Eircom eFibre VDSL/FTTC rollout – plans to reach 1.6m premises by mid 2016

markmurphy

AlanS181824 wrote: »

Anyone know when Carlow will get conencted?
My specific area in Carlow isn't listed on the tracker but for Carlow town it says July-Sept.
There are 2 VDSL boxes near my house, one next to the old one and one on it's own.
The don't have any of those tags though.

This is very irrevelant but I'm just curious.

What's up with my ISP saying BT when I've Sky?
It always used to say Esat.

was talking to a Eircom tech...
Says Carlow is next on the list to go live, should be live very soon. within the month....I was asking because Im in bagenalstown, says we "should" be next !!! after carlow town...The Fibre is in bagenalstown area all ready.

Its fairly simple install he says...
1: lay the fibre...
2: install cab !
3: power up!

its kinda a,b ,c....fast. Like connection up your modem to your computer !

Mark.

AlanS181824

markmurphy wrote: »

was talking to a Eircom tech...
Says Carlow is next on the list to go live, should be live very soon. within the month....I was asking because Im in bagenalstown, says we "should" be next !!! after carlow town...The Fibre is in bagenalstown area all ready.

Its fairly simple install he says...
1: lay the fibre...
2: install cab !
3: power up!

its kinda a,b ,c....fast. Like connection up your modem to your computer !

Mark.

Ohhh that has me excited! I live in Graiguecullen which is fairly close to Carlow town, I live right next to Dunne's and there's a cab right outside the entrance to Dunne's

VampiricPadraig

Seen some KN guys at the cabs yesterday outside Monaghan General Hospital.

That pic that someone posted with the top add-on bit hasn't been populated with anything yet, but the guys just seem to be poking at something in the telephone exchange cabinet. There was also 1 other fella poking around in the fiber cabinet.

I wonder what they were doing *strokes beard*

HellboundIRL

Is the map the most accurate or the number checker?? I notice some people getting different time frames (myself included) for when fibre will be available when entering their number on the site.

Map says July-September for my area, number checker says October-December.

SpaceTime

Our area's active, but I'm getting July-September for my line on the line checker.

Switched back to eircom to get this service, and for some unknown reason, even though I signed up for the up-to-24mbit/s service and even though my exchange is 100% definitely NGB enabled, they plonked me onto a 8mbit/s ADSL classic port in the exchange and I am only getting 8mbit/s and it's definitely not ADSL2+ - The modem's reporting "ADSL" and if you set it to only ADSL2+ there's no connection at all.

We had been getting way faster than this with the previous provider on ADSL2+

Rang them today and they claimed I'd ordered 8mbit/s NGB which I absolutely not and then told me that "this conversation would be best had with our sales team - you need to either upgrade to fibre (not available from my cabinet yet) or upgrade to 24mbit/s (what I actually ordered!)

I was also fobbed off with "oh yeah fibre's coming to your area soon enough.. maybe there's no point in us upgrading it to 24mbits as it requires a change of port!"

Hopefully e-fibre arrives soon, but given what the line checker's saying it could be months of ADSL until then and I'd rather have somewhat more than 8mbit/s ...

arctan

what speed were u getting on ADSL2+ with your previous provider and what are you getting now on ADSL ?

SpaceTime

Getting a perfect 8128kbps / 512kbps on ADSL

Had about 14mbits with Vodafone on same line a year ago. Subsequently ceased the line (dialtone remained).

We had Smart on a second line in the interim which is now being ceased. We wanted to activate the eircom service on the other line before ceasibg Smart (also about 15mbit)

I can't be without broadband at home as I occasionally work from home and had heard that switching back from Smart can cause major disruption. That is why we wanted an overlap of services.

I had hoped e fibre was ready to go but our local cabinet was delayed by ESB and missed the launch. Although, I spotted an ESB and Eircom crew hooking it up yesterday. Its been installed for well over two months and had a yellow sticker on the front.


Ive been bouncing messages back and forth with them on their own forum and the online crew are very good.

The guy I spoke to on the phone didn't really want to know though and just kept telling me to phone sales who tell me to phone tech support who tell me to phone sales lol

One of their online guys is now looking into it though. He's doing a good job in general and sorted a few teething problems with voice mail and caller ID and stuff too.

I just got the impression from the tech support phone line that I was being fobbed off though. They almost seemed to think I was being ridiculous for asking!

Their online support is great via the forum.

red_bairn

SpaceTime wrote: »

I had hoped e fibre was ready to go but our local cabinet was delayed by ESB and missed the launch. Although, I spotted an ESB and Eircom crew hooking it up yesterday. Its been installed for well over two months and had a yellow sticker on the front.

Ah, sure it'll be no time indeed! ^_^

SpaceTime

red_bairn wrote: »

Ah, sure it'll be no time indeed! ^_^

Hopefully... It could be July to September according to the line checking website.


I'm just wondering why they took an orfer for up to 24 and connected me to a DSLAM that does up to 8 though.

