It’s now a Wi-Fi world, says UPC’s Smyth

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Gavan Smyth, UPC

17 November 2014

We are seeing profound changes in Ireland because of the massive uptake of digital services which is already reshaping how everyone lives and will do so in the future. We now take mobility for granted and our mobile carriers can guarantee a signal in almost every part of the country. Wi-Fi has a critically important role to play here as we see a growing prevalence of bandwidth hungry apps that are always updating. Even 4G has limited bandwidth while Wi-Fi speeds can go up to 100mbps and better. In fact, the latest generation of Wi-Fi can deliver speeds similar to a normal wired network.

Everyone has come to expect Wi-Fi everywhere. So that makes it surprising that some parts of the hospitality industry are still charging. In Dublin, most hotels have introduced free Wi-Fi in recent years, partly under pressure from their business clients.

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For many hotels, the Wi-Fi on offer has actually become a competitive feature. Our client The Trinity Capital Hotel in Pearse Street provides a good example, leading with its UPC 100mbps synchronous fibre offering, free for all guests. This is a fully managed service 24×7. A popular comparison web site hotelWi-Fitest.com shows the Trinity Capital in a clear lead position with the next fastest at 30mbps and below.

In fact a surprising number of Dublin business hotels can only offer maximum speeds of around ADSL level 7-8mbps, with actual speed averages that most homes would consider sluggish. But up at the 5-star and 4-star level, fast Internet access is now essential for the business market. Videoconferencing demands bandwidth while meetings and conventions can generate high demand for certain periods.

Business users are accustomed to good Wi-Fi at work and increasingly ask for it in the offices they visit. It is becoming very important to have Wi-Fi access on campuses of all kinds. Take East Point Business Park as an example, UPC has deployed 29 outdoor access points throughout the entire area. This provides synchronous 100mbps based on a fibre backbone serving a total of 5,000 staff within the park and their visitors. When the sun shines people can take advantage of it yet continue working or be available to colleagues as if at a desk.

St James’ Hospital in Dublin is another spread-out campus where UPC has installed 76 access points to ensure complete coverage everywhere for clinical staff. Free Wi-Fi is also available for patients and visitors, but the staff network is totally separate and secure. This is also a fully managed service, where the dedicated fibre connection ensures continuous uptime — important because urgent clinical data like diagnostics and imaging is increasingly accessed over Wi-Fi.

We actively manage these sites but the fastest connection in Ireland for public use is in Dublin’s Convention Centre at a blisteringly fast Gigabit (1,000mbps). The IT department runs the Wi-Fi services itself, tailored to the different requirements of each event.

The more we can enable and provide high quality Wi-Fi around Ireland the better it will be for people, businesses and our economy.

 

 

Gavan Smyth is vice president of business services at UPC.

 

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