NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

BandMember

Let's face facts lads and lassies, Eir have shown that they are up to the job (when they put their mind to it and have to meet targets, deadlines etc.) and have shown what they can do with the FTTC rollout. The other competitors have been a disaster, so far anyway.

Whether ye love them or hate them, they are probably the best option at the moment.

If things are running slow or behind time now, can you imagine what it would be like if SIRO or whoever got it based on their performance (or complete lack of, to be more accurate) so far?

pegasus1

oscarBravo wrote: »

It's not a popularity contest. The contracts will be awarded on the basis of an exhaustive evaluation of the proposals submitted by the bidders.

oB, what would your guesstimate be on contract winners?

oscarBravo

pegasus1 wrote: »

oB, what would your guesstimate be on contract winners?

I don't know, I haven't seen the bids.

On the face of it, you'd have to imagine that the frontrunners should be eir and SIRO - both have extensive national networks in place, while enet's bid depends on eir's infrastructure.

But again, it's futile to speculate. We've had our opportunity to contribute our thoughts to the process; now we wait.

KOR101

BandMember wrote: »

If things are running slow or behind time now, can you imagine what it would be like if SIRO or whoever got it based on their performance (or complete lack of, to be more accurate) so far?

A record or achievement at large scale rollout is one of the criteria being used in the process. There will be points for that in the bid evaluation.

SIRO are just at a different point in the learning curve, and they will no doubt instead point to their record rolling out other infrastructure.

Without SIRO the NBP would have a real problem. They, and the risk of losing the bid, are the only reason EIR is not behaving like BT.

digiman

BandMember wrote: »

Let's face facts lads and lassies, Eir have shown that they are up to the job (when they put their mind to it and have to meet targets, deadlines etc.) and have shown what they can do with the FTTC rollout. The other competitors have been a disaster, so far anyway.

Whether ye love them or hate them, they are probably the best option at the moment.

If things are running slow or behind time now, can you imagine what it would be like if SIRO or whoever got it based on their performance (or complete lack of, to be more accurate) so far?

I wonder who has the biggest FTTH network to date and most customers connected on each? I'd say there is very little in it, both companies have mentioned 30k homes recently with SIRO talking about 10k/month

Gonzo

digiman wrote: »

I wonder who has the biggest FTTH network to date and most customers connected on each? I'd say there is very little in it, both companies have mentioned 30k homes recently with SIRO talking about 10k/month

I'd say Eir has many more FTTH locations at this stage (at least 20+) but they only seem to be doing small areas of each town/exchange, Siro only has 5 or 6 places but the area of distribution in each town seems to be much more extensive. Siro are also just concentrating on urban areas like Virgin Media for now.

long_b

Just wanted to check... there's nothing fibre related on this pole is there?
I know the white box is a splitter for POTS.
What's the black one?

ED E

They're both potheads by the looks of it, just different styles.

mass_debater

long_b wrote: »

Just wanted to check... there's nothing fibre related on this pole is there?
I know the white box is a splitter for POTS.
What's the black one?

The white thing is a carrier (pair gain), if your phone line is still on one of those you cannot get broadband on it. The black thing is a DP (distribution point).

ED E

Ahh nice one MD. Carrier lines are rare but a bane for those stuck on them the poor sods.

The Cush

long_b wrote: »

Just wanted to check... there's nothing fibre related on this pole is there?
I know the white box is a splitter for POTS.
What's the black one?

These copper/fibre pothead junction boxes were installed in my area about May 2015 by KN doing post storm Feb 2014 repair work, FTTH planned on these routes in H2 2016



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xxyyzz

SIRO had told my parents that they were rolling out in their area in Tralee town, they recently sent out a letter saying "thanks for your interest but we no longer have plans to roll out in your area".

rob808

xxyyzz wrote: »

SIRO had told my parents that they were rolling out in their area in Tralee town, they recently sent out a letter saying "thanks for your interest but we no longer have plans to roll out in your area".

wow really and didn't even give a reason why maybe eir will give her FTTH.

