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

TheChizler

Solair wrote: »

Given the state of the telephone wiring in some people's homes - mostly DIY jobs and electricians not quite getting it right, it's probably very important that they call out.

...

Don't think we're not too bad! Got CAT5e running directly from the current NTU to under the stairs where we've got all our equipment. If it comes to it we could probably move the modem position up the line and convert the CAT5 from phone to ethernet. We're a good few months down the line on the rollout anyway so no need to worry for the time being.

D'Peoples Voice

Just saw this today.....Americans - are they paranoid or what?
How many Irish people taking up Eircom fibre's product would even give it a second thought that the company helping in the rollout, Huawei, have supposed connections with the military.

http://www.telecomramblings.com/2013/02/hibernias-express-buildout-suspended-due-to-huaweis-us-problems/

Hibernia’s Express Buildout Suspended Due to Huawei’s US Problems
February 11th, 2013 by Robert Powell

According to an article by Capacity this morning, Hibernia Atlantic has now halted all work on its Hibernia Express transatlantic cable project due to the uncertainty around its vendor Huawei’s status in the US market.

Huawei has been under fire in the USA in regards to possible security risks that might derive from its relationships with the Chinese military.

Hibernia is now looking at the possibility of replacing Huawei with another vendor, with Alcatel-Lucent and TE Subcom already looking at it. If they do switch, it would still push the system’s operational date back at least until the end of 2014.

petersburg2002

petersburg2002 wrote: »

Eircom lads are now at the end on my estate drilling up the footpath near the old green box. Plenty of orange cabling. At Mayfield in the Cork city suburbs (was meant to go live with Glanmire, December 2013 ) Less than 40 metres from my front door. Will have a chat with them later before updating the map.

Just went down the hill and a brand new cabinet is now is situ in Briar Wood at the Entrance to Lotamore Estate in Cork. Hope I have put it on the map correctly.

TheChizler

petersburg2002 wrote: »

Just went down the hill and a brand new cabinet is now is situ in Briar Wood at the Entrance to Lotamore Estate in Cork. Hope I have put it on the map correctly.

Looks good! You added 3 markers was it just the 1 you meant to do? I've grouped it with the others on the 1st page of the map anyway.

petersburg2002

TheChizler wrote: »

Looks good! You added 3 markers was it just the 1 you meant to do? I've grouped it with the others on the 1st page of the map anyway.

THought it wasnt saved, hence the three. But just the one new cabinet there (about three feet away from the old cabinet). Never thought I would be so excited to see a big green box. Its about 40 feet from my front door:D

red_bairn

petersburg2002 wrote: »

THought it wasnt saved, hence the three. But just the one new cabinet there (about three feet away from the old cabinet). Never thought I would be so excited to see a big green box. Its about 40 feet from my front door:D

So it took them about 3days to sort out the cabinet after they put in the fibre? Did you see the sub ducting going down?

petersburg2002

red_bairn wrote: »

So it took them about 3days to sort out the cabinet after they put in the fibre? Did you see the sub ducting going down?

Well I cant be too sure as I was at work for most of the days in question. But the whole footpath around and onto the road was dug up. And then the whole lot filled in again once they had the cabinet put it. They spent a full three days at it.

Tommy Lagahan

Can we expect better latency with VDSL? Mine isn't bad to start with, 15-35ms from here to Dublin on speedtest. Pings gone up from 15 to 35 since Christmas. Must've been turning off the modem that caused it, resetting it seems to change it every now and then.

Sure enough resetting everything brought it down again.

Mickalus

Solair wrote: »

Using Smart Telecom at the moment, I wonder if it will be a case of an automatic upgrade then?

I called them today to enquire, but they didn't have any updates or any idea of what they're going to be selling or when they'll be selling it.

Mickalus

TheChizler wrote: »

Should be as easy as that! Should.

Seems there's a lot of talk of Eircom sending out technicians to install the VDSL2 modems, is this absolutely necessary?

I wonder how other companies (everyone but Eircom basically) will handle this? Will they need Eircom technicians too? or do they have their own?
I'm with Digiweb and had an issue there recently which saw an Eircom tech come to the house to investigate.....

TheChizler wrote: »

I'm afraid to let anyone else touch the system as the only way me manage to get it running stably is with the right combination and order of turning on router/switch/modem, hopping on one leg while turning around 3 times, opening umbrellas indoors, wearing red etc.

wheresmybeaver

petersburg2002 wrote: »

Well I cant be too sure as I was at work for most of the days in question. But the whole footpath around and onto the road was dug up. And then the whole lot filled in again once they had the cabinet put it. They spent a full three days at it.

I passed it again a few times the last 2 days, first off the digger was gone and the plinth was installed with some pipes and cables sticking out, and as of today the cabinet was installed. Yesterday I also saw Eircom blowing fibre cable near Dunnes at the other end of the Banduff Rd. So I think it's 100% wired and ready to go.

