Broadband blackspots – no light at end of tunnel

SATuRdAy, SEpTEMbER 29, 2012
WWW.WESTMEATHEXAMINER.IE
NEWS FEATURE
bRoAdbANd
SpEciAl
by EiliS
RyAN
E
IRCOM has confirmed this week
that it has no plans to upgrade
the four remaining phone exchanges in Westmeath that are
not broadband-enabled.
The company has 28 exchanges in the
county, and 24 of those have been DSL
broadband-enabled. However, the wait
still goes on for Ballymore, Ballynacargy,
Rosemount and Finea,
“Unfortunately we have no current
plans to upgrade these exchanges as it is
uneconomical for eircom or any other
operator in the market to do so,” a statement issued by eircom to the Westmeath
Examiner this week explained.
The firm said that it does, however,
offer a satellite service which provides
universal coverage.
What the statement didn’t point out
is that for broadband alone, customers signing up for it have to fork out a
€772.56 connection fee, and the most
basic package costs €45.73 a month,
compared to the free connection and
€45 charge that customers with broadband-enabled exchanges can enjoy.
The issue of broadband in rural areas
of Westmeath is an ongoing problem.
Arising out of last year’s Rural Broad-
Denis O’Roarke in Ballymore
– house-buyers always ask
about broadband provision.
Broadband blackspots –
no light at end of tunnel
eircom has no plans to enable the four remaining exchanges in county
band Scheme, 102 applicants in Westmeath – the sixth highest level in the
country – have been found eligible to
have broadband provided.
According to the latest update, the
process to date has indicated that all applicants would get at least one offer of
service. However, not all service providers are offering broadband at the sort of
affordable rate that is available to those
living in well-supplied areas.
So what are people in those areas,
who have been left behind to date, doing
for broadband coverage?
BALLYMORE
Ballymore was one of the districts
earmarked for attention as part of the
National Broadband Scheme (NBS),
launched four years ago. The objective
of the NBS was described as being to deliver broadband to target areas in which
existing services were deemed to be
insufficient.
Awarded the contract to provide
the service was the company 3, and
although officially the scheme was completed in October 2010, Ballymore is still
suffering from inadequate broadband
services.
Dale Greenwood, who lives at Blackwood, the Mullingar side of Ballymore,
says there is one word to describe broad-
Jimmy Keane from Rosemount
– local survey bids to find out
extent of broadband problem.
Jason Coyle of Mr Crumb in Finea – his
business is thriving despite not having
access to decent broadband.
band availability in the Ballymore area:
“dreadful”.
“eircom is a no-go. When I contacted
them, they said if they get a number of
people interested, they would consider
doing something. We got a number of
people interested, and contacted them,
and they said they had ‘no plans to do
anything’.
“I’m in the National Broadband area,
and they persuade you to get a wireless
dongle; they convince you it’s the right
thing to use. Then if there is no service,
and you ring them up, they won’t let
you go any further until they have gone
through this list of questions they have,
this audit of things. And since the call
centre is abroad, you are trying to tell
them where Ballymore is, and that it is in
the centre of Ireland...”
According to Dale, who is group business manager with Celtic Media Group,
it’s the same problem with all mobile
dongle devices.
“It’s just grin and bear it,” he says.
In some parts of the village, it is possible to get broadband through Ripple.
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com, and where available, service is, as
one local put it “OK”.
“It’s not as good as what you would
get in the town, but as broadband goes
in the countryside, it’s OK,” said one
user.
The “but” is that the service starts at
€34.99 a month. Another option is satellite broadband but it is also expensive,
and there can be latency issues.
Auctioneer, Denis O’Roarke, who lives
outside Ballymore, says broadband is a
major consideration for people viewing
houses in the area.
“It is a question that always comes up:
‘what’s the broadband situation?’, and
you have to tell them it’s a disaster,” he
says. “Ballymore badly needs it – and
it’s ironic that there is a fibre optic cable
running right through the village.”
He knows from actual experience how
bad it is: up to last year, he couldn’t get
any sort of decent coverage – but he’s
fortunate enough to be linked to the eircom exchange in Moyvore, and that has
been broadband-enabled. That said, his
neighbours up the road are connected to
Ballymore exchange, and so can’t avail
of the service he now enjoys.
He has little faith in the National
Broadband Scheme: he stopped paying
them, pointing out that he had no intention of paying for a service he wasn’t
receiving.
“They wouldn’t give me a name in
Ireland to deal with, and I cut off the account – and then they sent out a man.”
