Eircoms Wireless Broadband Available in 20% fo the State TODAY!

spongebob

Comreg played regulatory jiggy jiggy with the Eircom Wireless obligation which is outlined in this Document Here and which is now done and dusted in the decision issued yesterday and now available Here .

The key provision is the reduction of Eircoms year 3 and 4 obligations from around 43% Geographic Coverage to somewhere around 20% . It will be 43% again in June 2005.

The start date for the licence was June 2000

The year one target was not changed nor was the service mix changed much.

The upshot of the Current licencing scheme is as follows.

1. Eircom must offer the following services over wireless as and from June 2001. (The Commencement Date)

Part I: Required Services
1 The following services are deemed to be Required Services for the purposes of Condition
28.1 and shall be provided by the Licensee within two months of the Designated
Commencement Date unless otherwise indicated:
• Voice -All the same services as in the wired access network including:
• PSTN:
Customer lines, Domestic PSTN, IDD
• Call Management Services:
Call waiting, call diversion, three way calling, alarm/reminder calls, call
answering/voicemail, caller display, caller ID restriction, call completion.
• Number Translation Services:
Freephone 1800, Callsave 1850, LoCall 1890, International freephone,
Information services 1530 - 1580,
• Operator Services:
Operator assistance, directory enquiries, emergency services, special directory
services.
• Data:
• ISDN Basic Rate
• Leased Lines (64 kbps, 128kbps from launch, and asymmetric 384 kbps within 11
months from the Designated Commencement Date)

2. These services are available in between 19% and 35% of the geographic area of the state to between 25% and 70% of the population...we are around year 3 now

End Year
1 5 8 9 10
Geographical
Coverage
19% 35% 44% 44% 44%
Population Coverage
25% 70% 70% 70% 70%

3. Nobody and I mean Nobody knows which 20% of the geographic area of the state or which 25% of the population is now covered because there is NO COVERAGE MAP TO TELL US that is easily accessible that is.

This technology supports ADSL at 384Kb where available see the last bit of point 1 which is on page 8 of the Eircom Licence linked above.....so you know what to ask for if you fail the line test and have a map.

4. The only person who knows that there is a coverage map (because they have seen it and can get it for you) is in Comreg.

Contact details in case you [/B]Could[/B] get Wireless Adsl Today but dont know where it is available or how to ask are:

Sinead Devey
Comreg
Phone: (01) 8049621
Email: fwpma@comreg.ie

Post back in here if you qualify so we can map the service availability Nationally.

M

Kevok

I thought that was the technology that Eircom was using to bring telephony to the more remote regions. i.e. The islands.

spongebob

No. They were given a special licence for RF link substitution. This is called the Rurtel licence. It may be capable of 64k but not any more. The FWPMA Narrowband licence referred to above is a more powerful technology.

In some cases there may be an overlap in which Eircom could ofer either or both FWPMA Narrowband or Rurtel.

I understand that Eircom use these boxes from Airspan which can handle a wide range of Loops (eg ISDN , DSL , LEASED , X25 , PSTN) by simply changing a small module in the back of the box.

The service Matrix is here in Pictorial form. All we need now is the Coverage Map.

I understand that almost anybody in Dublin can get one. Given the rate of Line test failures in Dublin the Coverage Map should be easily available as a matter of public policy.

M

Chief

Tried to ring them Muck, was engaged, i'll ring again in a few.
*Update* Just her answering machine.. constantly..
Dropped an email off to see if Buncrana, Co. Donegal is in that 20% coverage area. Will keep ya informed.