Will Ireland’s Internet & Mobile Phone Coverage Ever Catch Up?
omahonydonnelly November 19th, 2008
Image by Danny McL via Flickr
I am sitting here fairly frustrated as it’s taking extremely (and painfully) long to upload back-ups to an online source, so I am thinking, “Will Ireland ever catch up with the rest of the modern world as far as broadband coverage, level of service and price?” Let’s throw in mobile phone coverage as well! I just got off the phone with a friend — I would have texted her instead, but she doesn’t get coverage in her own home and wouldn’t have got the message until she went to drop her kids to school in the morning.
A few years ago I was more patient thinking that we would get there in time. I went from regular analog dialup connection, to having two ISDN lines and now have wireless broadband. I’ve tried a friend’s Vodafone mobile broadband and the coverage is not good enough. I live smack in between Clonakilty and Rosscarbery, just outside the distance from each to get Eircom Broadband.
As a web designer who is uploading and downloading all the time, this is critical — not only to my own work efficiency, but also to my mission to promote the use of the internet in Ireland. So many people don’t want to bother.
So we have mediocre service, if any — and pay top prices for the ‘priviledge’! Do we need the government to get more involved? Is it just a case that there isn’t a big enough market and so the companies involved will never venture out here?
What’s your experience like?
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- Home Working , Web , internet
- Comments(6)
Hi Ann,
Thanks for posting on what I know is a hot topic for a lot of SOHO Solo’s out there. I’m in a similar position to you, and only got broadband myself about a year ago — with wireless provider Rapid Broadband.
Since then Eircom have enabled the Leap exchange, which means I could, in theory, get their ADSL offering, but we’re right on the limit in terms of distance from the exchange, and reports from neighbours are that the service is very flaky in terms of performance. If you’re doing a lot of uploading you may also find that your wireless provider is giving you better service. ADSL is asynchronous — much slower uploads compared to downloads, but my wireless provider (Rapid Broadband) gives me 1Mb/sec up and down, which works great for uploads.
Still 1Mb/Sec is woefully slow in this day and age, and relatively expensive. Still it beats dialup, and at least I’m always connected :-).
The government don’t seem to give a toss about rural broadband penetration, and the so-called National Broadband Scheme is little short of a joke (have you seen the coverage maps they’ve come up with?). You’re absolutely right, we’re paying top dollar for mediocre service levels, and it’s hurting both our businesses and the broader Irish economy.
The Irish government keep touting this nation as the new hub of Europe’s emerging knowledge economy, but it’s all lip-service. They make no effort to put infrastructure technology in place to allow a distributed population to engage in tomorrows knowledge-intensive ventures. It’s incredibly short sighted.
We’re already in the broadband doldrums compared to the rest of Europe (let’s not look further afield than that… it’s too embarrassing) and it’s hurting everyone, not just small business owners like you and me.
Ann,
I live halfway between Clonakilty and Bandon and our local exchange is not ADSL-enabled. Like Calvin, I’ve signed up for Rapid Broadband (AHC Networks were another option) and I prefer the symmetrical nature of the wireless offering especially when sending large volumes of information. I’ve a 2Mbps service. The Fixed IP nature of the solution makes it suitable for hosting services without the need for a dynamic DNS service also. Rapid are now offering a bundled VOIP solution over wireless that would do away with the need for a landline entirely. The physical configuration I have at home won’t allow that to happen easily yet but when all this building work is over…
However, I’ve recently taken an office in the Bandon Business Centre. My plan was to use my O2 mobile data solution for net access. The local topology makes this next to impossible. I can barely get a good enough signal to hold a mobile phone conversation, let alone get any decent data speed so I now have to contemplate getting eircom or AHC Networks solution here as well - probably eircom since I need to solve the voice call problem too.
All in all, it’s quite frustrating and I know that I am/will be paying too much for a silly mix of services that will never quite fit my overall requirements.
Isn’t it frustrating that we have to spend so much time figuring out what’s the best solution - and so much is trial and error! A bit of competition would improve things, but there’s no one else interested in our area.
I too use Rapid — the service has improved a lot since one of my clients put together a customer group and hounded Micheal (then again the improvement may have been a coincidence since he changed networks around that time). Connection has been very good since. I know two women that are moving from the UK to the Courtmac area and will run their graphic design business from their home. They are having a hard time getting an appt to get it installed there — and they really need it for their business. They were completely shocked at the difference in internet service here!
I use an office at O’Mahony Donnelly ‘headquarters’ in Clonakilty and we have Eircom DSL and it’s great. I can tell the difference between the services — particularly with my webcam, which is nearly unuseable via the wireless (Rapid is supposed to be checking this out). Eircom is still not up to international standards though! I was due to appear on the Oprah show via webcam as a follow up to a webcast I participated in. I had to give the technical people there my upload and download speeds and the upload speed wasn’t good enough — we had to upgrade to the top level to achieve bare minimum required. It took 24 hours for the upgrade to take effect and by that time the producer had found someone else to take the spot. Boy was I disappointed and frustrated with the service we are getting here — and a bit embarrassed that we are so far behind the rest of the World (and I am talking ‘third world’ countries — where others participated via webcam)!
Ireland is catching up little by little — but then the rest of the World is moving ahead!
You missed a slot on Oprah? That’s insane! Oh my God you must have been tearing your hair out.
Just to rub things in… my technophobe mum over in rural North Wales gets “up to 8Mb/Sec” broadband thrown in for free with her landline bundle (around £16 a month total for line rental, calls and internet). Actual speeds tend to hover around the 3Mbit/sec mark (she’s pretty rural and a good way from the nearest exchange), but it still wipes the floor with what we have available here, even in the city.
It makes no sense, and the fact that access to decent broadband continues to be an issue for small rural businesses is reprehensible. Ireland.gov, time to get your finger out!
I Rapid broadband and have done for some years and generally pleased enough with it. Between 1-2M generally. Wholeheartedly agree that broadband needs to be a top priority, regardless of what the future holds, good broadband for all would give us a lot more flexibility.
My big concern is that as more and more video is available online - I watch a good bit of TV of BBC iplayer when in the UK, our slow version of broadband is going to just grind to a halt. Please tell me this is not going to happen.
OK Phoebe… “this is not going to happen”.
I’m not averse to the occasional lie to make people feel better :-).
I’m writing this post during a blip of connectivity before being consigned to the on-line doldrums of dialup again :-(.
Rapid rang me on Friday evening to tell me that there was some sort of problem with the garage up the road that they relay my signal from. No more relay = no more broadband. It’s a joke… one that definitely isn’t funny. Luckily ADSL is now available here… but I’m about 3.5 miles from the exchange, so I don’t know how viable it’s going to be. But it’s the only option available, so I’ve signed up. Apparently I should have it in about 3 weeks.
So, If you see an unshaven soul camped out in the lobby of the Celtic Ross over the next three weeks on a quest for a Free WiFi signal, be sure to wave, because that will be me….
Knowledge economy here we come!