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In Finea, Jason Coyle of the international food production firm Mr Crumb,
has for years been trying to get the sort
of fast broadband that a business employing 100 people requires.
“There’s a myth and there’s government spin. The government are right:
you can get broadband anywhere in the
country – the problem is that the quality
and consistency of the broadband for
what’s required,” he says.
Some providers that promise they
can supply broadband but they can be
prohibitively expensive: in fact one firm
quoted “thousands” to give Mr Crumb a
service.
Founded in 1996, Mr Crumb is still
waiting for the exchange at Finea to be
broadband-enabled. In the meantime Jason’s bemused by the fact that he knows
some UK-based African people who are
able to use Skype to keep in touch with
their family in a village in Sierra Leone.
“They couldn’t believe we couldn’t
use Skype [in Finea],” he says.
Jason is pleased by Pat Rabbitte’s
promise of broadband everywhere
within three years. “Of course, I would
like to believe in it. But you know, it’s potentially only government spin,” he says.
As recently as six weeks ago, he got a 3
dongle to test coverage in Finea – and it
didn’t work.
“We have now been with Vodafone,
O2 and 3,” he says.
Jason’s own house is a 30 second
walk from the factory, and there, in one
room, he can get it.
Mr Crumb isn’t letting the lack of
broadband hinder its progress however:
it remains inventive, and for a new contract to supply into Holland, they have
taken on around 20 new staff in recent
weeks.
However, for a spell, they used to
send one employee home to his own
house, to do certain tasks there, as he
had better broadband than available at
the factory.
Matthew Mulligan, originally from
Finea, is CEO of the website dealsoftheweek.ie and value.ie.
In an ideal world, he would have established his business, which employs
four, in his native town.
“But it was impossible with no broadband,” he says.
“I could easily get the people I wanted
in Finea, if I had the opportunity to
set up there. Even at weekends, if I go
down, I bring my O2 dongle, and you
can sometimes pick up something – but
you couldn’t run a business. I don’t
know how Mr Crumb does it, and fair
play to them for staying and providing
employment for all the local people.”
These days, broadband is an essential,
he points out. “If any small or medium
enterprise wants to start up, they
couldn’t do it where there’s no broadband.”
ROSEMOUNT
Rosemount is another area where
locals are still awaiting choices on the
broadband front.
Publican Niall O’Brien reveals that
at his home, there was just one option:
“We had to get satellite – but that’s €40 a
month,” he says.
“But we had no other choice: nothing
else worked.”
The story is the same for Assumpta
Fox, who runs Kelly’s Checkout in the
village.
“It was very bad, and we couldn’t get
coverage until we got satellite broadband through onwave,” she says.
Like Niall, she’s paying twice what
she would have to in an area that had
better broadband provision, and, she
argues, the limited access to broadband
in rural areas can present problems to
businesses.
“I have to do all my online business at
home, and it’s very curtailing. For example, I’m restricted when it comes to selling phone credit, as only one company
will let you buy it over the phone; with
the rest, you do it online.”
However, succeeding in obtaining
broadband at her home, even if somewhat more expensive, is a relief to her.
“It has made a big difference, because
our two girls are in college, and they
need to look up things, and in fact,
you couldn’t survive without it – but
you’re paying twice what you should be
paying.” Jimmy Keane, who is greatly
involved in community activities in
Rosemount, reveals that in its attempt
to formulate a development plan for
the area, the development association
is conducting a survey, in which one of
the questions relates to broadband availability. Some parts of the area are able
to get broadband easier than others: for
example, at the community centre, the
service is not bad: elsewhere it is more
hit and miss.
“I don’t have a problem, but a lot of
people from the area find it hard to get
it, and at the back of the hill – Knockastia
– even with a satellite dish, it’s hard to
get it,” says Jimmy, who says it is a concern in the area.
He believes that while domestic users,
who don’t demand huge bandwidth,
may be able to get by using one system
or another, it could be a real issue for
anyone requiring broadband for business purposes.
“The exchange isn’t enabled, so you
can’t get eircom broadband,” he says.
BALLYNACARGY
In Ballynacargy, there is also immense
dissatisfaction at the lack of affordable
and reliable broadband. The area didn’t
qualify for inclusion in the National
Broadband Scheme, but under the Rural
Broadband Scheme, 20 connections
have been effected.
