Eircom to spend €1bn on fibre to curb strategy

bk

Eircom this morning said that it plans to invest up to €1bn on upgrading its nationwide network across Ireland over the next three years, including plans to roll out fibre to the curb infrastructure that will see up to 25MB per second broadband reach homes and businesses.

More at: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single7363

viking

“We will be making a substantial investment in Ireland’s telecommunications infrastructure that will fundamentally enhance the communications services that we provide to customers in Ireland,” said Eircom chairman Pierre Danon.

And the lead-in to the announcment of line rental increases officially begins.

Sure isn't it the same carton of milk as it was last week...

thegills

This is just window dressing. eircom currently spend €250m+ each year just to keep their network half-decent. Over 3 Years this amounts to €750M+. Throw in Meteor and you see that eircom will be spending this €1Bn anyway just to maintain a decent network

trekkypj

The question isn't whether they would spend the money anyway, but WHERE they spend it.

They 'could' spend it on maintaining the copper wired exchanges and so forth, or they could spend it on fiber like any sensible telco should be at this stage.

This is good news. I am not an Eircom fanboy at ALL. But I recognize the significance of this.

Is there a sea change in the wind? Who knows. :cool:

But I firmly believe that B&B are not going to just leave the old network to rot. That's happened for too long already and at this stage I'd imagine it's not cost effective over the long term to put off upgrading to fiber, particularly with other operators beginning to nibble at the market.

I may be wrong about this. I have no insight into the thinking of these people. But it's one way of viewing this announcement.

cgarvey

Irishpimpdude banned for 1 week, and post deleted

PixelTrawler

Pierre, ( cant remember surname ) new boss of Eircom is on Today Fm right now.

He claims they will be spending 300million over next 3 years more then old eircom had planned to and pledge speeds up to 24Mbit lines will be available through this upgrade program

And is also talking about rolling wimax where dsl wont work.

Have to say he sounds like hes thinking in the right direction.

cgarvey

He's sounded like that for a few months now.. time will tell if it's all waffle, but not much (nothing?) new has been delivered since he took over. The WiMax was touted a few weeks ago alright.

Given the state of the physical copper (and the lack of it in a lot of places), 300 million over 3 years doesn't sound like a big deal to me. So we know he can talk the talk, but how long until we decide whether he can walk the walk?

Blaster99

He has walked the following walk so far:

- Lowering of line test criteria.
- Some evidence of carriers being moved on firm orders.
- Another 100 exchanges to be enabled.

What did you expect him to do?

PixelTrawler

I am as sceptical as the next man but hes making noises i would never have expected to hear from an eircom boss!

I think he's the first person I've ever heard mention the possibility of 25Meg lines in Ireland ( unusual figure maybe he meant 24 ) and hes the boss so lets wait and see.

As one person here has pointed out the line rental cost is major issue but thats not strictly a BB issue.

Altreab

Blaster99 wrote:

He has walked the following walk so far:

- Lowering of line test criteria.
- Some evidence of carriers being moved on firm orders.
- Another 100 exchanges to be enabled.

What did you expect him to do?

Well i really hope that a move to fibre has actually started and will be done agressively. fibre connections between exchanges and to all RSU's would lead to a huge improvement to the network...and would be a massive cost reduction program at the same time Fibre is a fraction of the cost to maintain compared to copper. Fibre is the only show in town really.
Esot and Babcock know that a copper network is of no resale value but a fibre network could be a gold mine.
Remember that the members of Esot cant sell their individual shares until 2014 or 2014. They want them to be of some value by then!!

cgarvey

Blaster99 wrote:

He has walked the following walk so far:

- Lowering of line test criteria.
- Some evidence of carriers being moved on firm orders.
- Another 100 exchanges to be enabled.

What did you expect him to do?

Maybe I'm overly sceptical, but I don't believe any of that is "new" thinking. eircom have lowered the line test criteria before (so they can stagger installation & support resources demand).

They've removed carriers since the dawn of ADSL (but you ahd to know someone or be a big customer back at the start), and later they announced the Amber Program which takes carriers in to account. I see no change in this status since B&B. Is there something new that I'm forgetting?

Finally, I'd imagine that list of exchanges was always going to be done, and not part of a radical new thinking. eircom have always been doing this since the start, focussing on competitive and viable areas first. I can't see how this list is any different from the previous rounds from eircom.

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

I am as sceptical as the next man but hes making noises i would never have expected to hear from an eircom boss!

Agreed, but that's my point .. the talk-the-talk era is surely coming to a point where we expect some walking, rather than talking.

thegills

Well i really hope that a move to fibre has actually started and will be done agressively

3 years ago eircom already had fibre to 70% of their 1100 exchanges. Since then I would hope that they have increased this number. My take is that this is all just political spin. The DCMNR want to spend money on a carrier rolling out 100% BB coverage and eircom want that cash.
thegills

machalla

viking wrote:

And the lead-in to the announcment of line rental increases officially begins.

Sure isn't it the same carton of milk as it was last week...

Well predicted

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9847091.html

Top paragraph.

crawler

thegills wrote:

3 years ago eircom already had fibre to 70% of their 1100 exchanges. Since then I would hope that they have increased this number. My take is that this is all just political spin. The DCMNR want to spend money on a carrier rolling out 100% BB coverage and eircom want that cash.
thegills

Sir, I applaud you - well spotted.

UPC announce €200m investment, BT go one better with €500m, eircom go to 1Bn and announce WiMax.

It's all a big game - we will spend if you give us free money.

Mr_Man

It's clear from the statement made by Eircom that the fiber to the kerb will only benefit those in urban areas, as is/was the case with Wimax. If you live outside these areas then it doesn't look like much is going to change - especially since we know how bad the copper is in many areas of the country.

M.

bealtine

crawler wrote:

It's all a big game - we will spend if you give us free money.

free as in extortion?

crawler

bealtine wrote:

free as in extortion?

I am too much of an optimist to enter the ever declining pit of telecoms gloom

Companies will act in the best interests of their shareholders, which they are entitled to do.

I am sure the DCMNR & co will see what others have achieved and will seperate reality from hype.

In general things are getting better, the only imbalance is that there is simply not enough real competition coupled with disproportionate coverage - fixing this last imbalance(s) is not difficult and hopefully at the end of 2007 we will have a much better telco landscape.

There will be a lot of consolidation etc next year too.

Maybe I am too positive on all this but you need to be in this game!

viking

machalla wrote:

Well predicted

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9847091.html

Top paragraph.

Not much of a surprise really

Full IT story here

Altreab

crawler wrote:

I am too much of an optimist to enter the ever declining pit of telecoms gloom

Companies will act in the best interests of their shareholders, which they are entitled to do.

I am sure the DCMNR & co will see what others have achieved and will seperate reality from hype.

In general things are getting better, the only imbalance is that there is simply not enough real competition coupled with disproportionate coverage - fixing this last imbalance(s) is not difficult and hopefully at the end of 2007 we will have a much better telco landscape.

There will be a lot of consolidation etc next year too.

Maybe I am too positive on all this but you need to be in this game!

So can i be number one on your list of testers for 4G when you roll it out in 2007?

crawler

Sigh.....someone always wants something from me

When the time is right we will be looking for friendly beta testers - not sure when that will be exactly yet...but will let you know.

watty

I think you're too late for #1 Altreab Probabily Chaz & Crawler get #1 and #2

I must say it would brighten up hotel rooms and B&B to have it. Perhaps I should get a bigger suitcase and take a FWA antenna when I travel and clamp it to the balcony.

"Please nice receptionist person, can I have the room with the view of the garda station mast?"