[Eircom & Resellers..BT, UTV etc] ADSL Speed upgrade to 8MB discussion...ongoing

AlmightyCushion

Oh definitely. Adsl2 (well it doesn't have to be adsl2 but anything that provides better speeds than adsl) would be the most logical choice but then again it is eircom so God only knows what it'll be.

SeanW

There are potentially 100,000+ people and businesses with old ADSL only routers. These users would then need to pay >€50 for a new modem for a new transmission standard that offers no improvement. I would have expected that were there to be a migration from ADSL, that there would be some mention of it either from Eircom in their press release or from Comreg, who is (supposed to be) overseeing this whole thing. That there has been no such notice, and the fact that our present protocol, G.dmt is capable of the new speeds - at least in theory.
Consider also that this is due to happen nationwide, all exchanges within 30 days of the first.

Straightforward enough if it's just a case of making sure the copper and backhaul is in place before flipping a switch - not so straightforward if it would take new equipment in all the exchanges, which I assume a new transmission technology would. I mean, we've seen how long it's taking Eircom to put ADSL equipment into exchanges - a few each year - now they're switching it all around in the next few months?

You may well be right and Eircom may be going ADSL2+ nationwide. But the more I think about it, the less plausible it seems that they're doing so at this juncture.

AlmightyCushion

Apparently most of the equipment in eircoms exchanges is fairly new and it would only take a firmware update to make them adsl2.

The netopia 3347 which eircom have been providing customers with for quite some time is adsl2. So the only people who will have to get a new modem will be people with older models.

Adsl2 will allow more people who couldn't get broadband before, because they were too far from the exchange or because of their line stats, to get broadband. Moving to adsl2 will allow them to get beeter speeds. A lot more people will be able to get 12Mbps if they move to adsl2 than they would if they stayed at adsl.

kaizersoze

SeanW, I don't know where you're getting your figures from but they're waaaay off.

The big speed increases announced (7.6, 10 & 12 meg) will only be automatic in June for the 200,000 or so subscribers currently on 3 meg or higher.
All the DSL ISPs have been supplying ADSL2+ compatable modems since early 2005. At the end of 2004 there was barely 30,000 DSL subscribers.

In the 3 or so years since then the vast majority of the 30,000 who would have got the old type modems would have had them replaced for various reasons like switching ISP, faulty units, upgrades to wireless or whatever. So the remaining numbers would be fairly small.
On top of that, the old modems will work fine on ADSL2+ unless they want to change to one of the higher packages.

Wrt the exchange work, AlmightyCushion is correct. A firmware upgrade is all thats required for the most part.

zugvogel

Is ADSL2 as far as you can go with this technology. Will there ever be an ADSL3 or 4? I live in the sticks and while Eircom may give me ADSL2 I can't see them laying fibre door to door around here. Is there any other ways to wring more bandwidth out of copper or once we get our ADSL2 is that our lot forever in da sticks.

Zug

The Real B-man

zugvogel wrote: »

Is ADSL2 as far as you can go with this technology. Will there ever be an ADSL3 or 4? I live in the sticks and while Eircom may give me ADSL2 I can't see them laying fibre door to door around here. Is there any other ways to wring more bandwidth out of copper or once we get our ADSL2 is that our lot forever in da sticks.

Zug

Adsl2+ is threw copper twisted pair not fibre..

AlmightyCushion

zugvogel wrote: »

Is ADSL2 as far as you can go with this technology. Will there ever be an ADSL3 or 4? I live in the sticks and while Eircom may give me ADSL2 I can't see them laying fibre door to door around here. Is there any other ways to wring more bandwidth out of copper or once we get our ADSL2 is that our lot forever in da sticks.

Zug

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Subscriber_Line#DSL_technologies

There's a few different technologies, the problem is they all seem to deteriorate quickly the further from the exchange you go, so they don't really benefit people that are a good distance from the exchange.

Vdsl2 looks very nice (250Mbps) but according to the wiki page after a mile it's performance is similar to adsl2.

Bodan

nordenray wrote: »

This is what UTV have released today from product department

eircom recently announced an improvement in speeds for all Bitstream
broadband customers. Speed changes will be phased in, beginning next month
(March) and the final upgrade due to complete in June 08.

