Eir rural FTTH thread II

Peppa Cig

Airwire: MartinL wrote: »

Peppa Cig wrote: »

How did transfer go? Did you lose internet for any period during switch?
Did it require another engineer visit to facilitate switch?

A switch between providers just requires your UAN number.

Normally it takes about 24-48 hours to switch over (if it's broadband only) and all you do is change the PPPoE details or replace the router, once the connection dies.

A provider change within OpenEIR is otherwise seemless though.

Kind regards,
Martin List-Petersen
Airwire Ltd.

Thanks - that’s good

I was under the impression that an engineer was required to come to house to change ONT or similar

So that’s good news!

fergoc

I don't have a monitored alarm but it's one which sends text messages when it gets triggered using HKC SecureComm text service. I used eir's landline SMS until it was discontinued in 2015. I was told that I could not use VOIP with my alarm setup by eir. But as ED E mentioned, I could not see why the alarm would care since the line from the ATA (back of modem) is basically an analog line carrying 50v.

So when I got VOIP installed, I said it to my installer and he obliged by getting an RJ11 line cord, connecting one end to the modem, snipped the other end and wired directly into my NTU, while at the same time, disconnecting my old copper connection that runs back to the exchange. As my alarm is also wired into the NTU, it stopped beeping once it received the voltage from the ATA and I can confirm that it can send texts as before. I don't know enough about a monitored alarm to say whether this will work in this case also, but I can't see a reason why not.

Gwynston

Peppa Cig wrote: »

Hi, did you move from Eir FTTH to digiweb?
How did transfer go? Did you lose internet for any period during switch?
Did it require another engineer visit to facilitate switch?

Yes, we switched when Eir notified us in January of the contract price going up, allowing us to break contract without penalty. So I jumped at the chance to switch to Digiweb and get the better router - WiFi is much better round the house now!

I don't think we had any noticeable internet downtime - just plugged in the new router when Digiweb informed us the switch had occurred. We did have phone downtime because we were switching from the old Eir copper wire connection to VOIP on the router and because the account transfer began on a Friday, it got held up until after the weekend.

Gwynston

Gwynston wrote: »

we switched when Eir notified us in January of the contract price going up, allowing us to break contract without penalty.

I spoke to soon - just got a text from Eir saying:

Bill Update: We incorrectly added an Early Cease Charge (ECC) to your bill. This error has now been corrected and a credit has been applied to your February bill. If you've already paid this bill we’ll send you a cheque refund of the ECC. If you've yet to pay this bill, there is no need for you to pay the ECC amount, however you should arrange to pay the remaining bill amount as normal. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused. Thank you, eir

Sneaky feckers... :mad:
My payments were Direct Debit, so I guess that's already gone out of my account and I'm gonna have to keep an eye out it on my statements and call Eir up pleading for a cheque.
I can't go to the My Eir page, cos it won't let me log in now my account's been closed :rolleyes:

Ultimanemo

Gwynston wrote: »

I spoke to soon - just got a text from Eir saying:

Sneaky feckers... :mad:
My payments were Direct Debit, so I guess that's already gone out of my account and I'm gonna have to keep an eye out it on my statements and call Eir up pleading for a cheque.
I can't go to the My Eir page, cos it won't let me log in now my account's been closed :rolleyes:

I would say this is standard practice of eir, They take illegitimate money from you, If you find out, they return it and apologize, if it goes it goes.

glen123

Peppa Cig wrote: »

Thanks - that’s good

I was under the impression that an engineer was required to come to house to change ONT or similar

So that’s good news!

In my case, when i switched from Eir to Digiweb engineer had to come out and change the ONT. EIR disconnected me, 3 days later new router from Digiweb arrived. Another 2 days later engineer showed up, did his bit and i was up an running.

Westnet: Paul

glen123 wrote: »

In my case, when i switched from Eir to Digiweb engineer had to come out and change the ONT. EIR disconnected me, 3 days later new router from Digiweb arrived. Another 2 days later engineer showed up, did his bit and i was up an running.

There was definitely something out of the ordinary about your situation. We've ported FTTH customers from other providers with only a router swap.

glen123

Westnet: Paul wrote: »

There was definitely something out of the ordinary about your situation. We've ported FTTH customers from other providers with only a router swap.

The same happened to another person I know. Probably a good idea to check in advance what's the process for them to make sure they dont end up with no internet for a week or even more.

Airwire: MartinL

glen123 wrote: »

The same happened to another person I know. Probably a good idea to check in advance what's the process for them to make sure they dont end up with no internet for a week or even more.

As Paul pointed out, that's not standard procedure. Unless Eir screwed entirely up with those ONTs, they should not have been replaced. The ONTs are provider independant.

