Wireless broadband in apartments

Mmm, dunno. I wouldn't sign up for it based on what little info is contained on that website.

wirelessproject wrote:

I take your point about having other info, eg wireless cards, more specs, on the site. Although a majority of our customers just want to know whether or not they can get "fast Internet", it's more knowledgeable users like yourselves who could drive demand.

You're probably right - when Joe Soap thinks of broadband, he thinks of Eircom. Techie users would seem to be your best bet in the starting stages unless you're going to be spending a *lot* of money on advertising.

Anyways, whatever about a pricing structure, it's not going to cost you anything to add some technical specs to the site.

Best of luck with the venture anyway - I think you could do well. BTW, is this a Dublin-only thing, or are there plans for outside The Pale?

wirelessproject wrote:

Just wondering how much people would be prepared to pay for this, and if a charge (about €300 pa) was automatically added to your apartment complex service charge, would you protest or would you consider it a good deal?

Most would be outraged at €300 pa added automatically, seeing as not everyone wants or need BB.

I take it you are offering 2MB per apartment *each*. But what does the block get if there are say 100 apartments, can they potentially download at @ 200MB.

And surely with new apartments, it's as easy to install a 100MB+ LAN?

I would imagine that the charge would apply only to people who are actually using the service, hence the variable charge as the original poster said...

Bit unfair otherwise, wouldn't it be?

The apartment building i'm moving into next week has two 2mb bonded dsl lines, and they charge €13 per month per apartment for this (uncapped) service. There's a network point in every bedroom and the sitting room. There's a comms room in the basement so they can patch our apartment into the network ready for us to move in.
If I want wireless I can just attach a wireless access point. No way would I pay 300 per annum for a 2mb service that'd be sharing with LOADS of other people! Seems very high to me!

wirelessproject wrote:

if a charge (about €300 pa) was automatically added to your apartment complex service charge, would you protest or would you consider it a good deal?

I'd scream like a bitch tbh, the last thing I need added to my existing annual charge of €1300 is another €300. While yes, your charge is good and reasonable (for what you get) the fact that it's a lump sum payment, and arrives with another major lump sum makes it unattractive

Frankly I'd be prepared to pay more on a monthly basis for the budgetary advantages.

The last point, for yourselves to consider, if a block buys in to your system, but over time users dwindle, for various reasons - better prices or service elsewhere - what happens to the remaining users, and the equipment that you have installed in the block?

wirelessproject wrote:

What we're thinking of at the moment is a charge of €100 to be added to the service charge for all apartments,

I don't live in an apartment block, but I can tell you that there is no way in hell that anyone will pay an extra €100 for a service that they're not going to use. You could do a deal with the management company to include it as part of their fees, but that's dishonest, and leaves you in trouble if the management co. gets fired - if the new co. didn't play ball, you'd have to cut off subscribers and not tell them why.

then as users take up the service they would be charged €40-60 per quarter, €80-100 for 6 months or €150-180 pa.

That's a very good price, extremely low. To me it would make more sense to forgoe the €100 above, and increase the per annum cost to €280-€300. You're making a little less money from the apartment block, but you're still supplying a service cheaper than ISPs, and you could arrange to decrease the price per apartment as more apartments subscribe, to encourage people to signup.

This is a managed service so nobody will be able to hog the bandwidth.

Yeah, that's very important, and also quite a simple thing to set up.

And you're getting a home wireless network without having to set up anything yourself. We can also supply a wireless card and install it but it would be extra.

If you're really concerned about the €100 above, I'd charge a minimal install fee, regardless. €50, coupled with the charges I said above, should cover your costs, and as you say, people are still getting a home network without having to go out and buy a router, pay for broadband install, etc.

We're also thinking of offering VoIP so people could do away with their landlines altogether.

Great area to move into. Watch it explode in the next few years.

My only comment on this is that if people think it's prohibitively expensive, or it's being forced on them, they'll be happy to ignore it and continue to use the internet access they have in work. IMO, most of the people who are signing up for residential DSL and cable are those who want it at home, regardless of what they have in work - the people like myself who use it as a communications and education tool, who are not in a majority. If you can keep costs low, then you can encourage more apartments to sign up, straight away, which is what you want. Slow takeup, or low takeup as you know is a killer for any business.

I would have thought Wireless would cause you more hassle than cat5, reception wise there'll always be coverage/signal issues etc. Personally i'm going to stick a wireless access point in the patch point in our closet, stick WEP on and bobs your uncle.

How exactly are you going to implement this so it works as an individual network in each apartment, and not just one huge network in the apartment block?

wirelessproject wrote:

Catch_22 - can I ask what browser you're using? Is it Firefox? The drop-down menus don't seem to work in Firefox, will have to change them.

Im using mozilla 1.7 at the moment.

c22