There is a hope that a blanket roll-out of wireless services would be the solution to the lack of broadband in Ireland. But to date, wireless operators have been faced with several hurdles in achieving this, not least the ongoing telecommunications market freefall. Legislative issues, planning permission problems and a variety of other obstacles have slowed the development of commercial wireless networks. But wireless is here to stay and is very much in the running for becoming a solution to our problem.
Wireless availability depends on your proximity to a wireless base station. One of the first steps in availing if a wireless connection, is having a 'line of sight' (LOS) test carried out on your premises. For a wireless service to work the antenna on your premises must have an unobstructed view — ‘line of sight’ — to the provider's base station. This test determines if the signal strength of the operators base station is strong enough for you to avail of it once you are within the coverage area. For example buildings and trees in the way can greatly reduce the signal strength that reaches you. To avail of the service an aerial (mesh dish) must be fitted outside your premises. However new non-line of site products are currently being tested in Ireland that permit Internet access without having a full unobstructed line of sight to a wireless service providers base station.
ContentionRatio is a measure of service quality. To understand it, imagine your Internet connection is a water pipe. Rather than connect each home directly to the reservoir, a utility will build a mains pipe to an area of high population and then serve each customer with connections off that pipe. The more customers that connect to the mains, the slower the water will flow if all users open their taps simultaneously. The Internet works in the same way. Bandwidth is expensive so the connection will be shared across a number of customers. The ‘contention rate’ measures the number of customers sharing the connection. Fewer customers sharing, means a better service. Irish broadband’s SME broadband and residential package has a contention ratio of 24:1.
Advantages:
1. It doesn't depend on monopoly controlled copper infrastructure.
2. It is relatively fast and can offer higher bandwidth than most others.
3. It is symmetrical.
4. There are typically a broad range of services available and upgrading is easy.
5. Installation doesn't interfere with existing wired services like voice and fax lines.
Disadvantages:
1. Coverage in Ireland still isn't widespread.
2. Installation can be disruptive, depending on the premises as wiring has to be run.
3. Quoted installation includes for a maximum amount of time and materials. If the premises or situation deviates from this, a higher cost may be incurred.
4. In rented or leased premises, permission needs to be sought to allow the equipment to be installed.
