Test Every Line in Ireland...Comreg tells Ratty.

spongebob

mmmmm, the LLU battle is joined what with Eircom appointing a fella with a giant Rat on his head (D Gleeson SC) to head up a team of fellas with rats on their heads (the JC's) and all at ginormous expense too.

Meanwhile Comreg told them to test every line in Ireland , not just on enabled exchanges ,and load the result in a database.
As soon as you find out that YOUR line fails you simply start knocking Pairgain boxes off the poles until they run some copper instead. You will know you have failed before your exchange ever gets ADSL....

Broadband technologies - and in particular DSL delivered over the copper access – are technologies which have a significant dependency on the
characteristics of the copper loop and may not be available on all lines. In this
respect, DSL is not a ubiquitous technology and it is expected that a proportion of
lines will not be capable of carrying DSL. For example, lines which may fulfil
eircom’s USO obligation – such as longer lines or those provided by way of a carrier
system – may not be suitable for carrying DSL.
Therefore it is vital for operators when building their business cases to have access
to reliable information in order to determine the percentage of lines which are DSL
capable. This information can also assist in defining the DSL product set, for
example, providing data on which the available DSL rates on the line can be
calculated.

Comreg consider this bulk test to be a "Reasonable Request" they can be very inconsistent in what they consider a reasonable request. They told Eircom to stick it on a CD and send it over to ESAT by end June...but HARK what IS THIS?!

Six months following Provision of Bulk Line Data
provision of the first cd, eircom proposed a move to a more robust solution using, for
example, a remote access database.
ComReg and industry are broadly happy with the proposed approach but note that
eircom has failed to provide the first cd as agreed by end June 2003. eircom have
failed to complete their agreed actions and therefore ComReg hereby directs eircom
to provide this information to industry as per this proposed interim solution pending
development of a final solution which is agreed by industry.

Fortunately I will have the .iso of that CD within 24 hours and will burn it on request once I strip out the ex directory and unlisted ones.

Rest of the Comreg doc is on the Comreg Site for you to read.

M

niallb

I've mentioned this before in other contexts,
but could a bit of pressure now be applied to force
Eircorn to publish the results of each and every linetest
where it really matters - at the end of every bill, every month.

NiallB

flav0rflav

"Hoe Boys, this time next year will be millionaires!"

[edit]
That doc reads like some sort of old time dance - stall stall delay, delay stall delay, stall delay stall delay. repeat.

gandalf

Why stop at testing the lines, when a line fails Eircom should be compelled to fix it so their customers can get the full range of products that they offer.

Gandalf.

spongebob

I am not sure of the database format yet.

It may be that Eircom simply say pass or fail or they may include hard data so you know if it was an E F or NG as it were.

IoffL requested something like this as part of the USO submission so that there is a snapshot of the state of the copper plant at a stage in time. Eircom would be obliged to ensure that the state of the coper plant did not disimprove over the course of the USO .

Our line rental pays for our lines...these are what is being tested by the procedure mentioned in here. We pay the highest line rental in the EU so we will naturally expect the best lines in the EU and nothing short of that.

M

shinzon

Originally posted by gandalf
Why stop at testing the lines, when a line fails Eircom should be compelled to fix it so their customers can get the full range of products that they offer.

Gandalf.

I agree totallly with gandalf, course I would LOL, considering my situation, so this cd should contain some data as regards why a line fails, but most likely itll just say pass fail and give no reason as to why

Typical, not much point in having the damn thing if thats all its gonna say, although id still like to see what it said about my line on the 11th and then what it said after now thats its failing

Shin

SkepticOne

Originally posted by shinzon
Typical, not much point in having the damn thing if thats all its gonna say, although id still like to see what it said about my line on the 11th and then what it said after now thats its failing

Did your line ever pass? Looks like Esat never had any way of testing it without this CD.

shinzon

it did on the 11th of may for eircoms radsl and my line passed for the business 90 euro product and the 60 euro residential in the past from esat, but is now failing everything.

regards

shin

SkepticOne

I would discount any 'passes' from either the Esat business ADSL or the 60 euro (discontinued) residential ADSL from Esat since according to this document, they would have had to take your order and attempt to get it fulfilled by Eircom.

dahamsta

Originally posted by Muck
Fortunately I will have the .iso of that CD within 24 hours and will burn it on request once I strip out the ex directory and unlisted ones.

