Galway broadband information evening

Maura

Residents of Co. Galway who want broadband in their area should
attend an Information Event that the Galway County Council is holding
at the Claregalway Hotel, at 7pm on the 22nd February.

The information evening will be attended by staff from Galway County
Council, the department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources,
the West Regional Authority and the BMW Assembly to advise interested
parties in relation to the County & Group Broadband Schemes. It will
also be addressed by one of the successful communities under the 1st
call for Proposals for Group Broadband Schemes.

The agenda for the information event is as follows:

1. Opening & Welcome – County Manager
2. Launch of "Galway.ie database of household and business interest in
   Broadband Internet Access" - Cllr. Willie Burke, Mayor of Co. Galway
3. Overview of County & Group Broadband Scheme (C&GBS) – Department of
   Communications, Marine & Natural Resources
4. Community Perspectives:
   1. Group Broadband Scheme – An Applicant Community's
      Perspective – Galway Teleworking Co-op , Mountbellew - Successful
      Applicants in Galway under 1st Call
   2. Community Broadband – Challenges/Practical Benefits –
   Michael O'Brien, BMW Regional Assembly
5. County & Group Broadband
   Scheme Regional/Local Co- ordination – Jim Mc Govern, West Regional
   Authority
6. Open Forum/Discussion

You can also register your interest in broadband in your area.

Hope to see some of the Galway members at the meeting on Tuesday.

Maura

Last night I attended the Galway County Council's information evening on [URL="http://www.gbs.gov.ie]Group Broadband Schemes[/URL] (GBS). The GBS is the Irish government's approach to bring broadband to rural and under-served areas in the country by empowering local groups to set up their own co-ops, or partnerships with Broadband Service Providers (BSP). There are eight regional coordinators who have been appointed to liaise and advise community groups on the best way to set up a GBS.

The meeting was extremely well attended by people from all over the county. The presentations from the County Council and the Department of Communications on setting up a GBS and how to implement it were clear and straightforward. There were presentations from a couple of successful GBS groups, and they described how they proceeded with the application, and how they rolled out the service. The final Q&A session was provocative and intelligent, and proved the level of interest in the schemes was very high.

The government with provide 55% of the capital to any successful GBS--up to 100,000 euro. However, if several community groups aggregate their schemes then up to 300,000 euro can be allocated. In order to expedite these projects quickly the government is front-loading the dispersal of funds so that up to 70% of the grant will be handed over in the first phase (there are three allocations of funds). The proposals are being reviewed quickly. It should only take 2-3 weeks for the regional coordinator, and then the Department of Communications, to assess the proposal and decide if the scheme will be passed for grant aid. Technically, any area in Ireland that doesn't have access to broadband can apply.

The GBS requires a lot of work and initiative on the part of the community groups that decide to participate in this initiative. Surveys of local demand are needed. 45% of the funds have to be raised. There is a great deal of technical know-how required, and cooperation from the people in the community. It has to be viable, and it necessitates forward-planning and research.

I can't stress how important it is for people to register their interest in getting broadband in their area of Co. Galway. This will be used to prove to BSPs that there is sufficient demand in the county for broadband. The form allows people to express if they are interested in being involved with starting up a GBS, and you can approve for your information to be released to third parties, such as BSPs.

Last night Cllr. Willie Burke, Mayor of Co. Galway, officially launched the database that's collecting this information, even though it has been up and running for two weeks already. In that time period 800 users have registered their interest in obtaining broadband in Co. Galway.

Galway County Council, and the Department of Communications showed a great deal of commitment and dedication in getting broadband to rural users in Ireland. It was refreshing to see a recognition of its importance to individuals as well as for business interests.

On a personal level, I was able to identify a group that are attempting to initiate a GBS in my area, and make contact with them. At least there is hope now that I might get broadband at home in the coming year.

damien

Details of this will be included in the next Newsletter from IrelandOffline.

In this day and age though, do we really need a databse or register of interests ? Everyone wants broadband, this should be assumed from the getgo.

viking

Westmeath County Council are holding a Broadband Seminar tonight in the Bloomfield Hotel @ 7pm.

Details available here .

Viking

oscarBravo

I was there also. Some thoughts of my own:

Maura wrote:

There were presentations from a couple of successful GBS groups, and they described how they proceeded with the application, and how they rolled out the service.

From what I saw, there was a presentation from one successful - in the sense of having secured grant funding - group, and an ad-hoc speech from another successful - in the sense of having a working network - group (Kinvara). The group that formally presented are partnered with Ildána, and didn't give the impression that they have anything working yet.

It was mentioned in the presentations that a co-op can go it alone without the need for partnership with an ISP. There was also a lot of emphasis on how difficult it is to do this, and a strong undercurrent that it's a better idea to go for the partnership approach, 'cos the ISPs (apparently) have the know-how. It's ironic that Kinvara - the only co-op to date to receive GBS funding - have a functional network, whereas the group that formally presented didn't mention anything being live yet.