The provider changes we've done so far have all been done electronically. The customer just needed to replace the router, when the connection died.

wheresthebeef

Hi all. Just wondering if any of you have experience with this sort of scenario. House is in live area on FTTH. However the max quoted speed is 100mbps. But it's definitely FTTH from what I can tell as we are definitely outside of range for FTTC and have no pre-existing copper line anyway. Is the speed limited by the number of connections to the backhaul perhaps? And does this mean that in the future, if backhaul improves we might be offered more speed at our end?

Secondly, I'm a bit confused on how the install will work. House is set back from the road by 139metres. There is a pre-cabled duct system installed with pull ropes that come into the utility room. The far end of the duct is on the inside of the boundary wall. The nearest Fibre pole is about 5 meters from this duct on the edge of the public road. Do OpenEir have to put a pole next to my duct and then drop the wire from there into the duct?

Lastly, I watched Eirs video where they show the duct coming up through an external junction box? Am I likely to have a problem with the duct entering the house through the utility room? Builder chose that set up in case cable TV (Virgin) ever came our way as the duct terminates in a cupboard which contains coax connections to all rooms as well as controllers for heating, heat recovery and solar systems.

fritzelly

Where is it quoting 100mb? The ducting needs to go to the manhole, unlikely they will install another pole in those circumstances, openeir may do this but youll need a tech out first to have a look

Install in the house is fine as long as there is easy access

cnocbui

fritzelly wrote: »

Where is it quoting 100mb? The ducting needs to go to the manhole, unlikely they will install another pole in those circumstances, openeir may do this but youll need a tech out first to have a look

Install in the house is fine as long as there is easy access

My existing phone line ducting goes to the base of a pole on my property. I would imagine eir would erect a pole on his property where the duct terminus is. If they did refuse to put in pole for fibre, he could just order a copper phone line and they would likely have to provide one for that.

wheresthebeef

Duct definitely doesn't go the main road sadly. So I think I'll definitely need another pole. Neighbours have copper but we never bothered.

Here's the screenshot from Eir confirming it's FTTH but that speed is only 100. My guess was that they are serving a lot of customers from one cabinet.

Marlow

wheresthebeef wrote: »

Duct definitely doesn't go the main road sadly. So I think I'll definitely need another pole. Neighbours have copper but we never bothered.

OpenEIR may errect another pole or place ducting from their pole to your duction. Or .. which is more likely .. they will you to sort out to extend the ducting to their pole.

wheresthebeef wrote: »

Here's the screenshot from Eir confirming it's FTTH but that speed is only 100. My guess was that they are serving a lot of customers from one cabinet.

I wouldn't worry about that. Their data is off the best of times. And you could actually be qualifying for both given that you're so near the FTTC boundary.

/M

fritzelly

cnocbui wrote: »

My existing phone line ducting goes to the base of a pole on my property. I would imagine eir would erect a pole on his property where the duct terminus is. If they did refuse to put in pole for fibre, he could just order a copper phone line and they would likely have to provide one for that.

Possibly, like I said needs a tech out to have a look and if a pole is an option then up to planning if they will do it

Pangea

Pangea wrote: »

My Brother has built a new house and had ordered FTTH from Eir and a landline, after a few visits from KN, they dug the underground ducts etc everything they were told. He rang EIR today to find out that they aren't going to go ahead with it, because it would involve erecting five poles and it's not cost-effective, not only will they not give him broadband they won't give him a landline. Any advice?

Update on this, my Brother got in contact with a local Eir guy here who said he would see what he could do. The same KN guy who refused to the job arrived at my brother's door a few days later with his tail between their legs saying that they will be able to do the job after all and no need for the five poles, they fitted the landline now waiting for eir to ring about broadband packages. its who ya know! Basically, they didn't want to do the work the first day.

fritzelly

Pangea wrote: »

Update on this, my Brother got in contact with a local Eir guy here who said he would see what he could do. The same KN guy who refused to the job arrived at my brother's door a few days later with his tail between their legs saying that they will be able to do the job after all and no need for the five poles, they fitted the landline now waiting for eir to ring about broadband packages. its who ya know! Basically, they didn't want to do the work the first day.

Were they saying they wouldn't use the ducting or were the poles on the roadside

jd

wheresthebeef wrote: »

Duct definitely doesn't go the main road sadly. So I think I'll definitely need another pole. Neighbours have copper but we never bothered.

Here's the screenshot from Eir confirming it's FTTH but that speed is only 100. My guess was that they are serving a lot of customers from one cabinet.

Near the top it says you can get speeds of up to 1000 (Underneath where it says Fibre to the home bundles). If you qualify for FTTH you can get up to 1000.

That text after "eir fibre unlimited" saying up to 100 is misleading, I guess the eir online team will have to review the content there.