Meanwhile, Eircom were at the entrance to Crawford Woods all day today in a little tent with the pavement opened up, they were also working away behind the wall where there's some sort of junction box. Busy little bees! Doesn't look like a standard installation but I would hazard that it's all setup there now. If someone can confirm that it sounds like a finished installation then I'll add it to the map.

petersburg2002

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

I passed it again a few times the last 2 days, first off the digger was gone and the plinth was installed with some pipes and cables sticking out, and as of today the cabinet was installed. Yesterday I also saw Eircom blowing fibre cable near Dunnes at the other end of the Banduff Rd. So I think it's 100% wired and ready to go.

Meanwhile, Eircom were at the entrance to Crawford Woods all day today in a little tent with the pavement opened up, they were also working away behind the wall where there's some sort of junction box. Busy little bees! Doesn't look like a standard installation but I would hazard that it's all setup there now. If someone can confirm that it sounds like a finished installation then I'll add it to the map.

And let's not forget the cabinet already in Barnavara estate. I've registered my interest on the Efibre contact page. Just hope this isn't going to drag on into next year.

Solair

Mickalus wrote: »

I called them today to enquire, but they didn't have any updates or any idea of what they're going to be selling or when they'll be selling it.

Hmm I might shop around. They were too notch when they were still an independent ISP. I haven't found them as good since Digiweb took over. Their forum support used to be absolutely excellent - real techies!

Our local cabinet is definitely powered up at this stage so it will probably be available on a few weeks!

Cork981

Solair wrote: »

Hmm I might shop around. They were too notch when they were still an independent ISP. I haven't found them as good since Digiweb took over. Their forum support used to be absolutely excellent - real techies!

Our local cabinet is definitely powered up at this stage so it will probably be available on a few weeks!

Noticed a lot of cabs around north cork on the Churchfield exchange don't have power yet.

The red pipe coming up from the ground near cabs attached to the side of poles, have to cabling yet.

red_bairn

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Can we expect better latency with VDSL? Mine isn't bad to start with, 15-35ms from here to Dublin on speedtest. Pings gone up from 15 to 35 since Christmas. Must've been turning off the modem that caused it, resetting it seems to change it every now and then.

Sure enough resetting everything brought it down again.

It will depend on the nodes it passes through on the route to the destination node/server. Are you wishing to have better latency or even a better ping for some particular reason? (i.e.Gaming)

Mickalus

Solair wrote: »

Hmm I might shop around. They were too notch when they were still an independent ISP. I haven't found them as good since Digiweb took over. Their forum support used to be absolutely excellent - real techies!

Our local cabinet is definitely powered up at this stage so it will probably be available on a few weeks!

I've been thinking the same too. I don't want to go back over to Eircom only to find Digiweb/Smart are 20 quid a month cheaper though

If and when we finally get fibre it'll be like Christmas for me. They installed the cabinet next to me about a year ago. been painful waiting with a top speed of 1.7 knowing its right over the road and sitting idle.

Tommy Lagahan

red_bairn wrote: »

It will depend on the nodes it passes through on the route to the destination node/server. Are you wishing to have better latency or even a better ping for some particular reason? (i.e.Gaming)

Gaming ofc :P though tbh it would take a lot to make it better than it is now.
Just gotta keep resetting stuff fairly regular to keep things going smooth.
Few more fibre lines crossing the Atlantic and better routing through Europe
is really all that would help.
I must be one of the few currently happy Eircom customers in the country :pac:

leigh852

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Gaming ofc :P though tbh it would take a lot to make it better than it is now.
Just gotta keep resetting stuff fairly regular to keep things going smooth.
Few more fibre lines crossing the Atlantic and better routing through Europe
is really all that would help.
I must be one of the few currently happy Eircom customers in the country :pac:

Gotta admit, I am a happy eircom customer too. Since the jump to NGB many moons ago I cant complain. Great pings, speed is as steady as a rock, connection never drops out and no hassle if a ever manage to go over the usage allowance. Still really looking forward to the 20th of May though all the same!

red_bairn

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Gaming ofc :P though tbh it would take a lot to make it better than it is now.
Just gotta keep resetting stuff fairly regular to keep things going smooth.
Few more fibre lines crossing the Atlantic and better routing through Europe
is really all that would help.
I must be one of the few currently happy Eircom customers in the country :pac:

When I lived in Korea, my average ping on a gaming server was 8. Most people had 5. These probably lived in Seoul or other large cities (1-10mil). It all depends on the topology, infrastructure etc. Hopefully we'll see better pings after May 20th, even if you aren't in fibre till a later date.

Tommy Lagahan

red_bairn wrote: »

When I lived in Korea, my average ping on a gaming server was 8.

Yeah SK really have their infrastructure in order! The upload increase is probably one of the best things for gaming with this rollout, with so many games relying on P2P connections instead of dedicated servers.
Seems that the links crossing over water are the bottlenecks as far as latency goes for us here in Ireland, hopefully once the abysmal >512Kb upload penetration is sorted they'll look at the backhaul for the nation.
Makes me think, will they handle the contention with so many people (hopefully) jumping in speed at once?
Still, I ain't complaining, I was stuck on Three "broadband" for 4 years
You can see the jumps as you go from IE>GB>NL. NL>AT ain't as bad as GB>NL despite it being a massive distance jump.

