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I’m looking for recommendations for wireless broadband providers in the Cork area.
I have a dsl connection currently (3mb down, 384kb up with a static ip), but I want to get rid of the landline (and the landline rental) so if anyone can recommend good providers, I’d be verry grateful.
Hello,
I’m Tom
Welcome to my website where you’ll find my latest musings on all things related to sustainability, technology, and supply chain.
178 responses to “Wireless broadband providers in Cork”
I believe Digiwebs new Metro service is live down there.
Is it any good Alan, do you know?
And what is their service like?
Tomasz here in the office is signed up to it in Drogheda and is happy with the service. It does depend on your distance from the transmitter.
Cheap though!
Amocom – http://www.amocom.com – is the largest Wireless Broadband provider in Cork.
If they dont reach you the Airwave Internet ( http://www.airwaveinternet.net) covers East Cork
and
AHC http://www.ahcnetworks.com – covers Clonakilty/Bandon/Kinsale area
I use Amocom at home.
Thanks Donagh but are you insane?
I checked Amocom’s prices – I don’t know what planet they are trying to price for but they are charging €80 excl VAT per month for 512kb access!
Compared to Digiweb’s 34.99 incl VAT per month for 3mb access for their Metro product.
Or even compared to Nova Network’s €49 excl VAT for 2mb per month.
Are they on drugs? Or do they have special gold plated wireless?
I pay €35 per month for a 512 service.
I do know a number of unhappy customers on other services and a number of happy customers on the Amocom service.
There’s more to it than buying a 2mb service and at what sounds like a great contention ratio but this doesnt sum up the total product. The quality of service is everything.
I’m sure many of the services are improving all the time.
The trouble with Digiweb is they are deploying to many of the schools in town (they won the education contract), and as their protocol is a form of 802.16 there will be high contention levels during the day.
This is always going to be the problem with a wireless connection in Cork. The protocol is a (more or less) CDMA broadcast Ethernet, line of sight. The frequency is more likely 5Ghz and in a good rain, the RF absorption could drop you 3 to 6Db in signal strength. Satellite would be a bit better at 13Ghz. but alignment of the dish during a wind is an issue, and don’t get me started on IR or Laser.
Even so Donagh,
€35 per month (excl VAT) for 512kb is extortionate!
I’m currently paying €45 per month to Eircom for 3mb dsl and I think that’s expensive!
The furthest back I would contemplate going is 2mb. I’d cry if I had to go back to 512kb
BTW: I have 3Mb/384Kb Eircom for the (home) office and 3Mb/384Kb BT for home, and BT is more stable.
Interesting Branedy – however, I’m trying to get rid of our landline and switch to something not too much slower but significantly cheaper (otherwise, why do it?).
Welcome to ripoff Ireland 😉
A certain company I know used Aramiska for remote users, but I believe they have been bought up. http://www.puretelecom.ie
Action DK: Re-negotiate for a bigger Amocom pipe
http://www.novanetworks.com seem good, if a little disorganised.
Tom – is it in Rushbrooke Links that you’re looking for coverage? I used to work for Nova Networks and I know that they have made a special effort specifically for Rushbrooke Links this year and that might result in better than average service. I know that Amocom have coverage in Rushbrooke too, but as you mention that is quite expensive. Digiweb Metro is good, but just check out boards.ie and you’ll see that its down for long periods of time, they don’t seem to have their act together. Leap Wireless (Magnet now I think) is reliable and good quality but quite expensive and you don’t get a lot of bandwidth now. Theres also VOIP broadband, of whom I have no experience.
My own advice is that if you’re using it for work then reliability is very important, and you can’t get more reliable at low cost in my experience than Eircom DSL. If I were to get wireless broadband for work then I would want a DSL backup which would defeat the purpose in your case. Potentially you could have a great service and never have any trouble, but there have been so many broadband horror stories with all ISPs that I would rigidly abide by the “don’t fix whats not broken” rule.
I thought there was some way you could force Eircom to get rid of the landline if you wanted DSL only? Have never looked into it myself, but I think I heard it mentioned somewhere – Damien Mulley might be the man to ask about that.
Sorry – a bit ambiguous there, what I mean is that I think I have heard people mention that if you don’t use your phone but just Eircom’s DSL that there could be a way to get rid of the phone rental – probably not true but worth checking out because it would save you a load of hassle.
Also – have you considered Smart Telecom? Not wireless but its got free line rental for life and is a good quality, reliable service at a decent price.
Not to change the subject too much, but what about rural Wexford? Anybody know any good broadband providers there? We are a couple of miles outside Duncannon. Is Eircom the only choice?
Many thanks,
Fran
Francis – I checked broadband.gov.ie and they don’t report any broadband providers there (not even Eircom) so it could be outdated but it doesn’t look too hopeful anyway. Generally speaking though, if Eircom is available then Eircom resellers, such as IOL, are also available.
Check out broadband.gov.ie to find out about wireless ISPs in neighbouring towns and ring them up and ask if they might cover you.
Thanks, James. I appreciate this. We have a long way to go, don’t we?
Ya, a very long way to go for rural Ireland, as indicated by this.
James thanks for the comprehensive and well thought out responses.
Damien is away these couple of days but when he returns I’ll certainly ask him if it is possible to switch off the line rental while keeping the dsl – that would certainly be the ideal option.
Tom, i hear good things about digiweb except for their download cap, if you reach the download cap (30gig i understand) you have to wait the 30 days for it to be reset rather than having 30gig a month. Where i live in Ballygarvan smart installed a wireless system using a meshhopper architecture, it’s 512k down but from what i gather speeds are far less than that sometimes no faster than dial up and at €35 thats a bit much so i kept my dialup.
I’m using Digiweb for the last few months Tom and deal with them through business – the service has been excellent and they have been very responsive with queries and problems. The phone service is good and reliable, lacks voicemail though. The 30Gb cap is added and deducted per day – i.e. if you reach your 30Gb today it cuts your connection to isdn speeds (also they tend not to do this unless you are taking the p*ss) but doesn’t cut you off. It also deducts whatever amount you downloaded 30 days ago, so if you’re in the middle of the month at your 30Gb cap and downloaded 10Gb 30 days ago you’dd be back to 20Gb used by tomorrow – this sentence makes sense in my head, hope it does for you! Also bear in mind that the cap is made up of uploads and downloads.
Have a look at http://www.corkcommunitybroadband.ie They do a good wireless service, not sure if they’d cover your area though.
