National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

heavydawson

Just had Eir call to the door about signing up for their NBI 1gig package. Very nice guy (Ed was his name), no spoofing, and very clear about the issues (he made it clear first visit was a site survey, and possibly an installation if the survey is favourable). Said it would be 10 days for survey if ordered today, and was clear about 14 day cooling off period.

For all the naysayers about Eir, they're on the ball about selling (their pricing is v. competitive for first two years), and it's the likes of Ed knocking on their door that will inform most people that the fibre is actually available in the area. Still going with Digiweb myself, but just giving some credit where credit is due. NBI should have had flyers in post-boxes already...

tipp36

I had that guy at my address a few weeks ago, lovely guy clear and transparent about everything. I had ordered direct from eir as I didn’t know they would have sales calling to the door. I cancelled my eir broadband this morning speeds went drastically down in the last few days. First day was getting 730mbps then went down to 600mbps then went down to 96mbps this morning, bearing in mind my laptop is only 4 month old and connected directly to modem with Ethernet connection plus I could not sync any 3rd party wifi range extender to the modem. So I had enough and cancelled it going to stick with my mobile broadband connection for the moment after that experience. Thankfully I had not cancelled the mobile broadband!

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814615#Comment_118814615

I thought you never went with Eir because they cancelled your order?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118712923#Comment_118712923

FastFullBack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814615#Comment_118814615

You're cancelling NBI to stick with mobile BB?

NBAiii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118813846#Comment_118813846

This is not quite the case and it goes back to one of the issues eir referenced that lead to them withdrawing from the bidding process. In their opinion intervention area customers would be getting preferential treatment under the proposed connection model envisioned by the Department. To quote Carolan Lennon at the time:

The proposal absolutely includes connection to the home. It is exactly the same model as used for the other 300,000, which also connects to the home. We were looking at the numbers today. Our rule for connections is that we will only do overhead connection. We will not dig underground ducts for people. If people want underground rather than overhead, they have to dig the duct themselves. If they have an underground duct which is blocked, we will not unblock it. If a duct is fine we have no problem pulling fibre through it, but it if is blocked we will ask the owner to unblock it. Applying those rules to the intervention footprint, we can connect all homes for less than €1 billion. We were checking the number of people who have refused a connection or refused to put in ducting or to unblock existing ducts. That has happened in 2% of cases when we went out to put in a connection and we have passed that information on. That is not what is envisaged in NBI's plan.

Fergal Mulligan clarified the situation somewhat in a committee meeting after:

Ms Lennon referred to the fact that we are offering ducting into every home. We are offering an overhead network along the lines of the Eir model. The only difference is that we are saying to consumers that if we cannot get them overhead network connections and if they have to have ducting because there is no other alternative, we will subsidise and pay for the ducting. We are not going to ask a person to get a mini-digger out put the ducting through his or her garden. However, if we are given permission to put the ducting through a garden, we will do it and it will be subsidised. Why will we do that? We will do it because we believe that many consumers do not have mini-diggers or the opportunity to get one in order to build a connection for €1,000 or €2,000. We are subsidising the connection up to €5,000 because there are a lot of homes with broken ducts that cannot get an overhead connection or that need an extra four or five poles to get the connection down there. As Ms Lennon stated, a pole costs €600. There are many homes in rural Ireland that are not within 50 m of the border of the road. There are poles every 40 m.

NBAiii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118805294#Comment_118805294

Would that chamber have been opened as part of the build, as in does the distribution fibre pass through it on its way to further DPs behind where you took the picture?

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815305#Comment_118815305

Yes, the distribution fibre passes through the chamber and in fact they (NBI build team) spent a day repairing the on-road ducting leading into that chamber on one side as it had collapsed (you can see the markings in the second picture). On the other side of chamber (not visible in photos) it runs underground in front of my property and up a pole and overhead from there.

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815246#Comment_118815246

Can't get clearer than that! Thanks for clarifying @NBAiii !

tipp36

I was but changed my mind as was getting a better offer from them than Vodafone. Speed was chronic.

tipp36

I was but changed my mind as was getting a better offer from them than Vodafone plus was an Vodafone’s error they never cancelled my original order with them as they said they would at the time so when the time came for the order to fulfil on eirs end it came back line was taken by Vodafone. Speed was chronically slow on eir. I don’t know whether it was because of the DP outside or what cause they I remember they were there in January/feb time at it 2 or 3 times a day for 3 days. Wasn’t taking any chances so decided to cancel it and stick with MBB.

tipp36

Yep I sure am at least have good speeds on it 🤣 in saying that eir wanted me to do troubleshooting on it I dont have the time for it with work so just said to cancel it and I’ll stick with Mobile broadband.