Finical

Wondering will this ever hit Castlebar?

red_bairn

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Yeah SK really have their infrastructure in order! The upload increase is probably one of the best things for gaming with this rollout, with so many games relying on P2P connections instead of dedicated servers.
Seems that the links crossing over water are the bottlenecks as far as latency goes for us here in Ireland, hopefully once the abysmal >512Kb upload penetration is sorted they'll look at the backhaul for the nation.
Makes me think, will they handle the contention with so many people (hopefully) jumping in speed at once?

Yeah, I agree. You'll never really get the perfect connection unless in a LAN situation. Tbh, my family is on 6Mbps(pay for 8Mb) and eventhough the ping is around 70+ on a UK server, it aint bad. It's just the bandwidth is an issue when somebody starts streaming. When our town is upgraded and we are sorted by the techy - that issue should be sorted. One month away from the big 'rollover'. I hope that many individuals create start-ups out of this newer, improved tech...and give me a job.

chriss745

red_bairn wrote: »

It will depend on the nodes it passes through on the route to the destination node/server. Are you wishing to have better latency or even a better ping for some particular reason? (i.e.Gaming)

Me and my friend live in the same town around 1 KMs away from each other. He is closer to the telephone exchange. We are in the same package, same provider over ADSL. He has 14ms ping, I have 36ms ping to Dublin. I believe that is due to the length of my loop over copper. I hope when we will have the same "copper length" on VDSL2 I will have a similar pings what he has now.

My mom lives in Hungary, she has the fiber in the housing estate and LAN goes to her home. She lives 120 KMs from Budapest, despite of the distance she has 1ms ping to Budapest. So the technology exist, the question how is it configured.

Baneblade

Finical wrote: »

Wondering will this ever hit Castlebar?

castlebar is part of the launch

red_bairn

chriss745 wrote: »

Me and my friend live in the same town around 1 KMs away from each other. He is closer to the telephone exchange. We are in the same package, same provider over ADSL. He has 14ms ping, I have 36ms ping to Dublin. I believe that is due to the length of my loop over copper. I hope when we will have the same "copper length" on VDSL2 I will have a similar pings what he has now.

My mom lives in Hungary, she has the fiber in the housing estate and LAN goes to her home. She lives 120 KMs from Budapest, despite of the distance she has 1ms ping to Budapest. So the technology exist, the question how is it configured.

Same technology along the route with no hiccups in the setup.

Mc Love

Cant wait for the 20th to come around. Will they be supplying it pretty much straight away or will there be a long waiting time for the install that they need to do?

Yesterday my speed was woeful - 0.16 Mbps.....thats right 0.16 although today is an improvement, around what I normally get 1.50

Solair

I suspect that with some of those Rate Adaptive ADSL setups, there may be an increase in latency due to all the error correction that's going on to fix (in software) what is essentially a hardware problem due to the line length.

The DSLAM in the exchange is basically working overtime to try and deal with poor signal quality over the longer lines using 'forward error correction' (FEC) and interleaving.

Over a shorter line, you can get away without all that overhead which should in theory reduce ping times.

In some cases, you might be better opting for a lower speed on the line and using FastPath rather than Interleaving. ISPs really should give customers more information about this stuff. Top speed's not necessarily what you'd be concerned about for say gaming or VoIP, it's more about ping times and stability.

If you've a long line, it's just going to have to be a trade off between higher speeds or more stability and lower pings. You can't really have both as the line's just not up to it. Laws of physics tend to work against you.

International backhaul comes down to the individual ISPs involved. So, basically if the ping time's being made longer by some weird routing via all sorts of destinations, then they're just cheaping-out on buying enough fibre capacity to overseas destinations, or pushing lots of their residential customers down one narrow route.

The access networks in the local areas / local exchanges are only a very small part of the story when it comes to pings and even overall speeds.

Best way to check is to ping a very local server on the same network / very near by e.g. connceted via the INEX

If that's pinging OK, then it's your ISP's not spending enough on international access.

Ireland actually has pretty seriously good international fibre access for a country this size, so it's available if ISPs want it.

Also, the various national fibre networks are actually pretty excellent and there's a lot of capacity in place via eircom, ESB Telecoms, BT Ireland, and various others.

Hopefully, with this FTTC/FTTH product we'll see what the eircom NGN can really do when you're hooked up to it properly.

iPhone.

Finical wrote: »

Wondering will this ever hit Castlebar?

If Castlebar don't get this as one of the FIRST places to go live it'll be the end of parish pump politics in Ireland as we know it! :D:D

red_bairn

Irish Govt to appoint consultants to map 30Mbps broadband across Ireland.

zzz :rolleyes:

iPhone.

red_bairn wrote: »

Irish Govt to appoint consultants to map 30Mbps broadband across Ireland.

zzz :rolleyes:

Lads, just send them SpongeBobs maps, that'll give them at least a two year start on theirs! :D:D