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

ED E

You really arent being rational here.

VDSL is available to over 800,000 homes so far, well en route to the 1.4 Mil mark that they're aiming for. You happen to be in a delayed area, get over it.

SeamusFX

I think you're the one being irrational. Our country is only just starting to come out of 3rd world infrastructure status due to the of the incompetence of Eircom. Also, based on a lot of data I have seen, I don't believe we have VDSL available to over 800,000 homes.

murphaph

SeamusFX wrote: »

I think you're the one being irrational. Our country is only just starting to come out of 3rd world infrastructure status due to the of the incompetence of Eircom. Also, based on a lot of data I have seen, I don't believe we have VDSL available to over 800,000 homes.

Link?

SeamusFX

murphaph wrote: »

Link?

Why don't you show me an impartial link that proves there are over 800,000 homes in the country that high speed broadband, other than an Eircom marketing blurb. I'm sorry, I just don't believe it, since I know of too many people and locations across the country with inferior service.

eezipc

I live about 10 minutes outside Galway and the best I can get is 4mb broadband with Eircom/Vodafone etc so reading about speeds of 70mb makes my eyes water.
However, I am lucky compared to my parents who cannot even get basic broadband. I have rang Eircom a few times and every time I have been told that they have no intention of installing broadband in that area and they will have to make do with mobile broadband. The area is in Mayo and it's not that remote. Not too far from Ballinrobe where efibre is on the way.
I think it is a bit shameful that there are still so many houses in Ireland that cannot get basic broadband.

fish fingers

eezipc wrote: »

I live about 10 minutes outside Galway and the best I can get is 4mb broadband with Eircom/Vodafone etc so reading about speeds of 70mb makes my eyes water.
However, I am lucky compared to my parents who cannot even get basic broadband. I have rang Eircom a few times and every time I have been told that they have no intention of installing broadband in that area and they will have to make do with mobile broadband. The area is in Mayo and it's not that remote. Not too far from Ballinrobe where efibre is on the way.
I think it is a bit shameful that there are still so many houses in Ireland that cannot get basic broadband.

I'm in oranmore which is 10 mins from Galway, I'm up a boreen, all I get is 4mb also. The junction is just down the way, I rang eircom and was given the usual bull why I wasn't connected to efibre.
Very frustrating when you have 2 children who use broadband at the same time as my wife and I. I'm paying the same money as everyone else for a let's be honest poor service in this day and age.

murphaph

SeamusFX wrote: »

Why don't you show me an impartial link that proves there are over 800,000 homes in the country that high speed broadband, other than an Eircom marketing blurb. I'm sorry, I just don't believe it, since I know of too many people and locations across the country with inferior service.

So you have no "impartial data" as you claim to have seen, beyond some anecdotes by disgruntled customers or would be customers who can't accept that some cabinets have issues that are out of Eircom's hands.

murphaph

Guys, those of you living down boreens are going to have to be much more patient I'm afraid. The ribbon development patterns we see so often in Ireland are the hardest to provide any form of DSL to. Poor broadband in this case really is related to the lifestyle choice of housing. FTTH is the only real fixed broadband solution for such houses because the attenuation of fibre is almost nil. The fact is though that it isn't remotely economic to go installing FTTH to such properties.

The best you can hope for in may cases will be for the nearest village to get VDSL and from there to get wireless BB or indeed to set up community BB yourselves.

They are doing the right thing by bringing fibre to hundreds of villages and towns. That will be required no matter what the next phase is. Fibre has to be driven deeper into the country and the VDSL rollout is doing that and doing it much faster than many other countries. The rate at which Eircom is bringing cabinets on stream is actually really impressive!

bk

SeamusFX wrote: »

Why don't you show me an impartial link that proves there are over 800,000 homes in the country that high speed broadband, other than an Eircom marketing blurb. I'm sorry, I just don't believe it, since I know of too many people and locations across the country with inferior service.

MOD WARNING: SeamusFX please calm down.

I can assure you that the 800,000 figure is correct, such numbers are carefully reported to ComReg. They don't just make them up.

The fact is that this rollout is incredibly impressive and incredibly fast. We are seeing a whole new Eircom here, in a very short period of time we are seeing up to 100mb/s broadband being rolled out to the majority of the country.

This is one of the fastest rollouts I've ever observed in Europe. They are also one of the very first companies to rollout Vectoring anywhere in the world. The VDSL product has proven to be much faster and more stable then I was ever expecting.

