Low Cost unmetered Broadband Now Available in Ireland

Mark Braxton

Hi,

I'm the owner of Beam Solutions (www.beamsolutions.net). I'm looking for information about the number of users that would want always-on, 200+kbps access. I would like to launch this service in south west Ireland in the Late March/Early April time Frame. I have been in contact with the Office of the Director of Telecommunicatiuons Regulation. Filing for Ireland will be submitted the week of the 17th. Target price for the service is 29UK pounds flat rate.

This is a research project on which location will be the first. Dublin and Cork is not being considered at this time. Requirements are areas in need with 10+ users/households/businesses.

My company will not do expensive, cheap, adveretising. Our Irish dealers, and the company will focus on the service and earn the brand.

Thanks, looking forward to your comments.

Coyote

just about everone on the board would buy it if they could but your going to need to give more info.
just as a point the people on this board are not a good way to see how many people in the real world would take it. everone here wants cheep fast 24/7 internet but the rest of people in ireland are not the same.

Coyote

dahamsta

Redirecting to Nets/Comms. No disrespect intended Mark, I just feel it would be better located there. A redirect will remain in the IrelandOffline forum.

adam

Mark Braxton

Thanks for the comments, I will retrack from this board. This is what was intented as a customer focus group. I will pick a city with my current dealers.

Sorry if caused any trouble.

dahamsta

You didn't cause any trouble Mark, no need to apologise.

I'm concerned with your decision not to consider Cork and Dublin though. The problems with broadband connectivity in Ireland sweep across the board, with the only broadband solutions currently available in Waterford and select parts of Dublin. And as a citizen of Cork personally, I would question why Cork isn't included in your considerations.

I also think you should be clear on your pricing, and include any setup, installation and equipment purchase/rental fees. I'm familiar with the Beam solution, and if your pricing regime hasn't changed, I find quoting a price of GBP£29 misleading.

If you would like to consult with me on this, feel free to email me, my address is adamATirelandofflineDOTorg. If you wish to talk on the phone, I will happily provide my number.

adam

Gambler

What they said

I know everyone using boards.ie would definitly go for Cheap broadband, but wonder why not include Dublin and Cork? Is it something to do with Grants for offering services in areas other than Dublin and Cork??

Requirements are areas in need with 10+ users/households/businesses.

Maybe I am wrong but do you mean 10+ Buildings in an area or 10+ users in a building?? (I am assuming Buildings in an area..)

pete

My money's on 10 people located reasonably near each other sharing a 2mbit satellite link via 802.11b

oh and YES PLEASE

Boston

id be interested, though im in dublin, jsut about every one of the 1000 members would be interested.

MAybe if you put together a fact sheet with what you offer and what you need, somebody at ioffl could use the mailing lists and send it around.

Mark Braxton

Hi,

I guess I wasn't clear. Please allow myself to talk to Adam direct before posting anymore information. Dublin and Cork will happen, but in its time. It will be right the first time. More details will follow, but I do not want anyone to read into my postings.

Thanks You

dahamsta

Just FYI, I requested that this thread be moved back into the IrelandOffline forum, as I had a long chat with Mark this evening and considering our discussion, I think what he's proposing may be relevant and interesting to IrelandOffline members. I've asked Mark to avoid being too commercial in our forum, and concentrate on bouncing ideas off our members. He is of course free to post what he wishes in the Nets/Comms forum, at Verb's discretion.

Welcome to IrelandOffline Mark. I hope you're a member!

Also, thanks to Verb for moving the thread back.

adam

oscarBravo

Originally posted by pete
My money's on 10 people located reasonably near each other sharing a 2mbit satellite link via 802.11b

If that's the case, I could probably whip up ten users within 802.11b range, who would be only too willing to pay STG29. I'm in rural Mayo.

Delphi91

If you can provide always on for ST£29, with "reasonable" setup costs and a fast connection, then show me where to sign!

I'm in the Limerick City area.

Mike

rymus

Originally posted by Mark Braxton
Cork is not being considered at this time

Great... Thats like having a £100 on a string and pulling it along in front of the entire population of Cork.

