Digiweb launch 512k Satellite Broadband throughout Ireland

Gonzo

Got this in my email, seems way too expensive but if ye win the lotto u might be interested in this:)

http://broadband.digiweb.ie/

Nobody

I wonder how much the VSAT license is to the second year onward, not to mention other "maintenance" costs. Still, wishful food for thought.

Hannibal_12

Ouch. Funny thing is that the monthly charge is just slightly more expensive than €ircon and the setup fees are big but you're getting a satellite dish etc with €ircon all you get is the shaft (excl vat).

rymus

an alternative to a leased line anyway... in some cases.

Having said that its only €119 a month so if shared the connection between 2 people you'd be sorted...

/me looks for a friend with lots of cash

GUI

Guys are ye not thinking straight?
that is a brillant price for 2 way satellite..
sure the inital cost is big..
but is not that big

for rural users also its excellent

512 down 128 up

i think it rocks
gonna recommend it to rural businesses i think
gonna contact the reseller first

Kenshin

If you aren't going to use it for gaming, then this offer is way better than Eircom's as there is no download cap... the problem is the high latency that this gives you...
Also, these guys give you a free domain name, 50 megs webspace, 50 email addresses, etc...
Not bad...

gurramok

satellite experts, how on earth can they justify a 1,495 installation charge ?
Remember also they limit your speed if you download excessively, again they say this happens during peak hours., what is defined excessive ?

STaN

Youll also get a HORRIBLE ping with satellite. You can read through the leap posts a few weeks back to find out more

dahamsta

That's the most expensive VSAT setup I've seen yet. Loony Toons.

adam

steve-hosting36

At 1500 set-up, they are clearly only targeting the leased line business - 2k would get a leased line installed

dahamsta

Digiweb joins satellite broadband market

Irish company Digiweb launched a new satellite based broadband service on Monday, which will make high-speed Internet available anywhere in Ireland.

Looking to address the apparent gap in Ireland's broadband Internet market, the Dundalk-based company launched a new two-way satellite-based solution that lets users connect to the Web at speeds of up to 512kb/s, regardless of where they live in the Republic or Northern Ireland.

Other high-speed Net access products, such as the ADSL services offered by Eircom and Esat BT, are generally limited to urban areas where customers need to be within a few kilometres of a digital telephone exchange.

Even fixed-wireless broadband services, such as the type sold by SkyNet and Leap Broadband are contingent on a users location and for now these services are also limited to densely populated areas.

But Digiweb notes that a recent Deloitte & Touche e-business Survey reported that over 45 percent of business owners indicated that lack of broadband was a major issue for firms looking to expand their business. This concern generally runs high throughout the country, not just in Dublin, or in other urban centres where high-speed Net products are just starting to come on-line.

"Whether they are located in a remote area or in the centre of town we can now provide Irish businesses and organisations a fast cost-effective broadband service without delay," commented Colm Piercy, managing director of Digiweb.

[...]

[ Absolutely terrible reporting, just the kind of press release repost JMCC is always accusing ENN of. C'mon ENN, you can do better than that. --adam ]

spongebob

The numbers look suspiciously like the Gilat Sat

This sat is used by BT in Scotland and NI as a stopgap rural Broadband solution. It is also known as Tiscali, Tiscali OEM the package and sell it as 'their' satellite.

Google Searching on the matter seem to indicate that it is not a great product.

There are comments there on port blocking which seems to be rampant.

