Castlebar StreamBeam - Any good?

124124

Hello folks!

http://www.castlebar.ie/newsetc/streambeam/

According to them, a home connection costs something like this:

EUR 245 Installation charges, EUR 50 incl VAT per month with a download cap of 3 GB per month and restricted to off-peak hours of
6:00pm - 8:00am. Its a 2MBPS line shared on a 40:1 basis.

It looks pretty expensive to me, but since Castlebar is not in the ESAT's list of 40, I dont see any other way to have a decent access from Castlebar.

What do you all think?


Cheers,

124124.

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Will frag for bandwidth.

124124

Well, after reading a little bit more about the service, I should say, I am impressed. They are offering 1 MBPS connection for €50 per month, incl. VAT. And of course this has nothing to do with €ircom etc.

Here is a list of features.

StreamBeam - Features

The following features and benefits of StreamBeam satellite service illustrate the value that a broadband communication service, independent of terrestrial infrastructure, can bring its users.

Instant access ('always-on') - switch on your PC and there it is.

Cost-effective - access is available 24 hours-a-day for a set monthly charge comparable with business ADSL.

Completely reliable connection - contracted to 99.65% availability - so it's always there; it never 'hangs-up' because it does not suffer the vulnerabilities of land- lines.

High speed, broadband as standard - speeds of up to 1 Mbps.

Broadband can deliver at very high speed and volumes to the remote sites enabling the unlimited use of real- time, bandwidth intensive applications (e.g. video and audio streaming).

Here is the page: http://www.streambeam.com/features.asp?nav=3&sub1=1


Please Please Please do register your interest if you are from Castlebar. After all, its a lot better than dial-up!

Urban Weigl

Agreed. While it is still an improvement over what is available now (i.e. NOTHING AT ALL), that is expensive, especially seeing as it will be limited to evenings only. Research has shown that pricing needs to be in the range of 30 to 40 euro for a 24 hour service if you want people to actually buy the thing.

SkepticOne

It is satelite broadband, so for web browsing and gaming you may be better off with ISDN (if it is available) and one of the semi-flat rate discount schemes.

124124

SkepticOne, 'satellite broadband' means I would still need a telephone line for outgoing requests where as incoming data will flow thru the Arial/dish?

They have this 4Km radius restriction, and so I imagine this is a two way channel and will be totally independent of any other costs!

Is there anything else that I am missing here? I AM really a newbie. Educate me please!

Cheers,

124124.

SkepticOne

Some satelite systems require a phone line for the return signal. These services tend to be cheaper but you pay the phone costs to Eircom.

This one appears to be two way. I'm not sure what the 4km restriction means. It could be that they are using wireless technology to share the connection with a satelite base station in the centre of the 4km circle.

spongebob

Humm.

they are asking for a Postcode ffs See so they may operate other than in Castlebar.

I accept the inbound data is by sat but the outbound may run off a leased line at the WAP ? I also accept that the 4Km limit is not the cruising altitude of the VSAT but the distance to an 802.11 type WAP .

The have no operating licence from the ODTR as either streambeam or as cedar...the parent company. I hope that they are not the other 'beam' who have waffled in here before.

They do not appear on the list of Dermie Aherns prize winners for community wireless.....

I thinks they are another Gilat reseller meself, hence the use of the phrase 'up to 1Mb' as the Gilat sat is famous for crawling along at anything but 1Mb . Remember you get a wireless LAN in Castlebar too for LAN parties..funky.

M

LFCFan

Am I reading it wrong or does it say it costs €200 a month for 50 MB download and that's if you don't buy the equipment(chapest option being €2250) This can't be right. And this is all at off peak hours at only 256Kbs with 32Kbs upload. And on top of all that it's €1000 to install. The 1Mbs option is off peak for the Premium service which has a cap of 1GB and monthly payment of €450. Either the site is screwed up or they are taking the piss with their pricing.

124124

Installation Charge* Monthly ChargeService Hours in that order

Normal Business Access - EUR 245, EUR 99 Excl VAT, 24 Hour
5-user business access - EUR 500, EUR 149 excl VAT, 24 Hour
Multi-user business access - EUR 999, EUR 399 excl VAT, 24 Hour
Home user access off peak - EUR 245, EUR 50 incl VAT, 6:00pm - 8:00am

This pricing looks good to me, considering the fact that it has no telephone charges or any other strings attached.

Cheers,

124.