The government has published a new map outlining in detail 700,000 rural homes and businesses which will be connected to state-subsidised broadband of at least 30 megabits per second (Mbs) from 2016.
KOR101 wrote: » Wireless pioneer battling the State on national broadband plan Interview: Seán Bolger of Imagine claims the route to rural connectivity is wirelesshttp://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/wireless-pioneer-battling-the-state-on-national-broadband-plan-1.2960688
Dero wrote: » The fact is that Imagine simply want to make a quick buck while they can while providing as little service as they can get away with.
xxyyzz wrote: » While I agree that LTE isn't future-proofed this statement is not correct. LTE is a very good service, for me anyway. 70Mpps offpeak and 40 or more during peak hours. That's better than a lot of FTTC that moost people currently have outside of Dublin.
Johnboy1951 wrote: » If Bolger is correct then he must be very happy indeed ...... after all the NBP using fibre will be way too costly and will take way too long to get to real rural locations. That surely must be great news for him (if he believes it) because it allows him to roll out his wireless product without any competition, and to establish his service in the absence of any competition. He must be 'over the moon' with joy at how the immediate future looks for his service and company. In addition his costs will be (according to him) much lower so he can be very competitive even after fibre arrives in an area. It seems there is no commercial downside for Imagine .... except it is not being subsidised.
marno21 wrote: » With an incredibly low usage limit, that's unsuitable for most people to have similar freedoms of use ala FTTH/FTTC. 40Mbps isn't much use if you can only sustain usage at 40Mbps for a little over an hour before you get throttled.
Gonzo wrote: » true for now, but i'm not sure Imagine's system is up-gradable. FTTC can be boosted with g.fast and the like. Eir probably also have a plan hidden away to make FTTC areas FTTH at some stage. The contention and daily cap with Imagine is an even bigger issue and an issue that is never going to go away with Wireless. Imagine's LTE service is fine for now and serve's rural communities that have nothing else but those speeds won't be looking so great in 2020 when the internet requirements will have once again rocketed by then.
Gonzo wrote: » good luck to him trying to convince all of us that his product is the way of the future when it will be as obsolete by 2020 as their Wimax product is today. Shame on the Irish Times for printing such rubbish.
damienirel wrote: » Yeah - I used to buy it on Saturdays - not now if they continue to print advertising dressed as journalism.
Dero wrote: » What a load of horsesh1t! Makes me irrationally angry reading anything about that man. He seems to be on a crusade against FTTH, and his modus operandi is using the (unwitting?) media to spread disinformation and FUD. If he succeeds, it will be to the detriment of this country for decades to come. :mad: I'd love to get him in a room and debate the inadequacies of LTE vs fibre with him. I am an Imagine LTE customer, and while the product has some merit, I see it as a stop-gap only. It is quite frankly not fit for purpose for the NBP (which is why they were excluded in the first place). The fact is that Imagine simply want to make a quick buck while they can while providing as little service as they can get away with. There's a whole thread dedicated to this, so I'll try not to bog down this one, but the gist of it is that their high-sites simply do not have sufficient back-haul, or the LTE technology itself cannot handle the number of subscribers. Either way, their solution is not good enough, and becomes unusable at peak times for a lot of customers (myself included). On top of that, they have a very anti-customer ethos, which I presume derives from Mr. Bolger himself.
Gonzo wrote: » One poster called them out on deleting messages highlighting wireless is not as good as FTTH etc.
MajesticDonkey wrote: » That would be me :P I commented saying the article was BS...suspecting it would be removed, I checked it about 5 minutes later and the comment was gone. I would be quite surprised if it was a technical Facebook issue that resulted in the comment disappearing. Maybe it never actually posted properly at all, ironically because of my flakey internet!
KOR101 wrote: Deputy McLoughlin's question is perfectly valid. Two Ministers are involved, namely, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the Minister with responsibility for rural regeneration. The contract and the tender documentation to which the Deputy refers has been the subject of approximately 3,000 hours of discussion. I gather the process is more than half way through. It will probably be next year before that substantial tender is awarded. The companies involved, SIRO and Eir, as well as other network providers, are continuing to provide broadband to areas under their remit. The issue is receiving a great deal of attention, but it is exceptionally complex and it will take some time.
KOR101 wrote: » Maybe I haven't been following this as closely as I thought, but is this the first time 2018 has been mentioned as the signing date?
I am not sure what the Minister can do about that but this matter must be examined and the Minister must intervene.