…to switch off the line rental while keeping the dsl – that would certainly be the ideal option.
BTW – This is not possible.
Bah Tim, you have shattered my dreams!
It looks then like my best option is to do what James advised and stick with the DSL.
Branedy: The vast majority of schools digiweb provide broadband to get it via a sat dish, not wireless. Also the Metro service uses reserved spectrum and so there really isn’t any competing service on that frequency that could cause interference. They do not use 802.x for Metro.
A bit desperate.. moving from Frankfield to Kilworth in next few weeks, and so far am drawing blanks at every turn.
Any suggestions on providers welcome (would go sattelite but the cost is just way too prohibitive).
Hi Tom,
Dave here from Nova Networks (http://www.novanetworks.ie).
We have wireless broadband service available in most of Cobh. Where are you located?
Dave
Dave,
thanks for responding – I am in Rushbrook Links,
Tom
….if it is possible to switch off the line rental while keeping the dsl – that would certainly be the ideal option.
This is called Naked DSL – our esteemed regulator could mandate eircom to provide this product, but hasn’t.
Chorus in cork offer cable B/band which may be an option for a copper free existance.
Interesting D,
although I’m not sure Chorus comes as far as Rushbrook (where I’m based) – I’ll certainly look into it though,
thanks.
Note that chorus require digital lines to be installed in your area already – most times, before the builder begins to build.
Cannot get any broadband in Ballygarvan ?! 🙁 It was supposed to be one of the areas in the 1st phase of the Broadband Scheme (1.8 million investment) but they are starting on Phase 4 soon around the country and STILL NO SIGN OF BROADBAND in Ballygarvan !? (Smart did set up a wireless network but withdrew it recently) Defeats the purpose of having phases when they dont complete the earlier ones. I have tried every company but NO HOPE. Any advice (besides satilette- CRAZY MONEY).?
One peice of advice Daryl – Call ZoneBroadband. They will come and setup a node for wireless (depending on LOS), if there is ~15 people interested in broadband. Very nice folks to talk to as well:
http://www.zonebroadband.com/whatwedo.html
Daryl,
Please call our office on 021 497 8192. We have access in Farmer’s Cross near Ballygarvan and could put up a cell there. We’d love to talk to you.
BTW – Checked out Zone Broadband – good idea if you are really stuck, but uses satellite for backhaul – 450ms latency, no good for VOIP, gaming, etc.
Tom – we are setting up 3 base stations to give full cover of the Rushbrook Links area. Please email your house number and address to info [_at_] novanetworks.ie. We’ve surveyed every single house number there and can cover it all.
Dave
http://www.novanetworks.ie
Dave
Dave –
Any chance Nova would be looking at Kilworth area sometime before the end of the year maybe?
I also am looking for broadband in Kilworth, a long and fruitless search so far but sooner or later it has to become a reality.
@Dylan:
If you’re still looking with no reply here, Zone is likely our only option. Would need another 12-15 people able to sign up, but it is one option (when I called them they had one person ready to sign up at that time).
Brandon/Dylan,
If you have a number of people that are interested, we would be interested in setting up there. Our network would connect you all directly to the Cork Fibre Ring rather than by satellite. Please let me know if this is of interest.
Dave
Dave:
I’d be of keen interest!
In terms of numbers, I can’t say for certain, a few I know of in my estate that have been looking for broadband, though it’s not a high number as of this moment (new building development, second phase – and more potential interest – already started).
Dylan may also have more of an idea of local interest too, as I’m new to the area.
I’m afraid I also am new to the area, there are only a few houses used in my estate at the moment but I think others there have been looking for broadband also.
I can be contacted on gmail using .Fairbairn
oops… make that dylan dot fairbairn, you know what i mean.
@Dave:
Any indication in terms of numbers you require before Nova can consider the area? I don’t mind spending some time knocking on doors if need be, as I’m currently in the process of moving in I’m in and around the village fairly often.
@Dylan:
I reccon anyone you know of that may have an interest in the area, lets find out who we can offer as starting interest. There’s me and you so far, I know the builders had serious queries as well which I’ll follow up in the next day or two (when they get back to me that is).
My own contact details: besbach(at)gmail(dot)com.
I too am moving to Kilworth soon, and if i could get broadband for a resonable price i would be interest. Think i too will be in the same estate. Let me know if you hear any developments.
at this stage it looks like our best option is Ardmore technologies who will set up a wireless operation once we get enough subscribers – they seem reasonably priced. if you mail dylan.fairbairn at gmail.com and I can forward you their application form. There seems to be a few groups of people looking for broadband here – not sure if we have foud them all yet.
@damien:
At this stage, Ardmore are keen to present our case. We have a current resident (not me, and not on this board, he’s currently using internet Cafe’s to communicate) who is driving a lot of this, but needs a lot of help in terms of word-of-mouth (they have a mast on the water tower servicing the town to the left of Kilworth already so it’s apparently about a 3hr job).
According to the resident, he has 15 with ink-to-paper (happy to pass his cellnumber on if you’ve any queries, or Ardmore’s number if needed); myself and dylan offhand I think we’ve gathered a handful between us as well. If we can get another 10 to 15 applications I think we have this in the bag: 30 subscribers to schedule (with install fees to boot) for a few hours work I’m sure will aid the timelines.
@Dave:
If you’re out there and have a mast in process of being installed, there’s a group of hungry subscribers ready to discuss a change in plans.
If the forums are anything to go by, there is a lot of interest generating around Kilworth, so doubtless this will happen sooner or later.
looking to move to ballycotton area very soon ??? what to do about broadband any suggestions thanks
http://www.swra.ie/broadbandlist.htm
Looks like Ardmore already serves ballycotton? or at least has broadcast permission for their wireless
Tom,
Amocom are offering to trial a wireless service in Ballygarvan where Smart are presently the only provider.Smart are not installing any more custoemrs and appear to have lost interest in the area (?)
Amocom have 2 offerings for residential users:
See http://www.amocom.com/ check ‘Services ‘.Rough prices:
€42 pm inc VAT for 512 / 256 ( 42 = 35 7)
€72pm for 512/ 512 ( 72 = 60 12)
Expensive!
Others:
Nova Networks might be a possibility : have not checked.
Digiweb is not available here last time I checked.
Irish Broadband have to get back to me re their wireless service
eircom DSL might be here soon but must check their list at end of August for update.
http://mmm.eircom.ie/maps/default.asp
Keep you posted.
