Broadband for Bweeng - aka Eircom are Gangsters (Part 500)
September 18th, 2006
Situated halfway between Blarney and Mallow, on the back road, the little Cork village of Bweeng doesn’t have much to offer. Its still a few years off meriting a Wikipedia entry, and currently its claim to fame is a comical name, and the close proximity to Stuake (pronounced Stwick). If you haven’t heard of Bweeng (pronounced Bwing, as in “stwick bwing”) its because theres nothing there to attract your attention. Unless, like me, you live in Donoughmore.
Damien has raised the curtain on Eircom’s Schrödinger’s Cat - their elusive fixed wireless service which names Bweeng as one of its alleged high sites. I spent the past two years in Donoughmore (north of Blarney) up on top of my roof, plotting line of sight to every mast in the greater Cork area. 18 minutes outside of Cork City, at a height of 180m, a 15 foot pole gave me clear line of sight to just about everywhere. I defied physics by associating with access points as far west as Bandon, and south at Farmer’s Cross, but I was just too far out for any ISP to cover me. My plight led to encounters with other technology refugees seeking any form of terrestrial broadband in Donoughmore, willing to pay whatever it took. And now we are told that somewhere just a few miles away, on a hill in Bweeng, Eircom looked down upon us, silently sniggering as we scurried about with ladders and binoculars and ordinance survey maps and 20 foot poles and 30 foot poles, meeting with ISPs, and group broadband schemes, and amateur initiatives to no avail.
Eircom FWA is, of course, a scam. I see several locations on their list of wireless base stations that are known as black spots, with no broadband available which isn’t backhauled via satellite. But it must be a valid product, it is listed on broadband.gov.ie… although when searching by location it does not appear to be on offer anywhere. The installation cost of €605 must put it up among the most expensive in the world. Just to compare it with a few other fixed wireless providers who operate in the Cork area:
| Eircom FWA | Nova Networks | Digiweb Wireless | Rapid Broadband | AHC networks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | 512k | 1024k | 512k | 1024k | 512k |
| Upload | 64k | 1024k | 128k | 1024k | 256k |
| Install | €605 | €139 | €79 | €150 | €150 |
| Rental | €45 | €39 | €24.75 | €37.50 | €42.35 |
The Insanely High Installation Fee
How can Eircom justify charging 500% of the average installation cost? The customer premise equipment for fixed wireless broadband is often very expensive, and each unit could be worth a few hundred euro. Combined with the manual installation costs, fixed wireless installation is not trivial. So what does every other wireless ISP in the world do? They claw back any loss on the install by specifying a minimum contract period (6 or 12 months in Ireland), and they reclaim their gear off your chimney when you quit the service. There is NO justification for the astronomical install fee that Eircom proposes, especially when coupled with the high monthly rental.
The Ridiculously Low Upload Rate
64k - on par with ISDN, and in practice not so much better than dial-up. There are 340 different Irish broadband products listed on broadband.gov.ie, with costs ranging as low as.. er.. free. Out of these 340 products, excluding a couple of low-end satellite services, Eircom FWA is the only one that insults us with an upload speed as low as 64k. I remember a few years ago there was a Croatian ISP which offered 64k upload on their broadband. These days, the very idea is a joke. Even your local group broadband schemes and small local operators can muster more bandwidth than that, at a far lower monthly cost.
