Greystones - eFibre (Eircom Fibre Roll-out)

red_bairn

barnesa wrote: »

I spoke with Eircom today - they advised that the Greystones exchange is being worked on right now and that they expect Charlesland Park to be available for eFibre by the end of March :-D

Apparently there seems to be some work done for those being affected on ADSL as well on March 20th.

legrand

^^^
What is the 'work' exactly? Could they be possibly be enabling VDSL infrastructure within the exchange to cover those households directly connected?

loyatemu

legrand wrote: »

^^^
What is the 'work' exactly? Could they be possibly be enabling VDSL infrastructure within the exchange to cover those households directly connected?

I've been reliably informed that won't happen (anywhere, not just Greystones) until the end of the year at the earliest

red_bairn

Somebody, can't remember who, informed me that the next stage of development for the Eircom infrastructure will be happening to Greystones over the next year (that might have been late last year that I was told that).

All very vague, lol.

But I would prefer any major changes for the exchange to happen asap because it might just be the reason why we can't connect to the eFibre service.

jpd

My eFibre order update...

Mon 3rd March - I ordered my eFibre online and received an email thanking me for the order and saying that I would be contacted in a few days etc., etc

Tue 11th March - I contacted Eircom on the chat line not having heard from them. Their online agent confirmed that an eFibre account had been set up and that it should progress. I agreed to wait another few days

Wed 19th March - contacted support by telephone but the agent could find no trace of order - she could not search by address only by order number (which I don't have) or name. Could take up to 10 working days, she said so I agreed to wait a while longer.

Not very impressed :-(

red_bairn

The situation with our household's connection and other's in our estate:

Right - the situation with your line is that it is what is known as "direct fed" - this means the line runs from the exchange directly to your house without going through a cabinet at all.

This is why some of the folks around you can get VDSL (cabinet fed) and some can not.

there are about 250,000 lines in Ireland like this so you are far from being alone.

that's the bad news.

the good news is that there are plans to launch EVDSL (Exchange launched VDSL) in the next few months - this means that you would eventually get VDSL & vectoring

BigGeorge

Simple enough question... but maybe not!
Currently with Eircom, area is ready to go for fibre, am out of contract with Eircom - comparing the cost, looks like vodaphone are 5-10 yoyo per month cheaper for the same fibre package.

Anyone got any experience either way for / against switching from Eircom to vodaphone?

ro23

Did exactly what you're looking to do - All grand, had service throughout and no problems with Vodafone so far! - but be wary of the 30 day cancellation period that Eircom have.

If you don't give them 30 day's notice they'll charge you €20, even if you're out of contract.

jpd

My eFibre order update...

Mon 3rd March - I ordered my eFibre online and received an email thanking me for the order and saying that I would be contacted in a few days etc., etc

Tue 11th March - I contacted Eircom on the chat line not having heard from them. Their online agent confirmed that an eFibre account had been set up and that it should progress. I agreed to wait another few days

Wed 19th March - contacted support by telephone but the agent could find no trace of order - she could not search by address only by order number (which I don't have) or name. Could take up to 10 working days, she said so I agreed to wait a while longer.

Fri 21st March - just received text message to say eFibre installation to take place next Thursday 27th - still no wiser to order number but :-)

red_bairn

jpd wrote: »

My eFibre order update...

Mon 3rd March - I ordered my eFibre online and received an email thanking me for the order and saying that I would be contacted in a few days etc., etc

Tue 11th March - I contacted Eircom on the chat line not having heard from them. Their online agent confirmed that an eFibre account had been set up and that it should progress. I agreed to wait another few days

Wed 19th March - contacted support by telephone but the agent could find no trace of order - she could not search by address only by order number (which I don't have) or name. Could take up to 10 working days, she said so I agreed to wait a while longer.

Fri 21st March - just received text message to say eFibre installation to take place next Thursday 27th - still no wiser to order number but :-)

You should contacted by the engineer a few days in advance.

red_bairn

Anybody who is on eFibre at the moment in Greystones notice any speed increases?

