23/09/2023, 01:59 PM
While my parents cleared out the drawer of their telephone table, they came upon this flyer for Digiweb's defunct wireless broadband service from around 2004:
[attachment=967]
Back then from around mid 2003 to 2005, we had a satellite assisted dial-up broadband which gave 300Kbps down (via satellite) and 33.6Kbps up (via dial-up modem). The dial-up service was from the former BT Ireland provider and provided 180 hours of access per month. The satellite service was a former Italian provider Sat ADSL which provided 300Kbps access with a 1.5GB monthly limit. It was DIY based requiring an 80cm satellite dish aimed at Hotbird 13E and satellite modem PCI card, which also doubled up as a PC satellite TV tuner while disconnected. Back then 1.5GB seemed huge and I don't recall ever hitting the monthly allowance. Likewise with the 180 hour dial-up allowance as it tied up the phone line whenever we connected.
As for Digiweb Wireless, we tried signing up for the service back in 2004, however the engineer was unable to get a signal from our house. When I visited someone a few months later who had Digiweb's service, I'm glad we were unable to get the service as they said it was barely usable in the evenings. When I tried using their connection and later visited the site that had the Digiweb wireless broadband mast, it turned out they were using satellite backhaul for its wireless broadband in Kilcar. I think their wireless service ceased in the village around 2006 as the telephone exchange got DSL enabled mid 2005.
[attachment=967]
Back then from around mid 2003 to 2005, we had a satellite assisted dial-up broadband which gave 300Kbps down (via satellite) and 33.6Kbps up (via dial-up modem). The dial-up service was from the former BT Ireland provider and provided 180 hours of access per month. The satellite service was a former Italian provider Sat ADSL which provided 300Kbps access with a 1.5GB monthly limit. It was DIY based requiring an 80cm satellite dish aimed at Hotbird 13E and satellite modem PCI card, which also doubled up as a PC satellite TV tuner while disconnected. Back then 1.5GB seemed huge and I don't recall ever hitting the monthly allowance. Likewise with the 180 hour dial-up allowance as it tied up the phone line whenever we connected.
As for Digiweb Wireless, we tried signing up for the service back in 2004, however the engineer was unable to get a signal from our house. When I visited someone a few months later who had Digiweb's service, I'm glad we were unable to get the service as they said it was barely usable in the evenings. When I tried using their connection and later visited the site that had the Digiweb wireless broadband mast, it turned out they were using satellite backhaul for its wireless broadband in Kilcar. I think their wireless service ceased in the village around 2006 as the telephone exchange got DSL enabled mid 2005.