Government Broadband - who is managing it?

mean mr mustard

As we all know broadband infrastructure is currently being rolled out in towns across rural Ireland - does anyone know who will be managing and maintaining this new fibre network once it is all in place? Who owns it? Will there be a network management centre? Where will it be?!

Any answers greatly appreciated..

iwb

With reference to the 20 metropolitan area networks, they are owned by the local authorities in each town or city. They were funded 90% by Government and 10% by the local authority.
The infrastructure will be managed by the 'managed services entity'. The bid was closed on August 15th last year and a winner is to be announced in the next few weeks, or so it is claimed.
DCMNR is acting as the 'contracting authority' on behalf of the 20 MAN owners.
The MSE will manage the leasing of dark fibre, sub-duct and co-location space as part of the 'base bid' proposal that was responded to. It is still unclear if the MSE will also sell or be allowed to sell live services on the network.
There was a provision for the MSE to make sure the MAN's were all 'lit' within 12 months. It might be assumed that if they aren't, the MSE may want to or have to do so.
The rumoured 'preferred bidder' as reported in the Irish Times a few weeks back is eNET. If this is true, either Swedia or TE Services is the network management centre operator on eNET's behalf. Presumably they already own a NOC each and that would be used.
If the MSE is managing fibre, sub-duct and co-location, the NOC won't have a lot to do nor will it have a means to manage much besides some parameters for the co-location space and input from service providers reporting problems presumed to be caused by the physical cable or ducting.

mean mr mustard

Thanks for the reply - gonna bump this back up with another question:
AFAIK ESB Telecom also now have a fibre network in place across the country. Does anyone know if this is just a passive fibre network for other telcos to plug into, or have ESBT got active kit and management of the network for circuit provisioning and fault monitoring? Anyone know? Thanks!

iwb

ESB runs a live network and also has 'dark fibre' available for IRU, basically a 20 year lease. It sells bandwidth in increments from 34Mb (E3) and up. New pricing came available recently which puts it very competitive with bandwidth anywhere and seriously cheaper than traditional pipes like leased lines from the incumbent. A 2Mb leased line from eircom will cost nearly as much as the 34Mb from ESB. Not a fair comparision as one terminates on your premises and the other doesn't usually but it gives an idea of the differences.

mean mr mustard

thanks for info. would iwb or anyone happen to know what type of transmission equipment ESBT use for their network? nortel, alcatel, ericcson etc?

have they a NOC?

iwb

I used to know but I can't remember now. I am fairly sure it is Ericsson but not 100%. Don't know for sure that they have a NOC but logic would dictate that they do.