Pangea

fritzelly wrote: »

Were they saying they wouldn't use the ducting or were the poles on the roadside

The poles were on the roadside yeah and he said poles would be needed to bring it down to the house, even though the ducting was in place, he seemed to ignore it from what I gathered from my Brother.

Marlow

Pangea wrote: »

The poles were on the roadside yeah and he said poles would be needed to bring it down to the house, even though the ducting was in place, he seemed to ignore it from what I gathered from my Brother.

KN employees not wanting to do the job is a common phaenomenon.

/M

cnocbui

fritzelly wrote: »

Possibly, like I said needs a tech out to have a look and if a pole is an option then up to planning if they will do it

Planning? I am not aware of Eircom seeking any planning when they erected a pole on my property. Must have been sought and granted near instantaneously if they did.

Marlow

cnocbui wrote: »

Planning? I am not aware of Eircom seeking any planning when they erected a pole on my property. Must have been sought and granted near instantaneously if they did.

OpenEIR internal network planners. None of them council numpties involved.

/M

Ten Pin

I spoke to soon - just got a text from Eir saying:

Sneaky feckers... :mad:
My payments were Direct Debit, so I guess that's already gone out of my account and I'm gonna have to keep an eye out it on my statements and call Eir up pleading for a cheque.
I can't go to the My Eir page, cos it won't let me log in now my account's been closed :rolleyes:

Tell your bank you want the direct debit refunded to your account (SEPA direct debit refund).
They have to grant the refund, otherwise it could be a while waiting for a cheque and having to lodge it etc

Johnboy1951

cnocbui wrote: »

Planning? I am not aware of Eircom seeking any planning when they erected a pole on my property. Must have been sought and granted near instantaneously if they did.

Do they not have to ask permission of the land owner to erect a pole on their land/site?

I recall being asked, and discussing the least intrusive position for the pole they erected.
They wanted to come inside the boundary because there was bedrock outside.

Of course that is many years ago .......

fritzelly

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Do they not have to ask permission of the land owner to erect a pole on their land/site?

That would be a given if they say we need to install a pole in the middle of your garden and you agree an installation date. But they won't just turn up and install it, they will contact you before hand/on the day to say they're coming just in case...

Robxxx7

Robxxx7 wrote: »

Just an update with my order

Been in contact with Eir a couple of times (or i should say they have contacted me) - my area is on pre-order with the actual go live date of 7th March .. my order is all good and they will email me with an installation date on the 7th ... Nearly there now ..

Final update from me ... My area was due to go live on 7th March and on the same morning i got an email giving me an installation date of Thursday 15th March ... Happy Days

Then on Saturday lunch time i got a call from the KN engineer who said he is in the area and am i at home to install it now ... so happy to say that i now have FTTH installed and now i have gone from a flakey 2mbps to 300mbps ..what a huge difference ...

cnocbui

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Do they not have to ask permission of the land owner to erect a pole on their land/site?

I recall being asked, and discussing the least intrusive position for the pole they erected.
They wanted to come inside the boundary because there was bedrock outside.

Of course that is many years ago .......

Well, yes of course the asked me and we discussed where best to put it.

Gwynston

Robxxx7 wrote: »

... so happy to say that i now have FTTH installed and now i have gone from a flakey 2mbps to 300mbps ..what a huge difference ...

Good news - enjoy the transformation!

Having it now myself for over 6 months, we've kind of got used to it, although being able to have everyone in the family use the internet at the same time is by far the biggest plus, rather than the outright speed itself.

Which got me thinking - how future-proof is FTTH?
1000Mb/s is all very well, but internet use is changing beyond all recognition. It's not just for connectivity, but a primary source of TV (et al) now. And with the change from HD to 4K, that's going to use up an awful lot of bandwidth. Sky have already said they won't be investing in satellite technology in the future, and if everyone goes that way, I can see all TV broadcasts going the fibre route by default.

If in the future almost everyone was watching (and/or saving for later) multiple TV streams in 4K-Ultra, how much bandwidth would be left? Not to mention all other internet use increasing quantity in device numbers and data size.

cnocbui

I think it is not a relevant concern until the average connection speed in the country is at least in triple figures, which might take a while. If people with 1000 MBs start to feel constrained, I doubt society will be particularly concerned.

Only 25 % of European households will even have a 4K TV by 2019, I'll bet the figure for Ireland is a good bit less than that.

I'm sure the installed fibre will be able to deliver much higher speeds if the optical transceivers on either end are upgraded.

KOR101

Full page of articles in today's IT about customers experiences dealing with Eir.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/going-spare-at-eir-pricewatch-mailbag-fills-up-with-complaints-1.3418274

And then there is this article in Independent about large scale job losses at Eir.

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/fears-grow-that-eirs-new-owner-plans-to-cut-up-to-1000-staff-36691234.html