Enet, the company in charge of the pieces of fibre that encircle many towns had a big hoopla in Carlow today as they announced a wireless network.
Carlow will become the country’s very first completely wireless-enabled broadband town later today as a result of a collaboration between metropolitan area network (MAN) provider e-Net and Carlow County Council.
Right…. but what does completely enabled mean?
The new network will be deployed three years ahead of Dublin’s proposed Wi-Fi network and will cover 50pc of businesses and 10pc of homes in Carlow town.
Bad enough that other telcos and associations have been talking horseshit about availability and coverage for years. Now ENet are starting this dishonest game. But of course it gets better.
Tiger economy, low unemployment rates? Yup, them too.
Pointing to statistics from IDA Ireland, he said that in 2004 only 20pc of new jobs were announced in the 27 phase one towns where MANs have been built. This increased to 40pc in 2005 and 60pc in 2006. “I would never say that that was down to the MANs on their own but I have to believe that we are having some impact.
He forgets to point out the timeframe when the MANs went live in those towns. How many small businesses are connected to MANs? How many can afford the 1000s a month to connect?
UPDATE: Via Evert in the comments is the fact that this whole farce was funded by the taxpayers at a cost of 3Million, from the Irish Times:
The Carlow start-up project has cost €3 million, with 90 per cent of the cost provided by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and 10 per cent by the local authorities.
3 Million for 11 access points and then to charge the same taxpayers to access it? Sickening. That’s 5-10 exchanges that could be upgraded for that.
[…] As Damien has already mentioned, E|Net announced a new Wifi network in Carlow today. According to the article Brisknet, Aptus and Bitbuzz are going to be the initial providers of Wifi access in the town. […]
Wow, 10% of homes in Carlow? Really reaching for the stars there.
If Azotel/Brisknet is involved that most likely means that they will be using Motorola Canopy hardware. That ensures that it will f*ck up the spectrum for anyone else using WiFi..
E.
“completely wireless-enabled broadband” equals “10pc of homes”? That really is beyond spin and into the realm of pure lies and bullshit.
And if it’s such a big deal why on earth didn’t they try and inform local residents or business?
How much is the investment and who is making it?
Just read the articl in yesterdays Times hailing it as the second coming.
Aparently the project has cost 3 million so far with 90% funded by the department of CMN and 10% by the local authorities.
That’s 3 million for 11 nodes. Sounds like a lot of people are just getting their hands on government money allocated by people that have no knowledge of what they’re doing.
They’re promising always on access for as little as €9.95 per month at speeds that will be faster than what Eircom provides.
Two questions spring to mind;
1) Considering E-net’s access charges how will they make a profit with such low charges.
2) If it’s funded by state money is that not a case of the government competing/operating in the private market with public money? If so I recall some EU legislation outlawing this. This could cause the same type of legal wrangles as the ones caused by the spate of Muni-WiFi networks operated by local authorities in the US…
E.
I’m a bit confued by some of the idiotic posts here. Enet are being accused of lies and bullshit. However, the Enet wesbite itself states that the Wifi service will cover 50% of businesses, and 10% of homes. They are not exactly hiding the fact that it is not covering the whole town. Enet even have a map of the town with the location of the 12 Access Points. Where’s the lies and bullshit? I think this is the first phase of the project, more APs will be added at a later time. Also , to the poster who is sickened by 12 Access Points costing 3 million, I would like to be in the Access Point business for those prices. But, the ENet site states that the network is using Tropos APs. They sell for something like 2 thousand. My guess is that the 3 million costs quoted in the article included the fibre infrastructure, not only the wireless network . This is a radical idea, but it would be great if some of the posters here could make an attempt to find out something about the network before positing useless comments. These outdoor wireless mesh networks are cutting edge technology. Whoever thought Carlow would be one of the pioneers of new emerging technology!!