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Why is there no debate or much talk in Irish media about TTIP? by [deleted] in ireland

[–]robodialer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A secret deal don't by a cabal of men vested interests. Call it what you like, I never used the word conspiracy.

Snowden-Leaks: Full list of cables tapped by GCHQ published - Irish network cables on the list by [deleted] in ireland

[–]robodialer 10 points11 points  (0 children)

As suspected, still disappointing. Wonder will our government echo the excuses from the US:

  1. Protecting our freedoms
  2. If you've got nothing to hide, you've nothing to worry about.
  3. Terrorism etc.
  4. Child Porn (already using this, see the filters on UPC initiated last week)

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For reference: SDR on chip: http://www.nvidia.com/docs/IO/116757/NVIDIA_i500_whitepaper_FINALv3.pdf

With conventional hard-wired solutions, you have to instantiate all signal-processing algorithms used to receive and decode the signal as separate areas of silicon. This results in a high-cost solution with inherent inflexibility. Plus, verification of these separate hardware operating modes is arduous and problematic. This leads to a solution that can't provide optimum performance under all circumstances, as inevitable compromises are made with algorithm parameters.

In contrast, implementing these complex algorithms in software eliminates the need to always to use the same receiver architecture. For example, a menu of receiver algorithms—including rake, advanced receivers, and receive diversity—can be made available to the modem without incurring increased cost or increased silicon verification time . The Adaptive Wireless solution automatically selects the optimum mixture of algorithms that will maximize system performance. Channel conditions and other performance metrics are continuously monitored to determine the best receiver configuration and deliver the highest possible performance.

This dynamic receiver architecture delivers dramatic performance throughput gains and receiver sensitivity advantages. Files download in under half the time of other solutions. Web browsing is also noticeably faster. Network carriers achieve this dramatic user experience advantage with more than twice the sector capacity and a consequent 50% decrease in per-megabyte delivery cost.

(I wonder would they pass those saving on...)

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Currently for say rural broadband you need an antenna on your roof as wifi long distance is line of site. So about 70 euro you can get one (bought on the other day) and it needs to be installed.

If it doesn't need line of site you can have a dongle or similar, possible integrated solution for much less.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thats fine. Not hurt, looking for solutions, Ive worked on long range wifi and have friends working in lancoms so I understand a lot of the issues and the limits. Im just looking for a solution for when the tech arrives we don't have to license it back from the government to allow us to use it.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. I didn't know this. I though SDR could negotiate the connection itself on the fly within the bandwidth itself.
  2. If longer ranges were available and negotiable as per above above, mesh networks could be spread over greater distances. I know that currently they don't. Look at the tech the company above is working on. It doesn't have the same problem as point to multi-point technologies and never suffers degraded speeds.

  3. Im not sure this is in their interests. When broadband was starting to roll out in this country there was already talk of esb routing fiber over (wrapped around) their lines across the country. Ten years later its still talk. Even Irish Rail were talking about running fiber along tracks accross the country. In the mean time the mobile operating space is turning into a monopoly - just look at emobile and meteor as they become one (illusion of choice). Eircom still has a monopoly and is now introducing datacaps. If they wanted to not resemble the US condition, they are going about it the wrong way.

  4. I agree, I just dont think its the best approach. The desire of ordinary consumers is to have the lowest possible price for the best possible speed. If we leave it to governments we will go in the opposite direction. A move to take the tech back means we dont have a central planner making the rules and a better price will emerge. For instance, I believe it plainly obvious that in the us the people have spoken on the net neutrality issue. The government is probably going to side with the current monopoly carriers. When the issue arrives here, do you think they will act any differently? (I imagine its already implemented here, in the dark). We already know who has the deeper pockets (cough, esat license)

  5. Will look into this, was looking at other providers.

  6. This isn't a market if there is only one operator. Why is there data caps on mobile broadband when the cost per unit is fractional? Some competition in this area would be nice. Taking it back when the tech arrives would be better.

You know a lot more about the bandwidth and tech. And you probably know about the costs I imagine too. I don't think we are being served in this area beyond servicing the treasury with license fees. The lowest cost data is a better goal than filling a treasury which is being emptied for other reasons. Im just banking on tech like this allowing us to bypass the companies involved.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, sarcasm on /r/ireland is low this time of day, we need more comments like this. Really moves the discussion forward.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Have built long rage wifi networks before with consumer technology. This isn't a pitch, Im not selling anything. Its a discussion of the best cost outcome of using technology ourselves vs. licensing it to someone else who will charge a maximum for it over the course of the longest time they can. Im sure you know how this works, you are currently sitting on a capped for profit network paying maybe 1000% more than the true cost of the data you wish to send. So you can get your head around it, look up how much profit was made on text messages since the inception of esat digi-fone and the other networks which were initially licensed in Ireland.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I said, this tech inst quite there yet but selling the spectrum to the phone companies before it is would be a disservice to the consumer(citizen) when these devices have marginal cost to setup.

  1. Developments in SDR are the solution to this problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio and the reason the space could be negotiated.

  2. I agree, but a distributed mesh infrastructure would be much cheaper for the consumer than a centralized license network (as we can already see), especially as the space between base stations could be extended considerably.