M

bkehoe

Yes, its Gilat; the picture shows the 360 modem. The install price seems to be a case of 'convert £900 to € and get a little for themselves'. Unfortunatly the prices exclude vat. BT Openworld satellite is available all over the UK btw, and is a much better service than the Tiscali trials (most of the Tiscali triallists have had to put up with crap speeds, bad service, and are handing back the equipment). BT is £60/month, which converts to around €95, so for an Irish company, yes they are very competitive, assuming they get sufficient bandwidth from Gilat as the number of subscribers grow.
As regards port blocking, no it hasnt happened (yet); friends of mine report no problems with p2p apps, e.g. kazza, edonkey, etc, and all incoming ports are open, e.g. 80.
The ping 'issue' is only an issue if you're wanting to play games like quake, ut, etc over the internet; not something everyone wants to use.
BTW, if they're using the same multiuser equipment as BT (180 modem), then the performance gets bad. Getting the 360modem (single user) and sharing using something like ICS seems to be the best method with BT.
So, to finish up, imho, yes it seems to be a very good service at a decent price.
Brendan.

echomadman

Digiwebs service and support are rubbish

I got the business package, it worked ok fo 3 hours, then died ,
So I assumed it was some configuration problem at my end (I am using a linux box with squid as a local proxy)

I rang for tech support, asked if there were any specific modifications I needed to make to my squid.conf file to allow for latency and their wierd IPA acceleration setup.
I was told that they didn't support my "non-standard installation"
Fine, I used to work in tech suppt,I know that means they dont know, and aren't going to bother to find out

So I took it off my network, setup a "standard" installation to test
Guess what?
it worked ok fo 3 hours, then died
(i now suspected a faulty gilat box)

I rang for tech suppt, was made to wait overnight before getting the wonderful suggestion that I reboot the router with a dip switch set and see what happens
result: totally unable to connect.

I called them and cancelled the order, downloads were fast (not that fast) but if they took more than 3 hours they were lost as the box crapped out.
The installers were the biggest cowboys I've ever seen. I had to run a section of the cabling myself as they hadn't brought a ladder along, and they left me with 15 feet of excess cable coiled up beside my router.

Latency is terrible, the banwidth throttling is ridiculous (considering I was on a business account).:mad:

All in all my advice is avoid this service like the plague, I'm, back on my super expensive ISDN now but at least its reliable, and in my customers opinion a lot faster (thanx to my proxy)

However I ultimately blame all my woes on €ircom

nowayman

Just read the post on Digiweb. Have been using their broadband solution in our office of 5 work stations. We used to use isdn and it was costing us a fortune montly on our bills ( around 800 Euro p.m. ) . Now total bills are around 350 , happy campers all round. Have already recouped our initial investment. The speeds are good especially for download, Have downloaded many demos, upgrades etc at speeds reaching 100k plus at times. The support is good and friendly , if they do not know they say so but normally come back to me with some sort of an answer or alternative.

I too spent many years working on helpdesks and so feel in a good position to judge their work and am quite impressed.

You are right about Eircom though......

BArra

woah ur reply dosent look at all dodgy that ur affiliated with digi whatever......

but yes u too are right about eircom

[edit] and ur first post, woaaaah :DDD come off it mr.digisat

baz

LFCFan

just been contacted by someone in Digiweb trying to sell it to me and he informs me there is a new product about to be released that is €132 a month and €1209 to install(both including VAT).

DeVore

Tell them that 1998 just called for them and it wants its pricing back...

DeV.

nowayman

Barra I have just reread my post and one could be forgiven for getting such an impression but the truth is I work for an Internet Services comany called Webworks.ie and we are in many ways in competition with Digiweb, we offer hosting and application development etc . We use the net alot and their product has saved us the cash mentioned etc etc. What can I tell you, I get what I want form them and lifes too short to lie about it.

Eircom the great unifers .....

DeVore

He's not lying either.

nowayman checks out as telling the truth though I cant imagine why the company doesnt its own product

btw nwm... can you contact me privately.. or pm me a phone number...

DeV.

ando

Originally posted by DeVore
Tell them that 1998 just called for them and it wants its pricing back...

rofl !!!!