KOR101

It has rolled out its high-speed fibre network to “pass” near 1.6 million homes, and Moat estimates it will hit 1.9 million sometime in 2018, ahead of a 2020 target: “By that point, we will have covered more than 80 per cent of homes and businesses. We will probably look to speed up that roll-out even further.”
Eir is considered a leading contender for the State’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) to bring subsidised high-speed fibre services to more than 900,000 rural homes. The tender will be awarded in two lots sometime next year, with Eir up against ESB and Vodafone’s Siro joint venture and also E-Net, backed by Granahan McCourt, John Laing and 3i.
Eir is engaged in something of an arm wrestle with the State over the NBP, as it has announced it will already “pass” 300,000 of the homes earmarked for the plan, which might force officials to scale back NBP under EU rules.
If Eir follows through with its plan to pass more rural homes, it could give it the edge when pricing its NBP tender. Moat rejects the notion that it has been aggressive in its approach, and says it will cut the cost of the NBP for taxpayers.
“We want to win both lots, but it is a competitive and a political process. Whether anyone can win both, that is up for grabs. If we don’t, we will take one and roll it out as fast as we can.”
Moat says he sometimes gets frustrated with the national debate around broadband rollout. He is at pains to emphasise that Eir’s network is far larger in scale than all of its competitors combined.
“That gets lost in some of the commentary when people are assessing who would do best with the NBP. It’s like we’re in a league, and you’ve got Manchester United. Then you’ve got Hartlepool, Grimsby and Luton, and the commentator says ‘Luton look like they have a chance’.”
The company is also pressing ahead with the roll-out of a further 450 4G sites for Meteor, as well as targeting 300,000 rural homes with superfast fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services. FTTH has so far reached about 34,000 homes.
“I understand people in rural areas get frustrated waiting, but it takes time to run the fibre. I think people’s perception of our roll-out will change once more areas get lit up by the network.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/telco-veteran-richard-moat-breathes-in-the-fresh-eir-1.2722152

KOR101

Off topic, but if you were interested in following the rollout of the 450 4G sites, where would you look?

damienirel

"I understand people in rural areas get frustrated waiting" - haha good one!
They've been talking the talk for a long long time on this bloody rollout. And Irish Times is entertaining them again writing these garbage interviews - somebody give that man a hard hat and get him out hanging fibre!:mad:

Gonzo

damienirel wrote: »

"I understand people in rural areas get frustrated waiting" - haha good one!
They've been talking the talk for a long long time on this bloody rollout. And Irish Times is entertaining them again writing these garbage interviews - somebody give that man a hard hat and get him out hanging fibre!:mad:

The frustration is real alright. Ive been frustrated myself, but my frustration level is nothing compared to others who are in a much worse off position. The delays and lack of information is very hard to take when you have the companies constantly marketing that they are rolling out but very few people are seeing any action.

I have several relations living about 15 miles away, there is no DSL, wireless 4G is not available and 3G is barely working. Blue lines run within 300 meters of their homes but not down their road. Imagine's LTE service is out of range by about 15 miles. They have a satellite dish for their broadband with speeds not much better than 5 or 6 megs and a miserable data allowance and dial up as back up. They have kids and have to limit Netflix and Youtube to 2 or 3 videos per week. Their unlikely to see any action till well past 2020. Their frustration is very real. When they read articles about super fast fiber being rolled out across the country it just sets them off again.

damienirel

Gonzo wrote: »

The frustration is real alright. Ive been frustrated myself, but my frustration level is nothing compared to others who are in a much worse off position. The delays and lack of information is very hard to take when you have the companies constantly marketing that they are rolling out but very few people are seeing any action.

I have several relations living about 15 miles away, there is no DSL, wireless 4G is not available and 3G is barely working. Blue lines run within 300 meters of their homes but not down their road. Imagine's LTE service is out of range by about 15 miles. They have a satellite dish for their broadband with speeds not much better than 5 or 6 megs and a miserable data allowance and dial up as back up. They have kids and have to limit Netflix and Youtube to 2 or 3 videos per week. Their unlikely to see any action till well past 2020. Their frustration is very real. When they read articles about super fast fiber being rolled out across the country it just sets them off again.

It seems as if they're more interested in marketing a product that doesn't exist yet - in case they don't have a market for it when it does. It's beyond frustration as you said. When Eir made no effort to cover rural areas with usable DSL in the last 20 years, and yet they rave on about superfast BB it's like they want to rub salt in the wounds of people in poorly serviced areas, in many cases that are located just outside cities never mind towns. I've had my fill of their rubbish - just get on with it.

