Wireless broadband project launched in Louth
A new wireless high-speed internet project for Co Louth has been launched by Dermot Ahern, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
A local company, Digiweb, has been awarded more than €66,000 to carry out trials on the technology which has the potential to deliver wireless broadband internet access to thousands of customers.
It is hoped the trial will prove an effective model for subsequent service delivery across the country – particularly those areas which will not benefit from the national fibre and dsl rollouts.
The Louth project is the latest in a series of pilot programmes the Minister has announced in Dublin, Cork, Mayo, Sligo, Galway and Limerick. The trials of wireless LAN (local area network) will continue throughout this year and will provide high speed access to the information superhighway.
Minister Ahern said: "These trials play a vital role in allowing high speed communications access without the necessity of installing fibre optic cables or wires. The access is via wireless technology.
"Some locations in Ireland may be better suited to internet access via wireless technology rather than through wire broadband. These trials will illustrate how successful this technology is."
Digiweb’s WLAN project is centred on the larger towns of Dundalk and Drogheda and includes Ardee, Blackrock, Knockbridge and the surrounding hinterland. This project with a mix of rural and urban zones also incorporates both local residential and business customers and represents a realistic test bed for the trailing of WLAN technologies.
The trials are timely in that one of the major international ICT companies namely Intel who have a major facility here in Ireland recently launched their next generation of mobile computing technology specifically built for wireless mobility
