NEWS.

This was the scene on the Drumkeerin mountain 5th January 09 as we attempted to get backup power to our access point.
E.S.B in background were trying to get to broken power lines. Many thanks to the quarry operators who buldozed the snow off the road.

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Many people express concern about the affect adverse weather has on fixed wireless broadband such as the service we provide.

RAIN. The first question is usually will rain of fog stop it.
NO. In fact it helps the signal level but the amount is so slight it doesn't count.

SNOW. Very heavy snow fall can have an effect over long distances but this usually applies to our supply of broadband and not our ability to send it to you but if this is the case the Mobile phone system will be down also. In certain cases where snow in blowing and sticking to antennas it can prevent it from working.

LIGHTNING. All our equipment is lightning protected but a direct strike can still damage equipment. We keep a comprehensive stock of spares and in the event of damage we can have our access points replaced the same day.

WIND will not stop your service unless it blows down an access point. This is unlikely now as all our equipment has been standing through some very severe storms. Regular maintenance and checks are carried out to ensure things stay this way.

Our experience is that the weakest part of our system is the E.S.B. power supply which can be compromised by any of the above conditions.

To alleviate this we have found it necessary to provide backup power. We initially provided 4 hours backup power at all our major sites.
Unfortunately in the light of certain events we found it necessary to improve this to 3 days at some key locations.
Now even 3 days were not enough on our Drumkeerin unit recently.
Snow and ice built up on the power lines and then there was a storm which brought down several spans of the power line due to the extra weight.
Efforts to repair the lines were hampered because it was impossible to gain access to the area due to the depth of snow which had drifted to a height of 6 feet in places. Eventually our backup power ran out and we too were unable to gain access which left us off air from that access point for a few days over the Christmas 09 period.