National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

joe123

I ended up watching the entire meeting.

Main points from what I can remember

- surveying is progressing roughly at 17500 premises a month

- main bone of contention from members were these amber houses stuck in between neighbours who can get FTTH. Calls made by members repeatedly to explain why you can't use Eir infrastructure to connect these.

- Members wanted these amber houses in blue areas prioritized over everything else. Hendrick explained numerous times how they are building out new network and they can't just splice into existing Fibre - but will look at ways to accelerate.

- Timmy Dooley of all people drove home the point that people want to know when. Even if it's bad news people will be willing to accept it. Be it 12 months, 2022, 23 etc. Tell the people.

- NBI were vague enough in response to this but did say every IA house will receive a door drop leaflet within the next month but it sounds like it will be a very high level summary of NBI. Also stated they will aim to improve the website information and mentioned the rollout plan page will show additional info.

-NBI stated the have control over surveying pace and can easily ramp up. After this, they are more reliant on outside influences such as planning, approvals etc.

- More members couldn't understand why neighbour A could look over the ditch at Neighbour B and not get connected immediately.

So yeah, nice to get a bit more insight but alot of repeated calls to focus on houses 100m from FTTH that can't get it.

Timmy Dooly with the best point of, tell people a rough time frame, its impossible for people to plan 5 years down the line, never mind 1 without being left in the dark.

Is there a way we can see a list of committee members present? Seemed to be a lot of Clare, Limerick, Tipp representation.

kaizersoze

clohamon wrote: »

Barmy logic here from Kieran O’Donnell TD and Joe Carey TD

Apparently people within, or close to, blue areas should be prioritised because it’s "very hard for them to stomach" their neighbours having it and themselves not.

Jesus they're some brainless mongs!

Working in Ballinasloe the last couple of days. Installed a new chamber between a MAN chamber and an Eir manhole and linked the 3 of them with duct. They can now come out of the eir duct and into the MAN.

Westnet: Paul

westyIrl wrote: »

Retail service providers brought on-board to date: Vodafone, Viatel, Airspeed, Ripplecom

I seriously hope that wasn't represented as being an exhaustive list.

TheSegal

Workers have been digging a trench to lay ducting in around here for the last two weeks. Surprised it took them so long since it's around 60m and they had a lot of equipment to work with. Hoping that they won't need too dig much more around here. Also seen a van pulled in to Centra at Carnmore pulling a trailer with big coils of black cabling, can't recall the name of the company but something along the lines of 'fiber cable specialists' was written under their name on the van. I'm assuming that means they'll be putting cable up on poles soon.

joe123

Westnet: Paul wrote: »

I seriously hope that wasn't represented as being an exhaustive list.

Hendrick mentioned these retailers as being fully on boarded.

He said there are 33 retailers in the middle of onboarding process.

user1842

Ballina - Survey Underway - Rollout September 2021 to February 2022. 2,678 homes.

OpenEir will take a lot of those houses in Ballina. They are big time encroaching into the IA there. Not that im complaining as Eir's fibre roll-out in Ballina will go live in January, it seems.

NBAiii

Why shouln't the TD's voice the concerns of their constituents? The reality is that some people will be looking at eir distribution points a couple of hundred metres away for four or five years more as they wait for a duplicate network to be built to reach them.

Did any TD ask how much fibre cable is being dupicated with existing eir fibre or how many man hours will be spent stringing cable on poles or ducts alongside existing fibre to reach intervention areas?

They have now published a rollout plan taking them to the end of 2021 and they have not even made it half way through the enet deployment areas so if you're in an openeir exchange deployment area I would not hold my breath.

Wing126

So checked my Eircode (Julianstown area in Meath) again and they've updated it from Jan-March 2022, to October 2021 - March 2022.

westyIrl

user1842 wrote: »

Ballina - Survey Underway - Rollout September 2021 to February 2022. 2,678 homes.

OpenEir will take a lot of those houses in Ballina. They are big time encroaching into the IA there. Not that im complaining as Eir's fibre roll-out in Ballina will go live in January, it seems.

While encroaching is a loss in terms of value for money for the NBP, overall I think it will serve customers better in these (and other) areas that it happens from a competitive view point. I want to see the NBP succeed but I won't complain where encroachment occurs either. It 'should' keep NBI access charges in check.