Gonzo

damienirel wrote: »

It seems as if they're more interested in marketing a product that doesn't exist yet - in case they don't have a market for it when it does. It's beyond frustration as you said. When Eir made no effort to cover rural areas with usable DSL in the last 20 years, and yet they rave on about superfast BB it's like they want to rub salt in the wounds of people in poorly serviced areas, in many cases that are located just outside cities never mind towns. I've had my fill of their rubbish - just get on with it.

and the funny thing is as soon as the product starts to exist in some areas there is no social media marketing for it!

Eir's FTTH went partially live across 5 exchanges recently and not a word about it other than in TechBytes. Not sure your average user in those areas are gonna be checking Techbytes, the open eir rollout map or even this forum.

It's pointless tweeting random statistics such as all the fiber when rolled out could stretch between Dublin and Los Angeles 3 times over.

People want to hear about what is happening in their neighbourhood, it's all they care about, not random statistics. Eir's FTTH is an amazing product, people who will be getting it soon should be told about it several weeks in advance.

Another thing companies need to stop is advertising fast fiber services over an entire district when in reality only 1 street or housing estate has access to it. That really annoys the hell out of the other residents who have nothing.

murphaph

damienirel wrote: »

It seems as if they're more interested in marketing a product that doesn't exist yet - in case they don't have a market for it when it does. It's beyond frustration as you said. When Eir made no effort to cover rural areas with usable DSL in the last 20 years, and yet they rave on about superfast BB it's like they want to rub salt in the wounds of people in poorly serviced areas, in many cases that are located just outside cities never mind towns. I've had my fill of their rubbish - just get on with it.

So they shouldn't market the product until everyone can get it? Do you want them to fail or what?

legocrazy505

murphaph wrote: »

So they shouldn't market the product until everyone can get it? Do you want them to fail or what?

I think the problem is they are marketing a product they claim so many can "avail of right now" when in actual fact it's a tiny portion. I mean the NBP intervention map says it all.

damienirel

murphaph wrote: »

So they shouldn't market the product until everyone can get it? Do you want them to fail or what?

This is all I'd expect from you :rolleyes: Troll away there murphaph!

murphaph

legocrazy505 wrote: »

I think the problem is they are marketing a product they claim so many can "avail of right now" when in actual fact it's a tiny portion. I mean the NBP intervention map says it all.

To be honest they have to advertise like this to have a chance of this thing succeeding. This is standard practice around the world anyway. I got mail shots for years from Unity Media to an apartment where it wasn't available. I never flipped out about it.

They are rolling out a rural ftth network but getting nothing but stick for their troubles. If it's not complaints about how slow it is, it's moaning about some unsolicited advertising or about how there's no information available. Maybe they should divert some of their finite resources to making sure mail shots are personalised, even if this slows down the actual deployment. Priorities and all that.

daraghwal

murphaph wrote: »

To be honest they have to advertise like this to have a chance of this thing succeeding. This is standard practice around the world anyway. I got mail shots for years from Unity Media to an apartment where it wasn't available. I never flipped out about it.

They are rolling out a rural ftth network but getting nothing but stick for their troubles. If it's not complaints about how slow it is, it's moaning about some unsolicited advertising or about how there's no information available. Maybe they should divert some of their finite resources to making sure mail shots are personalised, even if this slows down the actual deployment. Priorities and all that.

When did someone give out about how slow FTTH is?

murphaph

daraghwal wrote: »

When did someone give out about how slow FTTH is?

The rural 300k rollout, not the actual product.

Gonzo

the rollout should move faster from January as Open Eir are on the second round of recruiting more teams.

the provision of dates shouldn't slow down the progress as those dates would be inputed by Eir's web development team?

Eir and other companies are bound to get stick as so many people are beyond the point of frustration with the lack of usable internet. For most of them they will be waiting another 3-10 year's for their homes to be connected via the NBP.

This is not unique to Ireland, BT get some amount of stick over in the UK as well. Same in Australia with their rollout.

Eir's blue line map is very good tho despite the lack of dates, I don't think ive seen a map like that from any other service provider in other countries. Most of them don't even have 'blue lines' to look at.

damienirel

My point is Eir have not proven themselves in the past and they cosy up to the media and paint this rosy picture of "lighting up rural ireland".

You'd be daft not to be somewhat skeptical of all the hype and nonsense about finishing ahead of 2020. Great if they do, but don't put that out their, only to break all your promises again and again.
Any criticism they get is well deserved. Believe me I worked as a contractor with them and all I saw was rot in the place. No foresight and fleecing customers that was their game for years. I'm hoping the game is up!