However, it can be expensive to get
a reliable service. Businessman Ger
Connolly, of bookmaking firm Connolly
Racing, reveals that last year, phone and
broadband for his outlet in Ballynacargy
came to a staggering €2,500 – while for
his shop in Mullingar, he got both for a
cost of €50-60 per month, “and lightning fast”.
“The lack of broadband impacts seriously on our business,” says Ger, who
set up the firm in 2000, in the happy
belief that the arrival of broadband was
FAST bRoAdbANd
EvERyWhERE...
by 2015
In August, Communications Minister, Pat
Rabbitte, launched ‘Delivering a Connected Society – A national Broadband
Plan for Ireland’, which will, he said, facilitate the provision of high speed broadband
to every home and business in the state
over the lifetime of the government.
The targets are provision of 70100Mbps to more than half the population
by 2015; at least 40Mbps – and in many
cases faster speeds – to at least a further
20% of the population and potentially as
much as 35% around smaller towns and
villages; and a minimum of 30Mbps for
every remaining home and business in the
country – no matter how rural or remote.
The bad news is that in areas where
the national Broadband Scheme is in
operation, no state intervention will be
taken until after August 2014 – meaning
for areas such as Ballymore, Bunbrosna,
Lismacaffrey, Coole, Collinstown, Crookedwood, Cloughan and Turin, a wait of
almost two more years.
Just this month, Deputy Willie Penrose
wrote to Minister Rabbitte asking him to
ensure broadband is provided across all
rural areas of Westmeath.
“I gave as an example my own local
rural areas in Ballynacargy, Sonna, Milltown and Emper, and the importance of
ensuring that the populations of these
areas have access to broadband, and I
emphasised that pivotal role of broadband
in affording opportunities for people who
have entrepreneurial ideas to develop
same, and to encourage and foster employment generating opportunities, which
focus upon telecottaging type industries.
It is also important for students, and others who need to avail of a diverse range of
technology platforms,” he said.
Minister Rabbitte informed him that the
department has commenced preparatory work to expedite the completion of
a formal mapping exercise to determine
the exact position in relation to commercial service providers’ existing and
planned broadband services throughout
the county. “This mapping exercise will
identify the areas of the country where
there is a market failure in the provision
of high speed broadband services. It will
also identify where the market is expected
to succeed and fail in the delivery of high
speed broadband over the coming years.
Until that process is complete, the precise
areas of the country which will require
State intervention will not be known,” the
minister stated.
just around the corner.
“I wouldn’t mind but the exchange is
only across the road from us, and it’s not
that old,” says Ger.
That’s why he has gone with a satellite service – but even with that, he isn’t
guaranteed 100% strength, and there
are times when the service goes down
completely. “It happens all the time,” he
complains.
“We’re relying on it for our business:
all our data comes in through the internet,” he explains.
For his home, he uses a different
broadband company, and while the
service is alright, it’s not anything like
what people in areas with good coverage
would consider the norm.
“No: you couldn’t watch RTÉ Player
on it. Even with the kids watching stuff
on YouTube, it’s constantly interrupted.
Patricia Baynes of The Hazel Gallery
in Ballynacargy has found her own solution: she doesn’t rely on the internet,
she relies on the tools of old: stamps, the
fax, and personal contact.
“We bring the dongle into the shop,
and it’s just very, very slow. You have to
wait for a long period of time, or shift
to a corner of the room, and it’s just not
efficient, and from a business point of
view, it’s very hard to deal with it, and in
our house in Balroe, it’s the same.”
For urgent emails, she finds her
iPhone is actually the best option: “At
least we can receive emails.”
“We have learned not to rely on the
internet for business,” she says. “We use
the phone, or personal contact.”
She believes that Ballynacargy is suffering from the immense broadband difficulties in the area.
“Most people have an element of
working at home now as well, and if you
want to nurture an element of business,
it’s very hard to get continuity and reliability.”
That’s why when running an exhibition, she sends the invitations by post
rather than email, and she relies a lot on
the fax.
“It’s a real problem for businesses in
the area, especially if we lose business
or can’t pursue business because of it,”
she says.
At The Wagon Wheel pub, they’re familiar with the issue too.
There, they found that they couldn’t
have their phone and internet together
with their internet provider as they
would have lost access to Sky TV, which
they needed – and so they have their
phone services through one company,
and broadband through another.
“It is frustrating,” said the proprietor,
adding that when the rural broadband
scheme was announced, they had been
optimistic it would open up choice, but
in fact, just two operators had been prepared to provide services to applicants
from Ballynacargy.