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Following the launch of DSL by Eircom, small to medium sized business in parts of Dublin will soon have even more choice for Internet services.
For years small Irish businesses were denied high-speed Net access services, namely DSL. But in recent weeks both Eircom and Esat have launched their own DSL products and cable company NTL has expanded its high-speed offering to 25,000 Dublin users.
Furthermore, over the next few weeks two smaller Irish telecoms, Sky-net and Leap Broadband, will crank up their own high-speed Internet products using fixed-wireless broadband technology.
Fixed wireless broadband is a type of Internet service that gives users connections to the Net at speeds faster than 128kb/s. To access the service, users must be within the radius of the central broadcasting point and each customer also needs to have a permanent antennae attached to the roof of their building.
Sky-net announced on Wednesday that it planned to begin selling high-speed fixed wireless broadband services from 01 July to users within a three-kilometre radius of its central broadcasting point in Sandyford. Using the service, Sky-net customers will be able to access the Net at speeds of between 128kb/s and 2Mb/s. Moreover, speeds can be changed to suit customer needs within 24 hours.
Sky-net is not revealing prices for the service just yet, but Lee O'Carroll, the firm's joint managing director claims the cost of the service will be as much as 40 percent lower than existing landline options on the market. There will charges for installation, but these too are expected to be lower than landline charges for comparable services.
O'Carroll said the firm will target SMEs and corporate customers initially. "Big companies in the Sandymount area would have leased lines in place, but we think some firms might be interested in our service as a backup measure." O'Carroll said that for firms who want to use Sky-net's service as their primary connection, the company will offer service level agreements (SLAs), domain hosting, firewall protection, e-mail and a variety of other ISP-type services.
Sky-net expects to expand its network to other parts of Dublin over the coming months.
Meanwhile Leap Broadband, the fixed wireless broadband service provider run by the former Formus executives, Charlie and Rory Ardagh, will also be launching services in the coming weeks. "Price is a big factor and availability is big factor too, but I think there is a real pent-up demand for our services out there," explained Charlie Ardagh. Currently 14 business are testing the Leap service and Ardagh said the "results are exceeding all expectations."
Leap is somewhat more tight-lipped about what users will be able to expect when its service launches. For now the company is only saying that it will offer wireless broadband Internet at ADSL-type speeds and costs will be competitive with landline equivalents. Leap's main broadcasting point is in the centre of Dublin, giving it a three mile radius network from the city centre.
Like Sky-net, Leap will also target SMEs, but the company says it hopes to launch a product targeted at home office workers and even residential users who use the Web heavily.
Although these wireless services are set to give Dubliners more choice over what company provides their Internet access, there is no guarantee that providers will be successful. There are an estimated 800 wireless Internet operators in the US and Europe, and within the industry there have been some success stories including Tele2 in the UK and Skybernet in Belgium. But there have also been some notable casualties such as Winstar, Formus Communications and Deutsche Landtel, casting a shadow over the potential of the service.
Still, the industry is set for growth with Cahners In-Stat Group predicting that annual fixed wireless broadband service provider revenues worldwide will exceed USD3.2 billion by 2005, up from USD324 million in 2000.
For more information visit Leap Broadband or Sky-net on the Web.
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