New wireless tech

bk

Hi guys,

Two interesting articles in slashdot about new wireless technologies:

The FCC has approved 802.11b Phased Array, this tech has a range of 4 miles, article here .

Hopefully ComReg will approve this tech soon and allow it for open use and not sell the bloody license to Eircom for "safe" keeping :mad: like other wireless tech in the past.

Airships Tested As Two-Way Telecom Beacons
Wasn't the Irish Gov working on something like this for the islands recently?

A couple of these flying over Dublin could offer a way around Eircom.

Increasingly I'm thinking wireless tech may be our only hope of getting affordable broadband in this dump. With little cable bb in Ireland, Eircom has no real competition and so can set the prices to whatever they like.
Wireless bb might be the only way for companies to compete.

Could you imagine if UTV/ Nevadatel / EsatBT got into wireless BB, that would be amazing and would really put the frighteners in Eircom. If these companies could get VOIP working over wireless we could finally get the Rat off our backs for ever.

Ah well keep on dreaming.

Note: I do not work for any of the above companies, I am not aware of any such plans, I'm just thinking out loud. (For Lookout )

spongebob

Originally posted by bk

Could you imagine if <snip> EsatBT got into wireless BB

A search on the COMREG site would show that that company you mentioned lost some of its EXISTING licences for FWA (Fixed Wireless Access or Broadband leased lines if you please) in the past 2 or 3 months.

One can very well imagine it in the absence of any evidence that ESAT will do anything with their licences.

ESAT are also sitting on the mother of all fibres from Dublin into the West and Midwest, the infamous Western Digital Corridor . This is unlit since it went in the ground.

Assume that ESAT will do more or less feck all, as always.

M

Lookout

Muck,

Too true....

I was wondering how Esat got their mitts on the WDC anyway. I originally thought that the government ( I use that term loosely) paid ( gave them money anyway) Ocean to build the WDC in the hope of promoting BB access to the west. So how did a 'Public asset' end up in the hands of bigger gangsters (than the present occupants of Gov Buildings).

What is it with Esat and the Government.... CIE .... Digifone... WDC... Is there a pattern here or am I paranoid.

bk

Thanks Muck, I had forgotten about Esat and their wireless license. Silly me thinking that they where really interested in being innovative and competitive.

It seems EsatBTs only reason for existence is to allow Eircom point and say "look we don't have a monopoly, EsatBT are really competitive". A bit like how Apple is to MS.

Actually that is not quiet fair, I still have NoLimits and it has saved me a fortune over the years, so I can't really complain.

B

bk

Originally posted by Lookout

Is there a pattern here or am I paranoid.

Yes, given your posts on the other thread about me, you are very paranoid

spongebob

Mary O'Rourke gave Ocean the cash to build it but they were taken over by ESAT before the build was complete. .....strictly speaking it was BT buying out the ESB share and reversing Ocean into ESAT.

ESAT then got busy doing feck all, they were mumblng about selling it for a VERY GOOD PRICE if any Western Development Commission bods are reading this

As with the Donegal Fibre installed by Eircom at the same time, the government got no SLA from the operator ....like lighting the fibre the taxpayer paid for for example.....

We should nationalise the fibre.

I wonder if that T. Larkin fella in the Comptroller and Auditor Generals office has finished his report on this shocking watre of Taxpayers money yet?

M

The Corinthian

Originally posted by bk
Increasingly I'm thinking wireless tech may be our only hope of getting affordable broadband in this dump.

The regulator pretty much spelt this out in a Q&A session following a speech she gave over a year ago.

Her problem, vis a vi dealing with limited powers against the incumbent telco, mirrors that suffered by her counterpart in Denmark. The solution there was found when wireless broadband ISP's became a real threat, following liberalization in the entry to market, thus forcing the market to loosen up.