Other impressions: the statellite providers were on hand to tell us that new, modern statellites can do anything that terrestrial wireless can do - apparently the problem with statellites in the past wasn't latency, it was contention. Conspicuously absent was any explanation of why, exactly, latency isn't a problem for interactive applications. I also didn't recall hearing how the newer statellite services avoid contention problems with limited and expensive transponder space.

The ultimate irony of the evening was the stack of Eircom flat-rate dialup CDs just inside the door. I mean, honestly - do these people have no shame?

oscarBravo

viking wrote:

Westmeath County Council are holding a Broadband Seminar tonight in the Bloomfield Hotel @ 7pm.

I notice you're the one giving the Kinnegad presentation this time - jwt must have put a few noses out of joint in Enfield.

Are we to assume that you'll be sharing your opinions on the relative merits of the various available technologies also?

There are several of these events scheduled for the coming weeks. Tomorrow there's Kilrush; next Monday it's Ballybofey; Wednesday Roscommon; Thursday Castlebar; the following Monday Bunratty Castle and Tuesday Ennistymon.

viking

oscarBravo wrote:

I notice you're the one giving the Kinnegad presentation this time - jwt must have put a few noses out of joint in Enfield.

Oh he's on all the Satellite providers Christmas card lists after that one...

<paraphrasing>"IOFFL think satellite is shít"</paraphrasing>

oscarBravo wrote:

Are we to assume that you'll be sharing your opinions on the relative merits of the various available technologies also?

I've been asked to give an unbiased description of the pros and cons of various delivery systems available to communities looking for broadband via GBS.

Fear not, I will be giving KCN the credit it deserves, btw you should get some info on the website Paul.

Gareth

PS. Currently surfing on Kinnegad's wireless broadband at the moment. Not officially launched just yet, but I'm helping to trial it.

oscarBravo

One other point I just thought of: in the Q&A session, someone raised the question of wireless security, suggesting that they're much more likely to be vulnerable to being hacked if they're on a wireless rather than a wired connection. The Ildána guy jumped in and talked about how secure their service is, with TLS and AES and triple-DES and what have you. Cyril from Last Mile suggested that licensed (3.5GHz) wireless services are more secure than unlicensed (2.4/5.8GHz) services, because the CPE is not as readily available.

Given that the question was raised in the context of online shopping and sending credit card numbers over the air, I'd like to offer an observation: if you're concerned about the security of your data on the Internet, you don't trust someone else to secure it for you. It doesn't matter how many TLAs your ISP is using to encrypt the last mile (or the last 45,000 miles, as the case may be) if your Visa number is sent in plaintext across every router from here to Kansas. Where security is important, you encrypt end-to-end - in this case, using SSL.

oscarBravo

viking wrote:

Fear not, I will be giving KCN the credit it deserves, btw you should get some info on the website Paul.

I know, I know... so much to do, so little time... I'll have to get something on there before Castlebar, I'm supposed to be doing a presentation at that event.

viking wrote:

PS. Currently surfing on Kinnegad's wireless broadband at the moment. Not officially launched just yet, but I'm helping to trial it.

Yeah, Cyril told me you'd had a breakthrough with WCC - presumably they didn't want you badmouthing them at the launch!

Congrats on getting up and running, even on a trial basis - luvly, innit?

viking

oscarBravo wrote:

The statellite providers were on hand to tell us that new, modern statellites can do anything that terrestrial wireless can do - apparently the problem with statellites in the past wasn't latency, it was contention. Conspicuously absent was any explanation of why, exactly, latency isn't a problem for interactive applications. I also didn't recall hearing how the newer statellite services avoid contention problems with limited and expensive transponder space.

I noticed that also when the Sat providers responded to JWT's comments in Enfield.

Digiweb acknowledge the shortcomings of their service on their website:

Are there any limitations I should be aware of ?

Satellite communication introduces a latency which means some applications may not work optimally or perhaps not all. We recommend that the service not be used for:
Heavy uplink traffic, such as Web or FTP hosting
Remote control software, and video & voice over IP (VOIP)
Frequent large file and e-mail uploads
Online gaming and peer-to-peer networking

They also mention the software techniques used to improve the latency:

Due to the distance travelled by the signal between your computer and the Internet Hub, via the satellite, older satellite technologies exhibited a noticeable lag between communications. The Digiweb Satellite Broadband service employs software techniques to minimise this lag, including protocol accelerators. In use, when a web page is requested for example, the accelerator strips out surplus protocol data and requests and retrieves the page in fewer larger 'pieces' than a typical dialup connection, which for example assembles the page piece by piece. Similarly this technique is ideal for handling large file or email downloads. You will still notice the latency effect though, may make the service unsuitable for certain uses, as noted earlier on this page.

jwt

oscarBravo wrote:

I notice you're the one giving the Kinnegad presentation this time - jwt must have put a few noses out of joint in Enfield.

You mean I wasn't invited???