Ping times are good though and the speed is consistent so its NGB even if ADSL 1.0

Mickalus

Had an interesting call to my door today from an Eircom salesdude.
He had a listing of houses and estimated speeds on a printout, started by telling me I could get 70Mb, followed it up through the conversations by saying my neighbour across the street could get 50Mb, and another up the estate would only get 40Mb according to this sheet of his.

He was trying to sell me Fibre, and was surprised when I told him I got it installed nearly 2 weeks ago
Even more surprised when I told him max I can get is 40Mb, when his sheet said 70! Apparently his sheet was printed that morning an all.

They're some craic!

SpaceTime

I'm probably about 700m from the cabinet so not really expecting much. it will probably be pretty bad.


There another cabinet closer (400-500m) but i have a horrible sense that's not our one

red_bairn

SpaceTime wrote: »

I'm probably about 700m from the cabinet so not really expecting much. it will probably be pretty bad.


There another cabinet closer (400-500m) but i have a horrible sense that's not our one

See the first and sixth post..

SpaceTime

red_bairn wrote: »

See the first and sixth post..

Slightly better than I thought. I suppose as least I'll see a benefit from the upload speed.

It's pretty ropey technology though with that level of drop off of the signal over such a short run of cable. You'd nearly be better just going for FTTH in many respects as the demand for speed keeps going up.

SpaceTime

@arctan :

Here are my DSL stats:

DSL Mode: ITU G.992.1(G.DMT)
Speed: 8128 kbps/512 kbps
Line Attenuation(Down/Up): 26.5 dB/ 17.0 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 13.0 dB/ 21.0 dB

I'm 1.9 km from the exchange (as the streets run on Google Maps)

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

This calculator reckons I should be syncing at 17.6Mbit/s!

allen175

your line should be well able to take more than the 8mbit, get onto sales and have them regrade the package to up to 24mbit.

markmurphy

SpaceTime wrote: »

@arctan :

Here are my DSL stats:

DSL Mode: ITU G.992.1(G.DMT)
Speed: 8128 kbps/512 kbps
Line Attenuation(Down/Up): 26.5 dB/ 17.0 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 13.0 dB/ 21.0 dB

I'm 1.9 km from the exchange (as the streets run on Google Maps)

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

This calculator reckons I should be syncing at 17.6Mbit/s!

I get 10.5 meg...im 2.3K from exchange !

Speed
12285/668 (kbps)
Line Attenuation
32/16 dB

bluemachaveli

SpaceTime wrote: »

@arctan :

Here are my DSL stats:

DSL Mode: ITU G.992.1(G.DMT)
Speed: 8128 kbps/512 kbps
Line Attenuation(Down/Up): 26.5 dB/ 17.0 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 13.0 dB/ 21.0 dB

I'm 1.9 km from the exchange (as the streets run on Google Maps)

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

This calculator reckons I should be syncing at 17.6Mbit/s!

You should get 15/17Mb on that line with no issue. See mine below, line is rated for 12Mb, had it pushed to 15Mb and it's holding fine!

arctan

agreed ... was just curious .... may hav had u on it as temporary measure until the efibre went live

SpaceTime

arctan wrote: »

agreed ... was just curious .... may hav had u on it as temporary measure until the efibre went live

I don't know why they sent me out a brand new Zyxel ADSL2+ modem though. Seems a bit of a waste, I told them I already had one.

Still no indication of the e-fibre going live at the cabinet though.
Do they do a weekly update or something?

arctan

zyxel D1000 is used for both types of ADSL ... can be daily in some places

red_bairn

arctan wrote: »

zyxel D1000 is used for both types of ADSL ... can be daily in some places

Hopefully a nice amount of exchanges go live over the next few weeks.

SpaceTime

arctan wrote: »

zyxel D1000 is used for both types of ADSL ... can be daily in some places

yeah its a D1000 modem. Seems fairly unstable compared to my Netgear though. The WiFi has been dropping connections. Changed channels manually so fingers crossed it might resolve. The modem web configuration utility also seems to be totally erratic. Sometimes it connects, sometimes it doesn't.
I wonder if it's a dud modem?

Otherwise I might switch back to the Netgear modem.

markmurphy

SpaceTime wrote: »

yeah its a D1000 modem. Seems fairly unstable compared to my Netgear though. The WiFi has been dropping connections. Changed channels manually so fingers crossed it might resolve. The modem web configuration utility also seems to be totally erratic. Sometimes it connects, sometimes it doesn't.
I wonder if it's a dud modem?

Otherwise I might switch back to the Netgear modem.

what d1000 modem is the biggest heap of dirt they ever sent me..put it in the bin....using my old modem (4+ years old!) never drops..not like the d1000 when your download a lot..it just goes off...

dirt!

m.

SpaceTime

markmurphy wrote: »

what d1000 modem is the biggest heap of dirt they ever sent me..put it in the bin....using my old modem (4+ years old!) never drops..not like the d1000 when your download a lot..it just goes off...

dirt!

m.

