Hi John, Stephen,
I’ve had a chat with a few people last night and this project seems a goer, with a few provisos however. As you’re aware John, a relation of mine (uncle of sorts) was a consultant to the ESB in creating and installing their fibre network. When we originally floated the idea of data archive business we proposed basing it in the IDA’s technology park. This is quite empty but the park itself isn’t connected to the ESB’s network and is not too distant from Carriganore. Therefore I propose that we would raise funds to cover both the technology park and carriganore, possibly in a ring configuration. AFAIK the land in this area is mostly owned by WIT, the IDA and David Flynn. Substantial office development is planned in this area.
A Fibre network connecting these points is advantageous to all these parties. Laying fibre is cheaper than it used to be and I estimate the total cost of this project at around 400-450k euro, including maintenance over 5 years, based on a chat with my uncle. (Don’t forget maintenance) We would install DWDM POS equipment on either side so bandwidth is virtually limitless. Hundreds of Gbps currently achievable. THe cost of the venture isn’t prohibitive. Now here’s the thing.
This project may be geared heavily (mostly bank finance of around 80% of capital costs) if we can prove that the project is self-financing over the first few years. For example we could do the following:
– Offer to complete the WIT to Carriganore section first;
– Offer WIT a 10% stake in the campus company to build and manage advanced DWDM-based fibre networks;
– Ask WIT for a 10 year guaranteed lease on the network of 60k per year (dropping to 55 if front loaded) the project then becomes self-financing;
– Consult with other parties e.g. IDA/DFL/ESB about the best route for the network in the area and possible incentives for its construction.
– Ask other parties to guarantee (signed lease contracts with largish break penalties) fibre leases upon network construction.
– ask WIT what land is available for development in the carriganore site. We could also determine what planning permission has been secured in WIT’s “Research Park”. I understand that some of the buildings are suitable for quite large and technologically sophisticated enterprises. Therefore, we could team up with a developer who required an extremely high bandwidth site with maximum connection redundancy. I might know someone!
John, you’d have to spec out the wireless equipment required to connect to other networks. Let me know how you get on.
Sincerest regards,
…shane
> —–Original Message—–
> From: John ronan [mailto:jronan@irishsystems.com]
> Sent: 30 May 2005 17:32
> To: Des Burke
> Cc: Shane Michael Dempsey; Stephen Burke
> Subject: Idea.
>
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> Currently TSSG is waiting for the our new building to be completed on
> the new “carriganore” site. There is currently no communications
> facilities out there of any description. The college have a 20 or so
> year development plan for the 120 Acre Site.
>
> The current best offer the college has is to pay €70,0000 per year for
> a minimum of three years to Eircom, this would drop to €60,00/year if
> they paid more ‘up front’.
>
> If we guestimate that it would cost €80,000 for the civils on the site
> €130,000 for getting the fibre to the ESB Point of Presence, and lets
> say €40,000 for the active equipment at each end. Thats €250,000 to
> install the fibre.
>
> The simplistic plan would be to try and get the college tied into a
> contract for 5 (or more) years at €50,000 year.
>
> Problem 1.
> When the motorway/new bridge/new bypass is finished, there will be
> Fibre running alongside the entire road. This is part of the cost of
> construction of the road I think to put this in. This would
> immediately mean that there would be ‘competition’ on the site. I’m
> not sure of the timescale involved here.
>
> Additional business:
>
> Storage:
> We had an idea previously for Gaisan Storage (I forget the name Shane,
> Apologies), where we basically acted
> as an ‘off site’ data storage facility for any company that wanted such
> a facility. Shane may be able to dig up some projected figures. With
> fibre connectivity to the ESB Pop and hence backbone, this idea could
> again be ‘floated.
>
> Backhaul:
> I spoke to Peter O’Keeffe of Premier Broadband, he is currently paying
> €200 per megabit per month for 20Mbps . i.e €4000 per month. A
> Dedicated wireless connection from the roof of a building on the site
> should, relatively easily hit one of his Sites in Tipperary, this would
> have to be verified, but he would be very interested in developing this
> idea further as it would then give him resilience in his network.
>
> On the college map for the site, there are some ‘unassigned’ sites near
> where the current TSSG building is being built.
>
> I know its all fairly vague, but what can I say, I only though of it a
> few hours ago.
>
> Regards
> John
>
> – —
> John Ronan , +353-51-302938
> Telecommunications Software & Systems Group, http://www.tssg.org
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