Youll also get a HORRIBLE ping with satellite. You can read through the leap posts a few weeks back to find out more

but leap doesn't beam its signal into space :rolleyes: !

echomadman

we did a simple test, msn messenger,
one of us on isdn the other on satellite,
up to 120 seconds between hitting enter and it popping up on the other machine
ping times....... hahahahaha
but in fairness they do tell you its not suitable for gaming,

I couldn't find anything it was suitable for
It's still sitting there as I wait for the intrepid installation crew to "deinstall" (sic) it.

Bios

Ok then, if the pricing is loony tunes, what other 2way sat providers should i consider?

I work for a company in rural donegal and 2way sat seems the only option.

Any1 have personal experience with another provider?

Adam

spongebob

Originally posted by Bios
Ok then, if the pricing is loony tunes, what other 2way sat providers should i consider?

I work for a company in rural donegal and 2way sat seems the only option.

BT have a 2 WAY sat offer. if you can get someone to have it "installed" over the border then remove it from their premisesand reinstall yourself in Donegal. It ain't rocket science.

Its OK for web and mail but not vpns or p2p stuff or telnets .However It runs off the Gilat sat which goes ape when the Israelis are in a'conflict situation' and has a mixed bag of reviews.

Here is a list

http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Telecommunications/Wireless/Service_Providers/Satellite/Internet/?il=1

Here is the BT product

http://www.btopenworld.com/satellite/pricing.html

iwb

I know of another business in the southeast that got Digiweb installed. It never worked according to him. He got no satisfaction by calling them and last I heard, he was considering legal action against them.
In general, I have heard nothing good about them other than nowayman's account.
I would personally love to hear that they are offering a good service as it is another option for the many who can't get it. If they don't do a good job, more people will try them and turn away from these solutions back to Eircom.

zAbbo

nowayman working for webworks.ie who offer an identical service, hmmmm

The same crowd who dont reply to my emails or telephone calls, nice way to do buisness.

Guess i`m gonna look to Nothern Ireland to offer me some solutions(living in monaghan atm)

It provides speeds of 128k upload and 512k download. There is a recurring fixed fee of €115 per month for single users. Installation and equipment costs €1,450.

http://webworks.ie/indexnews.php?newsid=16

echomadman

They finally uninstalled their scrap metal from the side of the building yesterday, now to try and get my money back, less their "installation fee".



Of course, it was naive of me to expect to get any kind of good service in this country in the first place

kae

webworks.ie do not offer an identical service. we re-sell DigiWeb's service.

As for us not replying to emails; what email address did you use? My own is kverens@webworks.ie if you have any questions.

Our phone number is 047 81021 if you need to contact us. We are usually here between 8:30am and 6pm, and always answer the phone.

As for the price of satellite broadband - yes, it's expensive, but compared to a monthly ISDN bill of 600 euro, it is very cheap.

The service is not useful as a home connection, and is terrible for gaming. It is, however, very useful if you like to watch streaming media or tend to download large files a lot.

One example of a good use is in education - as almost everyone knows, the FÁS online training java thingy takes forever to download. One training centre (local to Clones, Monaghan) has decided that satellite is the answer in that regard, as usually people sign on for courses and leave in frustration after weeks, and this service is a solution for that.

It's really up to you whether or not you want to use the service. Sometimes we are annoyed at it's delay, but usually we're happy with it's speed after that delay.

Again, it is NOT good for gaming, but what company cares about their employees playing when they should be working?

Kae
kverens@webworks.ie

echomadman

originally posted by nowayman

Barra I have just reread my post and one could be forgiven for getting such an impression but the truth is I work for an Internet Services comany called Webworks.ie and we are in many ways in competition with Digiweb, we offer hosting and application development etc . We use the net alot and their product has saved us the cash mentioned etc etc. What can I tell you, I get what I want form them and lifes too short to lie about it.

OK but now kae says:

webworks.ie do not offer an identical service. we re-sell DigiWeb's service.

How is it competition if you resell their service, your opinions cannot be impartial if you tout the same product.
Sure maybe you are getting good service, obviously you have a closer working relationship with them so the quality of support you get may be better.

