Exchanges that were broadband enabled. In 2012

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At the beginning of the year there were approx 270 Exchanges that had not yet been enabled for basic broadband

Could an Eircom Rep provide the following information?

How many Exchanges have been broadband enabled in 2012?

The names of these Exchanges.

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And bump.

A few things should probably be noted here although they have been said many times before. And thanks to Spongebob for filling info gaps left by Eircom reps.

1. Eircom has a monopoly in the enabling of Exchanges for fixed line broadband in Ireland.

2 Eircom has previously "promised" to enable many of the non enabled Exchanges. In particular

- Exchanges Listed on the now abandoned 2007 Broadband rollout program.

- Exchanges in the five major urban areas which Eircom promised to broadband enable in 2007 (take all orders promise)

So once again one simple question

1 How many Exchanges have been enabled for basic broadband by Eircom in 2012 ?

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And bump

How many Exchanges were enabled for basic slow broadband by Eircom in 2012?

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And bump.

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And bump it would be great as well if rep doesn't try to derail thread by posting about something that is unrelated to the simple straightforward question above. ( e.g upgrading of already enabled Exchanges)

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Bump

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Bump

Sponge Bob

I reckon this thread has more posts than there are eircom exchanges broadband enabled in 2012. The best part of 300 exchanges were never done.

regress

Perhaps. But we have received repeated assurances from Eircom reps that the rollout of fixed line broadband in Ireland "has not been abandoned".

If they are telling the truth then they should be able to provide us with a full list of all the Exchanges that were broadband enabled in 2012. Maybe listed chronologically or alphabetically or as a county by county breakdown.

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And bump

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Bump

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The great thing with bumping this is that is highlighting Eircoms refusal to answer a straightforward basic question.

So once again how many of the approx 270 Enchanges that had telephone line only available have been broadband enabled in 2012. How many of the non enabled Exchanges In the major cities. have been broadband enabled in 2012? How many Exchanges from the 2007 Broadband Rollout Program have been broadband enabled in 2012?

IE2012

you will be asking in 2013, how many cabs did eircom enable for FTTC




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Headshot

Pity this thread wont be a sticky

regress

IE2012 wrote: »

you will be asking in 2013, how many cabs did eircom enable for FTTC

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Not asking about FTTC fibre or NGB. Asking about progress by Eircom in rolling out bog standard sub 1mb fixed line broadband to the towns and cities of Ireland.

TCP/IP

Why do you require such information I can understand wanting to know coverage around you own house but why all exchanges that are not enabled.
I have no connection with Eircom and have no products from them I use UPC. I just wondering what you motives are?

regress

Because finding out how many Exchanges have been enabled nationally in 2012 will give an indication of the progress of fixed line broadband rollout and the chances of individual Exchanges being enabled. Eircom reps have consistently refused to say which individual Exchanges will be enabled in the future.

The information on the number and names non enabled Exchanges i.e. approx 270 was provided. by Spongebob. This is information that Eircom reps here refused to provide.


So we now know roughly the names and number of Exchanges that were not enabled for fixed line broadband. The reps have said thet for commercial reasons that they are refusing to say which Exchanges will be enabled in the future. All they are saying is that the broadband rollout program has not been avandonded.


So the least they can do is tell us the names of the Exchanges that were enabled for fixed line broadband in 2012.

TCP/IP

regress wrote: »

Because finding out how many Exchanges have been enabled nationally in 2012 will give an indication of the progress of fixed line broadband rollout and the chances of individual Exchanges being enabled. Eircom reps have consistently refused to say which individual Exchanges will be enabled in the future.

I don't think you will get this information as it could be commercially sensitive.
What use is this information to you personally. Say if you live Kildare what use is what exchanges are still not enabled in say Louth as an example.

Sponge Bob

What is of interest is that a lot of surplus ( Alcatel DSLAM) equipment will be available from 2013 as the VDSL program cannibalises ADSL1 and ADSL2 demand.

These units will be indoor gear and they can easily be installed in some of the 270 exchanges that have no Broadband at present AND where fibre is installed already.

In fact they are written off in accounting terms and can therefore be installed only for the price of the diesel and labour in those exchanges.

Crosschecking Galway and The Fibre Map with non enabled exchanges I see that Kilrickle ( announced April 2007 and still not done) along with Maam Letterfrack and Tully Cross are eminently doable with this surplus equipment.

