Ice Broadband cools Limerick down

10-06-2008

by Bryan Collins

Ice Broadband has announced that it has covered the entire county of Limerick with wireless high-speed broadband.

The Dublin-based company spent six months developing its wireless broadband service around Limerick to achieve 100 percent coverage. Its high-speed broadband packages are currently available to consumers in most parts of Limerick and Ice expects to start offering the service to all the 180,000-plus homes across the county over the coming weeks.

"We put together a design... that was using all the natural resources and the natural contours of the county that would cover the entire county. We were particularly looking at things like water towers and tall buildings," Ice Broadband owner Fran Rooney told ENN.

"With the support of the council we were able to map out a design that covered every part of the county. It is fully financed by ourselves. We haven't taken any support from anybody. We basically switched it on today. We have thousands of customers already looking to switch on to the service," he said.

The company's ICEpack gives customers a 4Mbps connection and includes a certain number of free phone calls throughout Ireland, the UK and the US for EUR49.99. Ice Broadband is currently in the middle of rolling out similar wireless services in Carlow and South Tipperary and Rooney revealed to ENN that the company is in discussions with several other county boards regarding rolling out 100 percent wireless broadband coverage in their areas.

"We are very excited about the project in Limerick and we would like to replicate it in other parts of the country. Quality high-speed broadband is essential as Ireland seeks to be competitive in the expanding global knowledge economy," said Rooney.

The arrival of 100 percent wireless broadband coverage in Limerick comes as the Government prepares to roll-out the National Broadband Scheme which will bring high speed internet access to the parts of the country which still canÂ’t get connected. According to Rooney, wireless broadband is the most cost efficient way to bring broadband to rural areas.

"The big problem with the cable...it will properly take 15 years to dig up the cable and put new fibre down and whatever cost. Instead of putting cable down you just beam a signal wirelessly for 10 kilometres. It is a much more inexpensive way to go. Wireless is now proven as a very stable solution," he said.