Brendan
For those of you who are interested, there is a service available from Wexford Broadband – 2MB-up and 512-down with a contention of 25:1 max. Cost €35 a month.
They can serve any area of the country provided they have about 20 customers within line of sight of a transmitter, the plus side is that they can place a local transmitter virtually anywhere. Its a great concept. As someone in the IT business, I can attest to the fact that it is truly efficient.
The website is http://www.wexfordbroadband.com
I live near enough to Kilworth (Glanworth) and I’m considering getting a consensus going in Glanworth village to determine what kind of takeup there would be. There’s alot of new houses in the area over the last year, and I’m sure a new survey could lead to interesting results.
Anyone out there want to link up and push for more broadband for North Cork?
I’m keen. besbach[at]gmail[dot]com
iv been using for over a year now and find thier service very good, it took about 3 weeks to get connected, but once i was on it was like a dream. the rates arent too bad and the ping is nice and low. iv heard some horror stories about digiweb, the connection is flaky and the pings skyrocket regularly, thats the reason i went with cork community broadband.
well there is my pennys worth, good luck with the connection, my advice is not just to look at the bandwidth to cost ratio but look into how reliable the service is 🙂
sorry about the previous post, the link kinda got messed up: http://www.corkcommunitybroadband.com
Hello All,
I live in Eagle Valley, Wilton ( Cork ). Any idea of a company that offers wireless broadband in that area? Any help/tip will be appreciated.
Thanks and regards
Henry
What’s the story behind eircom home professional plus (3mb)not available in Rushbrooke Links …. the first line check on the eircom site shows that you can order, but when you order the test in orderproces will tell you it’s NOT possible ….
By the way : NOVA 89 euro for 1 MB wireless ?
Hessel
Actually we’re €39 for 1M
http://www.novanetworks.ie/home
http://www.novanetworks.ie/business
sorry dave, but all together a little expensive
I’ll happily pay it for Nova in Kilworth
Info for Wireless Broadband from €25. Option Up to 3MB (Upload/Download) for Belgooly, Ballygarvan or Kilmicheal area contact Daryl Cronin on 0868888648. Will be extending our coverage very shortly.
Setup takes only 30mins or so. Connecting people 7days a week, 12hrs a day to cater for people not available during usual 9-5 hrs.
or maildaryl@vodafone.ie for further details.
Regards,
Daryl Cronin
I live in kilworth actually and my phone line isnt good enough for broadband, im trying to find out if there are any wireless services that i could even link up with in fermoy if that was possible.
Can please somenoe tell me if there is any oher Broadband provider in Rushbrooke than Nova. I am very disapointed with the service which they provide. Most of the time i do not have internet at all or it is working very slowly.
Many thanks for yours advice.
Kate
any joy with broadband in kilworth? i sent eircom a message to see if there was any plan to enable the exhange – they replied that they didnt know! useless !!
looking for reasonably priced bb in kilworth. anyone!??
Yeah i asked them myself for kilworth, they didnt even reply! But one of my friends in eircom said they should be doing it in the next 3 months or so but im not sure how true that is.
Last time I was in contact with Eircom, they say definitely by October last year.. then definitely Jan this year… then definitely this year.
I suspect they’re still trying to pull the “nobody wants it” card as long as they can. If you look at the upgrade schedule it is suspicious – only area’s that have alternative bb through wireless (for eg) are getting their exchanges done to date, most often unimportant area’s. I mean, why the flames does the Airport local exchange need to be done??????? Because there are several wireless operators they can knock off the air… becoming more and more evident that there will be no action until the gov takes steps to build a non-profit network of our own.
Look at the wireless licence: Eircom own this. A PRIVATE company OWNS THE LICENCE to transmit broadband signal. Yet this will not come up this year (election year) as people are being made to believe it’s not important by the current Administration..
It’s time to make a stand. Write to your TD’s. Withdraw your vote from the entire party if there is no plan. We are LOWER than third world countries in saturation AND higher in price than our peers!!
Who is the TD for north cork? Anyone have the contact details etc ? I agree – its not good enough for 2007.
Please bring broadband to Kilworth!! I have little doubt that with all the new housing developments in the village that there would be a big take up. I would sign up the moment the exchange was enabled!!
i am currently lookin for wireless broadband in kilworth if possible a 2 meg would be great does anyone know what the expected prices would be and who would be the cheapest provider any information on the estimated set up date would be a really good help thanks.
Well your out of luck really there i suppose, there is currently no broadband available in kilworth besides satellite broadband or what im about to purchace, 3g broadband which runs at a maxium of 1.3mb per second in a 3g broadband area but surprise surprise there is no 3g broadband coverage in kilworth yet but there may be a little standard 3g coverage which runs at about 320k/s and if you dont have 3g it runs at 40k on the gsm network which is good compaired to dialup really. The modem costs 129 euro and it currently costs 39.99 a month for 5gb of downloads which is quite good but after tomorow this price is going up to 49.99 so youd have to decide fast. If you want to know if you have 3g coverage you can check with your 3g mobile phone (if you have one), let me know if you want to hear how it is going, im getting it tomorow hopefully.
let me know how it works out. I am going to hold off in the hope the exchange gets bb enabled before the end of this year. I currently pay 29.99 for 2g and unlimited up and downloads – so im very averse to paying much more in kilworth.
Well my only advise to you is to stay well away from dial up! Its a blistering 5k a second for me here just outside the village! Are you living in one of the new estates? Iv been living here for 18 years (since i was born) and the lack of a good internet service is painfull. Yeah that dosent sound too bad i suppose because the 3g would cost more and it mightnt work at the higher speeds where you are. I was talking to my friend whos dad works in eircom and he said that they might be doing the exchange in the next few months but i really doubt it to be honest because i emailed eircom and they didnt even seem to have plans to do it. Well i have like 14 days or something to return the broadband if it isnt very good so i might aswell give it a go, and i think they are putting up a new mast in curragahala (just up the road from the village) So speeds of 1.3 megs a second could be available to us, and i also heard aswell that in the next few months vodafone would upgrade the systems to offer about 3.4 megs which would be very good!
Patrick how are you finding your vodafone connection? Just wondering since I would love to know if it works, and if so what kind of speeds you are getting on it. (You never know we may yet see an Internet kiosk in Tony’s shop!)
