Ireland’s second biggest telco Esat BT is trialling satellite broadband services in County Clare with a view to delivering high-speed internet access to businesses in remote and rural areas.
The trial is being supported by Shannon Broadband, a consortium that includes Shannon Development and the Shannon Region local authorities.
The trial is part of Esat BT’s strategy to support regional broadband plans and in particular, illustrate how Esat BT’s managed solutions can be deployed to deliver broadband access to regions not currently serviced by the existing fixed line infrastructure.
As part of the trial, Esat BT has installed a broadband satellite system in the offices of E-Training International, which is based in Scariff, County Clare. The new broadband satellite connection replaces the existing dial up ISDN Internet service E-Training International had been limited to previously.
Esat BT has partnered with Aramiska, one of Europe’s leading satellite broadband service providers to install a 2Mb download, 512Kbps upload broadband satellite connection for E-Training International, which will use the connections to get much faster broadband access and improved email performance across its network of computers.
Up until now, satellite technology has traditionally been seen as a niche technology for a select market, but if the cost is driven down, broadband-dependant businesses would consider locating in rural and remote regions.
Nana Luke, director at E-Training International, commented: “We need to be online at all times to communicate with our clients and our eWorkers. This involves sending and receiving large emails, a full time VPN connection used to publish content to the website of the Irish Presidency of the EU, and use of an online chat programme. The satellite connection has substantially improved performance, was very easy to install and has proven itself very reliable in operation. Downloading large files now takes minutes instead of hours.”
By John Kennnedy