Check your modem's web ui and look for it's attainable speed.

fat-tony

red_bairn wrote: »

Anybody who is on eFibre at the moment in Greystones notice any speed increases?

Check your modem's web ui and look for it's attainable speed.

Checking every day on my VF modem! Nothing so far (no vectoring SNR increase even).
My daughter's VF fibre install is due today in Kilcoole (only ordered Monday, modem arrived Tuesday!), so I'll pester the tech with questions about when vectoring will happen in Greystones/NTMK cabinets.

The Real B-man

fat-tony wrote: »

Checking every day on my VF modem! Nothing so far (no vectoring SNR increase even).
My daughter's VF fibre install is due today in Kilcoole (only ordered Monday, modem arrived Tuesday!), so I'll pester the tech with questions about when vectoring will happen in Greystones/NTMK cabinets.

Nothing in Kilcoole yet, my atainable net data rate has always being 101mb interesting to see what vectoring increases it too! then i will be calling them to bump me up from 70mb!

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

Checking every day on my VF modem! Nothing so far (no vectoring SNR increase even).
My daughter's VF fibre install is due today in Kilcoole (only ordered Monday, modem arrived Tuesday!), so I'll pester the tech with questions about when vectoring will happen in Greystones/NTMK cabinets.

Coolio. Our household now has to wait for Exchange VDSL. I'll move out and find a nice cosy home with a fibre connection when I find a job of course.

jpd

My eFibre order update...

Mon 3rd March - I ordered my eFibre online and received an email thanking me for the order and saying that I would be contacted in a few days etc., etc

Tue 11th March - I contacted Eircom on the chat line not having heard from them. Their online agent confirmed that an eFibre account had been set up and that it should progress. I agreed to wait another few days

Wed 19th March - contacted support by telephone but the agent could find no trace of order - she could not search by address only by order number (which I don't have) or name. Could take up to 10 working days, she said so I agreed to wait a while longer.

Fri 21st March - just received text message to say eFibre installation to take place next Thursday 27th - still no wiser to order number but :-)

Thu 27th March - installer arrived at agreed time, but not enough room to access to existing telephone NTU - so order cancelled

The Real B-man

red_bairn wrote: »

Coolio. Our household now has to wait for Exchange VDSL. I'll move out and find a nice cosy home with a fibre connection when I find a job of course.

To Bray for UPC! :P

red_bairn

The Real B-man wrote: »

To Bray for UPC! :P

The funny thing is UPC is in Charlesland...but...yeah..

The Real B-man

red_bairn wrote: »

The funny thing is UPC is in Charlesland...but...yeah..

Its not proper fibre power though yet! its a Microwave link with restricted speed.

JanneG

The Real B-man wrote: »

Its not proper fibre power though yet! its a Microwave link with restricted speed.

200Mb isn't THAT restricted...

fat-tony

red_bairn wrote: »

Coolio. Our household now has to wait for Exchange VDSL. I'll move out and find a nice cosy home with a fibre connection when I find a job of course.

Just a quick update - tech arrived and replaced existing faceplate with new NTU, connected in alarm wires etc. Showed me 70Mb / 20Mb sync on his meter, signed for and he left. About 10-15 mins all in all. VF modem connected at 70Mb and downloaded new firmware immediately and re-booted. All good. Three elapsed days from order - well done VF order process and kn techs:D

edit - tech tells me Charlesland cabs have vectoring turned on and others should follow. Also said that Bellvue Road cab is nearly full! Serves Hillside and Heathervue.

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

Just a quick update - tech arrived and replaced existing faceplate with new NTU, connected in alarm wires etc. Showed me 70Mb / 20Mb sync on his meter, signed for and he left. About 10-15 mins all in all. VF modem connected at 70Mb and downloaded new firmware immediately and re-booted. All good. Three elapsed days from order - well done VF order process and kn techs:D

edit - tech tells me Charlesland cabs have vectoring turned on and others should follow. Also said that Bellvue Road cab is nearly full! Serves Hillside and Heathervue.

I thought you were already set-up? Do you havetwo connections; home and business?

LEIN

The Real B-man wrote: »

Its not proper fibre power though yet! its a Microwave link with restricted speed.