The Scam
In general, fixed wireless has some major advantages over satellite. For starters, is far cheaper to install, and the low latency facilitates VOIP and gaming. But the tiny upload in Eircom FWA is a bottleneck which prevents both VOIP and gaming, and the crazy installation fee speaks for itself. Eircom only want this product to exist on paper. They have deliberately made it so unreasonable that nobody would be mad enough to apply, even if it was on offer. Milo Minderbinder would be proud. Damien says they are squatting the spectrum - this makes sense to me, although I would love to know more about this - what frequencies they’re sitting on, who (aside from the customer) is losing out, what Eircom hope to gain in the long run. Whatever the case, it is very wrong if they use this phantom product to gain kudos off the government for extended rural coverage. My guess is that Bweeng national school is sitting on an expensive, bulky, slow, limiting satellite connection, just like every other school in the area, while the locals continue to spend a fortune on slow ISDN.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this… with all the pressure that has been put on the government lately, this is a great opportunity to highlight dodgy dealings and a rip-off of the highest order. The funny thing is, believe it or not, I would consider signing up for it… anything is better than ISDN 
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April 22nd, 2007 at 21:46 pm
we r in the process of setting up a company to serve your needs,its at early stages but is going aheaed.it is going to be there to service people with your needs.the problem is in small places,to big companys,the numbers subscribing do not justify the cost of inst.we r looking for a way around that,and think we have one.ill keep your details,and will have news very soon.please do not give out my e.mail,but if u want to send anyones address to me,we can come up with something for your area.
April 26th, 2007 at 22:59 pm
James stuake is pronounced (stuick) and bweeng is pronounced (bweeing) you must be a blowin to donoughmore or else you have trouble pronouncing words. What exactly is comical about the name bweeng?
April 26th, 2007 at 23:06 pm
Have to say there’s not a big difference between those pronunciations - you are taking this far too seriously. Of course I am not from Donoughmore originally, and that is why I don’t have trouble pronouncing words
I’ve lived in lots of places with comical names, and Bweeng beats most of them. Just my opinion - no offence intended.
August 31st, 2007 at 15:06 pm
well done james great site i agrea with u e
ircom are sxxx i have got in broadband by amacon from bweeng hills its dear but great value comparede to them robbers .
denis 31/o8/o7
September 6th, 2007 at 22:56 pm
Hi just moved to bweeng and signed up with 3 mobile, its okish for 20 quid a month you get dls of about 600k to 1.3. btw its very windy up here and the cows stink of sXXX
September 12th, 2007 at 7:27 am
James,
What is the current status regarding broadband availability in Donoughmore?
Thinking of moving there and was just wonder why option are available other than satelite?
Thank,
Dan B
September 12th, 2007 at 14:16 pm
Dan - Cork Community Broadband have good coverage in Donoughmore now. If you are on top of a hill or have good line of sight to their mast then they should be able to cover you with their fixed wireless package, which is better than satellite. I’m guessing you can probably get Amocom too if you have line of sight, don’t know if Donoughmore is officially covered by them though.
For DSL, I believe that Donoughmore exchange is ‘on the list’ for an upgrade, but don’t know when that will be available.
January 19th, 2008 at 15:49 pm
Help!!! We live by the community centre on the outskirts of Bweeng. Have tried Amacom-2 masts on hill 1 below hill [of course thats the one with the link ] In direct site of the airport runway but cannot see the tower [ of course thats the one with the link ]. In direct line to the watertower on the north side [thats got the link but too far away]. We can’t get any higher or we’ll be with himself looking down on all those poor gullible norries who recently moved into the Bweeng Bogs [sorry I meant new modern developments]in Bweeng village hoping for the elusive Broadband Fairy to visit them. Other than telling me to Fxxx off has anybody any suggestion regarding communicating electronically with the outside world.
January 19th, 2008 at 20:43 pm
Simon,
If you can see the airport, then you might be able to see the mast in Farmers Cross near the airport. Nova Networks have (or at least had) an access point there facing north which might cover you… but it is even further than the water tower. I think that Nova have an AP somewhere above the north side of the city now too which might cover you… you will need a high gain antenna to get over the distance. This would drive up the installation cost, they can be quite expensive, and it’s possible that they won’t even do it.
But basically, if you have clear line of sight, with no RF interference, then in theory, distance should not stop you since you can just get a bigger aerial. Give Nova Networks a ring, and give Cork Community Broadband a ring - one of them might have some ideas.
