No broadband in Cork City

MRBEAVER

I live in the Silversprings area of Cork City which has no broadband from Eircom. I do call Eircom periodically but no one in the call centre is ever able to tell me why Eircom do not provide broadband to the area of the city I live in or whether there are any plans to upgrade the local exchange in the future. Is it just that they don't know or is it that there are no plans to upgrade Exchange in the medium term.

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

I live in the Silversprings area of Cork City which has no broadband from Eircom. I do call Eircom periodically but no one in the call centre is ever able to tell me why Eircom do not provide broadband to the area of the city I live in or whether there are any plans to upgrade the local exchange in the future. Is it just that they don't know or is it that there are no plans to upgrade Exchange in the medium term.

Hi MRBEAVER

Sorry you have been unable to get any coherent info on this. If you PM me your tel no I can investigate this for you.
Tony

MRBEAVER

Thanks for the reply Tony. I signed up for an Eircom broadband bundle online initially. I foolishly assumed either Eircom provided broadband to the city or that they would not process a broadband bundle order for an address to which they did not provide broadband. My phone was connected and it was while waiting for the broadband that I was lucky enough to speak to a neighbour who told me that Eircom did not provide any service to the area. Eircom eventually admitted that they could not provide broadband and disconnected phone line which I
had never used and didn't need. Most of the houses in estates around here now use radio transmitters from Digiweb but this is not possible for everyone due to line of sight issues. I have pm'd you my address.

eircom: Tony

Thanks MRBEAVER
Will investigate this and get back to you either later today or tomorrow.
Tony

MRBEAVER

Thanks for the pm Tony but I don't have the land line number of any neighbours. I suspect that many will not have landlines due to there being no fixed line broadband available.

Its the Ashmount Cork City Exchange. I spoke to someone in the call centre a few weeks ago who confirmed for me that Eircom will not be enabling this exchange for broadband so I guess I'm stuck with a GPRS dongle for the next few years

Whatever happened to the national rollout of broadband that was announced with such fanfare. I can't help but feel that if Eircom wasn't privitised we would have had full broadband provision in the cities by now.

Matt Bauer

MRBEAVER, is UPC available in your area?

MRBEAVER

Matt Bauer wrote: »

MRBEAVER, is UPC available in your area?

Unfortunately no UPC broadband in the area

This really highlights the negative consequences of giving a monopoly in the provision of fixed line broadband to a private company.

Eircom can simply refuse to provide fixed line broadband to an area and area is left without service. Other providers unable to do anything as they are dependant on Eircom for lines.

Smart economy my arse.

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

Thanks for the pm Tony but I don't have the land line number of any neighbours. I suspect that many will not have landlines due to there being no fixed line broadband available.

Its the Ashmount Cork City Exchange. I spoke to someone in the call centre a few weeks ago who confirmed for me that Eircom will not be enabling this exchange for broadband so I guess I'm stuck with a GPRS dongle for the next few years

Whatever happened to the national rollout of broadband that was announced with such fanfare. I can't help but feel that if Eircom wasn't privitised we would have had full broadband provision in the cities by now.

Hi MRBEAVER
Yes I can see that this exchange is not broadband enabled. I can find no date for this to be enabled but have escalated case for further info.
I hope to have this information today or tomorrow.
Tony

Dazza

MRBEAVER wrote: »

I live in the Silversprings area of Cork City which has no broadband from Eircom. I do call Eircom periodically but no one in the call centre is ever able to tell me why Eircom do not provide broadband to the area of the city I live in or whether there are any plans to upgrade the local exchange in the future. Is it just that they don't know or is it that there are no plans to upgrade Exchange in the medium term.

Try nova networks. They cover silver springs .. http://www.novanetworks.ie/

MRBEAVER

Thanks Darragh. I tried Nova Networks, Ripplecom and Digiweb for radio broadband and they all sent out installers as they are used to providing radio wave broadband for areas in the city where Eircom are refusing to provide fixed line broadband. Unfortunately all their transmitters are on the Southside and depend on line of sight. There are a few large trees in a protected park behind the estate that block the signal.