Im quite pleased with it actually! On my way home from school now on the net! Its great! Quite fast too, at home i can get about 40 kilo bytes a second on the 3g network because i have a little signal for it. Can i ask you a question actually? When they say like 1.3 mb per second do they mean mega bits or mega bites?
Oh actually that wouldnt be right, there is something downloading on my computer and iv no idea what it is! just did a speed test there on a webiste and it said 96kbs and i found out its bits not bytes but thats ok!
While dialup still is pretty dismal, it’s not too bad in the village (I live in the new estate just out of the main village). On average I get 49kbps, which is pretty good for dialup, horrible in this day and age though.
I would not use 2G myself, if dialup can be had at reasonable rates, to be honest. It’s not as reliable, and signal can come and go as fast as a cheap pair of underwear.
Want to hear a new joke? As anyone in the Kilworth area may know, Fermoy has both wireless and DSL available on the exchange (just a few miles away, so close yet so far :C). Well, try this on for size: Digiweb just put up a beacon for Fermoy. How’s them apples? A town that’s had DSL, wireless, and other high-speed internet access for a few years now (it was old hat when we signed our first round of papers for our house, over a year ago); and now Digi is all excited as they’re in the area.
I hope someone on the Digiweb team can reply to this, as that really made the heckles rise in my estate, and other folks I know who are waiting for BB (we’ve a fair lot of folks been anxious for BB the last year in Kilworth). Why choose the town that has the service already for cripes??? How about servicing an area which really could do with your service?
Brandon said
Because there’s a bigger population in Fermoy than there is in Kilworth, and the business brains reckon that they can grab more of a percentage of existing/new broadband users.
Is anyone interested in getting together and creating a North Cork Broadband Group? Lay siege to The Avondhu!!
Mick out by Ballindangan…..
Lads,
I don’t think they have launched a wireless service in Fermoy. They have put those signs up around every eircom enabled exchange. All that means is that they are reselling eircom DSL in locations that can already get eircom DSL. No big shakes really.
Dave
Yeah i managed to get 250k in one part of the house so im pretty pleased with it, however vodafone have not yet updated the system for 3g broadband in fermoy for some strange reason but when they do which i hope will be soon it should be about 4 times faster. Well as soon as i qualfiy from college im leaving this country! Fed up of haveing second rate services!
Owing to a lot of resistance against 3G (look around Kilworth to see the signs petitioning against it), I doubt it’ll come anytime soon to the area.
Funny thing, people objecting to 3G though. We have several big transmitters for other purposes – some spreading equally bad radiation – but 3G is being objected to? Well, it would be expensive to initiate for users but it’s an option compared to Dialup or 2G; while Eircom upgrade exchanges in area’s that are not needed (places in dublin for example where there is community wireless BB projects in place already; and some similar places in cork).
Here’s another joke for today: found out that Ardmore have a transmitter on the tower just outside of fermoy (serves to the opposite side of kilworth). Beacon can be adjusted slightly to serve Kilworth too, it’s a few hours work at most (this is from their own tech manager). Apparently they’re on the main Cork fiber ring, so no cheap-scammer satellite backhaul (ie good latency).
Far as I know, there are minimum 15 folks looking in Kilworth actively (excluding myself). Anyone out there work for Ardmore that can shed some more light on this?
My Name is on no list for broadband in Kilworth, but certainly I would love it. So any list you see you can add one more interested party to it. (Sid is not my real name, but my real name is on no list.) I would love to see the Kilworth exchange upgraded. Any wireless option must have good days and bad days so to have a stable wired connection would be great. Although living outside the village I would have to hope that I did not live too far away from the exchange.
ye i have a 3g moble bt how do u tell if you have coverage im lookin at gettin atelite bt ill wait until something a little cheaper comes along ifit does!!!
Just look at where the signal is displayed and it will either say G or 3g, youve 3g if it says 3g and gprs if it says G. You can go to the vodafone webiste too and look up where you live on the coverage map, you might want to check out the 3 mobile site too, they have another package for 3g broadband.
My great-grandmother was a Frances McKeagney from Ireland. Moved to Cape Breton in the 1800. Just wondering. Do you know anything about your family tree
Hey Guys,
I happen to Know all of the people and companies currently providing Wireless broadband in North Cork.
Two of my friends just put up thier Killworth node at 12:30 today can support upto approx 30 customers straight away and ,more to follow.
My work collegue also happens to personally know the head engineer from Ardmore and yes they have had their transmiter on the water tower in Fermoy for nearly a year now but dont seem to have any plans to turn it on for the public.
If Brandon has a list of 15 peaople who want broadband in Killworth I will certainly put you in contact.
Also some one else also asked about Glanworth, My friends are currently working on the Glanworth node and if any one would be willing to have a repeating node on their house and are high enough up to see Fermoy then I’m sure some chaeap or maybe free broadband could be arranged
I will check back here over the next few days with more info
Mark
What company is that who have plans for kilworth? I probably know a good few people who would be interested.
Mark
I live near Glanworth, and I believe I have line of sight. Give me a shoutback and we can talk.
Sorry for the deley in getting back, damn Laptop crashed on me.
Dearden Broadband went live at full power at the weekend.
It now covers all of Killworth and most of Glanworth and Most of Ballyhooly.
I dont really have anything to do with this so I dont want to post my phone number or email in the forum as I know I will just get inundated with querries
I have setup a quick address in Google this is not really his address but I can pick them up and forward them on to the lads.
Please send all enqueries to the following:
deardenbb@gmail.com
Mark
Oh i know the owner of that company, used to go to school with him, ill try and get in contact with him if i can.
This sounds a bit too good to be true, but Mark check that gmail account!
Its true, he hasnt gone fully live yet but he will soon enough, ill let ye know (or he will) when its fully up and running. I wont tell ye too much but its 1meg broadband anyway with very reasonable prices, im just unlucky i signed up to this bloody vodafone thing! Ah well! When the contracts up ill switch over!
Ok, cool.
I will pass on those emails tomorrow.
Yes its direct link via wireless to Cork Fiber.
its 1meg up and down but you can get more
The ping is pretty steady at between 40ms 100ms (I think, so i’m told by some one on the network)
Its approx €300 installation (to pay for the client unit) but then just €30 per month after that.
Hope this helps, If any one else wants info please mail to the above address and I will continue to pass on them to appropriate people.
Mark
Is this broadband service up and running ?
Not 100% sure yet, he is getting back to me, I think he is trying to put a node up somewhere else to cover kilworth.
