Rural fibre broadband-will we get it?

Cantona's Collars

Fujitsu plans to roll out fibre broadband to 5 million homes in the UK.The chief executive covers both Britain and Ireland so I wonder if they will ever have plans for a scheme in Ireland?

http://www.digitalspy.ie/digitaltv/news/a314352/fujitsu-to-bring-broadband-to-5m-uk-homes.html

Fujitsu has today announced plans to create a fibre optic broadband network serving 5 million homes in rural Britain, providing an alternative to BT.

In collaboration with Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco, Fujitsu intends to build a fibre optic network providing superfast broadband in hard-to-reach rural areas.

According to Fujitsu, the network will enable community and local groups to access a proportion of funds earmarked by the government to drive superfast broadband investment in rural communities. The network will also provide a "groundbreaking and innovative alternative" to the fibre infrastructure operated by BT.

Last December, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled plans for creating a superfast broadband network serving every community in the UK by 2015. The coalition has set aside around £530m for the funding of broadband rollout projects, with a portion coming from surplus cash from the BBC's digital TV switchover help scheme.

Fujitsu's "open access wholesale network" will be underpinned by communications technology from Cisco. Virgin Media and TalkTalk intend to use the network to bring a range of next generation services to 5m homes in rural areas, including entertainment, remote healthcare, education and government services. The network will also be open to other internet service providers on wholesale terms.

In the majority of areas, Fujitsu will run fibre to the home (FTTH) connectivity rather than just linking up local street cabinets. As a result, the network will be one gigabit (1Gbps) symmetric capable, with the potential to support a staggering 10Gbps service.

Deployment will be managed across a wide range of underground and overhead infrastructure points, in a strategy made possible by Ofcom's recent move to force BT Openreach to open up its infrastructure to other companies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Welcoming the announcement, communication minister Ed Vaizey said: "Superfast broadband is already helping businesses grow and improving the lives of those able to access it. But many rural and hard-to-reach areas are missing out.

"The whole of the UK should be able to share in the benefits of broadband and we are determined to make that happen by the end of the parliament [in 2015]. That is why the government is investing over £500m in taking superfast broadband to everyone."

He added: "Creating [Fujitsu's] superfast broadband network will help improve the economic and social prospects of the homes and businesses where high-speed internet access remains just a dream."

Duncan Tait, chief executive of Fujitsu UK and Ireland, said that this represents a "unique opportunity" to re-establish Fujitsu as a world leader in advanced fibre networks.

"If done correctly this can be a key vehicle to accelerate recovery in the UK and bring genuine choice to generations of communities starved of participating fully in the UK economy," said Tait.

"We believe our approach, in collaboration with these major industry leaders, will provide a future-proofed network for at least the next 20 to 30 years."

Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett added: "Virgin Media's involvement in this groundbreaking project is part of our ongoing drive to rapidly create a step change in the UK's digital evolution.

"Fujitsu's vision and global expertise provides an opportunity to change the game in terms of broadband provision in parts of the UK that are otherwise being left behind. We now have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the ambition of a digitally-enabled society a reality beyond the country's cities and towns."

roast

zerks wrote: »

Fujitsu plans to roll out fibre broadband to 5 million homes in the UK.The chief executive covers both Britain and Ireland so I wonder if they will ever have plans for a scheme in Ireland?

http://www.digitalspy.ie/digitaltv/news/a314352/fujitsu-to-bring-broadband-to-5m-uk-homes.html

I wouldn't count on it. :pac:
The UK is more important to companies like Fujitsu than Ireland is.

jor el

This will never happen in Ireland, certainly not rural areas anyway.

Cantona's Collars

Would it not be another string in ESB's bow if they used their infrasturucture to carry fibre optic lines to homes across the country?
Afaik it has been tried successfully elsewhere,but as usual Ireland lags behind,most towns can't get decent broadband let alone rural areas.

Freddie59

zerks wrote: »

most towns can't get decent broadband let alone rural areas.

And these towns would be??

lucernarian

Drogheda for one. And some smaller towns like Carrickmacross have a particularly decrepit PSTN network

roast

Freddie59 wrote: »

And these towns would be??