Gonzo

damienirel wrote: »

My point is Eir have not proven themselves in the past and they cosy up to the media and paint this rosy picture of "lighting up rural ireland".

You'd be daft not to be somewhat skeptical of all the hype and nonsense about finishing ahead of 2020. Great if they do, but don't put that out their, only to break all your promises again and again.
Any criticism they get is well deserved. Believe me I worked as a contractor with them and all I saw was rot in the place. No foresight and fleecing customers that was their game for years. I'm hoping the game is up!

In fairness to Eir they proven themselves with the FTTC rollout, they met their target's on time. They did hit the ground running with the FTTC rollout and the momentum increased as time went on.

The FTTH rollout has gotten off to a slower start alright but that's down to finishing off the FTTC rollout and not enough teams. As they are hiring more teams, hopefully we will see the same level of momentum throughout next year as the FTTC rollout enjoyed over past 2 years. Eir are very confident about finishing all 300,000 premises by 2018, Im still willing to believe they can do it when all teams are working on the project.

They are hoping to win both NBP contracts and plan to start the NBP sections once the 300,000 premises are finished mid to late 2018. The blue lines need to be in place before they can carry on with NBP lines.

murphaph

damienirel wrote: »

My point is Eir have not proven themselves in the past

Yes they have. They've brought vectored VDSL to 1.6 million premises.

@gonzo...the web team would need to be provided with accurate dates from the infrastructure teams but there are many factors completely out of their hands so estimated dates would be the best you'd get (they may well work in an agile way and deploy resources dynamically from location to location as phases can move on, so these dates for given premises may exist nowhere in their system. This would be the most effective way to go rather than blocking teams because some third party civils haven't been completed) and then if they slip people are bashing them over the head again, so you can see why they might prefer to not release dates that they can't be sure of making.

rob808

Gonzo wrote: »

In fairness to Eir they proven themselves with the FTTC rollout, they met their target's on time. They did hit the ground running with the FTTC rollout and the momentum increased as time went on.

The FTTH rollout has gotten off to a slower start alright but that's down to finishing off the FTTC rollout and not enough teams. As they are hiring more teams, hopefully we will see the same level of momentum throughout next year as the FTTC rollout enjoyed over past 2 years. Eir are very confident about finishing all 300,000 premises by 2018, Im still willing to believe they can do it when all teams are working on the project.

They are hoping to win both NBP contracts and plan to start the NBP sections once the 300,000 premises are finished mid to late 2018. The blue lines need to be in place before they can carry on with NBP lines.

They wouldn't be allowed finish the blue line and leave NBP on hold.They would have to do both at the same time given the NBP starts early 2018.They most likely split the teams one focus on the commercial side and other on NBP.

Johnboy1951

rob808 wrote: »

They wouldn't be allowed finish the blue line and leave NBP on hold.They would have to do both at the same time given the NBP starts early 2018.They most likely split the teams one focus on the commercial side and other on NBP.

For the most part, because the NBP areas are further 'out' than the blue lines they will of necessity do the blue lines first and continue on into the NBP areas.
If that is the case then yes the blue lines will get fibre wired before the NBP.
The connections to the fibre is a separate matter.

rob808

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

For the most part, because the NBP areas are further 'out' than the blue lines they will of necessity do the blue lines first and continue on into the NBP areas.
If that is the case then yes the blue lines will get fibre wired before the NBP.
The connections to the fibre is a separate matter.

I say Eir most likely would start with the blue lines they finish.I would see no reason for Eir not to start NBP along side with there commercial rollout given they win a contract.

murphaph

rob808 wrote: »

I say Eir most likely would start with the blue lines they finish.I would see no reason for Eir not to start NBP along side with there commercial rollout given they win a contract.

But Johnboys point stands. Eir have only announced the 300k because they want to use this as a basis for the subsidised NBP. If there was no NBP there would be no 300k rollout IMO. FTTC formed a basis for the 300k FTTH, which in turn forms the basis for the intervention areas.

Any other operator will also have to blow fibre out to the intervention areas. At least with the Eir approach it's structured and that fibre will service premises outside intervention areas too, which is clearly a more efficient use of resources.

legocrazy505

murphaph wrote: »

But Johnboys point stands. Eir have only announced the 300k because they want to use this as a basis for the subsidised NBP. If there was no NBP there would be no 300k rollout IMO. FTTC formed a basis for the 300k FTTH, which in turn forms the basis for the intervention areas.