MRBEAVER

eircom: Tony wrote: »

Hi MRBEAVER
Yes I can see that this exchange is not broadband enabled. I can find no date for this to be enabled

The information that I got from the call centre agent was that Eircom had ended its broadband rollout program to urban areas for economic reasons and that no further exhanges in Cork City or any other city would be broadband enabled. Could you confirm that this is the case?

eircom: Ant

MRBEAVER wrote: »

The information that I got from the call centre agent was that Eircom had ended its broadband rollout program to urban areas for economic reasons and that no further exhanges in Cork City or any other city would be broadband enabled. Could you confirm that this is the case?

Hi MRBEAVER,

Thanks for contacting eircom on Boards and apologies for any delay.

I will check out your query and advise you shortly.

Kind regards,

Ant

eircom: Ant

MRBEAVER wrote: »

The information that I got from the call centre agent was that Eircom had ended its broadband rollout program to urban areas for economic reasons and that no further exhanges in Cork City or any other city would be broadband enabled. Could you confirm that this is the case?

Hi MRBEAVER
eircom are currently engaged in upgrading our existing broadband service to NGB broadband. This involves upgrading exchanges currently broadband enabled. The opinion expressed above appears to be that agent's own but have escalated this to product section for further info. Will post here as soon as I can.
Tony

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

The information that I got from the call centre agent was that Eircom had ended its broadband rollout program to urban areas for economic reasons and that no further exhanges in Cork City or any other city would be broadband enabled. Could you confirm that this is the case?

Hi Mr BEAVER
To followup on my last post. I have had confirmation that eircom are still involved in providing regular broadband to exchanges which have not yet been broadband enabled (Along with the National NGB Roll-out project). In fact three exchanges in other parts of the country are to be enabled by the end of this week.
Unfortunately not the one in your own area. If I do get any info on your exchange I will post it here.
Tony

Dazza

eircom: Tony wrote: »

Hi Mr BEAVER
To followup on my last post. I have had confirmation that eircom are still involved in providing regular broadband to exchanges which have not yet been broadband enabled (Along with the National NGB Roll-out project). In fact three exchanges in other parts of the country are to be enabled by the end of this week.
Unfortunately not the one in your own area. If I do get any info on your exchange I will post it here.
Tony

Where are those exchanges due to be enabled this week located?

Dazza

bump

eircom: Tony

Darragh12 wrote: »

Where are those exchanges due to be enabled this week located?

Hi Darragh12
In Dublin 4, Puckane in North Tipp and another in North County Wexford.
Regards:)
Tony

MRBEAVER

eircom: Tony wrote: »

To followup on my last post. I have had confirmation that eircom are still involved in providing regular broadband to exchanges which have not yet been broadband enabled

Unfortunately not the one in your own area.
Tony

Apologies if the information that Eircom had stopped enabling Exchanges was incorrect. I'm sure the residents of Puckane must be delighted as must the residents of Dublin 4 although I am more than a little surprised that the area in which RTE is headquartered has only now being provided with fixed line broadband now . However I think that my earlier point is still valid in that if Eircom had not been privatised the rollout of fixed line broadband would be much further advanced by now, particularly in urban areas.

Frustratingly I am still unable to get an answer to a fairly straightforward question.

1. Does Eircom have a schedule of Exchanges that are due to be broadband enabled, say within the next two years. I find it hardly credible that Exchanges are being enabled on an ad hoc basis with no forward planning.

2. If there is a list of Exhanges that are due to be broadband enabled in the future are any of the Cork City Exchanges on it?

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

Apologies if the information that Eircom had stopped enabling Exchanges was incorrect. I'm sure the residents of Puckane must be delighted as must the residents of Dublin 4 although I am more than a little surprised that the area in which RTE is headquartered has only now being provided with fixed line broadband now . However I think that my earlier point is still valid in that if Eircom had not been privatised the rollout of fixed line broadband would be much further advanced by now, particularly in urban areas.

Frustratingly I am still unable to get an answer to a fairly straightforward question.

1. Does Eircom have a schedule of Exchanges that are due to be broadband enabled, say within the next two years. I find it hardly credible that Exchanges are being enabled on an ad hoc basis with no forward planning.

2. If there is a list of Exhanges that are due to be broadband enabled in the future are any of the Cork City Exchanges on it?