Jim

westyIrl

NBAiii wrote: »

Why shouln't the TD's voice the concerns of their constituents? The reality is that some people will be looking at eir distribution points a couple of hundred metres away for four or five years more as they wait for a duplicate network to be built to reach them.

I'd imagine it becomes a cyclical problem. If NBI did some ad hoc agreement with OEir to connect premises within 100m of where they finished, all you would have is just a new group of constituents complaining that the extended network is now only 100m from them.....and repeat.

I'd much rather they spent the time and resources building the network out to supply the whole intervention area. I'm not downplaying the torture it must looking out the window at a DP a couple of metres away, nor their right to voice their frustration with their TD's. However, it was an end-point that was drawn by OpenEir and not NBI.

Granted, as I previously posted, where there is a small pocket of premises to connect, I can't see how it would be efficient for NBI to not use exisiting OEir Fiber.

Jim

daraghwal

NBAiii wrote: »

Why shouln't the TD's voice the concerns of their constituents? The reality is that some people will be looking at eir distribution points a couple of hundred metres away for four or five years more as they wait for a duplicate network to be built to reach them.

Did any TD ask how much fibre cable is being dupicated with existing eir fibre or how many man hours will be spent stringing cable on poles or ducts alongside existing fibre to reach intervention areas?

I agree. Fibre is going to be strung for 10km to get to me and two of my neighbours when there is a DP 150m from my house with only 1 house connected to it. The closest house back towards the exchange that can't get it is ~2km away and they have DPs at a similar distance to them.

NBAiii

westyIrl wrote: »

I'd imagine it becomes a cyclical problem. If NBI did some ad hoc agreement with OEir to connect premises within 100m of where they finished, all you would have is just a new group of constituents complaining that the extended network is now only 100m from them.....and repeat.

I'd much rather they spent the time and resources building the network out to supply the whole intervention area. I'm not downplaying the torture it must looking out the window at a DP a couple of metres away, nor their right to voice their frustration with their TD's. However, it was a line that was drawn by OpenEir and not NBI.

Jim

It is not NBI's fault. They are just doing what they have been contracted to do. The fault lies with the Department who made a mess of the procurement process.

daraghwal wrote: »

I agree. Fibre is going to be strung for 10km to get to me and two of my neighbours when there is a DP 150m from my house with only 1 house connected to it. The closest house back towards the exchange that can't get it is ~2km away and they have DPs at a similar distance to them.

I don't think the general public or even many journalists have realised what is taking place.

Orebro

I think the next big sh1tstorm in all of this will be when the initial take up figures will be published, which will undoubtedly be small as this will be a slow burner with take up, the media will have a party with that one, and will be v difficult for a minister to explain.

homer1982

Hi All

I an in an intervention zone and I see that KN have laid the cable in and underground box outside our property at the road. The problem we have is that we have no ducting from the house out to this underground box, when the NBI reps were in our area at the start of the year they loosely said that they would get the fibre to our door. I cannot find anywhere that it says this on the website and I rang the helpline recently and two operators gave me different answers.

Can anyone tell me if I need to lay the ducting myself or will NBI do it? Its a big messy job for me so I'm hoping they'll do it, which I would be willing to pay extra for.

_Puma_

We are located in North Galway. Our area was surveyed during the summer and we have a date Jan2021-Mar2021

Hedge trimming was carried out today, They were trimming along existing telecom Pole route(A few poles were replaced over the summer). Have the draw wires all ready to go on the last pole to our property. The final 100m will be via a telcom duct we placed according to the the Eir specification that can be found on their website. Hoping its the signal that pulling the Fibre along the pole is the next step. We are circa 500m to the the nearest existing Eir box, so we just missed out initially. KN confirmed about 6 months ago that we can only get it via NBI.

The Cush

homer1982 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if I need to lay the ducting myself or will NBI do it? Its a big messy job for me so I'm hoping they'll do it, which I would be willing to pay extra for.