Check the last 40 or so posts in the UPC thread.

fat-tony

red_bairn wrote: »

I thought you were already set-up? Do you havetwo connections; home and business?

You replied to my post regarding my daughter's connection in Kilcoole;)
It's on the NTMK exchange and took three days from order to install!
Two wins for VF in my book:)

BigGeorge

@ro32 - how did you make the transition to VF without incurring the 'cancellation charge' with Eircom?
Do you give them 30 days notice now & contact VF in a few weeks, or at the same time?...all not v clear!

thanks

legrand

chaps

What is the vectoring on / off business. Can someone explain please.

fat-tony

legrand wrote: »

chaps

What is the vectoring on / off business. Can someone explain please.

The problem with sending high frequency signals like ADSL (basic broadband) and VDSL (fibre broadband) down telephone lines originally specified for voice communications is that they cause mutual interference. 'Phone lines were designed to carry voice signals but have now been pressed into carrying data signals at many many multiples of their intended frequencies. The cables which carry the connections to households are composed of bundles of twisted pairs of copper wires - sometimes up to two hundred pairs. High frequency signals sent from cabinet to your house on one pair can end up inducing signals in others. This is known as crosstalk and basically increases the noise in the cable and reduces the available signal to other users. Ultimately it would result in the degredation of service to all users on the cable bundle.
Vectoring is a signalling technique used in the cabinet software and in cooperation with the modem software which reduces the crosstalk in the cables and results in an improvement of the ratio between signal and noise which ultimately benefits all users and allows the ISP to increase overall speeds. The standard fibre install was 70Mb down and 20Mb up, but with vectoring will result in ~100Mb download speeds for those closest to the cabinets and an overall speed increase for those further away and probably extending the reach of the existing service from 1.5km to over 2km.

The initial installs last year did not have vectoring included. The vectoring improvements are now being switched on in a gradual basis.

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

The problem with sending high frequency signals like ADSL (basic broadband) and VDSL (fibre broadband) down telephone lines originally specified for voice communications is that they cause mutual interference. 'Phone lines were designed to carry voice signals but have now been pressed into carrying data signals at many many multiples of their intended frequencies. The cables which carry the connections to households are composed of bundles of twisted pairs of copper wires - sometimes up to two hundred pairs. High frequency signals sent from cabinet to your house on one pair can end up inducing signals in others. This is known as crosstalk and basically increases the noise in the cable and reduces the available signal to other users. Ultimately it would result in the degredation of service to all users on the cable bundle.
Vectoring is a signalling technique used in the cabinet software and in cooperation with the modem software which reduces the crosstalk in the cables and results in an improvement of the ratio between signal and noise which ultimately benefits all users and allows the ISP to increase overall speeds. The standard fibre install was 70Mb down and 20Mb up, but with vectoring will result in ~100Mb download speeds for those closest to the cabinets and an overall speed increase for those further away and probably extending the reach of the existing service from 1.5km to over 2km.

The initial installs last year did not have vectoring included. The vectoring improvements are now being switched on in a gradual basis.

He/she will probably regret asking.

What will they do for those of us on direct-fed lines? Surely they should be setting us up on the nearest cabinet and doing civils for each home since they'll have to do it in the future when they plan to do FTTH.

Eircom will lose out on all those direct-fed customers if ESB begin their work with Vodafone in the next year or so.

barnesa

G'day All,

Charlesland Park here - just ordered eFibre - some time between late last night and midday today, my landline comes up as available for eFibre!

There was a message on the order form indicating that the date is "on 30 April 2014" ... fingers crossed it comes in sooner than that!

Andy

fat-tony

red_bairn wrote: »

He/she will probably regret asking.

What will they do for those of us on direct-fed lines? Surely they should be setting us up on the nearest cabinet and doing civils for each home since they'll have to do it in the future when they plan to do FTTH.

Eircom will lose out on all those direct-fed customers if ESB begin their work with Vodafone in the next year or so.

