National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Well that's is just stupidity.

I'd be doubtful of getting anything expert, or even balanced, out of ESRI in relation to rural broadband.

https://www.esri.ie/system/files/publications/RS70.pdf (2018)

BCP are put into urban area where there is very poor broadband in the rural area outside it. Cappamore has decent broadband in the village, and I imagine there is fiber to the home on the outskirts. However there is rural swathes of area around where the fiber to the home did not go.

In general when eir was providing fiber to the home it picked up the easiest most densely area around villages where it could get the most bang for there book.

They then stopped 5-6 km out as density declined.

Back in 2020 enet were tasked with finding a backhaul solution for the BPCs, to the best of my knowledge they used their own wireless backhaul and their sister company's, Airspeed Telecom's wireless network. Given enet's links to NBI/Peter Hendrick/David McCourt etc. it was unlikely the solution was going open-eir's way, if available, when they had the resources available in-house.

The BCPs are short term and time limited solution.

The separate BCP location CPE tender back in 2020 states

Yes, that's the model of ONT they use (though with no Nokia branding on the front and with a fairly cheap-looking NBI sticker plastered onto it).

As you said, it's mounted in a plastic cradle which almost doubles the size of the footprint of the installation on your wall.

Like I said, it's not a huge issue but they could have put a bit more effort into sourcing a cradle that doesn't take up so much space - it seems unnecessary.

No, you are incorrect, dedicated point to point microwave systems can be high capacity, and throughout can be maintained over 10s of kilometres, there is nothing technically wrong with providing a dedicated high capacity microwave link for solutions such as the bcp's!

In fact, bearing in mind that the bcps were always a temporary stopgap for the overall nbi project, microwave point to point backhaul was the best and most optimum solution.

That is not taking away from the fact that the bcps were and are little more than pr!

The mast backhaul is an interesting addition and looking forward to more details emerging.

Say a mast operator orders the 10/10 Gbps circuit. I assume it's carried just like all the other xgs-pon connections on the network, wired back to the nearest dp, no different to a residential connection. Would this mean all dp's on that run would now be lit at 10Gbps as a result of this? Will it require dp changes or changes to ONT's for customers on that same dp?

I think as time goes on we'll see less detail, it'll be hidden behind their secure portal and only available to their service providers.

The connected mast I saw back in May had a larger orange/red fibre cable between DP and mast.

Yes, hadn't considered contention but then I'd imagine a mast of such scale to be pushing 10Gbps would likely have had its own fibre connections for some time. I wonder are the survey teams noting locations of existing masts and masts in planning and arranging the dp rollout with these in mind.. possibly leaving a sole dp or a quite fibre stand in place for each mast.

It sounds like a product that will definitely sell for NBI. I watched eir erect a few new masts around my way recently and all were hooked up with p2p wireless where there's openeir core fibre and eir residential fibre running just meters away in many cases!

Re KN installs and while YMMV with engineers they will install into the attic, at least in specific circumstances. We had power points ready and no drilling was required from the house to the attic as the attic has cat5e run up there to connect the new router to the house network. The NBI white box is big but it's not huge and it's not ugly, such features are common in houses these days.

Wired speeds low 900mbps. Some minor outages lasting a few seconds here and there but I'll let that slide for now.

Overall very pleased with the process. Ordered end of April. First install offer 3rd week in May. Gort DA.

One problem I had is not being able to see my NBI account details on my Vodafone account login using the links they sent me in their email, kept directing me to My Vodafone which appears to relate to mobile only even though I've had fixed line services with Vodafone before using that email address. When I went to re-register using a link I found in an email with the same email address they sent it wouldn't allow me. So even if you order using a particular email address and you have had Vodafone fixed line before you might not see your account details when you login. I re-registered the NBI service with a new email address and can now see all my fibre account details. Might help someone!

Sunday Times has a fairly soft interview with David McCourt claiming 10-15k extra premises *under construction* per month. Says he will not be selling in the ownership "re-jig". Current connections 13,302. (Registration required)

The mast traffic is separate to the XGS-PON traffic. The mast connection will be a dedicated CWDM link back to the nearest PoP or PoH.

I'm not sure why you don't believe me. I've explained why it is openeir cable, I've showed you how to trace it back to the openeir dp a few hundred metres back the road. It is not going to appear on a public map as it is not a public connection, it is a dedicated mast connection. Why would NBI be using the Oola exchange when they have a cable back to their PoH in Tipperary a few spans back.