Just a quick update, Airwave internet have set up a for kilworth, not sure of the prices but ill get back to you on them. If you want to email them the address is survey@airwaveinternet.net
Ok heres the email they sent back:
“We offer a standard 1Mbps Home package for €40. This an always on connection with no time limits or download caps. There is a once off installation charge of € 149 which covers all aspects of getting you running.
If you would like full details on the various options, you can check at http://www.airwaveinternet.net – If you would like to apply, you can download an application form there and submit to us.”
Definatly thing the dearden broadband is better, they only have a 250 upload and it costs more per month.
Is there a minimum contrat with both Dearden and Airwave ? As i see it i would go wireless in the short term and if a fixed line became available i would like to switch to this as the cost / performance would be better. Can i get out of both of these providers in 12 months? I assume the installation cost would be lost, therefore Airwave or Dearden would work out the same more or less (20 euro). At that price diff its about performance – so who is better?
Anyone get either of these in yet? If so would appreciate any feedback.
Im not sure about the contract terms to be honest but the address for airwave is above and this is deardens :deardenbb@gmail.com if you have any questions. I know you probably want to keep your phone line but my advise to you would be to get rid of it and get a skype phone which you can make very cheap calls to mobiles and local phones with, the only problem with it is as of yet there is no skype in numbers for ireland so only people on the net can ring you on it but saying that nearly all of us have mobiles anyway. As for the fixed line broadband, i really doubt it ill be up and running in kilworth for a long time, i emailed eircom and they didnt even email back. I have 3g wireless broadband myself, alot slower but i wont be livng here next year because ill be in college so its usefull for me now, im not sure if dearden is fully up and running yet and dont know anyone who has any of these services, it was quite recently i got news of it to be honest.
Got a flyer yesterday in Kilworth for Zone broandband. Anyone know about them? The website http://www.zonebroadband.com/ offers 2MB for 29.99 a month with a 150 installation. Is this the best option to date in Kilworth?
Run for your life. Zone uses satellite as their main connection; this means you will have constant latency problems (latency for the satellite AND the inherent latency already within the wireless beacons they use).
Although a bit more expensive, Airwave are already in Kilworth and have been installing the last few weeks (me included).
Their base package costs €40 per month for 1mb down; 256k up (this sounds bad but considering their beacon goes directly to the main cork fiber ring, it’s a huge difference in usability). Currently I get downloads running at 100kb/s – which is nearly the same as I was getting on a 2mb wired ADSL connection.
Their website is www-dot-airwaveinternet-dot-net (replace -dot- with .); although their maps are not updated yet they will confirm the area once you call them.
Yeah agree with the last poster, stay away from satellite broadband! You could also try dearden broadband, the adress for it is in on of the above posts, its faster and a bit cheaper i think.
another dumb question – but 100kbps doesnt seem like broadband to me, is that normal performance – have you run a speedtest on it – if not could you let us know how it runs on speedtest.net or some such . I assume that Airwave doesnt have 40 users on in Kilworth yet, so that performance will only get worse as more users get online. Is it really worth a commitment of 630 euro for the first year to get a performance marginally better than dial up.
Or have i completely mis-understood the 100 kbps!
Yeah you were right when you said you misunderstoood! I was talking about my 3g broadband which really is about 350k a second, anyway both dearden and airwave offer 1mbs but dearden offer 1mbs upload aswell as download.
Zone:
As Patrick says, you’re a bit off there.. Patrick too actually.
Download speed is actually different to actual speed of your line. For example, on a 2mb ADSL connection you will tend to get 150kps – 170kbps from a good server.
Gonna try explain as best as I remember for those that are a bit put off by download speed vs actual speed advertised by the provider.
Disclaimer: This goes back quite a few years, so sorry if there are inaccuracies.
We’ll work with a std modem’s fastest speed, which is typically 56kb. That rating is actually kBITS, not kBYTES so you need to divide by 8 (8 bits in a byte) to get an actual kilobyte rating. So, using a modem and connecting at the magical 56kb you will get a maximum of 7kb/s download (and you’ll find that 5kb is average).
To extend that to the broadband sense, a similar calculation is done.
If you have a 1mb broadband connection, divide by 8 to get it’s maximum theoretical speed and you wind up with 128kb/s – thus anything above this indicates a slightly-better-than-1mb speed. It’s rare to get above 100kb/s though on a 1mb line – I often got between 70 and 90 on my old ADSL through UTV, which I still considered ok, as this was with around 25 folks in my exchange on the same service.
Contention Ratio: this is only really damaging to you if lots of folk around you on the same pipe are doing heavy load actions (eg downloads or streaming tv, etc). Otherwise it will only have a minimal impact on you.
when i was living in Cork from 2005 to 2006, i used Nova Networks. never had a problem with them.
http://www.novanetworks.ie
Justin: Nova aren’t in Kilworth currently; so far only Airwave and Deardon have made any kind of BB available to us poor folk. By the sound of things, Deardon have a lot of work; as do Airwave – so there would be space for another operator (and it’d be good for competition too).
For what it’s worth
A contact in Eircom has assured me that they will have the Kilworth Exchange done by September at the very latest. I’m in Kilworth also but debating holding out the 3 months as I think the fixed line bb would have faster speeds etc.
No doubt september will come and go with no exchange enabled but sure I’ve gone without it so long now whats another couple of weeks.
Right. Thats it so – i shall wait and see. If / when Eircom do get their act together, is there any way to get broadband without monthly line rental charges?
Bucks:
Don’t count on it. I was initially told October 2006, then “sometime” in early 2007 started to crop up, then everyone stopped giving any timelines (usually the sign of trouble).
I would be surprised if Eircom lived up to their word, as they’ve rarely done so in the past.
I hope you’re wrong Brandon, but knowing Eircom you’re almost definitly right.
Who knows though – maybe they’ll see the wireless providers starting to creep in and try to reclaim their patch.
I figure I’ve waited so long now I can hang on another 12 weeks – if there’s no word or sign of anything by the first week in sept I’m giving up, throwing out my computer and going back to pen and paper! Or go with wireless, whichever.
Well, their response to date has been pretty much indicative of what will happen in Kilworth: the wireless operators will spend the money on getting broadband in, and Eircom will come in once they’re firmly entrenched to steal their business from them.
They did this in all the other area’s – any area that had wireless already was done FIRST, while other residential area’s were left alone (various area’s around Cork and Dublin for example, where wireless was already entrenched, were done mid last year already).
