Ireland satellite broadband solution

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Ireland's low population density is a major obstacle to the distribution of ADSL broadband across the country.

“We have twice as much road per house as any other country in Europe,” said Rory Fitzpatrick, chief executive of Mediasat, a provider of broadband satellite.

“Our monstrous ribbon development also means that it is particularly expensive to deliver telecom services to households. As a result, broadband ADSL will never be able to cover the whole country.”

This has led to the development of alternative broadband technologies, such as satellite and wireless.

For example, Digiweb provides satellite and wireless broadband. Its satellite broadband product, SkyStar, costs between €120 and €700 a month, depending on how advanced the product is.

There is a once-off installation fee of €422 and equipment costs between €962 and €1,567. Digiweb's wireless broadband for home users cost €39 a month. Irish Broadband, which was awarded seven further wireless licences this month, offers wireless broadband for between €48 and €302 a month.

Its products have much lower contention ratios (the number of users sharing the same broadband connection) than ADSL broadband.

For example, its most advanced wireless product, Breeze 3, has a contention ratio of 6 to 1.

Irish Broadband also sells Ripwave, which is a small broadband wireless device that you can connect to your computer. The product costs €30 a month and there is a connection fee of €99.

According to Claire Cunningham, manager of Aura Internet Services, [an internet and e-commerce consultancy] some business have difficulties with satellite broadband.

“Satellite is the least preferred option, as environmental factors will affect it,” said Cunningham.

Like ADSL, availability of satellite and wireless broadband may be restricted. To access wireless broadband, you must live within line of sight of a wireless base station

Source: The Sunday Business Post

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