[ILUG] T3 costs/providers ?!

[Wesley Darlington]

Howdy,

On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 09:51:50AM +0000, Paul Reilly wrote:
> Can anyone tell me (roughly) what it costs to get a T3 (~40Mb/s)
> line? Who in Ireland could provide this service ? Who would
> be better to go with in terms of backbone connectivity?
> Is there a map/description anywhere showing you what the
> different backbone connections are in Ireland?

Hmmm. Check out...  http://www.t4eb.com/ ... in particular, check out: 
    http://www.forfas.ie/t4eb/frame.htm

Click on the `broadband telecommuncations infrastructure' in the LH pane,
and then follow the links to the various pictures (Figure 1 etc) in the RH 
pane. I have it in book form here - it's very interesting.

As to pricing I believe a full E3 (~34Mbit/s) here (in Belfast) would set 
you back a bigger than ten grand installation fee and probably cost between
fifteen and twenty grand *per* *month*. I beleive a T3 (~45Mbit/s) would
set you back in excess of twenty grand per month. A fractional E3/T3, scaled
back to say 8Mbit/s will cost about five grand a month.

As to who can provide them ...  in Belfast, only BT, ntl and Eircom can
provide such circuits. BT probably has the best coverage, followed
by ntl, but Eircom is building out (AFAIK) unlike ntl.

Ironically, here in Belfast Eircom are a forward-looking, seriously happening
telco. They kick bottom; they are in the process of rolling out adsl to
people in Belfast. They are most definitely *not* the incumbent telco people 
living down south have come to know and love. I got a visit to Eircom's pop
in sth belfast the other day - it rocked! I have a good feeling about
Eircom here.

As for the prices above, they are quite vague. The full E3/T3 prices are
probably in the right ballpark, perhaps a little on the low side, and
the lead time could be as much as three months, depending on who one
bought from. (One can actually buy the line from many different people,
it's just that most of them will actually deliver over BT.) The 8Mbit/s
(fractional E3) price is quite accurate though... :-)

HTH,
Wesley.

PS. All prices in sterling ex vat. Sorry.