Hi Mr Beaver
There are approximately 20 exchanges to be enabled for broadband by end of this year. One of these is the Ballycotton exchange in Cork. No dates are currently available for these exchanges.
The Deployment Plan is subject to change as individual projects may be delayed/brought forward due to technical considerations. As such no release of this information is possible. We do release this information when exchanges have been enabled.
Hope this offers some clarity
Tony

MRBEAVER

eircom: Tony wrote: »

There are approximately 20 exchanges to be enabled for broadband by end of this year. One of these is the Ballycotton exchange in Cork.
Tony

Thanks for the information Tony. I understand now why you did not pass it on before. At only 20 Exchanges a year being enabled it will probably be many many years, if ever before fixed line broadband comes to my area.

So no fixed line broadband becuse of Eircoms refusal to enable Exchange, no UPC, no radio broadband because of line of sight, no Wimax in Cork and no 3G coverage from any network. Guess I'm stuck with a GPRS mobile dongle.

Probably unfair though to blame Eircom which is a private company focused on profits. Perhaps what we need is some sort of National broadband Strategy focused on providing some basic broadband to the major towns and cities.

btw Ballycotton is a small town approx 30 miles from the city.

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

Thanks for the information Tony. I understand now why you did not pass it on before. At only 20 Exchanges a year being enabled it will probably be many many years, if ever before fixed line broadband comes to my area.

So no fixed line broadband becuse of Eircoms refusal to enable Exchange, no UPC, no radio broadband because of line of sight, no Wimax in Cork and no 3G coverage from any network. Guess I'm stuck with a GPRS mobile dongle.

Probably unfair though to blame Eircom which is a private company focused on profits. Perhaps what we need is some sort of National broadband Strategy focused on providing some basic broadband to the major towns and cities.

btw Ballycotton is a small town approx 30 miles from the city.

Hi MrBeaver
well the reason I did not post that information before was I did not have it and the query was different. I can certainly understand your frustration at not having a choice of broadband. I believe that discussions are in place re National Broadband Strategy, let hope something comes of this.
Tony

MRBEAVER

eircom: Tony wrote: »

Hi MrBeaver
well the reason I did not post that information before was I did not have it and the query was different.....I believe that discussions are in place re National Broadband Strategy, let hope something comes of this.
Tony

Thanks for the reply Tony. I'm not sure that the query that I first asked in January was that different. I have been trying to find out from the beginning whether there were any plans to provide fixed line broadband to the area of Cork City where I live.

And while it is true that Eircom is a private company without a public service remit, it does have a monopoly on the the provision of fixed line broadband as BT, Vodafone cannot provide a service to areas where Eircom is refusing to enable Exchanges.

You might also ask your colleagues to update the Eircom coverage map which incorrectly (inadvertenely I'm sure) states that Eircom provides fixed line broadband to all of Cork City. The nearest non enabled Exchange is listed as Sallybrook which is approx 5km from the city boundry. It does however list the following exchanges in Cork County which will not be broadband.

Ardgroom Ardfield Ballynoe Ballymacoda
Bweeng Berneys Cross Crossbarry Cape Clear
Caheragh Churchtown Carriganimmy Conna
Cullen Dunderrow Inchydoney Kilcrohane
Lislevane Lyre Meelin Milford
Newcestown Newtownshandrum Rockchapel Sallybrook
Tarelton Templemartin

The FAQs on the site also seem to have been last been updated in 2007 and contain the following gems.

eircom has already upgraded the majority of exchanges to support broadband..... 3% of lines are connected to very small exchanges that eircom does not currently plan to upgrade.

eircom has committed to a very aggressive roll out programme.

There are parts of the country where it is not commercially viable to provide broadband. The Government recognises this and have put in place the National Broadband Scheme.


http://www.broadbandatoz.ie/


As I am sure you are also well aware the National Broadband Scheme which never applied to the area of Cork City that I reside in anyway, has now finished and there are no plans to reactive it in the medium term. According to the Dept of Communications

"The rollout of the provision of NBS services advanced incrementally over a 22 month period and was completed in October 2010. In line with the NBS contract, broadband services are now available to all premises within each of the 1,028 designated NBS Electoral Divisions."

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Tony. I'm not sure that the query that I first asked in January was that different. I have been trying to find out from the beginning whether there were any plans to provide fixed line broadband to the area of Cork City where I live.

