Massive blunders exposed in €87m broadband rollout

[orbit]

Massive blunders exposed in €87m broadband rollout

This government doesn't "get" technology it seems. Or at least, I think it is vulnerable to being taken in by men in sharp suits, selling ideas and notions, which regular businesses wouldn't touch.

Take these MANs or Metropolitan Area Networks that the Indo article above is complaining about. This is an idea that pre-dates the present broadband revolution, and the basic idea was to build high speed networks inside cities to massively boost connectivity between people in these places. So far so good.

The problem is that installing a MAN in a place like Ennis, or Carrickmacross, or Gweedore is great so long as the web sites people want to connect to, are also in these places, which is not very likely.

The next clue that something is wrong could be in the word "metropolitan". Would Ennis, Carrickmacross or Gweedore be classed as metropolises or metropolitan areas even? Probably not. The bigger problem is that the broadband revolution has simply made this whole MAN idea obsolete. The Internet is a global network. Every user needs a high quality connection to their nearest hub, and then the service provider needs high capacity links into the core of the network itself, not a Rolls-Royce network connecting each household and business to its next-door neighbours.

[Wakeupcall]

It takes BT to remove DACS / Carrier line 2 weeks.

I've been waiting and calling EriCON for 7 years.

No fixed line broadband yet in my home house!

Damn I miss my 24mb Smart connection...

[reknaw]

Agree! I'm moving to rural Laois next week and will try to get wireless broadband, because I have no landline phone there. I fear it may be a while before I appear here again after that.

[MsAnneThrope]

This government doesn't "get" technology it seems. Or at least, I think it is vulnerable to being taken in by men in sharp suits, selling ideas and notions, which regular businesses wouldn't touch

Nail on the head. I'm sure many of them would struggle to use a pc to get online and still think 'broadband' is an all girl group such as the Spice Girls. I read about this fiasco last Friday and it is despairing to think such incompetence on such a vital matter exists in Government today. More bucketloads of millions down the drain. And what are we paying all these expensive consultants for if even they couldn't spot this shortsightedness?

[myksav]

MAN is just the same as LAN, ok if you only play PC videa games but pretty useless for business unless it's in the same area.
As to broadband, Ireland has narrowband outside of certain city areas. And this is touted as brilliant. Only compared to dial-up. (though demons know, my broadband pretty much acts like dial-up)

We're using 20+ year old tech to run 21st century systems.
Thin copper wire to carry data AND voice? Ever hear of EM interference? Distance/line resistance, 6km or over and you can forget it.
Wireless? Direct line of sight only.
Mobile? Voice and text have priority over data and there's limits on carrier density. Distance also effects availability. For example, I tried mobile and never got 3G connection, still paid the same for the service.

Wonder why fibre-optic line weren't pushed for rural connections? It carries more for greater distances with much less interference. But hey, we got tons of that copper wire to play with.

[wombat]

Agree! I'm moving to rural Laois next week and will try to get wireless broadband, because I have no landline phone there. I fear it may be a while before I appear here again after that.

Try 3, I have used it in Dungarvan & get good connection speed for browsing but I haven't tried downloading anything big.

[Ed Dantes]

Try 3, I have used it in Dungarvan & get good connection speed for browsing but I haven't tried downloading anything big.

3 claim to cover my area but I cannot get a signal, even in the centre of the village. Thanks to local supermarket for providing a Wi-FI service.

[Wakeupcall]

Try 3, I have used it in Dungarvan & get good connection speed for browsing but I haven't tried downloading anything big.

3 Are OK for browsing... Downloading (OK for HTTP direct but anything else (not even taking into consideration torents or illegal downloading) is s h i t e) - forget it. 15gb cap also lol in this day and age WTF?

Playing games on 3 even in a city centre, or even if you call them to find the least subscribed areas with HSDPC (Their fastest connection (light blue)) and drive there is impossible to play an online game without lateceny of 200+. So the service at its core cannot function 100% for everyone... Total rubbish.

[cactusflower]

We're too spread out at low densities. Surely wireless is the way for here? Again, the delusion that compenting/privatised networks can work in a place the size and population densities of Ireland.

It reminds me of the Simpsons adventure with monorail. What the hell, its only money and we can easily save that much by closing down a couple of hospitals.

[adamirer]

MANs were never for house owners. Read other thread on this.