usage limits and consumers conserve their allowance, boom, 50-100Mb when you do a speedtest(a short burst of usage).

The other model is to sell cheap unlimited like Three, but then speeds are only slightly better than 3G.

Wireless cant replace wired. Its a shared medium. When 5G comes along it'll be 800Mb with a 50GB cap. Thats physics.

ItHurtsWhenIP

MrLucidLJ wrote: »

... I would ask though why not put up tonnes more masts
...

Most likely because they had so much trouble getting planning permission for the existing masts and also getting fibre backhaul to new masts is also quite pricey.

MrLucidLJ

Would there be trouble to get permission though I don't know the process involved. Also if you or anyone else knows how much does it cost to get a mast up and does it take long in terms of customers to make it worth having one off in a short or long period of time? What do you mean by Fibre backhaul not sure what you mean by that thanks for answering though

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

Most likely because they had so much trouble getting planning permission for the existing masts and also getting fibre backhaul to new masts is also quite pricey.

ItHurtsWhenIP

MrLucidLJ wrote: »

Would there be trouble to get permission though I don't know the process involved. Also if you or anyone else knows how much does it cost to get a mast up and does it take long in terms of customers to make it worth having one off in a short or long period of time? What do you mean by Fibre backhaul not sure what you mean by that thanks for answering though

Planning permission in this country causes an awful lot of delays, especially for these masts in the countryside, as they are not exactly pretty. I don't know how much they cost, but I'm sure they are not cheap.

Fibre backhaul is where, in order to give you the 200Mbps or whatever bandwidth, they have to connect the mast to a fibre optic line which has to connect back to where the providers internet is.

MrLucidLJ

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

Planning permission in this country causes an awful lot of delays, especially for these masts in the countryside, as they are not exactly pretty. I don't know how much they cost, but I'm sure they are not cheap.

Fibre backhaul is where, in order to give you the 200Mbps or whatever bandwidth, they have to connect the mast to a fibre optic line which has to connect back to where the providers internet is.

I can imagine it could be a hassle to get planning permission alright. They are not pretty but surely farmers would be happy if companies either bought land for profit for farmers or lease land and give money to them to have these masts on their property? Yes would be interesting to find out the costs then you would have a good idea how long it takes a company to make the money back on them.
And thanks for explaining what fibre backhaul is appreciate it. I had a quick question about 4G+ that is obviously faster then regular 4G, but do you know how much faster?

ED E

One unit on one of the enterprise masts costs upwards of 10K per annum, or so I've been told. You need 3x units just to cover the surrounding area. Thats a lot of €30 per month tariffs to recoup your costs.

ItHurtsWhenIP

MrLucidLJ wrote: »

... I had a quick question about 4G+ that is obviously faster then regular 4G, but do you know how much faster?

Just googled that ...

bk

Eircom published a very interesting report into the costs of 4G for their National Broadband Plan submission.

They found that it would be cheaper in the long term to bring 1Gb/s FTTH to every home in Ireland, then it would be to put up enough 4G masts to give a minimum guaranteed 30Mb/s 4G to every home in Ireland.

Scruff

pity it doenst mean they are actually going to bring FTTH to every home in ireland

bk

Scruff wrote: »

pity it doenst mean they are actually going to bring FTTH to every home in ireland

Actually I fully expect they will over the next 10 years or so.

The economics are there for it. The ongoing operating and maintenance costs of FTTH are MUCH lower then copper. It ends up paying for itself with these savings in the long term.

I expect the game plan is to get FTTH into rural Ireland and then to switch focus back to urban Ireland and start upgrading the FTTC customers to FTTH (and G.FAST).

They can't stand still, not with SIRO starting to threaten them in urban Ireland too.