Any other operator will also have to blow fibre out to the intervention areas. At least with the Eir approach it's structured and that fibre will service premises outside intervention areas too, which is clearly a more efficient use of resources.

Except this ideal case doesn't work in many situations. No FTTH for us despite being closer to the main exchange than places that are getting it. They'll both be done at the same time or else hell will rain down on the government from the opposition when they see no progress being made until 2020. Yes in some cases they'll end up doing their blue lines first but there are just as many situations where doing the blue lines before the NBP doesn't really make much sense.

The whole idea of the NBP is to have the rollout start 2018 if the blue lines are still in the intervention area then fair enough but it's highly unfair to those of us in sensible locations that have been told we're not "viable". If the blue lines aren't in the intervention area then the government should hold them to task to do both at the same time especially when the whole point of the NBP according to the government is a rollout that begins in every county at once with a priority list in place.

Johnboy1951

legocrazy505 wrote: »

Except this ideal case doesn't work in many situations. No FTTH for us despite being closer to the main exchange than places that are getting it. They'll both be done at the same time or else hell will rain down on the government from the opposition when they see no progress being made until 2020. Yes in some cases they'll end up doing their blue lines first but there are just as many situations where doing the blue lines before the NBP doesn't really make much sense.

The whole idea of the NBP is to have the rollout start 2018 if the blue lines are still in the intervention area then fair enough but it's highly unfair to those of us in sensible locations that have been told we're not "viable". If the blue lines aren't in the intervention area then the government should hold them to task to do both at the same time especially when the whole point of the NBP according to the government is a rollout that begins in every county at once with a priority list in place.

No matter what you or any of us might want or think is right, the roll out will be done on a commercial basis driven by commercial concerns ........ regardless the winner/s of the contracts.

Those submissions are being made on a commercial basis and the plans for the roll out the same. Once the contracts are awarded those plans will be followed (with small deviations as problems are met).

We cannot now hope to influence those decisions.

damienirel

murphaph wrote: »

Yes they have. They've brought vectored VDSL to 1.6 million premises.

You sure you're not a Eir rep? - if they didn't manage to do that they wouldn't exist by now.
If you think that's some sort of achievement when the competition is right behind you(in winning the NBP plan) with a tiny % of the market, meanwhile you are the main provider for the country who owns most of the network? Most people in rural Ireland are either with WISPs or 4G/LTE connections, do you think that VDSL is an option for them? That 1.6 mill were low hanging fruit in a rampant market. Let's see how they go from there.

murphaph

damienirel wrote: »

You sure you're not a Eir rep? - if they didn't manage to do that they wouldn't exist by now.
If you think that's some sort of achievement when the competition is right behind you(in winning the NBP plan) with a tiny % of the market, meanwhile you are the main provider for the country who owns most of the network? Most people in rural Ireland are either with WISPs or 4G/LTE connections, do you think that VDSL is an option for them? That 1.6 mill were low hanging fruit in a rampant market. Let's see how they go from there.

Dismissing the erection of almost five thousand FTTC cabinets and their provisioning with fibre in a couple of years as nothing more than low hanging fruit displays ignorance of the scale of the project. The fibre blown as part of that FTTC rollout will also form the backbone of your FTTH when it comes to you. You have to start at the exchanges and work your way out.

Owning most of an obsolete (for the purposes of internet access) copper network is no help in getting decent broadband speeds to one off housing miles from the exchange. If anything it's a hindrance as it's a financial drain maintaining it. Copper can be sweated for a few more years in urban areas but this doesn't work with one off low density rural housing.

rob808

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/enet-accuses-esb-of-obstructing-broadband-rollout-1.2847408

Nollog

rob808 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/enet-accuses-esb-of-obstructing-broadband-rollout-1.2847408

That'll hurt siro alright.

xxyyzz

I live in a rural area and for the past year I have had to use a local WISP for internet. They started out reasonably ok - 10Mbps off-peak and 3 to 4 during peak. In the last 2 months it was barely scratching 0.5Mbps during peak times so basically no internet at home on week days.