Major props to Eircom here.

Yes, I know it is very frustrating being one of the people who can't get it yet, when everyone else seems to be getting it, however you just need to learn to calm down, relax and wait.

Also as has already been pointed out, when an area is delayed, it usually isn't Eircoms fault, it is usually an issue with the local planning authority, ESB, etc.

Eircom really are committed to getting this rolled out as quickly as possible and to as many people as possible. It is in their financial interest to do so.

jca

Had a great morning here. I was down at the place where all my local eircom workers convene. We spent an hour laughing at the people who can't get eFibre and then torrented at 1gb/s till we puked..... Great to live where the Eircom workers live.....

Delboy5

How can i check if my phone line is direct from an exchange or from a cabinet?

On eircoms wholesale site, im seeing the nearest cabinet to me going live next week, if i put my number into eircom site it tells me that efibre will be going live in my area this month but not available yet......however if i put the phone number of someone approx 100m from the same cabinet they can order efibre......!?!

SeamusFX

bk wrote: »

MOD WARNING: SeamusFX please calm down.

I can assure you that the 800,000 figure is correct, such numbers are carefully reported to ComReg. They don't just make them up.

The fact is that this rollout is incredibly impressive and incredibly fast. We are seeing a whole new Eircom here, in a very short period of time we are seeing up to 100mb/s broadband being rolled out to the majority of the country.

This is one of the fastest rollouts I've ever observed in Europe. They are also one of the very first companies to rollout Vectoring anywhere in the world. The VDSL product has proven to be much faster and more stable then I was ever expecting.

Major props to Eircom here.

Yes, I know it is very frustrating being one of the people who can't get it yet, when everyone else seems to be getting it, however you just need to learn to calm down, relax and wait.

Also as has already been pointed out, when an area is delayed, it usually isn't Eircoms fault, it is usually an issue with the local planning authority, ESB, etc.

Eircom really are committed to getting this rolled out as quickly as possible and to as many people as possible. It is in their financial interest to do so.

BK,

I am calm, just unhappy with bad service and terrible customer service since none of these delays are ever communicated to the customers. Maybe you should tell some of the others that are selfishly gloating about their 100Mbs to calm down.

First let's consider how many homes are in Ireland, as we know from the LPT, even the CSO isn't certain and depending on the source that number can vary from 1.6 million to about 2 million, but we also know over 330,000 homes are currently vacant, so if we assume there are about 1.5 million occupied homes, if the 800,000 number is genuine, then that would mean slightly more than half of the homes in the country have high speed broadband but obviously they all don't want broadband, so if you assume about 20% don't want and/or can't afford broadband, then that means 1.2 million want it, so if the 800k number is accurate, then Eircom is claiming 2/3 of the country has high speed broadband. Considering how many people I know in various parts of the country that can't get high speed broadband, I have to seriously question this number and I think some of the posts here help prove my point. I also suppose the other question is to define what exactly Eircom means by 'high speed broadband'? I have peaked with a speed of about 5Mbps, but typically it's 1Mbps or less, in this age, I wouldn't consider that high speed broadband and I can see there are many others in the same boat as me. But if you're getting real 'high speed broadband', then good for you, but please don't assume everything is rosy in the garden, just because you're happy!

galtee boy

I live about 500m from the nearest fibre cabinet,but when I check on the Eircom website, it says my number, can receive a max speed of only 40 mb, why is that ?

Gonzo

have to agree while Eircom's rollout is great for towns and large villages, anyone living beyond the town's housing estates is basically screwed, even if they are within range of a cabinet they are not connected to one.

More needs to be done to connect everybody in the town and start rolling out the communities who live within 1-3km of most towns/villages. These are areas where there is still quite a few people living.

Where I live is less than 2km from dunshaughlin, there are about 60 houses within 1 square km but no cabinet, no fibre. Im sure there are plenty of other areas like this all over Ireland who are close enough to a town but because it's not a housing estate in a town they are just left out in the cold. If Eircom could install smaller cabinets in these areas it would capture alot more people, 1 such cabinet would get everybody in my area, not alot of expense.

It looks good that most Eircom exchanges now have fibre 'in the area' but if the Dunshaughlin exchange is anything to go by, it's truly misleading as the majority of the exchange district is not fibre enabled and probably never will be.