Goldenpanda18

Screenshot 2022-03-21 231646.png

finally got connected today with eir, getting from 800-940mbs. 124mb upload was class to see

went ready to connect back in January

NBAiii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815378#Comment_118815378

That is a positive for you that remedial work was done on the duct. It would have been disappointing to have had to wait for that work to be completed if it was only discovered on your installation day. Hopefully the other section from chamber to house is clear and you get installed without issue.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815246#Comment_118815246

Useful background info.

My guess would be though that anyone that "needs" ducting likely already has it for existing phone lines unless it's a relatively new build and they simply never got a land-line installed.

When my house was build ~16 years ago I had to pay for the ducting to be run , including paying for a "road-crossing" as the duct had to go to the pole at the opposite side of the public road.

So we are likely talking about a very small number of people that either have no ducting , or ducting that cannot be unblocked (which I can't imagine is very many).

joe123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814615#Comment_118814615

Ive read some mad stuff on this thread but cancelling fibre to go back to Mobile broadband is possibly one of the maddest.

If you took a bit of time to get the issue sorted it would make far more sense.

heavydawson

AVM launched some new Fritzbox models a few weeks back:

https://en.avm.de/press/press-releases/2022/02/product-premiere-for-fiber-optics-wi-fi-6-and-mesh-wi-fi-for-the-digital-home/

I was hoping they'd have dual 2.5gbe ports to allow future NBI 2gbit connections (2.5gbe WAN + another port for 2.5gbe LAN) but instead they're opting to terminate the fibre in the Fritzbox itself:

https://basic-tutorials.com/news/fritzbox-5590-fiber-new-fiber-router-with-wi-fi-6-and-usb/

There's no chance of bypassing the NTU and going straight to the fritzbox is there? 😀

tipp36

I know it might sound mad but I wasn’t going waiting on an engineer to call out which would be another 7 days and the my cooling off period Would be over so would be stuck in contract for 96mbps instead of 1GB. Hence why i cancelled and went back to MBB.

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118819801#Comment_118819801

Are you hoping to try again with a different crowd?

tipp36

I don’t know yet to be honest. I’ll have a look at other providers and see.

wexfordman2

If your 1gb broadband was only providing 100mb, it would be your ISP that would be out of contract, not you.

tipp36

You know what they are like when it comes down to speeds they be like oh nothing wrong at all you’re speeds are fine. I’ve worked for them and tech support for other companies I know how they roll.

wexfordman2

except you can provide conclusive evidence to the contrary.

anyway, each to their own, dont want to derail the thread further.

EarWig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118820098#Comment_118820098

I would do that. I can't remember another poster in this thread that had your problem.

tipp36

That’s true I have the evidence of the speeds. Maybe in time will go with another provider but once burnt twice shy as saying goes.

tipp36

Oh really, we’re they with Eir or other provider do you remember? I’ll have a look at others and see might hold tough for another while.

snapper365

If you have a brand new connection through NBI, I would be amazed if the issue wasn't something they can resolve easily. Also, it's not 1Gbps, far from it, but 96Mbps is still pretty fast as a short term solution while the ISP investigates - are you getting comparable speeds to that via mobile broadband? Otherwise it just seems like you're biting off your nose to spite your face. FTTH is so much better than any mobile solution - there's no way I'd allow something like that to derail me from getting it set up properly.

I wouldn't worry about cooling off periods - if you document proof that they're not delivering what you ordered then it's them in breach of contract anyway. Ultimately I would expect them to resolve the situation and if not, I wouldn't foresee them putting up much of a battle to prevent you cancelling without penalty.

heavydawson

For those of you using Digiweb on NBI, which Fritzbox model are they supplying? Does it differ between 500/1000 mbps packages?

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118823806#Comment_118823806

NM, they're still supplying the 7530 even with their 1gbps package.

SW98

Has anyone on here gone through the premises reclassification process or successfully had their premises reclassified for the NBI fibre. We can get 14 Mbps but yet we aren't included in the intervention area. Premises further down our road have had it installed so the network and infrastructure is there and ready to go with the connection point right outside our gate, yet we still can't get it. I originally emailed the department about it last October and the reclassification process is still ongoing apparently.

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118828901#Comment_118828901

Get on to your local TD and/or Broadband officer about it:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/b49914-broadband-officers-contact-list/