It’s pretty much their business model: wherever folk are already served by a viable NON-SATELLITE solution they’ll install; hoping to God almighty that they get to take all the local business from the Wireless folks (and save their precious line rental from Skype and other VOIP services).
Did you know in a few other EU countries right now you can get unlimited calls to about 40 INTERNATIONAL locations (as well as domestic landlines), a 24mb+ broadband line, LOW contention rate, all for under €30 per month (€29 pm actually if memory serves)? Oh, and no line rental bolted on top to make sure your costs are higher than advertised (ala Eircom), €29 is the price you pay. We won’t mention the one EU country that offers 100mb broadband at under €60 per month, including line rental and other cons.
But hey, guess it’s not important to anyone. It’s just commerce after all that is the big dependent for the infrastructure!
Eventually when all the foreign companies (aka finance, aka jobs, aka taxes, aka..) have left Ireland, the beloved Celtic Tiger will lie wounded and toothless; maybe – just maybe – someone in power will stand up and say “ENOUGH”. Until then, we’re on the downward spiral either way; perhaps Eircom’s new owners are simply cashing in before it all hits the fan?
Hmmm.. Just found out that Eircom are now saying it will be done before October….
Wonder if that will change to november, then december and on and on and on.
Anyone else got any news?
Amocom keep telling me that they are rolling out a Kildorrery node in the “near future”. Those Zone hacks have started trials of some solution in Ballylanders of all places…
Well i got my 3 mobile broadband and its 19.99 a month so im happy, im fed up with eircom hate the bastards, dont even have a phone line anymore its a complete rip off.
Same details I got from them last year. I actually wrote down what Eircom said back then:
“We have a directive to get most of the exchanges done by November 2006, and Kilworth is set for September 2006.. assume October 2006 though as it may be a bit delayed. We have a lot of exchanges to do.”
That was one of the people in the BB department.. I doubt they’re being honest now all of a sudden.
I tested a vodafone 3g broadband modem at home and was delighted for 5 mins, and then not so for 5 mins, and then again for another 5 mins, and so on and so on. I guess I’m at the very max range of the local transmitter. Now if those kind folk up in Curraghalla would let that 3G mast be installed I’d be away for saltes.
Well you have to take into account the amount of people on the network at the time also, not just the signal.
If your looking for good signal in kilworth id go with 3 mobile im just outside the village now and the signal is about half full and i can get HSDPA grand, the speeds go up to about 1.5mb/s during the day but its quite a bit slower during the eveing about 150k but all in all its the cheapest really, 19.99 a month you cant go wrong plus its perfect for me since ill be going to college in september and i can bring it with me.
Anyone know if o2 new broadband offering will work in Kilworth. Looking at the coverage map on their site it looks like it wont work – but im not 100% as i have a 3G phone with O2 and it seems to work from Kilworth Village.
Does their new offering look like a decent package?
Yeah the o2 coverage seems ok for me here but im not in the village, usually if you have 3g coverage youll have broadband coverage. To be honest im not sure about the package, its 15 for 3 months but then goes up to 30, 3 mobile would be cheaper in the long run, saying that though you might get better speeds with o2.
Well im going to get 3 mobile today – take it on the 14 day trial and if it works great – if not, it will go back. I will let you know how it goes !
Zone – did you have to go via a 3 store to avail of the trial? I think it might be worth a punt for myself also…
@Michael
I literally just got it today. I wont have it set up until tonight, so i will let you know how it goes. I suppose the better it works, the worse it will get as more people will sign up and slow it down. But ill give you an honset assesment.
Yeah ill just add to that there, i spoke to 3 as regards traffic on the network and the assured me that if the network becomes too clogged up they have the power to add to it and increase the speeds and they would do so.
well i gave it a go last night – news isnt so good. Got very poor speeds all evening – less than dial up ! Average speed of 30kbps, max about 150kps – but its very volatile – speed drops and peaks alot. I wasnt getting much signal (one bar, or none) , but as i am using it on a PC i cant move it around the house so easily to see if i can get better quality signal.
I got onto HSDPA once or twice, but falls back to 3G 95% of the time.
I did try it again this morning – to see if it was a congestion issue – and i got average speed of about 250kbps, with a max of 600kpbs – so it would seem to be a factor.
All in all, based on day 1 its a long way from a broadband product, so unless i can find some improvement it will more than likely be returned within the 14 day period.
@patrick – can you get HSPDA consistently? Do you know which mast is serving Kilworth, as i might try to see if i can align the modem to suit it.
Yeah i have never not had hsdpa if you get me, the signal here is great. Yeah try moving it a bit, you should get about 150k at least from about 5pm on but between 9am to 5pm you should be getting about 1.5mbs if you get hsdpa that is. I have a long lead, about 5 metres i bought for the vodafone one but i dont need it anymore, ill give it to you if you think you might have use for it.
Oh by the way, not sure but i think its the fermoy mast since its closest and i doubt its coming from michelstown because of the mountains so my guess is fermoy.
Well i got a 2m cable, and also get a laptop to find a sweet spot. There are 1 or 2 places where i can get HSDPA, but the speeds are still nowhere near “broadband”. I took the modem for a drive on Saturday, and as soon as you get near to Fermoy i could get a full 5 bar HSPDA signal – but no real improvement in speed. I think the issue is really the number of users per node – unless 3 can provide more nodes, and get less users sharing the 3.6Megs then i cant see speeds improving when i need them – i.e. at the “peak” times of evenings and weekends.
So im in a quandry – pay the 19.99 for at least some connection ( as i dont have a phone line for dial up) or return it and go without until i better alternative comes along….
I forgot one last question – does anyone in the Kilworth area have any real world experience with the new O2 broadband package? What kind of upload/download speeds are you getting (daytime and evening). I know there is a mast at Kilworth camp, so the proximity might (and i stess might) mean good connection from Kilworth….
Well what id advise you and what iv done is just keep it, it is going to cost you at least twice as much for anything any better, for me its grand cuz i dont have a huge nessecy for high speeds and when im on my day off is when i do my major downloading where i can get speeds of about 1.5mbs. But i suppose it depends really on weather you want to sacrafice bandwidth over price, for me its not worth an extra 20 euro a month for something faster.
Just thought this might be a usefull link for ye, just compares all the 3g broadband services etc http://www.three.ie/broadband/compare.htm
For what it’s worth – I got the 3 Card back in April and it was utter rubbish – it couldn’t even pick up a gprs signal – it was instead roaming through 02. They did say they were adding a 3g mast in May though so maybe that’s it.