Wait, have you not heard? Irelands broadband network is shockingly bad compared to other countries....
Of course, most towns can get broadband. But its woefully bad in the majority of them. My hometown is host to Irelands Garda College.... and hey, from what I can tell, they don't even use phoneline broadband. The infrastructure is shoddy, and the town doesn't even have an NGB exchange. The Garda Station, located elsewhere in the town, is literally a stones throw from the exchange.... but the maximum broadband speed available there is 6.17Mb. There is no Fibre or Cable network in that town. (Tell a lie, there is fiber laid down, but not in use....

Other towns in Tipperary, such as Puckane, have been on Eircoms waiting list for an exchange upgrade since way back when, when Eircom finally rolled out broadband in this country. The only options for the residents are Mobile Midband (Terrible) Fixed Wireless (hardly a "decent" connection, at that) and Satellite broadband (The only suppliers of the latter in that area can't get it right either.....)

Theres two examples. You couldn't even count the number of similar "problem areas" on all of the hands and feet of our lazy government...

As he said:

zerks wrote: »

most towns can't get decent broadband let alone rural areas.

Sponge Bob

If I were prioritising Fibre...and some will be laid in the next few years ...I would first of all do sizeable towns with no Cable TV or a decent MAN and with industrial and other employers such as Dundalk , Drogheda , Castlebar, Shannon and those unserved parts of the large cities like Dublin Cork Limerick Galway and Waterford.

In rural areas they should run fibre to the main local mast for backhaul. If the locals get the finger out and roll fibre from the premises back to that mast they should be entitled to a backhaul connection same as anyone else. But expecting the state to do it, nahh!

djiffou

I wholeheartedly agree as well. This router is awful. Surely with all the complaints, Eircom get from customers, it would make sense to provide something better to then cut down on the cost of dealing with these complaints?

Also improving the infrastructure should be seen as a priority for any governments in this country, specially when trying to attract foreign investment. I have worked in Shannon for over 11 years and every single multinational I have worked for has had huge problems with the quality of the lines.

I guess it's all about making the bucks for the shareholders and doing the bare minimum to maintain the network. :rolleyes:

Sponge Bob

The governments priority is to ensure that the inevitable eircom default does not affect business continuity or sentiment because there is a high quality alternative to eircom and so the inevitable does not matter.

Matt Bauer

We'll get it all right, but only if we move to another country. :rolleyes:

Sponge Bob

Matt Bauer wrote: »

We'll get it all right, but only if we move to another country. :rolleyes:

I know someone who will have a 40mbit-ish download speed in rural Monaghan this year or next year but he will be sending it wirelessly across the border from a neighbours house in the north because there is a river in the way. It will cost him around €40 a month which is what eircom charges the other end of the parish for their 3mbit bundle running at 1.5mbits. Line rental included in all cases and free calls out of hours.

He can even SEE the BT fibre cabinet from his front porch If BT do roll out fibre to the premises ( not just the cabinet) in his general area he and the neighbours will start digging!!!

roast

Sponge Bob wrote: »

He can even SEE the BT fibre cabinet from his front porch If BT do roll out fibre to the premises ( not just the cabinet) in his general area he and the neighbours will start digging!!!

Do you mean the exchange? Or is there an actual FTC cabinet near his house??

chrabo

sam in Dundalk louth, most guys have DSL around 7mb speed. Some parts of Dublin can get magnet fibre brodband and thats all, rest of us can just dream about 100mb speed like i do

Sponge Bob

roast wrote: »

Do you mean the exchange? Or is there an actual FTC cabinet near his house??

Near, just across the border

Noffles

As I sit here struggling with the wireless broadband provider that I am forced to use as there is no physical service available I laugh at the thought of rural fiber....

I have DAILY problems with my current service provider and at this very moment it is running too slow to even load the page up on speedtest.net to try and check it.........

Cantona's Collars

We can but dream of this... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1378852/Virgin-Media-test-worlds-fastest-broadband.html