Other exchanges can be done with an STM1 Wireless link instead of fibre, especially where they are used for Tetra or Meteor and have a mast onsite. eg Kilronan or Newbridge and then there is Woodlawn which has BT fibre within a few yards .....for 15 years already.

Many a good home for their surplus gear there and that is only a quick look see. Plenty more like those in every county in Ireland.

TCP/IP

Sponge Bob wrote: »

What is of interest is that a lot of surplus ( Alcatel DSLAM) equipment will be available from 2013 as the VDSL program cannibalises ADSL1 and ADSL2 demand.

These units will be indoor gear and they can easily be installed in some of the 270 exchanges that have no Broadband at present AND where fibre is installed already.

In fact they are written off in accounting terms and can therefore be installed only for the price of the diesel and labour in those exchanges.

Crosschecking Galway and The Fibre Map with non enabled exchanges I see that Kilrickle ( announced April 2007 and still not done) along with Maam Letterfrack and Tully Cross are eminently doable with this surplus equipment.

Other exchanges can be done with an STM1 Wireless link instead of fibre, especially where they are used for Tetra or Meteor and have a mast onsite. eg Kilronan or Newbridge and then there is Woodlawn which has BT fibre within a few yards .....for 15 years already.

Many a good home for their surplus gear there and that is only a quick look see. Plenty more like those in every county in Ireland.

Agreed loads of equipment that could be reused and I am sure Eircom will look at what is left over after current upgrades and will use as they see fit. As new exchanges if any come on-line I am sure they will announce them. As you are well aware some exchanges are simply not worth upgrading from commercial point of view.

Debs_Mann

Would love to see eircom, upgrade the phone lines in estates. There is a fibre network built outside estate by Government but no company seems to be using it to provide fast services.

Phone lines from our exchange are creaking and being sticky plastered all the time by eircom engineers.

Money really needs to be invested in to our phone lines

Solair

The rollout is painfully slow, that's for sure!

Not only might there be old ADSL equipment available from VDSL-enabled areas, but also the cost of ADSL equipment has definitely dropped dramatically over the last decade or so, as has the cost of a lot of other equipment needed for backhaul!

This stuff is 'old hat' at this stage.

Sponge Bob

TCP/IP wrote: »

As you are well aware some exchanges are simply not worth upgrading from commercial point of view.

I pointed out exchanges that had space and that had backhaul in situ.

Even if an exchange only has 200 active lines ( but does have backhaul and space) you may take it that 70% of those lines will take DSL. That is because most people have a phone line to get broadband nowadays.

70% of 200 is 140.

€20 extra revenue from broadband per line is 140x€20 or €2800 a Month or €33,000 a year.

You would make it back in year one.

You are correct in saying that there are commercial issues where for example the exchange has 100 lines and is on an island or where the exchange only has 16mbits of backhaul on a copper T3 shared with a nearby small exchange of course.

However at least 70 of the 270 exchanges that do not have ADSL make perfect commercial sense if you have surplus equipment.

Since someone mentioned Louth Louth only has 2 non enabled exchanges. Readypenny with an easy STM1 shot ( no fibre there) and another in Racecourse Road which really should be rolled in with the rest of Dundalk for cabinetisation as it probably has fibre.

TCP/IP

Hopefully they will reuse this equipment I think the exchange getting back-haul is not that much of a problem its the quality of the last mile were it really gets tricky. A corporate would look at these last exchanges and review the quality of the lines extending to the houses and see that a lot of them will never carry broadband without new cables laid and then the costs really do start to mount.
Commercially better to redirect you small budgets getting FTTC to larger areas were the quality of the last mile would be much higher.

Sponge Bob

TCP/IP wrote: »

Hopefully they will reuse this equipment I think the exchange getting back-haul is not that much of a problem its the quality of the last mile were it really gets tricky.

Lets be honest about this. eircom have never deployed small scale DSL units ( 24 and 48 port types) even though they could easily do so. The cost per port for a 24 port unit is around where the cost per port was for a 256 port unit in 2007.

Given that installation of same is much quicker inside a small exchange where space can generally be found in a rack the quality of copper argument is not as big an issue. In 2006 when the 2007 rollout was planned there had to be 128 to 256 'good lines' likely to take up BB , you could drop that to 24 - 48 'good lines' if you had fibre onsite...as many small exchanges do nowadays.

There is no way that 270 exchanges, considered uneconomic in 2006, are necessarily uneconomic by the same criteria now. Think perhaps more like 150 exchanges at most.

