Broadband Stupidity in Leitrim

Here I go with yet another broadband moan. The slight glimmer of hope I had that a new local wireless company might be able to rescue me from the insanity and unreliability of O2’s broadband(ish) dongle has been extinguished by the stupidity and paranoia of Leitrim County Council.

I’d been waiting on a call from this company for 3 weeks and counting the days since they were at the house and said that while there was no signal then, there should be when the new transmitter goes up in 3 weeks. I got the call today to say that they were refused permission to put up the transmitter and therefore couldn’t provide me with much needed broadband.

Now while you have to expect objections to things like mobile and broadband masts going up in rural areas, I wasn’t prepared for the reason for their refusal as given to me by the broadband company! Apparently the company had been told that they were being turned down because of a fear of ‘squatters rights’ on the council’s land. Someone in the council had seen a ‘Late Late Show’ discussion on the recent Pat Kenny court case and got scared enough to back out. The implications of this decision are that I and a lot of other people in the area who have been waiting for a proper broadband service for years will be denied further. Its another block on progress and might possibly put me out of business considering you can’t run a web design company without a fast internet connection..!

Back to the drawing board.

Leon.