As for 02 – I wouldn’t count on it being great – I’m not far out from the village (araglin side) and my mobile phone is 90% of the time on 2g and 10% of the time on 2.5g so wouldn’t be expecting miracles.
Next year should be interesting though – met a rep from Digiweb in work who was telling me about their upcoming 4g network – if it’s even half what they say it will be it’ll be bye bye eircom for ever (Phone/Broadband/Mobile all on the one bill for fractions of current cost).
http://www.digiweb.ie/media_article.asp?id=119
i need wireless broadband and eveyone i fone is tellin me dat its not in cobh but loads of ppl i know here have it.i live in the belfry john o connell street can anybody help me get it without a fone line
Hi! Well im no expert in the wireless broadband but i do konw a bit about the 3g broadband or hsdpa, all the 3 mobile operators except meteor offer packages, the only problem is alot of people are having problems with the speed but it depends on where you are, cobh appears to be covered by the coverage map by three but with all the 3g broadband packages you are given a 14 day trial so it might be worth a try.
Kilworth…
At present I’m still using Airwave, with a very impressive track record to date. So far, barring one incident (which was resolved within the hour when they were notified) it has kept running at over 95% speed (960k for a 1mb connection at worst peak times, usually on or just over 1mb at other times). It’s a few more euro than the competitition, yes – but given that it’s been almost faultless, and the quality of the service.. it’s been well worth the money.
Kilworth…
In case you are wondering i did hold onto 3. Why? Even though the connection speed is not great (avg 200k – sometimes better, sometimes worse) it is good enough for my needs – no downloading, no streaming. Also – it is significantly cheaper that any of the rivals at 19.99 a month. I will keep it until i real alternative is available.
Anne-Marie of Amocom sent me this mail:
“Amocom are finally servicing Kildorrery and the surrounding areas,
We are serving from the Ballyhoura Mountains so the coverage is quite good.
We have all our testing done and there are a number of people connected to this AP.”
Might as well get the site survey done and see what the craic is. Can someone tell me the difference between Airwave and Amocom? Their websites are almost the exact same bar offlice location details and so are their T&C’s. The only difference I can see is that Airwave are more expensive than Amocom.
Amocom and Airwave use the same network (afaik); kinda like when you get ADSL for telephone line it’s from eircom or Perlico/BT/etc still same network.
I don’t know why there would be a price difference; but I would guess it’s the same as Eircom vs other providers?
Hi I am living in glanworth and was wondering will any broad band work here? Eircom said that itr is not in the area?
Does anyojne have an idea on the best option?
Student – I’m 3 odd miles outside Glanworth on the Mitchelstown road and I’ve sent off an application for Amocom wireless bb. I’ll be reporting back here with an update on how things go.
Looking at Airwave internet they seem to have Glanworth covered – see their coverage map:
http://www.airwave.ie/coverage_map.html
The buggers are pricey though…
Student – Also, Glanworth Tyres are currently using Eircom Satellite BB, which apparently isn’t working out all that well. I imagine they will be chasing up Amocom/Airwave over the coming months to see what can be done for them.
The likes of McDonald Grain Stores were also investigating broadband in Glanworth to connect that store with their other hub in Coolagown. If you know anyone in there it might be worth your while to have a chat with them. Glanworth would have had broadband long go if the businesses and people there got off up their arses and looked around.
Thanks Michael,
I have heard Zonebroadabnd have arrived in the area,I contacted them yesterday for an application form but there customer service doesnt seem the best. Hang tough with amocom for the time being and I will see if this crowd get back to me today. They are alot more economical than amocom Then again I suppose it depends what you want to use it for.
Student – you may have missed it on this thread, so I’ll repeat it here:
“Zone uses satellite as their main connection; this means you will have constant latency problems (latency for the satellite AND the inherent latency already within the wireless beacons they use).”
Just checked the Zone prices there:
# €39.99
# (1mbps download / 256kb upload)
# Installation €185
Against Amocom
# €39.99
# (1mbps download / 512kb upload)
# Installation €149
Remember that Amocom has a cabled backbone, Zone’s is a satellite backbone.
Thanks for the reply Michael
Latency what does that precisely mean?
When are you getting amocom? I would be only interested in uploading /downloading files from the internet for work purposes.
I see there is a 40-1 contention ratio for this. Does this meant that the speed would be 1mBps/40? At the momnet I am using An Isdn line but this is crap. Also I have read about varying weatrher conditions affecting performance would this be true?
Latency is how long it takes from when you make a request, until when it actually hits the other side. Satellite is one of the worst offenders of this problem.
As to contention ratio, it is the maximum amount of people that -could- be sharing your connection (this is only a real problem if you have a few heavy downloaders on the service in your same pipeline, which most ISP’s treat as serious).
Weather I guess can affect you; but having weathered a heavy storm recently with my wireless staying up throughout, I don’t think it’ll bug you much.
Student – I’ve sent off the application today so I’ll have to wait on them to get back to me. As above I’ll leave you know how it goes.
Well it turns out that Amocom were unable to see their base station and thus deliver unto me broadband. They said that they were actively looking at putting broadband into that area over the next 6 months – blah blah blah.
I could go and try Airwave, but they are too damned expensive at 60euro a month – but looking at their coverage area it might be worth a punt and try to haggle them down to something more affordable.
The search continues…
yip I had a chap from amocom out the other day too I only applied that morning — super customer service! Anyway They couldnt see the base station either. Airwave use the same base stations as far as I know so they wont be of any use either. I am going to go with zone but there customer service is ridiculous will let you know how this goes when they ever get in contact with me!
Airwave might have a different base station than Amocom for you to connect into the network from (it’s not unusual afaik; it’s not like ADSL where you HAVE to wait on Eircom).
It would be worth your while to check with them.
Also, Michael, for the record: I spoke with Airwave before moving to kilworth, their timeline back then (July ’07) was 12 months or more; they were installed – and operationally ready to implement – in the area before this timeline. I don’t know Amocom, but speaking from experience, if Airwave say they’ll be there in 6 months or so; I’d be inclined to believe it.
Student: Just make sure you don’t sign anything that will bind you longer than a month or two. When real broadband comes to your area you don’t want to be shackled.
Real broadband wont be coming to this area in the near future thats for sure. As Far as I know airwave are a sister company of amocom and the yasue the same base stations.