Can't answer your question directly, this was a reply from them posted here previously - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=114913684#post114913684

This also - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=114954560#post114954560

Also, this from their site - https://nbi.ie/installation-of-new-underground-ducting-on-a-home-or-business-premises/

clohamon

It seems "Gap intervention areas" are now a thing.

https://twitter.com/kodonnellLK/status/1329079335144157199

listermint

Orebro wrote: »

I think the next big sh1tstorm in all of this will be when the initial take up figures will be published, which will undoubtedly be small as this will be a slow burner with take up, the media will have a party with that one, and will be v difficult for a minister to explain.

Not a hope take-up will be small. Not a hope. Covid has taken care of that

Orebro

listermint wrote: »

Not a hope take-up will be small. Not a hope. Covid has taken care of that

Hope you’re right!

TheSegal

clohamon wrote: »

It seems "Gap intervention areas" are now a thing.

https://twitter.com/kodonnellLK/status/1329079335144157199

I live between two areas that can get fiber so I am in one of these "gap areas" but I still think it's a big mistake focusing on these areas. Do a proper job rather than focus on the short term.

I know i'm about to get hooked up in January-March 2021 so I may be a bit biased but all of these short-term projects that TDs try to encourage inevitably turn out ****e!

clohamon

I'm guessing there's a lot of "Gap intervention areas" in Kieran O'Donnell's constituency.

NBAiii

TheSegal wrote: »

I live between two areas that can get fiber so I am in one of these "gap areas" but I still think it's a big mistake focusing on these areas. Do a proper job rather than focus on the short term.

I know i'm about to get hooked up in January-March 2021 so I may be a bit biased but all of these short-term projects that TDs try to encourage inevitably turn out ****e!

Nothing will come of this meddling by TDs. The contract is signed, the plans are in place. There is no current facility for connecting to existing fibre. The committees are useful for disclosing information but they have no real influence on proceedings.

The Cush

clohamon wrote: »

I'm guessing there's a lot of "Gap intervention areas" in Kieran O'Donnell's constituency.

I'm in one of those areas, good man Kieran

Nolars

Just checked my eir code again and now it's not showing any date it was down as early 2021. They better not start this crap already

padraig.od

Nolars wrote: »

Just checked my eir code again and now it's not showing any date it was down as early 2021. They better not start this crap already

I'm in South Kilkenny, close to Waterford. Estimated date has changed to September 2021 - March 2022. It was Dec 2021- March 2022 in an email from NBI I got last month.

Woohoo I guess? Plans must be in flux, 6 months is a big window.

joe123

_Puma_ wrote: »

We are located in North Galway. Our area was surveyed during the summer and we have a date Jan2021-Mar2021

Hedge trimming was carried out today, They were trimming along existing telecom Pole route(A few poles were replaced over the summer). Have the draw wires all ready to go on the last pole to our property. The final 100m will be via a telcom duct we placed according to the the Eir specification that can be found on their website. Hoping its the signal that pulling the Fibre along the pole is the next step. We are circa 500m to the the nearest existing Eir box, so we just missed out initially. KN confirmed about 6 months ago that we can only get it via NBI.

Where in North Galway? Based in Headford myself and its just premises pending survey despite being told months back our area had been surveyed.

From what I can see, they stopped in the middle of corrandulla. No idea when/where surveying will resume In Galway is one of the most frustrating things in all this.

davpower

Nolars wrote: »

Just checked my eir code again and now it's not showing any date it was down as early 2021. They better not start this crap already

Same here in East Cork was Survey underway and date of Dec 2020 - Feb 2021. Now gone to pending survey with no date!

wexfordman2

davpower wrote: »

Same here in East Cork was Survey underway and date of Dec 2020 - Feb 2021. Now gone to pending survey with no date!

East cork here as well, and mine is now also gone back to "pending survey". I know for a fact the area has been surveyed already, hopefully it's just a glitch.

clohamon

The Cush wrote: »

I'm in one of those areas, good man Kieran

Heh.

It was depressing how quickly the whole thing descended into an orgy of parochial politics - led by the Chairman.

Agent Avenger

I’ve had the same thing happen here too, my house was surveying underway with a date of Dec 2020-Feb 2021 and now premises pending survey with no date even though they’ve already been around

I’ve checked the house half a Km down the road in one direction and one Km in the other direction and they still say network build in progress with the Dec 2020-Feb 2021 date, I was hoping we’d be next after them but now I don’t know!