National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Wing126

Tony H wrote: »

the guy in a nbi van checked the pole and tagged it with a barcode , the pole is inside our gate ,and he also tagged two more nearby poles,

Checked the poles outside my house and there's a barcode on them too, but my premises still says pending survey on the site.


Do they have like different phases of surveying or something?

fergus1001

anyone who gets connected gets a thread ban need to keep smugness to a minimum here 

Tony H

Wing126 wrote: »

Checked the poles outside my house and there's a barcode on them too, but my premises still says pending survey on the site.


Do they have like different phases of surveying or something?

this is what I get when I put my eircode in

Your premises is in the Intervention Area and surveying is underway in the locality. High speed fibre broadband is anticipated to be available in your area within the date range below.*

Date:
Dec 2020 to Feb 2021

TheSegal

I thought barcodes were always on the poles in an area? Always assumed they were put on by Eir for record keeping. Nice to know they are from NBI!

FastFullBack

Tony H wrote: »

the guy in a nbi van checked the pole and tagged it with a barcode , the pole is inside our gate ,and he also tagged two more nearby poles,
saw another crew
near Carrigaloe train station clearing overhanging branches from Eir poles

Can we get a pic of the NBI barcode so we know what to look for?

Tony H

FastFullBack wrote: »

Can we get a pic of the NBI barcode so we know what to look for?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/y5KoTv3EWpqreTdh9

listermint

fergus1001 wrote: »

anyone who gets connected gets a thread ban need to keep smugness to a minimum here 

That seems quite fair

heavydawson

Tony H wrote: »

https://photos.app.goo.gl/y5KoTv3EWpqreTdh9

That barcode is Eirs, not NBIs I'm pretty sure.

TheSegal

I checked poles in an area that has no date for surveying and they all have bar codes on them so i'm pretty sure that they have all been placed on poles by Eir in the past

BobMc

My eicode got updated to 1st quarter 2021 Jan - Mar, was originally saying 2nd quarter, I'll be absolutley stunned if I can get FTTH in 2021

joe123

BobMc wrote: »

My eicode got updated to 1st quarter 2021 Jan - Mar, was originally saying 2nd quarter, I'll be absolutley stunned if I can get FTTH in 2021

What area you based? Was it just listed as "2nd quarter 2021" before this?

So we have Dec 2020 - Feb 2021
Jan - March 2021 time-line?

So they are updating the website....just not easy to see?

The Cush

TheSegal wrote: »

I checked poles in an area that has no date for surveying and they all have bar codes on them so i'm pretty sure that they have all been placed on poles by Eir in the past

I met the open-eir person assigned the job of surveying our exchange area a few years ago, I delayed him for maybe an hour one day when I was out for a walk. His job was to survey all the poles in the area, both inside and outside the 300k rollout. That included attaching a barcode to the pole if there wasn't one there already and then logging the GPS coordinates on his hand held device, also checking the condition of the poles and that they were at the correct depth. A fail on either got the pole a defective tag and indicated accordingly on the hand held device. All defective poles were eventually replaced.

BobMc

joe123 wrote: »

What area you based? Was it just listed as "2nd quarter 2021" before this?

So we have Dec 2020 - Feb 2021
Jan - March 2021 time-line?

So they are updating the website....just not easy to see?

Cant remember exactly what month range but pretty sure it was more towards summer months, we're Ardncrusha Co. Clare

I'll be all over ordering it first chance I get, I was second connection on FTTC for our area when it was released, struggling now on 15mb, we'd be heavy users

The Cush

This is the deployment areas map published in the The Journal's article on the publication of the redacted NBP contract, showing 110 rollout areas. Resolution isn't the best, anyone know of a better resolution copy?

I wonder if the different area colours is significant?

heavydawson

The Cush wrote: »

This is the deployment areas map published in the The Journal's article on the publication of the redacted NBP contract, showing 110 rollout areas. Resolution isn't the best, anyone know of a better resolution copy?

I wonder if the different area colours is significant?