Consequently there is no excuse for eircom to abandon these exchanges...bar the amount of easy money they still make on dialup in some cases.

Even the economics of fibre backhaul have changed. It had to be buried 10 years ago or wrapped around thick power cables (to prevent bending and stretching) but it can be slung on overhead poles nowadays and is more tolerant of stretching and bending....as eircom well know seeing as they have deployed overhead fibre.

Solair

Ultimately, they'll just lose the custom entirely if they don't move.

Wireless access technologies are improving rapidly and some of the providers out there like Digiweb and Nova Networks are able to provide services that way exceed what eircom can do over a rural phone line. They also provide reliable voice services that replace eircom entirely.

Combine that with the rollout of LTE and rapidly dropping mobile voice prices, why would you be bothered with a landline at all if it can't provide broadband?

Blueface and Three an even provide you with a landline number on your mobile, if you're particularly keen on having one.

The classic PSTN landline is rapidly becoming a bit of a dead duck, without DSL it would have been even deader much sooner!

Also, I am actually beginning to wonder what exactly eircom are going to do when their old PSTN switches (and they are really getting very old, many date from the 1980s) become completely life-expired.

Surely the policy they should be looking at is ripping out ancient 1980s PSTN/ISDN switches and replacing them with some kind of modern, low-maintenance, cheap MSAN that delivers broadband and voice all out of one simple box and back hauls the whole lot over a single fibre / radio link using MPLS or something similar. They're ideal for rural areas. You'd simplify the backhaul and the network maintenance.

TCP/IP

Solair wrote: »

Ultimately, they'll just lose the custom entirely if they don't move.

Wireless access technologies are improving rapidly and some of the providers out there like Digiweb and Nova Networks are able to provide services that way exceed what eircom can do over a rural phone line. They also provide reliable voice services that replace eircom entirely.

Combine that with the rollout of LTE and rapidly dropping mobile voice prices, why would you be bothered with a landline at all if it can't provide broadband?

Blueface and Three an even provide you with a landline number on your mobile, if you're particularly keen on having one.

I agree in certain parts of the country I can only see wireless as an option.
Fact is most houses in the country will never see FTTH or even FTTC

Sponge Bob

Solair wrote: »

Surely the policy they should be looking at is ripping out ancient 1980s PSTN/ISDN switches and replacing them with some kind of modern, low-maintenance, cheap MSAN that delivers broadband and voice all out of one simple box and back hauls the whole lot over a single fibre / radio link using MPLS or something similar. They're ideal for rural areas. You'd simplify the backhaul and the network maintenance.

They made a decision as early as 2007 not to deploy MSANs.

Solair

Why would they flatly rule out a technology that was still a bit immature in 2007.
Seems utterly daft as it's a pretty slick solution for small exchanges and is definitely being deployed elsewhere.

You can shove an MSAN in a cabinet on the street too and you've instant voice and VDSL without all the crazy complex wiring needed to support legacy voice switches and DSL.

They should be deploying something like an MSAN and maybe something like a serious wireless product delivered from any mast associated with the exchange site.

At the end of the day, it's just an access nice with a fibre pipe.

I just don't understand what they're up to, other than ignoring rural areas / small exchange areas and hoping they go away.

Sponge Bob

Solair wrote: »

Why would they flatly rule out a technology that was still a bit immature in 2007.
Seems utterly daft as it's a pretty slick solution for small exchanges and is definitely being deployed elsewhere. .

Ah yeah but then there would be a USO on that line. The VDSL only cab ( no pots) means that eircoms USO ends on a VoIP softswitch in Dublin not in your house and it is up to YOU to log into that VoIP server.

2 stroke

TCP/IP wrote: »

Why do you require such information I can understand wanting to know coverage around you own house but why all exchanges that are not enabled.
I have no connection with Eircom and have no products from them I use UPC. I just wondering what you motives are?

Personally I'd like to know when I can contact people living in these areas with something resembling modern technology. Just a few days ago, a relative asked if I could send her some pics that she heard I had on facebook. I offered to post them on cd. She asked me to print them out instead, as she had no computer at home as she couldn't get internet.
I am an eircom customer on a reasonably good line for my area. I get .9Mb on a 8Mb deal. I cannot email some of my neighbours as they can't get broadband. Their kids sometimes have to come over to my house to do their homework. I stay with eircom as I believe if I move, my line will be swapped to a complaining eircom customer.

So eircom when will I be able to email anyone I want to in the 26 counties?