And while it is true that Eircom is a private company without a public service remit, it does have a monopoly on the the provision of fixed line broadband as BT, Vodafone cannot provide a service to areas where Eircom is refusing to enable Exchanges.

You might also ask your colleagues to update the Eircom coverage map which incorrectly (inadvertenely I'm sure) states that Eircom provides fixed line broadband to all of Cork City. The nearest non enabled Exchange is listed as Sallybrook which is approx 5km from the city boundry. It does however list the following exchanges in Cork County which will not be broadband.

Ardgroom Ardfield Ballynoe Ballymacoda
Bweeng Berneys Cross Crossbarry Cape Clear
Caheragh Churchtown Carriganimmy Conna
Cullen Dunderrow Inchydoney Kilcrohane
Lislevane Lyre Meelin Milford
Newcestown Newtownshandrum Rockchapel Sallybrook
Tarelton Templemartin

The FAQs on the site also seem to have been last been updated in 2007 and contain the following gems.

eircom has already upgraded the majority of exchanges to support broadband..... 3% of lines are connected to very small exchanges that eircom does not currently plan to upgrade.

eircom has committed to a very aggressive roll out programme.

There are parts of the country where it is not commercially viable to provide broadband. The Government recognises this and have put in place the National Broadband Scheme.


http://www.broadbandatoz.ie/


As I am sure you are also well aware the National Broadband Scheme which never applied to the area of Cork City that I reside in anyway, has now finished and there are no plans to reactive it in the medium term. According to the Dept of Communications

"The rollout of the provision of NBS services advanced incrementally over a 22 month period and was completed in October 2010. In line with the NBS contract, broadband services are now available to all premises within each of the 1,028 designated NBS Electoral Divisions."

Thanks MrBeaver
Online support are aware of some issue with NGB / Broadband area maps and are working on this, but I will make sure that this information is passed on to them.
Re your own area as I replied in previous post unfortunately no plans for further enablement in your own area and no further information available at this time.
Thanks for your posts, certainly shows the usefullness of such forums in sharing information.
Tony

MRBEAVER

eircom: Tony wrote: »

Re your own area as I replied in previous post unfortunately no plans for further enablement in your own area and no further information available at this time.

Thanks Tony. Last post incorrectly phrased. You had indeed already confirmed in an earlier post that Eircom would not be enabling exchanges to provide broadband to my area of the city. Btw the Eircom map still shows fixed line broadband throughout the city. Perhaps you could ask again to have coverage maps amended to show true situation. I'm sure Eircom does not want people to get the wrong impression about the extent of coverage.

I went into an E-mobile shop last week. The sales agent was knowledgeable enough to know that there was no 3G coverage in my part of the city. However he also said said that the reason that no network had 3G coverage was because of Eircoms continued refusal to provide fixed line broadband. This was news to me as I had always assumed that fixed line and 3G were separate. Could anyone confirm whether there is a connection between the two?

eircom: Ant

Thanks again, and apologies for delay.

We have passed on your comments. The online support team are aware of issue and actively working on improving our customer support regarding NGB coverage.

My collague has already advised you on coverage in you area. If you need further information on eircom Broadband services - or alternative broadband options, please call into eircom Sales : 1800503303 (freefone).

Can't really comment on conversation you had with mobile phone vendor. 3G and fixed phonelines are obviously separate and work slightly differently when transferring voice or data.

All the best,
Ant

MRBEAVER

eircom: Ant wrote: »

Thanks again, and apologies for delay.

We have passed on your comments. The online support team are aware of issue and actively working on improving our customer support regarding NGB

If you need further information on eircom Broadband services - or alternative broadband options, please call into eircom Sales : 1800503303 (freefone).

Ant

Totally mystified by your comments as they seem to be unrelated to the subject of this thread. i.e Eircoms refusal to enable an Exchange in Cork City for basic broadband. It's really wonderful that you have a team that is conscientiously actively working on improving NGB customer support but I don't really know what that means and even if I did what does it have to do with the refusal by Eircom to enable an Exchange in Cork City?

And why would I call Broadband Sales to enquire about Eircom Broadband services when your colleague has already confirmed for me that there are no Eircom broadband options in my part of the city and will not be in the future so they would have nothing to sell to me.