January 24th, 2008 at 15:38 pm
James,
Thanks for the response, will give it a try.
February 9th, 2008 at 18:04 pm
I tried to get amocom yesterday they said it wouldn’t work because of trees blocking the line of sight. I am 3 to 4 miles from bweeng mast as the crow flies. I was thinking of trying 3g as there is coverage in my area dail up is costing me €65+VAT every 2 months with eircom.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hi James and Folks, just came across this in my idle surfing of the net. Simon I just had herself on and should hopefully get to you by the weekend. Jerry what townland are you in and I will have a look off the map to see what way you would be fixed? We have our “mast” which is essentially an ex Eircom pole up on top of Pluckanes Hill. We have more or less 100% coverage in to Bweeng village and surround area’s baring tree’s of course!
All the Best,
Eoin O Keeffe
Cork Community Broadband
February 21st, 2008 at 18:38 pm
The townland of carrigcleena beg
February 22nd, 2008 at 18:04 pm
James and all non believers
Last week the Ark Angel Eoin O Keeffe swept down from some heavenly perch and connected me to the rest of the universe via Cork Community Broadband.
1Gig @ €27.50 per month and basic set up fee of €150.
Come on down and join the broadband revolution it’s bliss.
February 22nd, 2008 at 20:50 pm
Glad to hear it Simon. I’m already a customer
February 28th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hi all, Jerry apologies in getting back to you late. I had forgotten about this blog post and only remembered now! I have had a look at the map and it seems that we shoudl be able to do Carrigcleena Beg alright. From the townland on the top it is directly south of you to Pluckanes Hill.
If you can drop me an email at or ph 021 2314500 and I will get some more specific info off you.
Eoin
February 29th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Just wanted to let you all know that today 3 Mobile Ireland launches its 3 pay (pre pay) broadband. 3 Sell the broadband modem for 149 Euro and Carphone warehouse.ie are selling the same modem for 179 Euro an extra 30 Euro. I think that charging an extra 30 Euro for the exact same modem is complete robbery.
Can we send this message to as many as possible so they dont get caught out by paying an extra 30 euro for the same product!!
http://www.3ireland.ie & http://www.carphonewarehouse.ie
March 5th, 2008 at 18:26 pm
Thanks Eoin I am currently on 3 broadband 12 month contract the download speed varies a lot 1.4mb down to 7kb does your broadband have a constant 1mb or does it vary? If 3 broadband doesn’t work out for me I will be in contact with you.
July 28th, 2008 at 17:29 pm
im leaving in bweeng for the last 8 months and have the 3g brooadband.works fine.speed varies during the day anything from half a meg download to 1.5 meg at night time.i pay 20 euros a month and have a max of 10 gig download a month.the 3g broadband isnt ideal for online gaming dough.
August 18th, 2008 at 15:32 pm
I was with clearwire and eircom , ‘useless and overpriced’ . Im now with 3ireland. Im find them the best. The network is state of the art unlike vodafone and o2, they ware built as 2g networks . 3 was built from the start with 3g ,3.5g technology . That network dont get the press they deserve. They cliam 3.6mbps thats what i get and the mast is 2and a half miles away. Their working on increasing the speed to 7.6mbps then 15mbps soon.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Jonathon there is no way you are getting 3.6Mbps that they claim check your real speed here
http://www.irishisptest.com/ There is a big difference betweem mbps and Mbps
September 15th, 2008 at 17:26 pm
Is eircom ever going to give us broadband out in bweeng?I have tryed cork community broadband and sadly i cant get it due to a tree blocking the siginal.eoin id like to thank you for your time.does any body know if amocom broadband service is any good for online gaming.
September 15th, 2008 at 18:17 pm
If you’re playing FPS games like Counter Strike, then it is very unlikely that Amocom would be any good. Most likely it will give unreliable ping and jitter, especially in Bweeng. It should be fine for some games like World of Warcraft. However, if you are waiting for Eircom, you could be waiting forever.