I understand from reading around the other BB forums on boards that the probability is that they will put the DSLAM kit in the exchanges at some stage and connect the direct-fed lines to it. With vectoring they seem to be able to push out to 1.5km - 2km over the copper pair.
The alternative I suppose would be to see if they could intercept your existing pair and route them to a cabinet nearer? Do you know what route your cable is taking back to the exchange?

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

I understand from reading around the other BB forums on boards that the probability is that they will put the DSLAM kit in the exchanges at some stage and connect the direct-fed lines to it. With vectoring they seem to be able to push out to 1.5km - 2km over the copper pair.
The alternative I suppose would be to see if they could intercept your existing pair and route them to a cabinet nearer? Do you know what route your cable is taking back to the exchange?

Not a clue. Possibly by the laneway out of the Horseshoe on to Rathdown Road, across from St.Kevins.

Unfortunately we are 2.3km away from the exchange, so even if they do that, we're fooked.

red_bairn

Looks like the main street is getting a cabinet outside Insomnia.

It wasn't on the original list. I hope they have one nearer to our household with one near St.Kevin's. There are still missing a few end route to the harbour and Garda station as well as St.Patrick's church.

Edit: Just check the Eircom Wholesale Map and there doesn't even seem to be a cabinet planned for the main street unless that map needs to be updated.

I really don't know how they are gonna work it out for those like our own household where we are on a direct fed because we are 2.3km away from the exchange so even if they have equipment in the exchange, we're screwed because VDSL is worthless at that distance. They'll need to either connect is to the nearest cabinet at the top of our estate or put in a new cabinet near to St.Kevins.

legrand

^^^
If you zoom right in there are two (right next to one another - GRS1_039 and 040) 'planned' cabs at the entrance to the Meridian. Might be that one of these is going in across the road outside Insomnia. Clearly the town-centre is not served by the Bowe Lane cab only.

To add: I spoke to a KN chap maybe 3 months back and as far as he was concerned he thought all the fibre cabs were done for Greystones (clearly not fully in the loop) - but if the map is anything to go by there might be another cab due somewhere in town centre but nowhere else.

red_bairn

legrand wrote: »

^^^
If you zoom right in there are two (right next to one another - GRS1_039 and 040) 'planned' cabs at the entrance to the Meridian. Might be that one of these is going in across the road outside Insomnia. Clearly the town-centre is not served by the Bowe Lane cab only.

To add: I spoke to a KN chap maybe 3 months back and as far as he was concerned he thought all the fibre cabs were done for Greystones (clearly not fully in the loop) - but if the map is anything to go by there might be another cab due somewhere in town centre but nowhere else.

Yeah, you are probably right. Maybe there wasn't a nearby power source from ESB. In some cases VDSL cabinets are 50 to 100m away from a distribution cabinet.

At the top of my head, I know there are about 6 cabinets that still have to be installed:

• Health Centre
• St.Patricks church
• Thornbury (opp)
• Same road as Thornbury, nearer to roundabout (forgot estate)
• Windgates
• Greystones Garda Station

legrand

Given these are not the planned map where these confirmed by others?

pixbyjohn

Connected this morning to Donnybrook Fair cabinet.

fat-tony

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Connected this morning to Donnybrook Fair cabinet.

Are you on a 50Mb package? The speeds are probably way faster than what you are used to, but I would have thought that performance would be better. Can you post your router's DSL stats page and maybe there will be something that can be tweaked? That said, you hear stories that it can take a day or two for the modem training to settle although I was on 70Mb from the kick-off with VF.

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

Are you on a 50Mb package? The speeds are probably way faster than what you are used to, but I would have thought that performance would be better. Can you post your router's DSL stats page and maybe there will be something that can be tweaked? That said, you hear stories that it can take a day or two for the modem training to settle although I was on 70Mb from the kick-off with VF.

Yeah, he might need to wait for it to settle or he just lives 500m + from the cabinet.

fat-tony

Vectoring turned on in the Bellvue Road cabinet. Roll on 100Mb speeds shortly! - apologies red_bairn

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

Vectoring turned on in the Bellvue Road cabinet. Roll on 100Mb speeds shortly! - apologies red_bairn

*Throws arms left to right* Hurray, hurray...life is just perfect...;)

BigGeorge

Spoke with vodafone delgany is due to be fibre enabled on April 9th - at which stage they will start taking order. Spoke to them about the notice period that eircom need to move over and they said they provide that notice to eircom.