The country will be divided into 110 areas of around 5,000 premises. The subsidy will be paid to National Broadband Ireland in arrears as each of the 110 areas are completed and fibre rolled out.

No idea what the colour coding is, but could be rollout groupings, or just survey groupings...

Pique

No idea what the colour coding is, but could be rollout groupings, or just survey groupings...

Different contractors maybe (KN, Actavo, etc.)?

listermint

Yellow, be the last poor sods to get it.

NBAiii

joe123 wrote: »

Oh damn, I would have assumed that surveying would loop back around again once all counties have phase 1 surveying done, theres only 6 or so counties left at this stage?

I expected they would have Surveying teams and build teams.

Id be hoping then build work etc would be one team, and the surveyors would continue surveying?

Example:

Phase 1: Survey parts of ALL counties
Begin build for Cork, Cavan, Galway, etc
Begin connections for Cork, Cavan Galway etc

Phase 2: Survey parts of ALL counties (next batch of townlands)
Begin build for previously surveyed counties from phase 1
Begin connections for previously surveyed counties from phase 1

Rinse and Repeat.

Am I way off on this? Or is the plan to Survey, then build, then connect. THEN start phase 2 surveying?

NBI had 70000 premises in 17 counties surveyed according to themselves a few days ago. I would assume that surveying will continue in parallel with builds.

NBAiii

The map posted today bears no resemblance to anything I've seen. NBI are still talking about 227 deployment areas (the OLT list), not 110, plus the labels on the map are different to those being used e.g DA29 is Cavan. Goodness only knows what the colours are meant to represent.

ACitizenErased

Got a phone call from 3 today trying to get me to sign a new 18 month contract with some 'new equipment'. No thanks lads. Fibre broadband in December all going well.

TheSegal

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Got a phone call from 3 today trying to get me to sign a new 18 month contract with some 'new equipment'. No thanks lads. Fibre broadband in December all going well.

Imagine are doing door to door sales in my area and posters plastered all over phone poles. Must be to try and get people before fiber is delivered. Got a neighbour to sign up who was desperate for better internet and after two weeks it ended up worse than her old Eir connection during work hours

heavydawson

NBAiii wrote: »

The map posted today bears no resemblance to anything I've seen. NBI are still talking about 227 deployment areas (the OLT list), not 110, plus the labels on the map are different to those being used e.g DA29 is Cavan. Goodness only knows what the colours are meant to represent.

Thanks for pointing that old, it does appear that older (2019) documentation referenced 110 deployment areas:
https://www.tipperarycoco.ie/sites/default/files/Delivering%20the%20National%20Broadband%20Plan.pdf

,whereas the current NBI FAQ lists 227 deployment areas:
https://nbi.ie/news/latest/2020/08/24/first-phase-of-national-broadband-plan-nbp-underway-in-wicklow/

So that map is likely out-of-date

The Cush

As I understand it Deployment Areas and OLT locations are different sides of the same coin.

The OLT locations are NBI and Deployment Areas are the Dept. of Communications way of splitting the up to 550,000 intervention area premises into convenient blocks of approx. 5,000 premises each for payment purposes. The DAs may contain more than 1 NBI OLT.

This from a Committee discussion with the the Dept early last year before the 110 DAs were finalised

Mr. Fergal Mulligan: ... The contract, which has 1,500 pages, has strict obligations for them to show us their designs for each of the 100 areas of 5,000 premises throughout every part of the country and that must be proven before it is built.

Chairman: Who set the 100 areas?

Mr. Fergal Mulligan: We did. The Department decided we would look for these 100 areas of 5,000 premises because it would be the best way to chop up the payments. We pay by every area that is done.

and this from a few months later

Mr. Patrick Neary: ... As we have discussed before, it [NBI] has chopped the country into 110 deployment areas. It will identify the most appropriate infrastructure for a deployment area and will then propose a solution and seek authorisation from the Department to proceed with building.

...

Mr. Ciarán Ó hÓbáin: ... In terms of an infrastructure provider, as Mr. Neary outlined, the country is broken into 110 deployment areas. When it comes to the point of designing the low level design for how to reach the 5,000 premises within the deployment area the bidder will be looking at all existing infrastructure and options. It will predominantly be based on the Eir network but it will also look at using the ESB infrastructure.