Hmmm....

adam /looks at his servers

El_MUERkO

adam dont hmm... your servers I saw the water cooled beasty you bought

I'm going to download that .iso and check all my relatives lines, I think it'll be my new hobby to convince them they all need DSL :ninja:

spongebob

/me will let Adam host the .iso

Will you do a carrier independent national expression of interest calculator as well Adam while on the job ?

M

dahamsta

Originally posted by El_MUERkO
adam dont hmm... your servers I saw the water cooled beasty you bought

I didn't buy it in the end unfortunately. Anyway, that was going to be my workstation!

Originally posted by Muck
/me will let Adam host the .iso

Heh. I'm afraid my tera is out of action atm Muck, what with it being nonexistant an' all. I'd be happy to burn it for people too though.

Originally posted by Muck
Will you do a carrier independent national expression of interest calculator as well Adam while on the job ?

That's more what I was aiming for. Will the ISO be public domain or will we have to start arranging a box in HavenCo?

adam

spongebob

Originally posted by dahamsta

That's more what I was aiming for. Will the ISO be public domain or will we have to start arranging a box in HavenCo?

adam

Outside the jurisdiction would be best, ensure that the domain is not controlled from here either.

M

dahamsta

Does Eircom have a presence in the UK?

Heh, what are the odds Eircom is whining about this to Comreg even as we speak.

adam

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0380.pdf

"Following the forum meeting of 20th May, eircom agreed to provide this data in an interim format followed by a final format. For the first six months and in the interests of timeliness, eircom proposed to supply a cd each month giving the capacitance to A and B legs for each working PSTN and ISDN line in the eircom network where the information was available electronically. Following that eircom proposed a move to a more robust solution using a remote access database."

"the technical characteristics of the twisted metallic pair in the local loop"

Technical question - I take it they are talking about the capacitor (Farads) rather than capacity (lines/MB) - in which case he database must contain values rather than Yes/No

I'll just put this bit in below- so depressing to see how little has changed


"Additionally, Article 3(2) of the LLU Regulation requires eircom, from 31 December 2000, to meet reasonable requests from beneficiaries for unbundled access to their local loops and related facilities under transparent, fair and non discriminatory conditions.
Requests may only be refused on the basis of objective criteria, relating to technical feasibility or the need to maintain network integrity. A reasonable request for unbundled access to the local loop implies that access is necessary for the provision of the services of the beneficiary and that refusal of the request would prevent, restrict or distort competition in this sector.
Article 3(3) requires that notified operators shall charge prices for unbundled access to the local loop and related facilities on the basis of cost orientation."

suggest Eircom take as their now theme song the Johnny Logan eurovision winner "What's another year.." with a mouse waiting at a bus stop for the superhighway express - AKA Dublin Bus 17A

SkepticOne

This whole thing would explain why LLU is non-functional in Ireland. Who in their right mind would be willing to compete with Eircom when Eircom have instant access to information on line tests where as the competitor has to fill out forms for individual lines and pass them on to Eircom for the results.

It is not surprising that only Esat were foolish enough to bother with LLU (that and Government money). No way are we likely to see services like Nildram and Bulldog in the UK without information being made available on an equal access basis.

It's not surprising either, that Eircom are attempting to keep this info to themselves. It ties in with their hysterics over the 2 euro reduction in LLU line charge. The wonder is why ComReg took so long to recognise the problem.

spongebob

they did. Prof Melody was a year on the case before the LLU price reduction was announced and Eircom went High Court ballistic.

<grumble> who put UK in front of my ironic post about the fourth green field , that had to go </grumble>

dahamsta

I should have mentioned that any loose CDs should be herded to...

Box 81
Eglinton Street
Cork

...where they'll be treated with the care and attention they so richly deserve, and maybe later released into the wild.

This service is available for pretty much anything relevant you can stuff into a medium-size padded envelope or small parcel. I'll also happily anonymise and forward material on request to IrelandOffline, Comreg or the Minister, on the understanding that packages will be opened to determine relevance and credibility. Electronic remailing is also available on request.

adam

dahamsta

Yes, that's a real address. I work from home and like to keep the loonies at bay.

adam

El_MUERkO

Might be an idea not to put Whisleblowers Anonymous on the envelope

dahamsta

You can put anything you want, it's the box number they see. You could address it to "81 Cork" and I'd prolly get it.

adam