ClubMan said:Some people are already doing it. See IrishWAN. A colleague donated his services recently to help set up such a system using long range 802.11a (c. 15 miles range) backbone to the connecting ISP and local 802.11b distribution to individual houses. Apart from voluntary donations of services/time some of the cost is covered by the Government [broken link removed] grant scheme.
And that's the sort of setup that I was referring to above in relation to community broadband schemes. Seemingly they can mount one transponder (within certain constraints) on public utility poles (e.g. ESB etc.) without planning permission.runner said:My original post was along the lines of someone like ESB putting Wi-Fi mesh boxes say on all their esb poles in Dublin and providing an alternative service not dependant on the Telecom 'last mile' monopoly.
ClubMan said:
My point is that WiMAX like gear is already widely used. Pre-any standard does not mean nothing but obviously does not mean standards compatible (usually because the standard is still in flux!). But there are plenty of pre-standard equipment in the past that was easily upgraded to the standard when it was released (e.g. K56flex modems that were firmware upgradeable to V.90/92 when the ITU standardised the latter, pre-802.11n gear that should be easily firmware/driver upgradeable to 802.11n when it is finalised etc.). In many cases lack of standards compliance (due to the lack of a finalised standard) or certification (ditto) has not stood in the way of the adoption of technologies which can interoperate and can later be upgraded to match the standard being tracked early on. Far from the idealised/strict standards based approach but often a pragmatic way to get things going. Obviously there's always a risk in buying pre standard equipment. Anybody who thinks, for example, all 802.11a/b/g chipsets are created equal and contain no bugs or quirks that affect functionality but not necessarily the end user experience might get a few surprises if they did a bit of packet sniffing and spectrum analysis. But it doesn't generally impact adoption of this technology and interoperability between different manufacturers' implementations.bankrupt said:Pre-Wimax means nothing
My understanding is that the areas in question have no access to broadband (with the possible exception of satellite), they can get a grant to cover some of the costs of the setup, people (like my colleague and the people he deals with) volunteer their technical and other services for free, the users pay a subscription fee to cover ongoing running and maintenance costs. Seems reasonable to me. There is nothing stopping people who are so inclined setting something similar up in their own area/community albeit without the grants I presume. Of course it will involve some hard work.
ClubMan said:My point is that WiMAX like gear is already widely used. Pre-any standard does not mean nothing but obviously does not mean standards compatible (usually because the standard is still in flux!). But there are plenty of pre-standard equipment in the past that was easily upgraded to the standard when it was released (e.g. K56flex modems that were firmware upgradeable to V.90/92 when the ITU standardised the latter, pre-802.11n gear that should be easily firmware/driver upgradeable to 802.11n when it is finalised etc.). In many cases lack of standards compliance (due to the lack of a finalised standard) or certification (ditto) has not stood in the way of the adoption of technologies which can interoperate and can later be upgraded to match the standard being tracked early on. Far from the idealised/strict standards based approach but often a pragmatic way to get things going. Obviously there's always a risk in buying pre standard equipment. Anybody who thinks, for example, all 802.11a/b/g chipsets are created equal and contain no bugs or quirks that affect functionality but not necessarily the end user experience might get a few surprises if they did a bit of packet sniffing and spectrum analysis. But it doesn't generally impact adoption of this technology and interoperability between different manufacturers' implementations.
Thanks Modus - interesting stuff. Are there any other good sources of information (e.g. IrishWAN etc.)? I'm just asking out of curiosity. Others may have a more direct/practical interest.Modus said:The situation is somewhat simpler than written above. I was involved in setting up a "group broadband scheme" in my area which has gone operational within the past couple of months. The idea is based on the old group water schemes. The scheme in our area was organised in conjunction with the South West Regional Authority [broken link removed]. The first thing you need is an expression of written interest from members of the community. This generally takes the form of a survey. You then need a community organisation who are willing to act as representatives of the community. In our community, the community council did this. In others, a dedicated group of broadband enthusiasts set themselves up. The SWRA then partnered us with potential ISPs who were willing to provide us with broadband based on the demand we had surveyed. We agreed on a supplier and they got a grant for 30% of the capital costs of setting up the coverage.
Once it's set up, normal broadband subscriber fees apply to the users.
Country wide, the contacts for this scheme are to be found at:
[broken link removed]
Phase 2 is closed but I'd be surprised if there isn't a phase 3 in the works.
It's a good scheme, assuming they continue it - you're taxpayers euros at work and community spirit in action.
Are you sure about that? In some, most or all cases? I would be very surprised if pre WiMAX, 802.11n etc. OEMs did not provide for an upgrade path most likely via NVRAM based firmware/driver upgrades.bankrupt said:Generally there was no upgrade path bar a complete replacement! This is just hype, unlike K56/V90/x2 when generally speaking all modems became compliant with a software change (similarly with 802.11 standards).
I'm afraid I'm really no expert on rolling out broadband, I just was keen to see it come to my area and got involved. If people are keen to try to get a group broadband scheme up and running in their area I think their best bet would be to email their local regional co-ordinator ([broken link removed])ClubMan said:Are there any other good sources of information (e.g. IrishWAN etc.)? I'm just asking out of curiosity. Others may have a more direct/practical interest.
ClubMan said:Are you sure about that? In some, most or all cases? I would be very surprised if pre WiMAX, 802.11n etc. OEMs did not provide for an upgrade path most likely via NVRAM based firmware/driver upgrades.
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