Cablelink, Ireland's biggest cable operator, announced at a press conference on Wednesday 22nd that it will offer internet access via the its cable networks. The service will cost £25 per month for a 256K connection, the equivalent of nearly ten combined phonelines. The venture has been greeted with awe and expectation especially by those with large internet related phonebills.

It will, according to Bob Murphy, manager of Cablelink in Waterford, "launch Cablelink into the 21st century giving customers a speed and quality of internet access previously unavailable in Ireland." The demonstration of internet access via cable included video clips and CD quality audio and images from sites in the USA that would take ages to download with an ordinary modem. In a word the service is fast.

The service is to be introduced in Dublin later this year and introduction in Waterford and in Cablelink's Galway network should follow early next year. Technically speaking, the Waterford network is in a better position to handle such a service as the backbone of the network was upgraded to fiber optic over the last year.

To date the only way to get speeds even approaching Cablelink's basic tier rate of 256K would be to get two expensive ISDN lines. The installation cost of these lines would come to £842.16, an ISDN terminal adapter (modem) would cost an extra £180 bringing the installation costs alone to about £1000. The rental for the two lines would be £72.60 a month and all that does not even include the call cost or the ISP (Internet Service Provider) subscription fee. It is simply not economically viable for the individual or any small company to get this kind of access at the moment. However Cablelink's service will change that bringing affordable high speed internet access to the public.

For the user, connecting to the new service is simple. The cable modem is rented from Cablelink for £5 per month though eventually, according to Brian Moore, it may be possible to purchase these in computer shops. Cablelink will install a splitter and the cable modem would connect to this and to a network card in the user's computer. The cable modem is a COM21 COMport 1100 model sold by Philips.

Speaking at the press conference, Brian Moore, Cablelink's head of commercial development, said that in a survey of internet users conducted by Cablelink last year, the biggest frustration for users was slow access and slow downloading. Cablelink's service would offer superior speeds and service. He went on to say that the decision to become an ISP was a natural progression for Cablelink. It is one that is bound to create worries for other ISPs in Ireland, specifically the smaller Dublin based ones.

Telecom Eireann, previously used to considering ISDN as the highest speed of access has to reconsider the viability of ISDN in Cablelink areas for internet access. However it is the general consensus in the business that they bungled the introduction of ISDN not knowing whether to market it as a high speed file transfer facility or a means of faster internet access.

The leased line internet business will also be affected since Cablelink would be offering the same kind of service for £25 per month that would conventionally cost over £15000 a year.

The effects and benefits of Cablelink's plan are still being established. One of these is that each city would have its own high speed area network. This opens a whole new range of possibilities from internet based radio stations to educational networks. It appears that the cliche "the only limit is your imagination" is not such a cliche any more.