I had to bite the bullet and switch to Imagine LTE which was installed today. The speeds seem to vary wildly with it, from 60Mbps down to 18 but still way better than what we had. I'm curious to test it tonight during peak time.

tsue921i8wljb3

Siro claiming to have passed more premises than Openeir. 36500 vs 34000.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/siro-claims-to-have-leapfrogged-eir-in-fibre-broadband-race-1.2854549

Gonzo

Siena Gigantic Backyard wrote: »

Siro claiming to have passed more premises than Openeir. 36500 vs 34000.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/siro-claims-to-have-leapfrogged-eir-in-fibre-broadband-race-1.2854549

Wouldn't surprise me.. Eir's FTTH has barely passed the starting line since the announcement of first 100,000 premises back in March 2016.

Just over 1,000 of 106,000 premises has been completed and only a few weeks to Christmas. Lets hope they really ramp things up a few gears from January. How they are gonna wire up 300,000 by end of 2018 is a mystery.

I realise laying FTTH is far from a quick process but announcing dates that seem very unrealistic is just opening a can of criticism.

Johnboy1951

Gonzo wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me.. Eir's FTTH has barely passed the starting line since the announcement of first 100,000 premises back in March 2016.

Just over 1,000 of 106,000 premises has been completed and only a few weeks to Christmas. Lets hope they really ramp things up a few gears from January. How they are gonna wire up 300,000 by end of 2018 is a mystery.

I realise laying FTTH is far from a quick process but announcing dates that seem very unrealistic is just opening a can of criticism.

I am not so pessimistic about the time scales as yet.
There is a lot of preparatory work required, and obstacles to be overcome, (and a learning curve also) at the start of the roll-out.
It will not be a linear time-frame.

It could have been that 50% or more of the time is used before any connection is made (although I don't believe eir are going that way), but once done the balance of the work could happen very quickly.

It seems eir are trying to make connections to the easier premises during the initial roll-out .... specifying intermediate dates for connections ..... this is what is causing huge expectations by those being 'passed' by fibre.

It might prove to be something eir regret doing from a customer point of view.
As I understand it they probably did so because of their NBP application.

If they could have made a blanket statement only, putting all connections at 2020 (or now 2018), without any intermediate promises, they would have less negative customer reaction.
Anyone who got connected prior to that date would produce a positive reaction.

I guess they had to balance the customer reaction with their hopes of showing their capabilities to roll out NBP.

xxyyzz

Both companies are working pretty hard in Tralee to be fair. Everywhere you go there are teams from both companies rolling out fibre. I'm not sure how much of that is being connected to houses but they are rolling out the infrastructure.

rob808

xxyyzz wrote: »

Both companies are working pretty hard in Tralee to be fair. Everywhere you go there are teams from both companies rolling out fibre. I'm not sure how much of that is being connected to houses but they are rolling out the infrastructure.

There the only two companies rolling out FTTH.Enet only did that proof of concept with there FTTH to only 650 homes which took them 9 month to finish compared to siro and open eir which are doing thousand realistically how long would it take Enet to do the NBP when they haven't even done a large scale rollout.

rob808

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/siro-ceo-fibre-interview

xxyyzz

rob808 wrote: »

There the only two companies rolling out FTTH.Enet only did that proof of concept with there FTTH to only 650 homes which took them 9 month to finish compared to siro and open eir which are doing thousand realistically how long would it take Enet to do the NBP when they haven't even done a large scale rollout.

Yeah, I know. I was responding to Gonzo's post (which I forgot to quote). Just stating that Eir and SIRO have started rolling out in some places

rob808

xxyyzz wrote: »

Yeah, I know. I was responding to Gonzo's post (which I forgot to quote). Just stating that Eir and SIRO have started rolling out in some places

I was just agreeing with you eir and siro seem best fit for NBP because of the scale of there rollout.

Gonzo

rob808 wrote: »

I was just agreeing with you eir and siro seem best fit for NBP because of the scale of there rollout.

Siro have no experience in doing rural areas tho, they are an urban supplier just like Virgin Media, despite they keep going on about 'fixing the digital divide'.

I have more faith in Eir winning the lot because they have experience in both urban and rural. I think Eir would be quicker than Siro at handling rural areas.

legocrazy505

Gonzo wrote: »

Siro have no experience in doing rural areas tho, they are an urban supplier just like Virgin Media, despite they keep going on about 'fixing the digital divide'.

I have more faith in Eir winning the lot because they have experience in both urban and rural. I think Eir would be quicker than Siro at handling rural areas.

I'd honestly have to agree with this. As much as I dislike Eir they are the only ones with an existing national broadband infrastructure. Even with Siro using the ESB network they are probably going to encounter more obstacles than Eir would have replacing their copper with fibre. Eir are really the most qualified for the NBP.