SIRO - ESB/Vodafone Fibre To The Home

ED E

Where are you getting GFast from BK? It was in the test bed and then the test village in Mayo then zilch. Everything I've seen is pointing to 100% GPON.

The vast majority of cabs feed too large a radius for GFAST.

irishgeo

Finally a Castlebar launch.

captain_boycott

irishgeo wrote: »

Finally a Castlebar launch.

will believe it when I see it! Any info on what areas/estates will get it?

Gonzo

ED E wrote: »

Where are you getting GFast from BK? It was in the test bed and then the test village in Mayo then zilch. Everything I've seen is pointing to 100% GPON.

The vast majority of cabs feed too large a radius for GFAST.

Im guessing if GFAST was to be successfully deployed many more cabs would need to be deployed as GFAST is far more distance sensitive than the already distance sensitive FTTC, it only gives worthwhile benefit up to 600 meters?

I reckon Eir will do GFAST but only those within 600 meters from the cab will benefit and those between 1km-2km will stay with what they have untill FTTH is rolled out. Eir would have to double the concentration of cabs for GFAST to be properly deployed across all urban areas.

ED E

Why do you reckon though?

• OpenEir copy OpenReach - Openreach have no significant deployment of it yet
• No new cabs(new location) are coming, the whole point of the FTTC system is to use the existing CCP
• Adding GFAST cards to a FTTC cab would mean "wasting" the expensive VDSL2 LTs theyve only just purchased
• GFast will be wide spectrum noise in a cab thats already trying to mitigate FEXT

trompele

redfacedbear wrote: »

Here in Wexford they are working on areas that already have Eir ftth (Heathfield & Bloomfield in Clonard).

I thought they were picking easy to do areas (relatively modern estates with proper ducting) but I also notice they seem to be ready to go on pole-mounted fibre in Carcur (an older part of town).

I saw them also running fibre along main street and yesterday they were around old cinema.

irishgeo

captain_boycott wrote: »

will believe it when I see it! Any info on what areas/estates will get it?

Time to tweet siro and find out.

irishgeo

irishgeo wrote: »

Time to tweet siro and find out.

my address appears in the address checker and in the grey area.

captain_boycott

irishgeo wrote: »

my address appears in the address checker and in the grey area.

me too! But still going to remain skeptical that this has as much chance of happening in the next 12 months as Mayo have of ever winning SAM!

Mickeroo

irishgeo wrote: »

my address appears in the address checker and in the grey area.

Where can you check this?

bk

ED E wrote: »

Why do you reckon though?

• OpenEir copy OpenReach - Openreach have no significant deployment of it yet

The reason I think Eir will do G.FAST, is because it seems BT/Openreach are going full steam ahead with G.FAST. It seems their trials were very successful and they are now moving onto large scale trial/initial phase deployment:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/06/bt-openreach-reveals-g-fast-broadband-cabinet-extension-pod.html

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/09/bt-reveal-massive-uk-g-fast-pilot-lr-vdsl-broadband-trial-areas.html

I agree with what Gonzo said. They won't install new cabs for this, just bang extensions on existing cabs and offer 300Mb/s out to 500 meters. People beyond that will just continue on VDSL, similar to how those beyond 2000 meters stayed on ADSL.

The benefit for them is that if it is cheap enough to do, it gives 50% or so of their urban customers a nice bump up to "good enough" 300Mb/s, thus giving them breathing space to continue with the FTTH rollout in rural areas, before switching to urban areas and the people who are more then 500 meters from a cab.

A G.Fast rollout would likely be much faster and cheaper then the FTTC rollout, never mind vastly more expensive FTTH. No new fibre is needed, no new ducts, no new cabs, no new electrical works. Just reuse the existing FTTC fibre/ducts/cabs/electrical and bang a G.Fast extension on the existing FTTC cabs.

Seems like a really cheap and easy, stop gap solution.

BTW The CEO of Eir has previously said they are looking at both G.Fast and VDSL2 Long Reach.

Gonzo

G Fast seems to be well in use in Spain, Movistar are offering 12 months of 300/30 for only 26.90 per month, normally 41 per month.
http://www.movistar.es/particulares/internet/adsl-fibra-optica/fibra-optica-100mb

I wonder how soon will Eir start to roll this out to urban cabinets.

Johnboy1951

Gonzo wrote: »

G Fast seems to be well in use in Spain, Movistar are offering 12 months of 300/30 for only 26.90 per month, normally 41 per month.
http://www.movistar.es/particulares/internet/adsl-fibra-optica/fibra-optica-100mb

I wonder how soon will Eir start to roll this out to urban cabinets.

EDIT:

The kicker is in the details as usual!

