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

bealtine

m8 wrote: »

Was I conned?

Taken from the Vodafone site:

"Always easiest already a Vodafone home broadband customer? We'll contact you as soon as Fibre broadband is available for you to switch."

We've been through this at least a 100 times already...

For an area to be declared "live" 40% of cabinets have to be activated, that means 60% of the cabinets are not active yet.

wheresmybeaver

tarakino wrote: »

Some areas went live in November 2013, has anyone living in those areas placed an order??

I'm in the Glanmire exchange, it went live November finally. I'd already signed up with Vodafone for ADSL in August with the understanding they'd call to sign me up with the Fibre when it became available. I heard nothing even though my phone number was checking out on the Vodafone and eircom websites so I gave them a call about it. In fairness they said they'd be back on to me in a few days and they did ring me back last Tuesday to upgrade. I got the new modem in the post on Friday and the Engineer is calling this Wednesday to install. It meant another 12 months contract though.

Meanwhile my parents are on another exchange that went live in November and although they've received no sales correspondence from anyone their line checks out and they're live on the map. I've ordered fibre online on their behalf with Eircom. There's some weird setup there where the landline was coming from Eircom but the broadband was coming from Vodafone (formerly BT I think) so hopefully that won't cause any issues. Engineer is due out to them Monday week so fingers crossed.

Capt'n Midnight

Just a reminder VDSL uses higher frequencies to get higher speeds. The laws of physics mean you can't go as far over twisted pair at higher frequencies. Since they can't move you closer to the exchange, they are moving the exchange and hopefully it will be closer to you.



Charts for UK, downhill with wind behind you on good non-noisy lines without crosstalk , but you get the idea.
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/adsl2

Frank Garrett

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Just a reminder VDSL uses higher frequencies to get higher speeds. The laws of physics mean you can't go as far over twisted pair at higher frequencies. Since they can't move you closer to the exchange, they are moving the exchange and hopefully it will be closer to you.

That doesn't make sense because the exchange's maximum is 24mb if you live right beside it. If VDSL is "bringing the exchange closer" then more people would be getting the 24mb maximum but no faster than that speed.

I see FTTC as an electrical water pump that is installed where the fiber meets the copper and when that pump is switched on, it increases the pressure down the tube and dramatically increases the flow through the line. It's the perfect analogy because VDSL requires a power supply beside the cabinet.

Capt'n Midnight

Frank Garrett wrote: »

That doesn't make sense because the exchange's maximum is 24mb if you live right beside it.

Regardless of the DSL technology is used, if there's 1.5Km of wire to the exchange/cabinet the max you will get is 20Mb, for 4Km to the exchange/cabinet the max you will get is 3Mb.

You can only get the top speed if you are within 300m wire path, hence the need for cabinets.

The post is more to set people's expectation.

If you are near a cabinet.
If not.

NB. YMMV , just because your neighbours can it get doesn't always mean you can. And yes that would really suck.

kaizersoze

Frank Garrett wrote: »

That doesn't make sense because the exchange's maximum is 24mb if you live right beside it. If VDSL is "bringing the exchange closer" then more people would be getting the 24mb maximum but no faster than that speed.

I see FTTC as an electrical water pump that is installed where the fiber meets the copper and when that pump is switched on, it increases the pressure down the tube and dramatically increases the flow through the line. It's the perfect analogy because VDSL requires a power supply beside the cabinet.

They don't have VDSL2 gear in the exchanges like what's going in the cabinets. The have ADSL/2/2+ gear. The max speed for that is 24. So it doesn't matter if you live inside the exchange, that's as good as it gets.

lucernarian

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Regardless of the DSL technology is used, if there's 1.5Km of wire to the exchange/cabinet the max you will get is 20Mb, for 4Km to the exchange/cabinet the max you will get is 3Mb.

You can only get the top speed if you are within 300m wire path, hence the need for cabinets.

The post is more to set people's expectation.

If you are near a cabinet.
If not.

NB. YMMV , just because your neighbours can it get doesn't always mean you can. And yes that would really suck.

I don't think that's true though. I have a connection able to give a stable 3 mbps ADSL2 connection on a line that eircom themselves told me was 6.5 km long with 78dB attenuation. Now the modem reading is only 55dB even though eircom swore blind that the line couldn't handle more than 1 mbit based on my distance from the exchange.

kaizersoze

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I don't think that's true though. I have a connection able to give a stable 3 mbps ADSL2 connection on a line that eircom themselves told me was 6.5 km long with 78dB attenuation. Now the modem reading is only 55dB even though eircom swore blind that the line couldn't handle more than 1 mbit based on my distance from the exchange.

I'd say your modem is giving the more accurate reading.
Someone will probably correct me :P but I doubt a line with 78dB would even prequal for broadband. Highest I've seen in my travels is 66dB and they struggle to get a stable 1 meg.

