broadband fail
The Black valley in Kerry is noted for being the last place in Ireland to be connected to the electricity and telephone networks due to its remoteness.
I finally got off the “wireless broadband” solution that I had from vodafone. I had been using a USB dongle from three.ie – the 3G mobile phone/internet company. I had to give up because it simply did not work when I plugged it in. Three won the tender for the national broadband scheme to bring broadband to the masses who live too far from the local telephone exchange and “need Internet”. From having used this technology as a crutch until dsl was delivered I noticed that it was barely better than dial-up speed and is not really broadband in any manner. The configuration settings are those of long forgotten dial-up days and the speed analysis is as follows.
It shows it is marginally better than 56 Kbits/sec. Very old dialup modems from the time of the birth of the internet were 28 to 56 Kb/sec. Three will be offering horrible satellite internet to those in the furthest flung regions in their bid to get everyone online.
http://web.forret.com/tools/bandwidth.asp?speed=921600&unit=bps
IrelandOffline.org are a group of volunteers who keep an eye on stuff like this>. There are articles they have written about the lack of transparency in the selection process and the lack of answers on the technologies used. The whole thing stinks of Irish cronyism and corruption again and an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
Unlike other technologies, such as phone line-based (DSL) and cable-based (cable) broadband, users of 3G Internet access don’t share the available bandwidth equally. The available bandwidth is determined by the number of users, the distance the user is from the cell base station / tower / antenna, and a number of other characteristics.
The quoted speeds, even the minimum speeds quoted, will not be achievable by many users. In busy areas / cells, users will achieve little more than dial-up Internet speeds. Such is the recognition, internationally, that 3G does not deliver a reliable and scalable broadband product that other EU and OECD telecommunications regulators explicitly exclude 3G Internet subscribers from their nation’s broadband subscriber counts. 3G Internet is widely termed “midband” because of this. ComReg, Ireland’s telecommunications regulator is one of very few regulators that do include “midband” subscribers in their broadband subscriber reports. The term “midband” is also used in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications report of 2004.
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Exorbitant hidden costs
While the costs of the equipment itself are relatively affordable at €19.99, the data allowances must be kept in mind. Current allowances are 15GB (12GB download, 3GB upload).
However if you exceed this allowance you may find yourself in for a shock, a charge of 2.77c per MBit – Wholesale that equates to a wholesale cost of €275.71 a GByte. Operators will obviously charge more than the wholesale cost
http://irelandoffline.org/wp-content/2009/02/irelandoffline-nbs_briefing_document.pdf
Minister announces “Broadband for All” and then total silence
*Summary of Press release** NBS will not deliver anything
* Waste of taxpayer money
* Unfair subsidy
* Briefing document available
* Silence from Minister
* Meeting requested with MinisterIn fact, this is a total waste of taxpayer money, this money could be spent
on more appropriate technologies. This is a proprietary system based around one supplier and does nothing to enhance the spread of broadband, in fact it actually amounts to an unfair subsidy to one corporate entity to build out their network”.
This criticism was met with anger:
IrelandOffline today reacted angrily to claims that its comprehensive study of the technology at the core of the recently announced National Broadband Scheme (NBS) were “outdated” and “ill-informed” made by an unnamed spokeswoman for 3 Ireland.
When 3 Ireland were announced as the winner of the NBS tender, and details of the technology to be used emerged, IrelandOffline prepared an independent study of the technology’s ability to meet the needs of rural broadband provision. IrelandOffline published this comprehensive document outlining our concerns about the suitability of 3g technology to satisfy the published requirements of the NBS.The document has been rejected by 3 Ireland saying these claims are “ill-informed and outdated” .However, in the interests of all concerned, we in IrelandOffline call on 3 Ireland to publicly clarify their position and to explain exactly why these documents were dismissed in this offhand way. We further call on 3 Ireland to provide detailed technical specifications to back up their assertions as to what exactly what is outdated or ill-informed.
Furthermore we would like to test these claims but empirically and anecdotally, this can be done by supplying us with some USB “modems” and our engineers will run a published set of tests against them.
http://irelandoffline.org/2009/04/irelandoffline-rebukes-claims-of-being-ill-informed/
Longwinded piece but the gist is: The National Dialup Tender will use Three Mobile Dongles, no fixed line, no fixed wireless connections. 1Mb download, 200k upload. Or a Satellite dish!
