Eircom hits half million milestone

paulm17781

enn.ie wrote:

Eircom has reached its target of 500,000 broadband subscribers and currently has more than 3,000 new customers signing up to its network each week.

That's according to the telco, which said on Thursday that it had achieved its goal of having half a million broadband subscribers two months ahead of schedule.

Eircom also announced plans to launch a 12Mbps broadband service later this month.

"We have made a huge breakthrough in broadband in Ireland by connecting 500,000 customers to broadband ahead of our target date of December 2007," said Gerry Culligan, director of Consumer Market.

"Today we are connecting customers at one of the fastest rates in Europe and moving steadily towards closing the gap on the EU average for broadband take up."

Eircom says the total broadband market in Ireland is currently at more than 700,000 subscribers with penetration now standing at over 16 percent, up from 13 percent in January of this year.

The telco has previously said that it is intent on ensuring that over 900 exchanges -- equivalent to 96 percent of the working telephone lines in Ireland -- will be connected to a broadband exchange within the next two years.

However, while there's no doubting the fact that broadband take up has risen substantially over the past year; Ireland still lags behind many of its continental neighbours.

A recent European Commission report, which examined broadband penetration rates among Member States from January to July 2007, found that the nation continues to languish below the EU average. According to the study, Ireland remains at 14th place for European broadband penetration at 15.5 percent.

Moreover, the Commission reported that the average penetration rate grew from 14.9 percent to 18.2 percent from January to July, some 2.7 percent above Ireland's rate.

On the plus side, the report found that Ireland had the third highest proportional growth rate in the EU with 6.7 new broadband lines being installed per 100 people from January to July.

Industry commentator and former chairman of Ireland Offline, Damien Mulley, admitted that the former incumbent has been working to increase broadband availability in Ireland.

"Over the past 12 months Eircom has dramatically changed its attitude towards broadband and now seems to be focused on making it available to as many people as possible," said Mulley.

Nonetheless, he warned that there's still plenty of work to do in order to ensure that people have access to broadband locally.

"We might reach the European average sometime next year in terms of broadband penetration but there's still a huge percentage of the population -- I believe up to 25 percent, although the Department of Communications claims it's just 10 percent -- that can't get broadband, and that still needs to be addressed," said Mulley.

"In addition, a lot of the people who are now getting DSL broadband at further distances from exchanges are only getting 1Mbps services because that's all the lines can handle. This means that while we may soon reach the European average in terms of broadband penetration, in terms of speed and quality, the rest of Europe is ploughing way ahead of us now," he added.

I wonder if the 12 Mbps is true, that would change things a lot...

steve-hosting36

'word on the street' is that it is.

paulm17781

steve-hosting36 wrote: »

'word on the street' is that it is.

It will be interesting to see how / if UPC respond. NTL was always faster than Eircom (in mbps) but I'd be interested to see if they can go much above 10.

copeyhagen

does this mean that there will be an upgrade to current customers too this year? was thinking of switching to BT but might stay put if there is..

thefinalstage

They announce the 12mb now and it goes live mid next year. Meanwhile you are paying for their services when you should have switched.

paulm17781

thelastangryman wrote: »

They announce the 12mb now and it goes live mid next year. Meanwhile you are paying for their services when you should have switched.

It says launch this month. While I see your point, the new Eircom seem to be more likely to do things than their previous owners whose main goal was to stifle the market.

watty

UPC/NTL can't go much more than 10Mbps without fibre to every street and then DOCSIS 3.0 (25Mbps)

But in theory all Cable or Metro subscribers have 10Mbps option, but only those on good lines and close to exchange will ever get 12Mbps DSL.

1huge1

Ya but with the prices eircom charge they can keep their 12mb

kaizersoze

Lads, don't get too excited about the 12Mbps.
It's only a friggin trial they're launching next month.

From the Eircom press release:

To celebrate today’s achievement eircom has recognised this milestone and awarded its 500,000th broadband customer Mr Eamon Moore from Sandyford with a year’s free Broadband. The company also announced today that he will be first in line to get the fastest broadband connection in Ireland when eircom launches its 12MB trial product later this month.

copeyhagen

hmmmm. i have the eircom broadband plus or whatever its called, the 3mb connection, and an upgrade would be nice. dont want to switch to bt only for eircom to double the speed. are the wireless routers (not neccessarily eircoms netopia ones) as good as using cat5 cable with regards to playing games online. is the connection slower, would their be a difference to your lag and ping?

trellheim

I have to say , I read the thread title and I jumped in cos I thought it was "500,000 customers have now complained about the cruddy service"

Sponge Bob

trellheim wrote: »

I thought it was "500,000 customers have now complained about the cruddy service"

The title should have read "500,000 customers hit a wall called eircom" then .

I bet Casey Cablevision in Co Waterford, currently the fastest ISP in Ireland , will not be found wanting if eircom are threatening directly to steal their thunder with a 12mb product

paulm17781

kaizersoze wrote: »

Lads, don't get too excited about the 12Mbps.
It's only a friggin trial they're launching next month.

From the Eircom press release:

True, however this was not in the article I posted and people here subsequently read.

kaizersoze

paulm17781 wrote: »

True, however this was not in the article I posted and people here subsequently read.

Aye, very true. Just pointing it out before the frenzy really got going.:)

It's not the first time the tech hacks missed a small but important point like that.

ntlbell

500,000 customer's....and the 500,000th happened to live in Sandyford.

Roysh, I see.

fecking rigged man.

paulm17781

ntlbell wrote: »

500,000 customer's....and the 500,000th happened to live in Sandyford.

Roysh, I see.

fecking rigged man.

I think you're confusing Sandyford and Sandymount. Don't worry, your conspiracy theory holds just as much weight either way. :rolleyes:

WellyJ

paulm17781 wrote: »

I think you're confusing Sandyford and Sandymount. Don't worry, your conspiracy theory holds just as much weight either way. :rolleyes:

"This 12Mbps connection will not be commercially available from next month but trialed in Sandyford, where the 500,000th customer lives.

The trial is not just contained to the Sandyford area: there will be a number of different exchanges involved that are located throughout Dublin.

A spokesperson for Eircom said that most of the people participating in this high-speed DSL trial will be internal Eircom employees.

A further 24Mbps service is also set to trial in Sandyford some time next year, and will be announced over the coming weeks.

“The fibre-to-the-home trial in Sandyford will be part of a new apartment complex that has been completely wired for this.

“With fibre to the home you have the capacity to do IPTV but you have to now also put the equipment in the exchange to make that happen,” said the spokesperson.

Separate to all of this is another IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) trial which should be taking part in a lab environment in Temple Bar before the year is out.

“In terms of IPTV there’s a lab trial that we hope to have up and running before Christmas. After Christmas we hope to roll that out to approx four exchanges in Dublin, probably south Dublin.” "

The plot thickens.....

thefinalstage

South Dublin!? Dirty smelly homeless jacobian D4 monkey people! They get this first....it always happens this way but it has to go somewhere first.

towel401

yes but what upload speed are eircon giving with this 12mbit package

1 kilobit, 2 kilobits?


you could probably saturate the upstream bandwidth just with ACK packets from downloading. bah