I'm back to the old Netgear modem and it's fine.
The D1000 kept dropping the WiFi network signal and hanging. Even the web configuration system stopped working.
I hope the fibre modem's better! Don't want to be stuck with some heap of junk.

Mark Spilane

SpaceTime wrote: »

Our area's active, but I'm getting July-September for my line on the line checker.

Switched back to eircom to get this service, and for some unknown reason, even though I signed up for the up-to-24mbit/s service and even though my exchange is 100% definitely NGB enabled, they plonked me onto a 8mbit/s ADSL classic port in the exchange and I am only getting 8mbit/s and it's definitely not ADSL2+ - The modem's reporting "ADSL" and if you set it to only ADSL2+ there's no connection at all.

We had been getting way faster than this with the previous provider on ADSL2+

Rang them today and they claimed I'd ordered 8mbit/s NGB which I absolutely not and then told me that "this conversation would be best had with our sales team - you need to either upgrade to fibre (not available from my cabinet yet) or upgrade to 24mbit/s (what I actually ordered!)

I was also fobbed off with "oh yeah fibre's coming to your area soon enough.. maybe there's no point in us upgrading it to 24mbits as it requires a change of port!"

Hopefully e-fibre arrives soon, but given what the line checker's saying it could be months of ADSL until then and I'd rather have somewhat more than 8mbit/s ...

We have been getting the same treatment.
Our phone line is obviously substandard so its easier for Eircom to just tell us that our area is not fibre enabled yet to fob us off. They pretend to look it up but we always end up back at the point where they say we are not on an enabled exchange. But my next door neighbor got efibre installed last week, so we are on an efibre exchange.

Eventually I got chatting with a person in Eircom who told the truth and said that if the line is bad they will just fob you off as the database they have will not have you included as on an exchange thats enabled, even though you are. No hope of getting it at all. He told me that I should get the neighbor to share theirs with me and that was my only chance.

SpaceTime

The issue isn't the exchange though, or the quality of the line either.

The FTTC 'e-fibre' service is provided by a local cabinet. Each cabinet serves a number of lines in any given area. In our case, it's an ESB power issue that was holding things up as they weren't able to get power to the cabinet (even though it was installed for a couple of months). ESB Networks only connected things up during the week.

Some lines aren't supplied by cabinets at all, they may be direct back to the exchange via an underground distribution split. So they'll actually have to either install new cabinets at those sites (where there never was a cabinet before) or they won't get FTTC service.

They've gone for the low hanging fruit first and installed FTTC cabinets next to existing distribution cabinets. The more difficult installations will be areas where there never was a cabinet to start with and they might even have to reorganise the local copper network to make it connect via cabinets.

It's possible you're on a different cabinet to your neighbours or not on a cabinet at all.

I definitely got confirmation that our line's on a fibre cabinet, it's just not enabled yet.

Ask them for a more detailed explanation as to what's going on with your line and if it's actually connected via a cabinet at all

We've the same thing around here, there are about 4 cabinets in reach of the house and 2 are enabled and the other two aren't yet. I'm hopeful that we might get somewhere next week!

I only got info about our area by being a bit brazen and asking an eircom crew that were working on a near-by cabinet. The sales and customer care department seem to have almost no access to any engineering information to give them details of what's actually being installed exactly where and when.

It's very much pot luck though. Seems you could be on a cabinet, could be on a direct feed, could be too far away from a cabinet etc etc.
It's better than nothing, but it's far from universal rollout even in the areas that they're getting to.

I mean, looking at their map, a *HUGE* area of central Dublin's not even on the schedule at all!

byte

I've been told that Donegal town has been hit with snags as a certain duct that traverses a bridge from exchange into the town centre is full to capacity, no room for fiber cabling. And due to the bridge being quite poor now, with a weight restriction added, the CoCo won't allow it to be dug up for an extra duct.

Hopefully, they find a workaround.

liamnojo92

Work still being done in Castlebar in the Mal, the first cabinet has just been put in and the fibre is ready for the vdsl one by the looks of it.

SpaceTime

byte wrote: »

I've been told that Donegal town has been hit with snags as a certain duct that traverses a bridge from exchange into the town centre is full to capacity, no room for fiber cabling. And due to the bridge being quite poor now, with a weight restriction added, the CoCo won't allow it to be dug up for an extra duct.

Hopefully, they find a workaround.

That doesn't sound great.
Is there another route over the river?

byte

SpaceTime wrote: »

That doesn't sound great.
Is there another route over the river?

I was told today, though I wouldn't consider the info reliable atm, that they could route over a different bridge towards other side of town by renting some duct space off the CoCo for a period (this bridge is only a few years old and the CoCo have new, presumably near empty, ducts in it).

In that period, it'd allow them to run the fiber, then when things are running, take away some of the copper that won't be needed in the existing full duct and replace with fibre.

I dunno how that'd work in actuality, but we will see.