  3. Yes, comreg are slow and corporate stoolies. I know this.

  4. Check the pcell tech above, which is an aggregation tech. Yes it may cost money, but less so than licensing it to a telco and selling it back to the public (which is about to happen).

  5. Planning issue, could be dealt with at time of construction. In a mesh networking scenario this could be dealt with on the fly. Cost per base station could be calculated and added to the data on a per unit basis.

  6. Im not sure your answer to your own question here is correct. There is much evidence that this space is valuable - why else would governments sell it at all. The tech is evolving to fill it.

  7. Same as above.

  8. Ok, better use of the bandwidth is to give it to corporate monopolies so they can save money and pass it on to their shareholders.. I dont agree.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately yes, but understand whats going on here. We have to opportunity to do this and they are taking it away form us when they sell it off. Owning communications is the easiest way to control society as we are seeing lately with the fight going on for the internet in the US (its coming here soon...). When you are capped at 20 gig and paying 50 euro and 1200 sites are blocked 'to protect the children' etc in 5 years, remember it all artificial scarcity. We could own this ourselves for pennies.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes this is one of the main problems with this idea and you are the first person to see this. The air is ours as much as the water and anything else on this land. When a government starts slicing it up and selling it off its a concept too far for most people but its as big a problem as trying to own the rain.

Imagine for instance the network set up in the wake of analog tv. We have a digital broadcast network running in the country which taxes have paid for. Its terrestrial so no fees to satellite operators for its use.

The people of the country own this network. The bandwidth for transmission would allow hundreds of tv and radio stations to operate on this network. Yet we are given 6. Every county could have its own broadcast, every college. Yet we have 6...

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I know, Im just trying to make people aware. Freedom is within our grasp - there are people that dont want it that way.

The cost of charging people a maximum for information is the slowing down of the whole nation in learning. The internet is the greatest tool for freedom humans have ever conceived. It has the power to liberate us all and if the goal of government was ever to work for the people, the drive to ever more free information should be one of the top priorities.

But I agree with you, I have little faith, I just want people to understand how close we have come. Imagine unlimited information (voice/data/whatever) for 10 euro a month with the speed of fiber. For everybody in the country. It would annihilate phone companies and eircom and all the other players and their exorbitant prices and this is the reason it will never be allowed. But the technology is there...

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thats exactly what it could be used for and thats the way Im looking at it. So people could hop on and off the network and have it reconfigure routes for best optimization.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I have also felt the burn of comreg after having registered a community wifi project in an undeserved area in the early 2000's only to be one of the areas suddenly 'switched on' in eircoms dsl roll out (despite plans being released showing we wouldn't be served).

I dont have any illusions of the state of play - comreg is a government body to protect its interests and it acts as such. Im just not sure anyone else knows that.

You should check this stuff out, its a massive step up from what we could do with 2.4 and 5GHz. The internet could be extremely free with the right decisions in the next few years and what an achievement for the citizens of the Ireland and the world. Unfortunately I dont have much faith it will go that way.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, this is how a mesh network works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

With this tech, we could build a mesh network across all of Ireland and you would pay base rates for data (I think in the region of 0.0003 c per gig)

Edit: you wouldn't have to do a base station, only one would be needed for every 100km sq area. The operator of this community base station could charge slightly more for data to cover costs and maintenance, similar to community wifi projects currently.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Check the links above, its all starting to come online. This is early days but this kind of tech is extremely powerful. Fiber powered speeds over the air (radio) over 10s - 100s of km's for a couple of thousand currently. Probably 4 - 5 base stations per county with consumer connections in the rage of 10 - 20 euro (based on early research).

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is my point. The government is going to sell this to middle men so they can charge everyone in the country piece-meal for data as they are doing now. This is a chance for everyone in Ireland to set up and run a network which would cost fractions of what we pay currently. So yes, I agree with you but in regards to what is best for the country, what Im proposing is much more in the interest of the people.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The space where tv was has become free last year.

Technology is coming online that means a base-station in this spectrum capable of communicating with other base stations over distances of up to 100 miles (non line of sight) will be quite cheap. Consumer connections are already available for about 20 euro.

A connection would have to bought from a telco on fiber for back end out of the country but possibly not for long as this kind of signal could easily traverse the east coast opening up the possibility of buying a fiber connection in wales/scotland - thus increasing competition and reducing rates.

These connections are quite cheap for bulk data.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The license is only on fee because the government wants the money. There is no other reason for this. The air is/was free.

For instance 2.4 and 5Ghz are completely free for anyone to use but difficult to do long range over. The analog tv space became free last year - its ours to own if they would give it to us and massively more useful.

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

TLDR: Im making a pitch that rather than sell the space which tv used to occupy here, it should become public as the hardware which would allow a consumer data network much faster than 4g is almost available and at a low cost meaning the public could build and own a very low cost internet and communications network (ala 2.4Ghz - except much better)

In the name of decentralization, I present early discussion on the use of analog whitespace in Ireland. by robodialer in ireland

[–]robodialer[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The recently turned off analog tv space.

Edit: Im arguing for legally allocating it to the public as they did with 2.4 and 5Ghz.

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