Tungsten Tide

@MRBEAVER
What was the Question/Problem?

MRBEAVER

Tungsten Tide wrote: »

@MRBEAVER
What was the Question/Problem?

The initial question was whether Eircom had any plans to enable the Exchange in my part of Cork City for basic broadband. It seems though that this is information that Eircom is not even sharing with its own employees. I was initially charged for a broadband bundle because Eircom staff did not know that Eircom did not provide broadband in my part of the city. Numerous calls to Eircom call centres led me to the conclusion that no one there had any idea whether there would ever be broadband in my part of the city. The Eircom website says that there is broadband in the city even though there isn't . It took months from my initial query before an Eircom rep here was able to confirm that there was no broadband in my part of the city and that there was no plans to provide it in the future.

My annoyance is due to the lack of information and the frustrating secrecy e.g. no release information is possibe for technical reasons and Eircoms refusal to provide a full list of the Exchanges that will not be enabled for broadband. If an Eircom staff member had access to a list of Exchanges that have not and will not be broadband enabled when I signed up for a broadband bundle, it would have saved me a great degree of frustration

Tungsten Tide

MRBEAVER wrote: »

The initial question was whether Eircom had any plans to enable the Exchange in my part of Cork City for basic broadband. It seems though that this is information that Eircom is not even sharing with its own employees. I was initially charged for a broadband bundle because Eircom staff did not know that Eircom did not provide broadband in my part of the city. Numerous calls to Eircom call centres led me to the conclusion that no one there had any idea whether there would ever be broadband in my part of the city. The Eircom website says that there is broadband in the city even though there isn't . It took months from my initial query before an Eircom rep here was able to confirm that there was no broadband in my part of the city and that there was no plans to provide it in the future.

My annoyance is due to the lack of information and the frustrating secrecy e.g. no release information is possibe for technical reasons and Eircoms refusal to provide a full list of the Exchanges that will not be enabled for broadband. If an Eircom staff member had access to a list of Exchanges that have not and will not be broadband enabled when I signed up for a broadband bundle, it would have saved me a great degree of frustration

Can u find the IXP where u r from? see below.

eircom: Tony

MRBEAVER wrote: »

The initial question was whether Eircom had any plans to enable the Exchange in my part of Cork City for basic broadband. It seems though that this is information that Eircom is not even sharing with its own employees. I was initially charged for a broadband bundle because Eircom staff did not know that Eircom did not provide broadband in my part of the city. Numerous calls to Eircom call centres led me to the conclusion that no one there had any idea whether there would ever be broadband in my part of the city. The Eircom website says that there is broadband in the city even though there isn't . It took months from my initial query before an Eircom rep here was able to confirm that there was no broadband in my part of the city and that there was no plans to provide it in the future.

My annoyance is due to the lack of information and the frustrating secrecy e.g. no release information is possibe for technical reasons and Eircoms refusal to provide a full list of the Exchanges that will not be enabled for broadband. If an Eircom staff member had access to a list of Exchanges that have not and will not be broadband enabled when I signed up for a broadband bundle, it would have saved me a great degree of frustration

Hi Mr Beaver
I certainly agree that it should not be difficult to get information regarding your own line or possible upgrades in your area. Unfortunately we are having some issues with the NGB map online ( still working on resolving this) but agents should certainly been able to provide this information. In the majority of cases they would do so.
Most agents would have access also to a list of exchanges enabled, upgraded or due to be upgraded within the near future but we do not have a list of exchanges that will 'not be broadband enabled'.
No such list exists. There are a few areas that are not likely to be enabled within the next 6 to 12 months and these decisions are taken within an operational context.
We do post when exchanges are to be upgraded within immediate future and also once upgraded.
Again my apologies this has been so frustrating an experience for you and anything I can do in the future just let me know.
Tony

lucernarian

Perhaps the OP could have a gander at this thread (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056297554) and maybe send an email to the two TDs mentioning you can't even get basic fixed line broadband in Ireland's second largest city?!

The NBS and RBS talk as if every last town in Ireland has 100% availability which is simply not true, even if they use the bizarre metric of 3G mobile coverage which ComReg love to use at every opportunity. Being stuck in an apartment block can have detrimental effects on 3G signal strength:(