Internet trials

The trials will use wireless LAN technology, an innovative radio technology that can deliver short-range connection to the internet at extremely high speeds. The minister for communications, Dermot Ahern, said last week that the government had selected five firms to undertake the trials: O2, Esat BT, Rococo, Amocom and Digiweb.
It will provide grants worth euro 260,510 for the trial projects, which will take place in Dublin, Cork, Mayo, Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Louth. The projects will try to demonstrate the feasibility of wireless LAN broadband — already being widely used abroad to provide “broadband hotspots”. Many bigger Irish firms are already testing out the technology.