Thay said the best speed i can get is 50MB - is there any particular reason for this?

goonie76

Does anyone have an idea of when efibre will be available in holywell, kilcoole ?

Thanks

fat-tony

BigGeorge wrote: »

Spoke with vodafone delgany is due to be fibre enabled on April 9th - at which stage they will start taking order. Spoke to them about the notice period that eircom need to move over and they said they provide that notice to eircom.

Thay said the best speed i can get is 50MB - is there any particular reason for this?

It depends on your distance from the cabinet that serves your house. 70Mb is available up to about 4/500 metres and drops off after that. On actual install it may be different depending on the exact distance and quality of line. A new noise cancelling technology (vectoring) is being rolled out right at the moment which will provide for up to 100Mb for those closest to the cabinet and will improve your potential speed also.

fat-tony

goonie76 wrote: »

Does anyone have an idea of when efibre will be available in holywell, kilcoole ?

Thanks

See this post on eircom's website - http://community.eircom.net/t5/Broadband/ETA-for-eFibre-activation-in-Holywell-Kilcoole/td-p/64103

Sasso

Basic basic question pls. Got call from VF today who I have phone internet package with offering me new state of the art broadband etc etc. I asked to call back as didnt want to get into sales pitch that i didnt know what I was talking about. Based in Woodlands, greystones. Should I sign up to new deal ? is it as good as he says ? what is it basically please ? we use ineternet as family use, kids on wifi on handhelds etc. appreciate any basic opinion or advice or explanation please. Thanks in advance.

red_bairn

Sasso wrote: »

Basic basic question pls. Got call from VF today who I have phone internet package with offering me new state of the art broadband etc etc. I asked to call back as didnt want to get into sales pitch that i didnt know what I was talking about. Based in Woodlands, greystones. Should I sign up to new deal ? is it as good as he says ? what is it basically please ? we use ineternet as family use, kids on wifi on handhelds etc. appreciate any basic opinion or advice or explanation please. Thanks in advance.

If the service is undoubtedly available to you, go for it!

Edit: Added screenshot to show how many homes are available for 100Mbit/s

delta214

Modem came in the post today but im still getting the same speeds (~5Mb/s) Do I have to wait for them to 'activate' it or something?

Edit: I need an engineer to install a new master socket I believe

fat-tony

delta214 wrote: »

Modem came in the post today but im still getting the same speeds (~5Mb/s) Do I have to wait for them to 'activate' it or something?

Edit: I need an engineer to install a new master socket I believe

It's not just the socket - that's to ensure you have a clean signal and that the house extensions are isolated from the VDSL signal. The technician needs to link your line at the local cabinet to give you the fibre speed.
Is this a Vodafone or eircom modem? VF warn you not to connect before the fibre is enabled for some reason. I did anyway The only issue I could see was that I had to redo the port forwarding settings after the fibre install.

red_bairn

fat-tony wrote: »

It's not just the socket - that's to ensure you have a clean signal and that the house extensions are isolated from the VDSL signal. The technician needs to link your line at the local cabinet to give you the fibre speed.
Is this a Vodafone or eircom modem? VF warn you not to connect before the fibre is enabled for some reason. I did anyway The only issue I could see was that I had to redo the port forwarding settings after the fibre install.

You're making these end-users delirious with your jibber jabber

fat-tony

I believe in sharing :P

delta214

fat-tony wrote: »

It's not just the socket - that's to ensure you have a clean signal and that the house extensions are isolated from the VDSL signal. The technician needs to link your line at the local cabinet to give you the fibre speed.
Is this a Vodafone or eircom modem? VF warn you not to connect before the fibre is enabled for some reason. I did anyway The only issue I could see was that I had to redo the port forwarding settings after the fibre install.

Vodafone. And I connected it too (oops :P). The only things I was using port forwarding for I dont use at the moment so i'll leave that for future me to worry about