Google translate:

Promotion for new high 300Mb Fiber (subject to coverage) that are contracted through this channel online. Touted Price: 26.9 € / month for 12 months (not including line fee € 17.40 / month) employable until 31.10.2016 . After the promotion will pass automatically billed to your PVP off promotion: 41 € / month (not including line fee € 17.40 / month). It includes 500 minutes / month to domestic mobile on Saturdays and Sundays and 50 minutes / month from Monday to Sunday. (Offer not valid for migration from copper to fiber). The installation fee is € 157.3, which is free with the commitment to maintain the optical fiber 12 months (early departure penalty proportional to the time failed to comply with a maximum amount equal to the subsidized quota). Fiber Service symmetric (300 Mb 300 Mb download and upload), optional contract for the Customer, has a quota of 5 € / month. All prices include VAT (Peninsula and Balearic applies VAT 21%, 10% IPSI Ceuta, Melilla IPSI 4% and 7% IGIC Canary Islands). Terms of Service available in www.movistar.es.

Kristopherus

irishgeo wrote: »

my address appears in the address checker and in the grey area.

So does mine. But we had Eir in the area pulling cables in the last 2 weeks. 2 vans were outside my gaff today for a couple of hours, but no sign of Eir personnel:).

Kristopherus

Mickeroo wrote: »

Where can you check this?

http://siro.ie/roll-out/.

Type your address on the line at the top LH corner of the page.

Mgit

Anyone else with Siro and the Vodafone tv service having issues with the hg659 modems needing a reboot once in a while to kick them back to life? See the text below that I just posted on the vodafone thread.

***********************************************
Just to make you aware there is some frustrating shortcomings in siro / lightspeed techsupport call centre and TV service.

Initially when I signed up to the service and called the helpline with some queries last April I found the agent extremely knowledgeable and answered all my queries.

My recent experience regarding my current issue has been very poor. There seems to be a hardware fault with my current modem because every once in a while the modem goes offline. This has happened twice in the one week on some occasions, and gone for a month or 6 weeks without issue on other times. When the broadband goes offline the hg659 modem does not broadcast a wifi signal, the tv service doesn't work and gets stuck at a Vodafone loading screen, recording's are missed, if I plug a laptop into the modem it cannot get an ip address or connect to the Web interface on modem.
Once I pull power from modem and restart all is fine again for a period.
If the modem is powered up with no wired connection to anything including wan then it will broadcast a WiFi signal, and a plugged in laptop will get an ip address and be able to connect to the modem Web interface. As I can't do any of these when the service is down I know it's a problem with the modem. If some of your proper technical staff read this I'm sure they will agree but it's frustrating trying to explain this to you call centre agents and getting told there is no issue. They keep referring to the ont but this has nothing to do with my modems ability to broadcast a WiFi signal etc as mentioned above.

I have called a month ago about this issue, and again tonight and have been fobbed off both times and have been told they can see no issues. They said the modem restarted at 12:27 today but apart from that there was no issues. That was me power cycling the modem because it went dead sometime between me going to work at 9am and coming home at lunch.
Regardless what was happening with the line into my house the modem should be broadcasting a WiFi signal but your call centre techs won't accept there is a problem with the modem. He said as it hasn't happened for a month it doesn't warrant any action and to call back again while the problem is occurring rather than power cycle the modem. Im sorry but I don't think it's acceptable that I pay €85 a month for a service that keeps going down even if it is only once a month especially when it affects my TV service. If this issue occurs when tech support is closed than it could take a couple of months to finally catch the issue happening while support is open. If I hadn't a TV service than it wouldn't be such a frustrating issue, as currently if I'm away for the weekend and it goes down then I won't be here to power cycle modem and can miss a weekend of recordings.

Over the last few months I have also had problems with the length of time it takes programs to appear on the rewind service. Some nights the 9pm news could be available to view on catchup at 10.30pm, and other nights it's still not available at 1am the following morning. Even the 6pm news is not available sometimes at 1am the following morning. I rang tech support to ask how soon after a live program catchup becomes available and the agent told me he didn't know because he didn't have the Vodafone TV in his own house. I complained after he said this and he put me on hold, and then came back and said that the catchup service was provided by a third party and that Vodafone had no control over it.

I've also had problems with 1hr programs that only record for 30mins, sometimes the start of the program is missing, other times the ends. Support asked me take note of some example dates and times of these occurrences which I've yet to start doing that. Based on my recent experience's with supports interest resolving problems it's hard to be motivated to take the time to do this.

