Eircom announces that broadband rollout has been abandoned

regress

For years I have been trying to get Eircom reps to admit that the rollout of fixed line broadband in Ireland has been abandoned or get them to provide any sort of explanation or justification for it. I have not succeeded. The facts are not contested.

1 In 2007 Eircom promised to rollout fixed line broadband throughout the five major urban areas. This of course never happened. For years reps have refused to provide any explanation or apology.

2 In 2007 Eircom promised to enable certain named Exchanges. Eircom reps here have for years refused to provide any explanation for why these Exchanges were never enabled.

Although Eircom is a private company they control the Exchanges and no other company can provide fixed line broadband services to any of the parts of the country serviced by exchanges that they are refusing to enable. Leaving control of these Exchanges with Eircom has  a social and economic cost.

Surely a debate is needed as to whether there is a public interest justification in the state taking control of the 270+ Exchanges that Eircom has decided that it will never broadband enable.

Sponge Bob

There is no doubt that eircom will be left with a substantial quantity of 'surplus' Alcatel ADSL2 equipment once VDSL is enabled later this year and that a programme designed to transfer this surplus equipment to rural exchanges,many of which rural exchanges already have more than adequate fibre backhaul, would be the right thing to do in simple commercial terms. The grey market for 'surplus' Alcatel ADSL1 and ADSL2 gear is not exactly hopping. The ADSL2 gear is only a few years old and I doubt that eircom have depreciated it to grey market values yet...the urban ADSL1 gear may be worthless in accounting terms....but not technically life expired by any means.  

I see no reason why eircom cannot complete the 15 exchanges they announced 6 years ago, during 2013, as well as perhaps another 50 or 60 exchanges where backhaul is not a problem.

The remaining exchanges, somewhere between 100 and 200, are not only small but in certain cases they have primitive 1980s era backhaul as well. It is sometimes possible to offer ADSL1 type services capped at 2-3mbits on even those exchanges....especially if one already has the equipment as is the case with eircom.

What is not in doubt is that eircom have transitioned from a telephone company to a broadband company...a substantial majority of eircom customers have a line nowadays because they can obtain xDSL services on the line and if they find an alternative provider for the broadband they will abandon the line completely. If eircom wish to keep these customers they must offer a compelling reason...stable xDSL services being the main such reason.

However the Reps on here represent eircom retail and not eircom wholesale who actually own and control the exchanges and as such the reps on here can only pass comments 'up the line' as it were.

Cheerful Spring

Sponge Bob wrote: »

There is no doubt that eircom will be left with a substantial quantity of 'surplus' Alcatel ADSL2 equipment once VDSL is enabled later this year and that a programme designed to transfer this surplus equipment to rural exchanges,many of which rural exchanges already have more than adequate fibre backhaul, would be the right thing to do in simple commercial terms. The grey market for 'surplus' Alcatel ADSL1 and ADSL2 gear is not exactly hopping. The ADSL2 gear is only a few years old and I doubt that eircom have depreciated it to grey market values yet...the urban ADSL1 gear may be worthless in accounting terms....but not technically life expired by any means.  

I see no reason why eircom cannot complete the 15 exchanges they announced 6 years ago, during 2013, as well as perhaps another 50 or 60 exchanges where backhaul is not a problem.

The remaining exchanges, somewhere between 100 and 200, are not only small but in certain cases they have primitive 1980s era backhaul as well. It is sometimes possible to offer ADSL1 type services capped at 2-3mbits on even those exchanges....especially if one already has the equipment as is the case with eircom.

What is not in doubt is that eircom have transitioned from a telephone company to a broadband company...a substantial majority of eircom customers have a line nowadays because they can obtain xDSL services on the line and if they find an alternative provider for the broadband they will abandon the line completely. If eircom wish to keep these customers they must offer a compelling reason...stable xDSL services being the main such reason.

However the Reps on here represent eircom retail and not eircom wholesale who actually own and control the exchanges and as such the reps on here can only pass comments 'up the line' as it were.Inm

Informative post. I'm living in a village outside Limerick city and i am connected to an ASDL1 exchange, have been for 5 years.

Think its about time i got upgraded to ASDL2 if not fibre?

There is about 600 to 800 people living in my area.

 Eircom, why do you not look at the internet as a longterm investment? 

Internet is going to be with us for a long time and any money invested in  rural areas is likely going to be recouped in time.

600 people in one area, how people would have to connect to fibre for it to be profitable?