The good news for our customers is that their speeds will also increase
automatically.

Please note anyone on our 1Mb tariffs (Clicksilver Lite and Clicksilver One)
will not see a speed increase unfortunately.

These speeds are 'rate adaptive', which means they are "up to" and dependent
on various factors, including:
a.. line quality to end user premises
b.. proximity in cable length to phone exchange
c.. quality of internal wiring etc.

interesting! Does this mean we will starting getting our upgrades in March?

SeanW

kaizersoze wrote: »

SeanW, I don't know where you're getting your figures from but they're waaaay off.
The big speed increases announced (7.6, 10 & 12 meg) will only be automatic in June for the 200,000 or so subscribers currently on 3 meg or higher.

But the fact remains that they can do this quite well on G.dmt, with the exception of 12 meg which would only be available to a small few.

All the DSL ISPs have been supplying ADSL2+ compatable modems since early 2005. At the end of 2004 there was barely 30,000 DSL subscribers.

WRONG. BT was shipping ZyXEL 623s through much - if not all - of 2005.

In the 3 or so years since then the vast majority of the 30,000 who would have got the old type modems would have had them replaced for various reasons like switching ISP, faulty units, upgrades to wireless or whatever. So the remaining numbers would be fairly small.

With the exception of people signing up with Eircom/BT pre 2006 and later switching to Smart/Magnet/NTL, I can't really see much of these occurances.

On top of that, the old modems will work fine on ADSL2+ unless they want to change to one of the higher packages.

You sure?

Wrt the exchange work, AlmightyCushion is correct. A firmware upgrade is all thats required for the most part.

Explain?

alastair

kaizersoze wrote: »

All the DSL ISPs have been supplying ADSL2+ compatable modems since early 2005. At the end of 2004 there was barely 30,000 DSL subscribers.

In the 3 or so years since then the vast majority of the 30,000 who would have got the old type modems would have had them replaced for various reasons like switching ISP, faulty units, upgrades to wireless or whatever. So the remaining numbers would be fairly small.
On top of that, the old modems will work fine on ADSL2+ unless they want to change to one of the higher packages.

I'm using an old eircom-provided Alcatel modem/router from the freebie Dublin trial days (2000/2001?) and have been on the 3 gig business package for the past couple of years. I wonder if I'm in such a small minority? I guess someone's gonna have to buy a new box if we're talking ADSL2.

SeanW

alastair wrote: »

I wonder if I'm in such a small minority?

I guess someone's gonna have to buy a new box if we're talking ADSL2.

That's what we need to find out.

Praetor

SeanW wrote: »

That's what we need to find out.

Eircom will be using both ADSL and ADSL2+ for the upgrade

As far as I know, all customers on 2mb and 3mb will be upgraded. Customers on 2mb will be upgraded to 3mb and Customers on 3 mb to 7.6mb.

Remember that, at the moment, Eircom do not have ADSL2+ on most of their exchanges.

This upgrade wont be easy as ADSL is not as permissive as ADSL2+, a good healthy line will be required.

The port can be either ADSL2+ or ADSL, but most likely not both, as normally the whole line card is either on one modulation or another. Once a customer is on ADSL2+ it cannot be downgraded to ADSL without physical intervention as it will require rejumpering the line card.

But all this will depend on Eircom's own engineering schema.

Products such as 12 mb (aKa IPTURBO) are already on sale by Eircom.

For the moment speeds are

12mb, 6 mb, 4 mb, 3 mb, 2 mb and 1 mb (excluding mid band products)

Fighting Irish

So i'm in Carlow and have BT 3mb, will my line be defo going up and when?

Thanks

SeanW

Some time in June, to 7.6mbps down/ 684kbps up

Gonzo

it must be adsl2+ they are giving everyone coz why are we not gettin the upgrade till June sometime and they announced this back in January, thats almost a 6 month wait altogether:)

Sqaull20

Are they late again?

4mb business line at my friends work place, has yet to be upgraded and its nearly May...

I rang bt on friday and asked them would my 3mb business line be upgraded to 7.6mb in June and he said yeah it should, but couldnt confirm it ( which is basically no imo )

Have people on 4mb and 6mb business lines been upgraded to 10mb and 12mb yet?