Asides from these complaints I find the speeds excellent and can't fault the broadband when it's working. The TV service is also very good too when it works. If the problems continue with the intermittent connection drop's when my modem crashes and missed recording issues I will end being left with no choice and cancelling the TV service and going back to sky, leaving just bb with vodafone.

ctlsleh

ED E wrote: »

Why do you reckon though?

• OpenEir copy OpenReach - Openreach have no significant deployment of it yet
• No new cabs(new location) are coming, the whole point of the FTTC system is to use the existing CCP
• Adding GFAST cards to a FTTC cab would mean "wasting" the expensive VDSL2 LTs theyve only just purchased
• GFast will be wide spectrum noise in a cab thats already trying to mitigate FEXT

I think you are spot on here.......The only reason to do it is to ward off competition by delivering a 300M service before Siro gets there and thereby keep them at bay as majority of subs will not know the difference between a 300Mb service over copper vs the same over fiber.
You would only be able to serve the customers in a 300M radius which may not be a lot depending on the density of the area, so if you're Eir, then it would be a defensive strategy only while you plough ahead with your FTTH strategy.

hellboy99

Mgit wrote: »

Anyone else with Siro and the Vodafone tv service having issues with the hg659 modems needing a reboot once in a while to kick them back to life?

No problems here thankfully.

ED E

Mgit wrote: »

Anyone else with Siro and the Vodafone tv service having issues with the hg659 modems

Wait. They've finally caught up with Eir and bought better CPE? Supposed lightspeed forced their hand there.

captain_boycott

any updates from Castlebar anyone?

If they are planning to be up and running in the town before year end, I would have expected to see a lot more ESB activity around the town, laying fibre, installing gear on poles, etc.. Not seen sight of any ESB Vans out the Moneen rd. side so far.

urgash

ESB have not much to do really, contractors from Siro doing some works at the beginning, in my case it was Gealtec. ESB did some few days work after 2-3 weeks since when i seen Gealtec on my estate and around Skibbereen town.

captain_boycott

don't they need to dig up the paths to run the fibre?

In the past year, we had contractors dig up all over the place to install fibre. In that case it was E-Net for business users. I assumed ESB/Siro will now need to do similar and run their Fibre out to the estates?

irishgeo

captain_boycott wrote: »

don't they need to dig up the paths to run the fibre?

In the past year, we had contractors dig up all over the place to install fibre. In that case it was E-Net for business users. I assumed ESB/Siro will now need to do similar and run their Fibre out to the estates?

nope they are going to push it through the existing ESB ducts.

Anyone else in castlebar see green stickers on the esb boxes?

urgash

Westnet announced as third retail partner

We are delighted to announce that Westnet has become our third retail partner.

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that construction of our network is underway in Castlebar and services will become available from retail partners in December. Mayo based broadband provider, Westnet, was unveiled as our third retail partner at our town hall in Castlebar in association with Mayo County Council.

There you go, nice present for christmas in Castlebar.

Nothing about Skibbereen

oscarBravo

captain_boycott wrote: »

don't they need to dig up the paths to run the fibre?

In the past year, we had contractors dig up all over the place to install fibre. In that case it was E-Net for business users. I assumed ESB/Siro will now need to do similar and run their Fibre out to the estates?

Enet installed all new ducting for their network, which required digging up some streets and footpaths. There will be a certain amount of civils required to install new chambers near existing ESB street cabs for Siro, but for the most part they can use existing underground and overhead infrastructure, so the disruption will be significantly less.

Kristopherus

captain_boycott wrote: »

any updates from Castlebar anyone?

If they are planning to be up and running in the town before year end, I would have expected to see a lot more ESB activity around the town, laying fibre, installing gear on poles, etc.. Not seen sight of any ESB Vans out the Moneen rd. side so far.

Well, last week I saw 2 X Eir vans and 1 X Siro van touring around the town. They seemed to be doing a visual survey, they were going so slowly. Got a big email today from Siro telling me it will be available via their retail partners in December.

irishgeo

Kristopherus wrote: »

Well, last week I saw 2 X Eir vans and 1 X Siro van touring around the town. They seemed to be doing a visual survey, they were going so slowly. Got a big email today from Siro telling me it will be available via their retail partners in December.

December would be great. Seems fairly quick considering other towns and the issues they had with delays. But maybe they are learning their lesson and not announcing too early and doing a lot of work in the background.

After the recent simply broadband price rise. I'll be saving money by switching to this.

godskitchen

Is it just me or is the map Siro are using the worst map ever?

Da Bounca

godskitchen wrote: »

Is it just me or is the map Siro are using the worst map ever?

It's not just you. It's awful.

Nollog

Last week I saw a lot of Esb vans down a lane in letterkenny. they're getting closer to me. they were there for a good 3 days at least.