Kerry broadband service to target rural areas

A new broadband service based in Kerry promises to make the service available to rural dwellers who have been unable to receive such a service from the established providers to date.

A new service is claiming to provide the solution to the absence of a full broadband service in Kerry outside the major cities and towns.

Kerry Broadband recently installed and commissioned a new Base Station in Tralee using state of the art Equipment, serving rural homes and businesses in much of North Kerry, West Kerry and Mid Kerry, covering a large area from Scartaglin and Beaufort to Ballyduff and Castlegregory as well as the greater Tralee area.

Paul Dolan, who runs Kerry Broadband, describes the difference between a dial up connection to the Internet and a broadband connection as “moving from a boreen to a superhighway where information can be sent and received very quickly”.

According to Dolan, the demand for broadband Internet access is growing at a phenomenal rate but many people who live outside the main towns are unable to get a full broadband service with high-speed always-on Internet access.

“As things stand the main providers offering a broadband service using the telephone line can only make it available to those living within three to four kilometres of the main exchange or in towns where the service is sought by 1500 people,” says Dolan.

“In Kerry Broadband we use a wireless service with a transmitter that can cover a wide rural area so we plan to make the service available to small towns and villages as well as isolated rural homes in Kerry.

“Since we received approval from the Dept of Communications regulator ComReg last year to provide a wireless broadband service most of our customers have come from rural areas who weren’t able to get a broadband service.

“Many of our enquiries came from those who accessed the government website broadband.gov.ie to get help and saw our name listed as an approved provider of wireless broadband and now we can see a fourfold increase in demand this year.”