My 2 sad housemates are annoying the balls of me about lag on WoW and im only using 20% of the connection speed, 100mb in 30mins :mad:

Those Austrailian cowboys better make this deadline...

bonoman66

I'm on a 4Mb business product in Celbridge & no sign of any upgrade yet.

Richard Dower

We'll see it in late August knowing €irscum.

tanora78

This post has been deleted.

Sqaull20

Richard Dower wrote: »

We'll see it in late August knowing €irscum.

Richard Dower wrote: »

We'll see it in late August knowing €irscum.

I reckon later..

Its been months since that press release and still no word, if it was going to be released next month or June, they would surely be marketing their " revolutionary " packages about now or in the next couple of weeks...

StickyMcGinty

Sqaull20 wrote: »

I reckon later..

Its been months since that press release and still no word, if it was going to be released next month or June, they would surely be marketing their " revolutionary " packages about now or in the next couple of weeks...

maybe the rollout will be so sporadic if they advertise it they'll be bombarded with calls ?

pbirney

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Are they late again?

... No. It's only April. Be patient. :rolleyes:

Praetorian

pbirney wrote: »

... No. It's only April. Be patient. :rolleyes:

That's a fast connection you have there. Is that an Eircom 12 m/bit package? I only ran speedtest once since the upgrade but not getting as much down the line as you are.

BTW, just to confirm for those that were not sure it's definitely ADSL2+ on the 40 exchanges they've upgraded so far. = Line stats are as follows

Line State Up
Modulation ADSL2+
Data Path Fast

Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 12282 1021
SN Margin (dB) 14.50 9.00
Line Attenuation (dB) 13.00 4.00
CRC Errors 0 0

7.6m/bit for the new high end home package was always such an unusual figure. Realistically the highest speed someone is going to get on ADSL1! So perhaps Eircom are planning to do some of the upgrades without updating hardware or firmware! Are there no Eircom people around to confirm?

Richard Dower

Trust me....they'll find some way to screw us over!

Gummy Panda

Praetorian wrote: »

BTW, just to confirm for those that were not sure it's definitely ADSL2+ on the 40 exchanges they've upgraded so far. = Line stats are as follows

Is there details on these exchanges or which is next for upgrade?

Also people who were upgraded, did Eircom contact you with new cap info?

Richard Dower

Well Roaches St. Limerick is still on 3 Meg...pants!

smellslikeshoes

andyrew120 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

If thats all you are getting there is definitely something a miss, be that phoneline problems, internal wiring or something on eircoms end. If thats all you are getting now on 2meg, that will more than likely not change when you get upgraded to 3meg.

Praetorian

I think you guys should know that the home connections (and slow business connections) probably won't be upgraded until May / June and from what I could gather when I spoke to Eircom, they aren't automatically upgrading people on the high end business packages (6m/bit and 4m/bit). You have to call them to ask for the upgrades just don't forget they are only available in the 40 exchanges at present.

Check it out here

http://home.eircom.net/about/press/2008/January/12107837?view=Standard&main=yes

kaizersoze

Praetorian wrote: »

I think you guys should know that the home connections (and slow business connections) probably won't be upgraded until May / June and from what I could gather when I spoke to Eircom, they aren't automatically upgrading people on the high end business packages (6m/bit and 4m/bit). You have to call them to ask for the upgrades just don't forget they are only available in the 40 exchanges at present.

Check it out here

http://home.eircom.net/about/press/2008/January/12107837?view=Standard&main=yes

4 meg to 10 will be automatic when the upgrades are done. 10 meg doesn't exist at present so you can't ring and request it.

6 meg to 12 will also be automatic but will only be available on the larger urban exchanges. It can be requested now if you're on one of the 40 exchanges.

After the upgrades are done the 2, 4 & 6 meg products won't exist.

jarvis

I've rang BT numerous times on this and get a different answer each time. Should this not be a big thing for them and have better staff awareness? I live in Ashbourne and "Co Meath" was added to the list of 8mb speed coming soon section on their web site but when I rang, the guy didn't know what I was talking about. Very annoying. Feeling teased.