If theres anything I can do to make you reconsider conducting your research in Cork then let me know A blank cheque is not out of the question

But seriously, its nice to see something (else) finally happening, good luck with it.

NeoSlicerZ

hmmm, well is that by cable, wireless or satellite, cos if it's satellite , i wouldn'te be interested really, high pings and all

Stonemason

I just hope your not being a tease mark becuase you have a lot of people on these boards that have been let down to many times before.I know im abit of a sceptic but if you can pull this off the irish people can be very loyal and remember the people who treat them right so i can only suguest that you do your maths before you promise more than you can deliver.Im located in rural Tipperary and would welcome such a service even at €10 more a month though i wouldnt engourage you to charge that much .If your seirous you have made a good start coming here as i beleive that though our members here ar limited the people we can all talk to are quite exstensive.Just rember in Ireland a good deal will adverise itself i for one would spread your company name as far as possible.One thing could you elaberate on whether this is a Satalite service or ground based coz like most i would prefer a two way system.




Stone

rymus

Im pretty sure it said it was a 2 way sat service on the website...

Yep, right again

Beam™ is our two-way, "always on" high-speed broadband (Fast Internet) access via satellite that doesn't require any cable, telephone line or separate ISP.

Off topic, but I'm now officially a freak... on the boards anyway

Yurmasyurda

You could have a great chance to give our current telecoms companies a run for their money, a LOT of people will be very interested in your service including me and lots of people I know. I will sign the dotted line and I won't even read the fine print it's like that at the moment here, most home users are getting seriously ripped off by current companies and we need alternatives. I think you should keep this thread up to date because a lot of people read it and will pass on the information to relevant parties

Anyways good look with the rollout!

Yurma

Boston

to be honous, 500ms pings wont bother most of us, it eircom are selling adsl at 120 euro and your selling yours for what, 50-55 euro then i know who i will go with, ill allso tell eircom to take their two phones line with them, which the rental alone on would cover the costs of this service

dahamsta

I'll try and nudge ye back on track now. This service is not VSAT, although Beam continue to supply VSAT service in Ireland. I was under the same impression, hence my original unhappiness with this thread. I would appreciate it, Mark, if you would give our members a basic idea of the technology involved, to negate further speculation.

adam

El_MUERkO

Adam could you post a poll listing the areas Mark is starting up in then Ioffl members could vote for there area giving a resoanbly accurate idea of numbers with our group if nothing else.

dahamsta

El_MUERkO, Mark has not currently highlighted any particular areas bar "the south west". I would suggest that the membership be proactive on this and offer suggestions to Mark on suitable candidate areas.

adam

SickBoy

Limerick please
Just hope this isn't another wishing well post...

Dustaz

As dahamasta said, please could you clarify what service this is.
Its impossible to comment on something this vague. Yes, id say wed all be delighted to pay that price for (for example) a cable soloution. Personally i wouldnt pay anything for a satellite solution.
More details please:)

Stonemason

I would pay that for a sat connection though it wouldnt be ideal for all my uses at the moment i cant use my 56k for all i want either so at least i could download important stuff and it would still work out cheaper than what i (and everyone else is paying)for a useless service.


Stone

Mark Braxton

Hi,

I'm sorry for the slow response back.

The Facts:

Satellite downloads as the back haul will have latency of 750ms.

Inital rollout will include satellite backhaul utilizing 802.11b.

The 802.11b has been modified with various advancement to elimate service issues with other operators.

Phase II will not depend on Satellite except for backup.

Dublin and Cork will happen in time (hopefully short time).

The service will grow in a pace to control service level.

The Questions:

What town in the south west of Ireland would benefit the most from the service? (This will be proof of the service for us and You)

Other than bandwidth, what other services should be offered?

At what min. level would most user find acceptable?

Thanks for any feedback.

Mark

sikes

i believe this is very good news. Although i am in Dublin i will not benefit intially i believe that a good idea would be allow interaction between the users so they could share files and play multiplayer games over this wan.

What ya think?

yellum

Mark,
This is a very interesting development. If you are thinking of coming to Cork maybe you should consider talking to the CorkWan. Theres currently about 100 members so far.

