Skeheenarinky.com

For quite a while now, Skeheenarinky and other “rural” areas around the country have been left out when it comes to fast, reliable internet connections. The National Broadband Scheme contracted 3 Ireland to provide a broadband service to over 90% of the population in December 2008. However, the so-called broadband which was provided should actually be termed “midband”, as it does not meet the required speeds set in other countries in Europe. For more information on why mobile internet access is not broadband, see this article written by IrelandOffline, an organisation campaigning for universal high-speed broadband access to everyone in Ireland.

Why is Ireland not a world-leader of broadband services?
Is mobile “midband” in Ireland destroying broadband infrastructure?

More information on the National Broadband Scheme can be found in the following PDF documents:

A background to the NBS, by IrelandOffline
Analysis of the NBS, by Irish Rural Link

Quite a few people (including myself) in Skeheenarinky use mobile broadband such as 3, Vodafone or O2. But from what I’ve seen and experienced, it is seriously unreliable. One minute it’s fine and fast and can do anything you want it to, the next it’s practically the same as dial-up where you can be putting on the kettle while you’re waiting for a single page to load. A major downside to mobile broadband is the fact that the amount of people on the network at any one time affects the speed for everyone connected. Also, terrain (e.g. hills) affects the signal strength. There is also usually a limit on the amount of data you can transfer per month which should not be in place, because you’re paying enough for it as it is. With “proper” wired broadband, this is not the case.

• It’s fast. You also get low latency. The latency of a connection determines the time it takes for a given piece of data to be transferred between two Internet devices. To give an example of the effects of poor latency, if one was to make a Skype call on a DSL or cable broadband connection, it’s reasonable to assume the quality would be excellent, without any delay being experienced, or any dropping of voice. On a good satellite Internet access service, the latency would be much higher, and therefore a delay could be noticed from a half of a second upwards. However, on a 3G Internet connection, the latency is both higher (more noticeable delay) and much more varied (frequent drops in audible voice; voice appears broken up).
• Everyone gets the same speed no matter how many people are connected.
• There is no tempermental software to be installed like most of the mobile broadband connections now.
• It is not USB-based like mobile broadband which sometimes doesn’t recognise when it’s connected.
• It is always on, always connected. Mobile broadband has to be disconnected and connected again sometimes just to get it to work.
• If the signal is in your house, all computers in your house can connect at the same time.

So, what are we going to do about it? A petition has been prepared for people of Skeheenarinky and other local areas to download and fill in. Both of the documents below are in PDF format, so a program like Adobe Reader is required to view them.

That petition can be downloaded here: http://www.skeheenarinky.com/…/petition.pdf.

This can then be printed and posted to the address on the right of the petition.

Information on mobile “midband”, the NBS, and why “proper” broadband is needed can be found in this document: http://www.skeheenarinky.com/…/broadband_info.pdf