What is the real cost of Fibre to the home?

AyJay

My next door neighbour was due to get installed with FTTH recently. Everything was set to go. The fibre was on the pole right outside his house. He was home and eager to get installed (in fact a number of us were keen to see how good it was before signing up).

When the KN engineers arrived they said that he would have to get a pole erected in his front garden as the distance from the pole on the road to his house was too great. This would cost €300. Alternatively, they said, he could get someone to dig a trench through his garden and put down ducting to where they 'thought' the fibre would go. God knows how much that would cost.

At no point did anyone ever tell him that there would be additional 'infrastructure costs'.

Apparently it is the Eircode that is used to qualify the availability and since the Eircode is specific to his house surely they should have absorbed the cost of delivering the service to his house?

plodder

How does his phone line currently get from the pole to his house? And roughly how far is that distance? Assuming he has a phone line already, then it seems surprising that the fibre line can't just go the same way.

Installation cost is going to be an issue, as it looks like Eir want to hike it up substantially for everyone, but I don't think your Eircode has anything to do with it. That is just used to identify the property.

AyJay

He doesn't have a landline. I would say that his garden is may 30 - 35 metres long. Thing is he has a nice garden and a pole in the middle of it would be unsightly. Thing is he has a bungalow and it could be that the fibre would droop down too low?

The thing is FTTH is going to rural areas and a lot of the properties are bungalows so this will happen to more and more people.

How much are they going to hike it by?

ED E

Most houses like that have an existing landline or had one in the not so distant past. In those cases the same plant is used.


Its been the case for many years that civils within a customers boundary wall are performed by them. Nothing abnormal about this. If they werent to you could expect a 5-6yr contract with the LO to offset the costs.

plodder

AyJay wrote: »

He doesn't have a landline. I would say that his garden is may 30 - 35 metres long. Thing is he has a nice garden and a pole in the middle of it would be unsightly. Thing is he has a bungalow and it could be that the fibre would droop down too low?

The thing is FTTH is going to rural areas and a lot of the properties are bungalows so this will happen to more and more people.

How much are they going to hike it by?

It's complicated. Open Eir wants to increase the wholesale price from €150 to €270. But that's not necessarily the same as what the consumer will be charged. Unfortunately, without a landline already, you are looking at further possible charges in some cases. My own garden would be 15-20 metres long, but I don't currently have a pole inside it. I'm hoping that I won't need one.

Johnboy1951

My house was built ~35 years ago and had a ducting for phone, electricity and water from the boundary to the house.

If, as it seems, some believe eir should foot the bill for such works, then I would equally suggest those of us who have this done should get a rebate!

Silly!

If you want the service then you provide the means to get it across your property to the premises.

Gonzo

hopefully I won't run into problems. It's roughly 20 meters between the splice box on the pole to my computer. The existing phone line runs from the pole, over the garden and connects to the gable end roof of the house.

godskitchen

People give out about broadband, complaining for years.

Some of the best broadband in the world is now available and will be at the cutting edge for decades to come.

Why should or would a company pay for it to be installed? People will move provider for a €3 saving.

If €1000 euro is too much to pay, you don't need the connection.

HoggyRS

AyJay wrote: »

My next door neighbour was due to get installed with FTTH recently. Everything was set to go. The fibre was on the pole right outside his house. He was home and eager to get installed (in fact a number of us were keen to see how good it was before signing up).

When the KN engineers arrived they said that he would have to get a pole erected in his front garden as the distance from the pole on the road to his house was too great. This would cost €300. Alternatively, they said, he could get someone to dig a trench through his garden and put down ducting to where they 'thought' the fibre would go. God knows how much that would cost.

At no point did anyone ever tell him that there would be additional 'infrastructure costs'.

Apparently it is the Eircode that is used to qualify the availability and since the Eircode is specific to his house surely they should have absorbed the cost of delivering the service to his house?

This last sentence makes no sense to me? Eir should pay for his new pole because of his eircode?

murphaph

Well, as someone who last year paid €600 to Deutsche Telekom for a bog standard copper line to our new build in an urban area and I did the trench and ducting myself I'd have gladly paid a grand or more for FTTH. Our electricity connection cost €2.500 to the mini pillar. I had to pay my own electrician to bring it inside to the distribution panel and mains water and sewage even more. I think in general the cost of utility provision is hidden in Ireland in the bills. Here you pay savage money per metre if your connection point is more than 10 metres from the public road.

Johnboy1951

murphaph wrote: »

Well, as someone who last year paid €600 to Deutsche Telekom for a bog standard copper line to our new build in an urban area and I did the trench and ducting myself I'd have gladly paid a grand or more for FTTH. Our electricity connection cost €2.500 to the mini pillar. I had to pay my own electrician to bring it inside to the distribution panel and mains water and sewage even more. I think in general the cost of utility provision is hidden in Ireland in the bills. Here you pay savage money per metre if your connection point is more than 10 metres from the public road.

There was a charge many years ago (during the eircom days) to get a phone line connected, and if extra poles were required the customer paid for them. There was also a bloody long wait to get the phone in and the customer had to take the phone supplied by eircom. There was a weekly charge for rental of that phone with no alternative until years later.
I paid for a water connection and a meter decades ago to get water into my house.
I also had to pay for an electricity connection with a deposit.

All ducts for those services had to be supplied by me and also had to pay the cost of an approved electrician to make the connections and sign the paperwork, and of course a plumber to make the required connection for the water.

So not everyone in Ireland thinks they get all that for nothing, some of us have been paying for such services for quite a long time.