- More to follow -

The Cush

Regarding the Rollout and Deployment Areas, Schedule 2.3 Deployment Requirements of the NBP Contract refers. This section of the contract is also the source of the 110 rollout areas map, page 68.

Just to clear up the terminology, the 110 DAs on the map are referred to as Rollout Areas in the Contract and the 227 OLT locations are referred to as Deployment Areas.

There will be a maximum of 230 DAs (OLT locations), only 227 are included to date.

The Schedule has mapped the 110 Rollout Areas to the 227 Deployment Areas.

My area, Rollout Area DA51, has 2 Deployment Areas (OLT locations) in Newport Tipperary and Ogonnelloe Clare

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

My area, Rollout Area DA51, has 2 Deployment Areas (OLT locations) in Newport Tipperary and Ogonnelloe Clare

How will this work, my local exchange MRO1_E01 Murroe Limerick is fibre backhauled to CTY1_038 Castletroy Limerick.

Under the NBP plan above we will be connected to NBI's OLT in neighbouring Newport Tipperary.

Will we be directly connected to Newport via fibre or via our local exchange?
Will this be decided during the planning process?

slade_x

Wasn't sure what to expect in Tipperary Town. There was a survey team out about 2 weeks ago in James Connolly park inspecting all access manholes; out on the street and 2 further in, inside the estate itself.

KN installers showed up yesterday and looked like they ran 4 fibre cables in parallel underground along the road up from the cabinet.
But they came back this morning and ran 4 cables in parallel from the street into one of the access manholes in the corner of the housing estate. they didn't go near the other one at the other side of the estate which is the one outside my house. They then continued to run 4 more in parallel further up and across the road.

I was expecting FTTC as a lot of houses around here including me can only access up to 12Mb adsl. I was not expecting a run of fibre to an access manhole inside the estate itself.

heavydawson

slade_x wrote: »

Wasn't sure what to expect in Tipperary Town. There was a survey team out about 2 weeks ago in James Connolly park inspecting all access manholes; out on the street and 2 further in, inside the estate itself.

KN installers showed up yesterday and looked like they ran 4 fibre cables in parallel underground along the road up from the cabinet.
But they came back this morning and ran 4 cables in parallel from the street into one of the access manholes in the corner of the housing estate. they didn't go near the other one at the other side of the estate which is the one outside my house. They then continued to run 4 more in parallel further up and across the road.

I was expecting FTTC as a lot of houses around here including me can only access up to 12Mb adsl. I was not expecting a run of fibre to an access manhole inside the estate itself.

That sounds like the Eir Urban Fibre rollout rather than NBI? Was their any NBI branding in sight?

slade_x

heavydawson wrote: »

That sounds like the Eir Urban Fibre rollout rather than NBI? Was their any NBI branding in sight?

NBI were the survey team. KN ran the fibre

NBAiii

The Cush wrote: »

How will this work, my local exchange MRO1_E01 Murroe Limerick is fibre backhauled to CTY1_038 Castletroy Limerick.

Under the NBP plan above we will be connected to NBI's OLT in neighbouring Newport Tipperary.

Will we be directly connected to Newport via fibre or via our local exchange?
Will this be decided during the planning process?

Some of the NBI areas I've seen may encompass 8,9 or 10 eir exchange areas but the cables all emanate from the central OLT location so I would expect your connection to come from Newport if that is the area you are in.

The only proviso to this is that the inital OLT locations are all in enet buildings so there may be a difference when it comes to eir exchanges. I doubt this is the case though as from speaking with NBI people they are of the view that the eir rural build was wasteful in terms of the number of OLT locations used.

NBAiii

slade_x wrote: »

NBI were the survey team. KN ran the fibre

It may have been an NBI survey but it is highly unlikely to be NBI fibre as Tipperary is not one of the initial locations. As heavydawson said it is likely part of eir's IFN build.