Every line is different though.

hellboy99

Just got mine done, couldn't be happier

kaizersoze

hellboy99 wrote: »

Just got mine done, couldn't be happier

Sweet. Upload should be closer to 20 given your dload of ~70 shouldn't it?

fat-tony

hellboy99 wrote: »

Just got mine done, couldn't be happier

Excellent figures (though upload could be faster)! I'm sitting here patiently (or should I say impatiently!) waiting on the technician to upgrade me. Was your switchover fairly seamless? After the technician wired in the new NTU how long did it take for Voda to switch on the service?

hellboy99

kaizersoze wrote: »

Sweet. Upload should be closer to 20 given your dload of ~70 shouldn't it?

Just ran another test, seems about right now, must of been the speedtest server

kaizersoze

hellboy99 wrote: »

Just ran another test, seems about right now, must of been the speedtest server

That's spot on. Enjoy.:)

hellboy99

fat-tony wrote: »

Was your switchover fairly seamless? After the technician wired in the new NTU how long did it take for Voda to switch on the service?

All done today in 20 minutes, VF sent out the new router 2 weeks ago so was just a matter of plugging that in when the engineers were done.

HellboundIRL

Why do I only ever see Vodafone customers with 70mb? I don't think I've seen anyone with Eircom post those kind of speeds, it's generally all 50mb. I know it depends on your line and distance from the cabinet but I still see all 70mb stats coming from Vodafone.

Mc Love

HellboundIRL wrote: »

Why do I only ever see Vodafone customers with 70mb? I don't think I've seen anyone with Eircom post those kind of speeds, it's generally all 50mb.

Who knows?! I was with Eircom adsl and was only getting 1.6 MB's and now I'm getting 4.5 MB's with VF! Nothing else was changed bar the carrier!

hellboy99

HellboundIRL wrote: »

Why do I only ever see Vodafone customers with 70mb? I don't think I've seen anyone with Eircom post those kind of speeds, it's generally all 50mb. I know it depends on your line and distance from the cabinet but I still see all 70mb stats coming from Vodafone.

Cabinet is behind my house and the exchange is just up the road a bit from it so that all helps.

fat-tony

hellboy99 wrote: »

All done today in 20 minutes, VF sent out the new router 2 weeks ago so was just a matter of plugging that in when the engineers were done.

I got a call shortly after my post. The KN tech disconnected my line (at the cabinet) at 15:20 and it came back about 5 mins later. Did a quick speedtest just as he was pulling up at the door and was encouraged at over 60Mbps. 40 mins later he had everything done and here's the result:

naughto

ordered e fiber last week from eircom the stand alone package for 40 a month
i am still waiting for an Installation date.

toptix

HellboundIRL wrote: »

Why do I only ever see Vodafone customers with 70mb? I don't think I've seen anyone with Eircom post those kind of speeds, it's generally all 50mb. I know it depends on your line and distance from the cabinet but I still see all 70mb stats coming from Vodafone.

think it has something to do with the tv rollout
they are giving lower speeds for stability

Anybody have any idea when there rolling this out in Athlone?

AlanS181824

I was told it'd be May next year again Sky fully launched their Fibre..

Frank Garrett

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Anybody have any idea when there rolling this out in Athlone?

Check the map here: http://www.eircom.net/efibreinfo/map/

I had a quick look and it says: February 2014.

Frank Garrett

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I was told it'd be May next year again Sky fully launched their Fibre..

Who told you this?

AlanS181824

Frank Garrett wrote: »

Who told you this?

Some woman called Emma when I was on the phone with Sky, she said it'll launch in April with full blown coverage, ads and what not in May.

jca

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I was told it'd be May next year again Sky fully launched their Fibre..

They told me the same. They won't launch/join the fibre until its nearer completion. I said to the girl it might be too late by April/May 2014 as there was only 192 connections available per cabinet.

Frank Garrett

jca wrote: »

They told me the same. They won't launch/join the fibre until its nearer completion. I said to the girl it might be too late by April/May 2014 as there was only 192 connections available per cabinet.

Those connections in the cabinet, they go back to the exchange, right? So, at the exchange, wouldn't the technician just switch the connection from Eircom to Sky? Is that how it works?

AlanS181824

I really hope there was some way I could leave Sky without incurring any fees....

Frank Garrett

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I really hope there was some way I could leave Sky without incurring any fees....

Are you experiencing a loss of speed lately like the other on the Sky forum? If your speeds are not what you were promised, then you can leave because your contract with them is not being fulfilled.

jca

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I really hope there was some way I could leave Sky without incurring any fees....

I'm trying to leave them too. I changed to Vodafone in September but my BB still hasn't been moved over:mad: After getting charged by two providers this month I'm not a happy camper. Look at this great result for a 16 meg line http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3094688717