I agree that once off housing and the more rural areas with sparse housing is not economical for most types of fibre, but there are quite a few areas close to towns and villages where a single smaller cabinet would provide high speed fibre broadband to most of the remaining people.

Ah-Watch

ahhhhhhhhh

I went to order Vodafone fibre broadband today in work as the vodafone line checker now shows our area as being covered and all my neighbours lines prequal at 100Meg and although my number prequals on the eircom gateway as 100 Meg it doesn't prequal with Vodafone, whats that all about? Anyhow I'm heading off in 3 weeks for 5 weeks so hopefully by the time I get back they'll have everything sorted and I can go back to grinning at the relations with their 1Meg line

efb

People want their one off rural housing and fibre broadband- not economical I'm afraid

jeffk

I live in a housing estate in Dublin and want more than the first ten houses to have it and im told wait till 2015 and we might know

jayo99

bk - maybe your experience with Eircom is one in a million but just ask anyone that has to deal with Eircom on a regular basis as part of their day-to-day work has anything thing changed and you'll get a different response.

Whether it be incorrectly assigned IP addresses, or f*cked up configuration, or just general lack of interest - nothing has changed at Eircom.

My brother has spoken to 6 different people at Eircom regarding a single issue, having to recount the details to each person in turn and still it is not resolved. He is doing the running - Eircom have never phoned him back once!

OneEightSeven

efb wrote: »

People want their one off rural housing and fibre broadband- not economical I'm afraid

In this day and age, I would only live in the countryside if I was a millionaire. That way, I could pay a company to install fibre to the home for my house.

SeamusFX

efb wrote: »

People want their one off rural housing and fibre broadband- not economical I'm afraid

Unfortunately there are still plenty of housing estates in the Claregalway area and plenty of other areas in the country that aren't once of rural houses that still do not have access to high speed broadband.

efb

SeamusFX wrote: »

Unfortunately there are still plenty of housing estates in the Claregalway area and plenty of other areas in the country that aren't once of rural houses that still do not have access to high speed broadband.

Well that really is a planning issue- and Ireland are do good at that...

Most new estates are lucky to have footpaths and lighting.

SeamusFX

efb wrote: »

Well that really is a planning issue- and Ireland are do good at that...

Most new estates are lucky to have footpaths and lighting.

No, in the Claregalway area, it isn't a planning issue, High Speed Broadband isn't available in any of the housing estates.

OneEightSeven

SeamusFX wrote: »

No, in the Claregalway area, it isn't a planning issue, High Speed Broadband isn't available in any of the housing estates.

Not until September:

SeamusFX

Hi OneEightSeven,

Yes, I can read, but that wasn't my point, I was replying to other posts that implied everyone that didn't have High Speed Internet were living in once off housing in remote areas and another post implying that it was an issue with one particular housing estate that hadn't been wired properly, as opposed to the entire Claregalway area. Also, previously the schedule date was June-14, prior to that it was May-14, April-14, Jan-14, Dec-13, Oct-13, Sept-13, June-13, Jan-13,...... get my point? At this rate, I won't be too surprised if I'm still posting about no High Speed access a year from now.

OneEightSeven

SeamusFX wrote: »

Hi OneEightSeven,

Yes, I can read, but that wasn't my point, I was replying to other posts that implied everyone that didn't have High Speed Internet were living in once off housing in remote areas and another post implying that it was an issue with one particular housing estate that hadn't been wired properly, as opposed to the entire Claregalway area. Also, previously the schedule date was June-14, prior to that it was May-14, April-14, Jan-14, Dec-13, Oct-13, Sept-13, June-13, Jan-13,...... get my point? At this rate, I won't be too surprised if I'm still posting about no High Speed access a year from now.

Eircom will target area where UPC are snatching their customers. This is the only reason why Eircom are upgrading to from ADSL to VDSL in the first place.

Prior to this, eircom were content with charging exorbitant prices for broadband. In 2012, I was paying €65 for 10Mb. Now, I'm paying €40 for the same speed.

bk

SeamusFX wrote: »

if the 800,000 number is genuine, then that would mean slightly more than half of the homes in the country have high speed broadband but obviously they all don't want broadband, so if you assume about 20% don't want and/or can't afford broadband, then that means 1.2 million want it, so if the 800k number is accurate, then Eircom is claiming 2/3 of the country has high speed broadband.

