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The Location Business Summit USA, 14-15 September, Crowne Plaza, San JoseIreland confirms €223m broadband wireless plan
Published: 26 January, 2009
READ MORE: Broadband
The Irish government has been under fire lately for its slowness in delivering on promises of universal broadband, but is now addressing the issue with a €223m ($289m) program to bring wireless broadband to rural regions. The contract has gone to Hutchison unit 3, which will be targeted with covering the 10% of the population, and 33% of the land mass, that is currently missing out.
Half of this area will be built out with HSDPA this year, and the rest by September 2010, promising a minimum download speed of 1.2Mbps to a stationary modem. At least two upgrades of that speed are pledged during the life of the contract as 3 moves to future releases of HSPA. The plan will be funded by the Exchequer and EU co-financing and 3 will create 170 new jobs.
Minister Eamon Ryan said: "For too long, rural Ireland has been without this essential service. Today's announcement is a boost for the rural economy."
Many want further progress in Ireland to expand wireless, notably decisions from regulator ComReg on refarming GSM spectrum, and on rules for the 2.6GHz band (currently used for MMDS fixed access) and for the 700MHz 'digital dividend' spectrum. "The role of wireless networks is more important in Ireland than in other leading EU economies. More than 14% of broadband connections in Ireland are wireless, compared with less than 1% in the UK, France and Spain," commented Janette Dobson, an analyst at Analysys Mason.
Meanwhile, 3's UK company has launched a new mobile TV section in its 3 on Demand portal. Managed by Mobix Interactive, the service brings together all the operator's streaming TV channels (3 Live) and the existing Sky mobile TV offering.
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