Telecom Infrastructure

barneysplash

Hello All

I am interested in learning about Irelands telecom infrastructure.

I'd be very interested in discussing the below topics, and anything
else you think might be relevant:

Does anyone know of any articles about the history of Telecom Eireann?

How much fibre optic cable is laid around the country?

Why didn't the Minitel system take off?

Do all Internet Service Providers use Eircoms cables and network exchanges?

Can we compete and win investment against other small sophisticated countries like
South Korea, Denmark and Estonia without the same very high speed
broadband networks they enjoy?

Please post any thoughts or ideas.

Theta

ESB have a large fiber ring

Some info Here

Heanet have a large ring also with INEX but I dont know about the structure of it.
Its a 10 Gbit link I think
Heanet

I think Digiweb has some fiber dont they?? Vast majority of eircoms network is not fiber.

A very interesting article on how Amsterdam wired every home in the city with Fiber and how it would be done elsewhere.

Amsterdam wired for open access fiber.

rmacm

barneysplash wrote: »

Hello All

I am interested in learning about Irelands telecom infrastructure.

I'd be very interested in discussing the below topics, and anything
else you think might be relevant:

Does anyone know of any articles about the history of Telecom Eireann?

How much fibre optic cable is laid around the country?

Why didn't the Minitel system take off?

Do all Internet Service Providers use Eircoms cables and network exchanges?

Can we compete and win investment against other small sophisticated countries like
South Korea, Denmark and Estonia without the same very high speed
broadband networks they enjoy?

Please post any thoughts or ideas.

This wouldn't be homework per chance?

I'll try answer a few of your questions.

For voice Eircom use a mixture of Ericsson and Alcatel - Lucent equipment. AXEs from Ericsson and I believe the Alcatel switch is the E10. The network is hierarchical in nature with international, national transit and local exchanges.

As for articles about the history of Eircom/Telecom Eireann I don't have any to hand but I'm sure google will help you out.

There's a lot of fibre laid around the country by various different operators including Eircom, Vodafone (BT), ESB Telecoms etc.

Some providers do use Eircoms equipment e.g. Eircom bit stream resellers. Other operators would install their own equipment in Eircom exchanges and use this.

Theta

rmacm wrote: »

For voice Eircom use a mixture of Ericsson and Alcatel - Lucent equipment. AXEs from Ericsson and I believe the Alcatel switch is the E10. The network is hierarchical in nature with international, national transit and local exchanges.

Tisk tisk tisk

barneysplash

It's not homework

I'm just interested in how so much can happen so quickly.

I mean 15 years ago when I stated using computers, it was
56 kps dial up modems and TEIS (Telecom Eireann Information Systems) floppy disk software.

I remember using the Minitel as a teenager at some trade fair in the Point
depot in Dublin. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

I used to work in a telecom equipment factory, Tellabs in Drogheda, about 10 years ago,
but I was just a shift working nobody and didn't get a chance to learn anything before
the factory closed, during the height of the dot com bubble madness.

I'd love to see some old footage of Telecom Eireann facilities when they
switched from the old clunky exchanges to digital switches.

Solair

barneysplash wrote: »

It's not homework

I'm just interested in how so much can happen so quickly.

I mean 15 years ago when I stated using computers, it was
56 kps dial up modems and TEIS (Telecom Eireann Information Systems) floppy disk software.

I remember using the Minitel as a teenager at some trade fair in the Point
depot in Dublin. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

I used to work in a telecom equipment factory, Tellabs in Drogheda, about 10 years ago,
but I was just a shift working nobody and didn't get a chance to learn anything before
the factory closed, during the height of the dot com bubble madness.

I'd love to see some old footage of Telecom Eireann facilities when they
switched from the old clunky exchanges to digital switches.

Someone put up footage of the conversion of Telecom Eireann's Dennehy's Cross (Cork City) Ericsson ARF Crossbar Exchange (electromechanical 1970s) to Ericsson AXE digital. It would have supported touch-tone dialing and was computerised, but it was not digital.

This local exchange served a large area of Cork City's western suburbs all the 021 454 XXXX area until 1999 when it was converted to digtal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lAkv_F1G3g

barneysplash

That's such a cool vid!

Thanks so much for posting.

barneysplash

rmacm wrote: »

For voice Eircom use a mixture of Ericsson and Alcatel - Lucent equipment. AXEs from Ericsson and I believe the Alcatel switch is the E10. The network is hierarchical in nature with international, national transit and local exchanges.

I recently heard a story about how during the late 1970s, French telecom company,
Alcatel, had won a massive contract to supply Iran with telecom equipment.

However, the revolution of 1979 put an end to the pro-western Shah's Iran, and French
President Francois Mitterrand persuaded his pal Charles Haughey to buy the lot
on the cheap.

Sheldons Brain

On the day that is in it, it is appropriate to remember Albert Reynolds RIP, who turned the Irish telephone system from a joke into something decent which provided a platform for subsequent developments.

He ended this


and the process started this