Damien

Mark Braxton

Hi,

I'm still online, but will being leaving the office soon. Interactive games like half-life will not work very well. Voice over IP works in duplex mode very well with out tests with Nortel. There is tests in Ireland at the moment. (I believe it needs work, but the techs love it.)

I will try at the end of the day to visit this board. My time is limited, but I do read everything on it. The funny thing about the UK is that I don't have internet access where I live.

Thanks for your help

Mark Braxton

Yes, I would like to meet with your group. Increase of the power requirements that your group wants to do (250ms) would kill any roll-out in Europe. The States are learning this first hand. I have met with some large telco about this, and they will seat this one out. They don't have the cash, and this doesn't help 3G roll-out.

I will have to go for the night, so please forgive me.

Thanks

NeRb666

Pricing


To ensure simplicity for our customers there is only one flat monthly fee for an always-on facility to access Beam from Beam Solutions.

Beam Solutions reserve the right to adjust customer pricing to reflect any changes to usage patterns.
Please note the fair use policy within the Terms and Conditions.
The pricing described below is for a single site.
This service is available subject to satisfactory credit check and completion of a 12-month contract.


Service Price
Connection £249.99 €413
Monthly fee (Single) £109.99 €182
Monthly fee (Multi) £199.99 €330
Installer's fee £149.99 €248 (standard installation)*

All prices exclude VAT and other taxes. The connection fee is a one off charge.

dahamsta

That's the pricing for their VSAT two-way satellite service NeRb666, not what Beam is currently proposing. Again, not defending, just pointing out facts.

adam

irishguy

what mark is doing is getting 1 vsat uplink then connecting 10 to 15 users to it via a wireless network. This is my understanding of it any way but i have 1 problem, i dont know very many areas that would have 10 to 15 people close enough to connect to the uplink using 802.11b unless you are going to use external arials with point to point? but it is a very good idea, which is well suited to the irish market and climate. It is basically the same as IrishWan but as a comerical product

irishguy

also i forgot to add, when you say unlimited d/l you dont mean it in the 'surf no limits' sence do you? cus by myself i would download up to 5gigs a month and i wouldnt want to be branded an excesive user

NeRb666

Originally posted by dahamsta
That's the pricing for their VSAT two-way satellite service NeRb666, not what Beam is currently proposing. Again, not defending, just pointing out facts.

adam

ah

I just had a quick look at the site, that's what I saw under "pricing"....sorry bout that

Tellox

:eek: do waterford first!

dahamsta

Waterford is in the South-East. And it's probably too big.

adam

dathi1

I'm launching Dublin Next week (see my previous posts) but ours will be leased from a nearby company's 10mb line. It will be a club based system although I will be using a registered company.
All of south Dublin and Northside will be covered although you will have to use an amp and helical antennae depending on your location. Access will be initially restricted to 50 club members and then after that we will upgrade for more access depending on volume. Working on the website now more info soon.

Mark Braxton

Hi,

From the last postings:

This is not a satellite service, the satellite service is too costly except for business use. (there is one exception to this)

The service will include external antennas mounted outside.
Up to 3 miles from the base. (ESTI is about 4 to 4.5 miles)

Limit to 3 miles allows for low cost customer equipment, and high service levels. In cork, dublin, ... this may drop to .25 miles because of the service level.

No limit on use (downloads), but bandwidth may be limited during peak times. Off-peak not a problem. Fairness of bandwidth utilization must be maintained. (This will be flat rate, saves cost on our billing system.)

Satellite is use to deploy fast. If done right, we could complete most towns in 3 months. We have different levels for each type
of town in Ireland. This would be about 100-150 towns completed in this time frame. (Again, I'm speak from a technology stay point. We have to include take up rate, Government and Industry issues, and Local labor/weather)

We have set aside 200 satellite systems in the warehouse for this project. 10 wireless tower Kits for have been purchased in January and will be here by March 1. Customer equipment is available now. Construction of cable, pigtail, and mounting will come from the states, but within a month moved to Ireland or Scotland. (create Jobs)

Our Ireland Dealers will have to be trained. (Don't ask to be one, Please) Our super dealers will handle this. Final testing of the satellite will be completed this week for this service.