I can produce unbiased corroborative witnesses to the utter incompetence of the service I recieved from digiweb.

The only thing missing from the whole experience were ten gallon hats and spurs on their boots

MDR

The only thing missing from the whole experience were ten gallon hats and spurs on their boots

Do tell all,
or perhaps you have already,
what sort of service are you getting out of digiweb ?
and why in the world would I buy off webworks.ie,
instead of digiweb if they are only offering the exact same service
at the same price ?

unless the source provider is woeful and you are providing something like excellant customer service (and there is no evidence to suggest anything either way), would i not be inclined to buy from the source provider ?

Why should I bother with a middlema,n if I as the customer amn't gonna see a benefit. This isn't the pigs back, why should I choose you over digiweb, its a fair question ?

Urban Weigl

If money is no option or you already have a high phone bill for your business anyway, Aramiska ( www.aramiska.com ) is very reliable and they usually always deliver the target speed without any user or bandwidth limitations (I talked to Brendan who has one of their systems installed, and he says it almost always runs at the full quoted speed, and in the last 18 months has only been down for 3 hours).

However if you don't happen to have 300-400 yoyos a month lying around, what I am getting at the moment is Mediasat.ie's "SOHO2Way" product. It should be installed in the next few days now, and what I will be paying is 216 euros a month, no setup, install or equipment fee. I will be happy to post my review here once it is installed, and also anyone in the area will be welcome to stop by and "test" it.

MDR

Good grief that is alot of money ...

Urban Weigl

If you need to use the Internet during the day or for business, and can't get ADSL, unfortunately it's what we're stuck with in this "e-Tub". :mad:

MDR

Another thing mediasat.ie
have 2 entry products SOHO and SOHO2WAY,

SOHO:

€50 for one way connection (ie you pay call charges),
and you only get a 500mb download allowance

SOHO2WAY:

€216 for two way connection,
unlimited download.

WTF,

should the cap on the SOHO product not be a little more reasonable, like who the fcuk is gonna buy it in their right mind ...

MDR

If you need to use the Internet during the day or for business, and can't get ADSL, unfortunately it's what we're stuck with in this "e-Tub".

I feel your pain brother,
my new saturday morning entertainment has become visiting one of my td's. At his saturday surgery, gonna go on a kill crazy rampage (not literally kids, I am annoyed though, I may wag my finger) tomorrow morning.

kae

How is it competition if you resell their service, your opinions cannot be impartial if you tout the same product.

We are in competition for hosting and application development, as nowayman said, and we resell their satellite solution, as I said. There is no contradiction.

It is not really important who you buy the satellite service off. We do it more as a convenience than anything - we have people asking us a lot about broadband, and that is the one we use, so why not resell it?

We have not have many problems with the service. The only major problems where that the service is stable under win98, not completely stable in winXP, and not supported in Linux. As for any serious problems - it usually fixes itself as long as the machine is healthy (uptodate and virus free).

It is a fair question, and it is your choice who you go to. If you are not happy with Digiweb's support, you can try us. Your choice.

We are primarily web developers. As I said, we provide this service as a convenience more than anything.

Kae
kverens@webworks.ie

MDR

thats fair enough,

Have you ever feel compelled to try and undercut digiwebs price by a health amount, and make monso off the satillette broadband too ? Or would the margin allow this.

kae

Have you ever feel compelled to try and undercut digiwebs price by a health amount, and make monso off the satillette broadband too ? Or would the margin allow this.

I wouldn't know about this, being but a lowly tech - but I am under the impression that Digiweb are providing this solution about as cheaply as they can, according to their own reselling deal (as mentioned, they get it off a large european company), so there would be no point us even trying.

Kae

Bios

Totally OT but

echomadman I really love your sig, would love to stick it on a t-shirt. Do you have higher res versions so i can print it? contact me on adamsim@eircom.net

Thx m8