Student – Airwave are not really a sister company, but more a company reselling the same product that Amocom does. Both companies are part of a franchise operation hence why even their websites are similar.
According to the Airwave coverage map they do seem to have Glanworth covered, and I’d rather spend over the odds on a reliable company with proven good support than some crowd that won’t even respond to your sales query!
Brandon – It was Amocom that was telling me about their schedule for Glanworth – not Airwave. And I can only emphasise what Student said, I can’t see “standard” broadband coming to Glanworth over the next 24 months.
He have moved to Kilworth last week. Unfortunately there is no Airwawe coverage on our house becouse of one tree . Can you help us what is the next step ? Vodafone is working here? Eircom broadband? Thanks
sorry to say that I think you wont be able to get broad band. aircom/amocom use the same basestations. I am still waiting for this shower zonme braodband to get back to me.
anyone try this dearden broadband?
Well I left estate last week and airwave are advertising that they are now servicing my area so long story short they are comong this weekk to see if I can get it. I also have zone calling but i reckon I wont be able to get them as they have put a node up on the opposite siode of village and I wont be able to have line of sight to it. I will let ye know about updat e at end of week.
Also Who/what are dearden broad band?
Student,
I have airwave internet and am on the C’Roche road out of Glanworth. Tried to get Dearden (Mentioned higer up the thread) but he put me on to Airwave, and I got the impression that he was not covering Glanworth at all.
Basically if you can see Corrin Hill from your house (probably from up near the roof) you can get airwave. I think the transmitter is slightly west of the Cross on Corin. It is clearly visable driving from Glanworth to Fermoy.
Just referring back to the mention here of “naked DSL”.
This link gives an indication of what’s possible…
http://www.edpnet.be/cms.aspx?S=rawcopper
well I have got hooked up to zone and initial thoughts are that it is very poor. there tech support phone number is ridiculous too half the time its not answered! Airwave were supposed to get back to me but as of yet they havent.
According to Sean Sherlock in the Avondhu lastnight broadband will be installed in kildorrery and kilworth in the next few weeks.
true ?
havent seen the Avondhu – does anyone have any evidence to coraborate this ? Is the long wait coming to an end?
If Eircom do enable the exchange, whats the best package for someone who currently doesnt have a landline, and doesnt use the phone alot in any case.
I got a letter also from Sean Sherlock stating that work had commenced on the exchange in Kilworth
Al
How did you manage to be in receipt of such a letter?
Dunno, voted for him though. He seems to get things done locally. I do’t have it to hand but there was an eircom guys number on it to call to get a connection. I have’nt rung it yet though, will post when I get a chance
From the letter dated 7/11/07 : “I am pleased to inform you that Eircom broadband will be available to all householders in Kilworth in a matter of days. ; Should you wish to avail of the service contact Donal O’Keeffe on 0851263226 who will outline the options open to you”
anyone make the call? i tried the website and the landline failed the test. i assume if they enable the exchange they will have junk mail in the door just as quick.
if eircom do get set up – does anyone know who offers the best package for bb and phone. Eircom, BT, Perlico etc…?
I’m in Cloyne, and have Ardmore Technologies supplying a 512Down for €29.99pm. Price aside, I find them totaly incompetent and unable to provide any kind of service, luckly the choice has recently grown (Airware and Nona now offering service) Have already requested the change over,am moving to Nova. I really can’t stick the current crowd any more. They drop service more than I care to mention and I even recently got my signal shutdown as they where having an issue with my particluar connection, and decided it best to shut my connection, without even a phone call!! I had to ring and enquire before finding out! My advice; stay clear of Ardmore Technologies if possible…
Nova Networks here I come, so long Ardmore Technologies!!
DaithÃ
Hi Tom..
I am a student in Cork Institute of Technology and we were recently asked to do a real life project on WiFi coming to Cork City.. Do you think it will work? What do you think the charge should be? And what are the main broadband competitors in Cork City? Thanks for all your help.
I just wanted to let people know that I have finally found the light, and that light is broadband enabled. If you’re living in the Glanworth area then you need to give Airwave Internet a call. I’m extremely happy with the service thus far.
It brings tears to my eyes…..
Anyone know anymore about the alleged Eircom work in Kilworth. Still not sign of any broadband – is Sean Sherlock spreading false information?
just ordered broadband for my kilworth number from perlico, also live on eircom and esat !!
Hi all,
Just moved to a house 1.5 miles outside Fermoy, a place called Ballyvadona. After 2 months of useless conversation with BT’s completely inept and dysfunctional call centre and several calls to Eircom, I’ve not been told that my line ‘shows excess broadband signal loss’, in order words is not suitable for receiving broadband. Eircom will not send anyone to look at the problem and won’t even discuss it with me. (The estate agent told us broadband was available in our house, but she obviously lied or didn’t understand what broadband was!)
Anyone like to recommend a wireless provider? Any updates on vodafone/o2/3g mobile providers in the area?
After three years of good broadband connectivity in Kildare and Cork city, this is like stepping back in time!
Tom , i live in glanworth and am using airwave which are a delight to deal with. its slightly pricey so if its not for you why not try out the free offer with o2 mobile?
Tom, another satisfied Airwave customer here, I’m just outside Glanworth. If you can see corrin hill then you will be able to get it.
What I would say is that performance is good all day but poor in the evening – I suspect someone is either downloading music / movies or playing high bandwith online games. overall though good people to deal with
Thanks for that guys. I’ll check out Airwave and also look into o2.
“I suspect someone is either downloading music / movies or playing high bandwith online games”
Woops – did I leave limewire on again ? 😀
ok im in dromina county cork it must be in another part of the world as no one seems to be able to provide broadband in my area,anyone any suggestions for this area as its gas that charleville is only a few miles away and has a few options both wireless and dsl and i cant get anything
is there anyone else here who is trying to get broadband in dromina in Co. Cork,have rand around to most providers i can find and nothing, the closest exchange wont be broadband enabled till spring 2009 at earliest so does anyone have any suggestions as to what i could do,is there companies out there that will provide wireless bb if there is enough people interested?
Colin try airwave/amocom I presume they would supply ye if enough interest if not they might know who would. Dont believe for one moment that your closest exchnage will be broadband enabled in 2009!
no i dont believe for a minute that my closest exchange will be enabled any time soon,tried amocom and the rest but no joy ive just settled for o2 its the only 1 that will work out here its not the fastest in the world but its better than no bb