AFAIK its the first I heard of it.

John

Sponge Bob

The Sat Industry left a very strong impression on ALL those present at the Galway launch. That is a Good Thing .

viking

jwt wrote:

You mean I wasn't invited???

AFAIK its the first I heard of it.

John

Told you about it last week in a phonecall.

Doing anything tonight so?

^ that is not a chat-up line before anyone says anything!!



Gareth

damien

JWT, would you ever finish your document on Satellite Internet ?

jwt

Gareth

Forgot about the phonecall not being invited was aimed at the powers that be

Damien
Allright, in a minute, just after I finish (insert some time wasting task)
Tomorrow night OK?

John

bminish

oscarBravo wrote:

The Ildána guy jumped in and talked about how secure their service is, with TLS and AES and triple-DES and what have you.

Ildana appear to be using 2.4 ghz 802.11b/g for local distribution so they share the same problems (and solutions) as any other wisp operating on licence free spectrum using standards based equipment, Regardless of the waffle they spout at public meetings.

.Brendan

oscarBravo

So - how'd Mullingar go?

byte

Donegal CC are holding a similar broadband seminar in Jacksons Hotel, Ballybofey. It's tomorrow (Monday) and registration is between 6.30 and 7.00 with the seminar commencing at 7.

Further details can be posted if need be, though there is a massive 2 page write-up on broadband in last Thursday's Donegal Democrat (about time too) and further details of the seminar.

viking

oscarBravo wrote:

So - how'd Mullingar go?

It went very well.

A decent number of people braved the poor weather (and the temptation of staying at home to watch the footy) to make it to the seminar.

Matthew Collins from the DCMNR gave the Department's informative presentation on the CGBS.

This was followed by a talk from Pat Gaynor of SWEETS (South Westmeath Enterprise and Employment Training Services). Pat gave a down-to-earth talk on the community aspect of the CGBS and what communities could do to empower themselves to apply for funding for a broadband service.

I gave an account of the technologies involved and tried to be as unbiased as possible when outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each particular service. I stressed the need to consider carefully the choice of technology to use as if the wrong or unsuitable technology was chosen, then a community was essentially stuck with it as the Dept will not fund a second technology for the same town.

A Q&A session followed where the floor was thrown open to questions, it will come as no surprise to some people here that the first person to respond was a satellite provider, who refuted the information that I put forward regarding the services that satellite couldn't support very well. He offered to demonstrate some of these service working in a room next to the function room where he had some equipment set up. I went in afterwards to see these services in action but all I saw was a 4 slide powerpoint presentation, he told me that he didn't have the gear with him to demonstrate what he told me he would demonstrate earlier in the night. Therefore my opinion of satellite is unchanged.

There were several concerns from people regarding "getting ripped off" by service providers who install broadband, take the funding and then provide a less than adequate service. "What vetting procedures are in place?", "What protection does the department offer if people do get ripped off?" etc etc... were some of the questions being asked. In fact it became quite negative at one point and while I appreciate people are right to have concerns regarding new schemes, I wondered why some people, who were quite vociferous in their questioning of possible nuclear-type worst case scenarios, were actually at a seminar that was aimed specifically for *their* communities to gain a broadband service through government funding. A large part of the negativity may have been due to some previous questioning of the County Council's apparent delays in allowing the water towers to be used and their apparent unwillingness to allow County Council power supplies to be used.

On the flipside there were a large number of people who felt the CGBS funding was a positive effort by the government and were quite keen to see their communities take full advantage of it and not be left in the dark ages.

A disappointing show by BISP's, I was only aware of one that made the effort and showed up. Credit where credit is due... to Ildana.

Overall, it was an interesting event and hopefully one that will spur a few communities on to apply for funding for a broadband service.

Gareth

oscarBravo

viking wrote:

I gave an account of the technologies involved and tried to be as unbiased as possible when outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each particular service. I stressed the need to consider carefully the choice of technology to use as if the wrong or unsuitable technology was chosen, then a community was essentially stuck with it as the Dept will not fund a second technology for the same town.

That's a very good point, and one that's easily overlooked.

viking wrote:

A Q&A session followed where the floor was thrown open to questions, it will come as no surprise to some people here that the first person to respond was a satellite provider, who refuted the information that I put forward regarding the services that satellite couldn't support very well. He offered to demonstrate some of these service working in a room next to the function room where he had some equipment set up. I went in afterwards to see these services in action but all I saw was a 4 slide powerpoint presentation, he told me that he didn't have the gear with him to demonstrate what he told me he would demonstrate earlier in the night.

:rolleyes:

viking wrote:

A disappointing show by BISP's, I was only aware of one that made the effort and showed up. Credit where credit is due... to Ildana.

Wow. No show from Last Mile?

viking

oscarBravo wrote:

Wow. No show from Last Mile?

Correct, Last Mile Wireless were not in attendance at the County Council seminar...

G

byte

Did anyone attend the seminar in Ballybofey?