I plan to spend alot of time in Ireland to understand as much as I can and meet with lots of people. We will make mistakes, and learn from them. The service will degrade over time, but there is plans already for upgrades. (I have been meeting various vendors) That is why the 200kbps (safe bet).

Businesses will have a differnet solution. Again, I will get back to this board as much as I can. Thank You for the feedback.

Mark

Mark Braxton

"NoCat WiFi
I'm launching Dublin Next week (see my previous posts) but ours will be leased from a nearby company's 10mb line. It will be a club based system although I will be using a registered company.
All of south Dublin and Northside will be covered although you will have to use an amp and helical antennae depending on your location. Access will be initially restricted to 50 club members and then after that we will upgrade for more access depending on volume. Working on the website now more info soon."

****************************************************
I think this is great. Be sure that you have the correct licenses. I have tried the amp thing, please research the cost, grouding, ESTI limits, and the big one "self jamming". Stay with channels 1,6,11 anything else overlaps, or your service will be poor. (this would kill a good thing) Security will be your many issue. I have broken in over 100+ companies with WEP in 5 minutes or less. There is reports on this field test. In LA, California most wlan have been found and broken into, and are listed on the web.

QoS system must be in place. Tha Maximum user per has been 300 per channel or 900 per cell. (usage pattern to understand Maximum) Most SoHo APs only have a limit of 32-48 users. 7mb is the most throughput unless you combine the channels. We have achive 100mb for backhaul doing this.

I would like to know what channel you will be using to not jam you. (it will save me time, I will be looking any how) What is your maximum power, and please tilt your sector antenna to limit your coverage (ESTI Rules). You could go 12+ miles if not.

I will share you mine once we have a complete engineer report.
Proper tower kits cost about 20K euros to about 120K euros. I hope you are not putting some AP designed for an office up. This will not scale, and cause problems that peolple will question the technology.

From a very general view, you are doing the same thing as we are. In cities like cork, and dublin where fibre is available, this is the right answer. We had plan this two years ago, but still are proceeding carefully in the these areas.

Happy Surfing.

-ADREN-

Smells a bit dodgy to me.. *sniff sniff*.. yea somthing fishy..

But on the other hand sounds cool.

Basicaly..

"To good to be true?"

irishguy

Hey mark did u get my email? if you did will u plez answer it

dahamsta

You might like to comment on the IrishWAN forum too Mark, I've set up a thread here.

adam

yellum

Daith1 , do you know how to use the pm system ? If so pm me immediately please.

adomixer

whoopie-doooo!! bring it to limerick and the next round is on me!

ADO:D

Boston

sounds good Mark. One think to remember about us irish is we will try anything twice, doesnt matter if you mess up the first tiem around once you make right the second.

Doodee

You asked what county in southwest of Ireland would benefit and I'm gonna Say Galway.

Reason:
Galway so far doesnt have any type of Broadband internet access and considering the rate atwhich teh city is growing it should definitly be considered.

Galway has no Wan as of yet.
Limerick and cork both have wans.
Ennis is also being used for ADSL trials aswell as a Clarewan.

Lots of large business's located throughout city. not to mention home users who would love flat rate conns even without being able to Game.Myself for one.


Galwegians are desperate !!!! and if you dont pcik Galway then atleast pick some county within Connaught. Mayo,Roscommon Sligo even.
Thanks for hearing me out.

dahamsta

Mark isn't looking for a county, he's looking for a town or village. And since when was Galway in the South-West?! Has it moved?

adam

scojones

I say shannon. The companies in the Shannon Industrial estate are all on IDSN (to my knowledge) and are complaining about the slow rates ect. With hundreds of companies there it's a sure winner mark! Companies like Tellabs, Maidenform, GECaptial, Molex, NSA security, Cabletron ect.........

irishguy

GECaptial is not on isdn they have a leased line but i am not sure of the spead

niknak

glad to see that Beam FINALLY got it right and lowered the price. Tell Claire i said "hi"

phreak

can i ask why you decided to choose the south-west of ireland?

its sooo far away from where i live! come to the North west! preferably letterkenny.