Eircom aren't claiming this at all! Go read their press release:

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/news/eircom_Wholesale_passes_100,000_Fibre_milestone/

They are saying that as of March this year:

- Their Efibre network is available to 750,000 homes (about 40 to 50% of all homes).
- 100,000 people have signed up to the service so far
- The eFibre network will pass 1.4 million homes (about 80% of all homes) by 2016

There are two ways of looking at this, your glass half empty view, or the glass half full, where Eircom has very impressively rolled out upto 100mb/s BB to almost half the country in just one year!!

That is an incredibly impressive achievement. That is 50% of the country going from being stuck on 1 to 20mb/s BB to now getting upto 100mb/s, in just one year.

And to add to that they expect to service almost 80% of the country in the next two years, that is pretty damn good going.

Gonzo wrote: »

have to agree while Eircom's rollout is great for towns and large villages, anyone living beyond the town's housing estates is basically screwed, even if they are within range of a cabinet they are not connected to one.

I disagree, I've already seen them connect up rural areas outside towns and villages. It just isn't possible to do it overnight and each area just has to be patient and wait it's turn.

However the reality is that Eircom is a private company and they are going to do the most profitable areas first.

The first phase seems to be the easy to do cabinets in relatively populous areas, but it does seem to include rural areas.

Next phase seems to be direct feed exchange only lines. Eircom are currently trialling this (different tech used from the Huawei cabs), once it goes ahead, it should bring another 400,000 homes onto their eFibre network, including many rural homes (many rural homes are direct feed from exchanges).

After that is all down, I agree with you, I hope they will turn their focusing to all the gaps and areas they missed first time around.

I hope they look at rerouting cables to go to closer cabs and also install new junctions and cabs where possible. Also hopefully they will look into using smaller cabs and reach enable technology to reach further off rural clusters of homes and even some one off homes.

I believe that is the plan, we have already seen them putting in new junction boxes and cabs in some rural areas. I think this is evident from the schedule. They were able to reach the 800,000 mark very quickly in just one year, but the next 800,000 is scheduled to take 2 years. I believe that is because the first 800,000 were the low hanging fruit in densley populated areas, the remaining ones will take a lot more time and effort to do.

It will happen, but it isn't going to happen overnight, people just need to be patient.

efb

SeamusFX wrote: »

Hi OneEightSeven,

Yes, I can read, but that wasn't my point, I was replying to other posts that implied everyone that didn't have High Speed Internet were living in once off housing in remote areas and another post implying that it was an issue with one particular housing estate that hadn't been wired properly, as opposed to the entire Claregalway area. Also, previously the schedule date was June-14, prior to that it was May-14, April-14, Jan-14, Dec-13, Oct-13, Sept-13, June-13, Jan-13,...... get my point? At this rate, I won't be too surprised if I'm still posting about no High Speed access a year from now.

I wasn't referring to you btw- So Claregalway is on the list. Probably lower down due to it's population

KIERAN1

Posted by BK

- Their Efibre network is available to 750,000 homes (about 40 to 50% of all homes).
- 100,000 people have signed up to the service so far
- The eFibre network will pass 1.4 million homes (about 80% of all homes) by 2016

This is exactly why i don't think its a good idea to bring ESB fibre to cities and towns already connected to fibre, least not now.

Eircom only 100,000 people signed up for its new service. Why? Will ESB get enough people to sign up for the new service? Eircom has only begun to hit rural areas and hardly anyone in large urban areas is using the service not substantial at all.

I would have preferred if they brought it to villages with populations of 700 to 1000 Small towns 2,000 to 3,000

bk

KIERAN1 wrote: »

Eircom only 100,000 people signed up for its new service. Why? Will ESB get enough people to sign up for the new service? Eircom has only begun to hit rural areas and hardly anyone in large urban areas is using the service not substantial at all.

MOD: This thread is about Eircom's fibre rollout, not about the ESB or rural fibre, please discuss these topics elsewhere.

Johnboy1951

bk wrote:

That is an incredibly impressive achievement. That is 50% of the country going from being stuck on 1 to 20mb/s BB to now getting upto 100mb/s, in just one year.

That is quite a spread ...... 1 to 20Mb/s

The vast majority of those on the lower end of that spread, and thus those who would benefit most, are likely not in the larger centres of population.

I suspect the % take-up in more rural areas would be far greater than what Eircom has experienced to date in the city areas.

Hopefully those 100,000 plus users will allow Eircom to service the more rural areas where their penetration should be greater.