Raheny Broadband

mcgooie

Hi people,

Have just moved into a new house in Raheny (Avondale area) and it isnt cabled for my current UPC broadband connection.
What are my other options to get broadband installed?
Thanks

Magnet: Rory

mcgooie wrote: »

Hi people,

Have just moved into a new house in Raheny (Avondale area) and it isnt cabled for my current UPC broadband connection.
What are my other options to get broadband installed?
Thanks

Magnet have service off the coolock exchange (serves most of Raheny) if your interested.

mcgooie

Hi Rory,

Can you tell me what the upload speeds are on the 10 and 24Mb packages?

Also, are there any download limits?

Thanks

Magnet: Rory

mcgooie wrote: »

Hi Rory,

Can you tell me what the upload speeds are on the 10 and 24Mb packages?

Also, are there any download limits?

Thanks

1. 512Kbps
2. Fair usage policy applies, we have never invoked this but we reserve the right to do so.

mcgooie

ok that sounds good

one more question - there is no phone line installed in the house (i cant even find a phone point). so i am assuming i have to call eircom to get them to install a line, is that right? it says on their site that there is a 6 month contract for a line, will i have to be with them for 6 months before i can get magnet bb?

alternatively, if i go through magnet is this something you can arrange with eircom?

thanks

ChrisMcCauley

Very, very late but just in case someone can benefit ...

I've been in Avondale Park, Raheny (like the O.P.) for seven years. There is no UPC so until recently your only option* has been to use Eircom lines - repackaged as various providers over the years but Eircom lines all the same.

There is one HUGE problem with broadband in the Avondale Park area (possibly Maywood as well) and it is that the underground cable linking the area to the village is substandard and cannot reliably carry a broadband signal from the exchange in Coolock.

To their credit, Eircom have sent engineers to my home on three occasions in this last 18 months alone, checking the cables internally, to the nearby pole and back to the cabinet close to the Howth Rd. They have replaced cables, offered new modems etc but each Engineer has ultimately come to the conclusion that it is an underground issue and will not be resolved without a JCB and some new cable.

Just today, I've checked my line stats and my modem is managing to sync at 1.7Mb despite having a 6dB SN ratio and a downstream attenuation of 63dB. All this and the exchange is only a few miles away.

On the plus side, I've been testing an O2 'Hotshot' modem and that is giving me a reliable 4Mb/s bursting to 9Mb/s over a full-signal HSPA+ connection - technically not broadband but good enough for me (for the moment). I'll probably discontinue the Eircom service in a few weeks when I'm satisfied with the O2 service - looking good at the moment.

Ironically, while writing this response, I got a callback from Eircom asking if the fault on the line had now been fixed. They're a nice bunch but until someone digs up the road, I'll keep telling them (politely) that 'no it isn't fixed and can someone please help'






* Not strictly true, I used Irish BroadBand for a while but the service was so patchy as to be almost unusable.

bq67ie

Hi Chris

I'm living in Maywood and just wondering how you're getting on with that O2 "broadband" ?

My wife & I both have decent mobile plans so if we could get half-decent broadband we might scrap the land line altogether.

As UPC aren't in our estate, Eircom aren't highly motivated to fix the issue :mad:

DCMaywood

Hi There ,I live in Maywood Lawn and have done for years the reason there is no UPC is because originally it was just TV and Maywood and Avondale had their own ariel. UPC Fibre is in Assams across the road and could be put into Maywood Avondale Bettyglen (approx 1000 homes) easily enough. We just need to get together and put pressure on them to do so. I mean 1000 homes surely 90 % would sign up to no line rental and speed 50 times greater than they get now ....Please lets campaign UPC to do this for all our sakes and maybe we could catch up with everyone else.
DC

Peadar_85

DCMaywood wrote: »

Hi There ,I live in Maywood Lawn and have done for years the reason there is no UPC is because originally it was just TV and Maywood and Avondale had their own ariel. UPC Fibre is in Assams across the road and could be put into Maywood Avondale Bettyglen (approx 1000 homes) easily enough. We just need to get together and put pressure on them to do so. I mean 1000 homes surely 90 % would sign up to no line rental and speed 50 times greater than they get now ....Please lets campaign UPC to do this for all our sakes and maybe we could catch up with everyone else.
DC

Hi DC...I'm moving into this area soon and just been asking a similar question on another thread re. UPC broadband.

I'm assuming they're not going to start laying the infrastructure anytime soon so in the meantime what are the broadband options in the area....from what I can see Magnet don't seem to cover here either?

ChrisMcCauley

Hi all,

Just an update on our situation in Avondale Park, we have a 2.5Mb connection from Eircom - the line just won't support more. Eircom have been out a few times and have replaced all of the cabling from the house to the telephone cabinet located close to the entrance of Maywood (from the Avondale Park end). The problem is the line going up to the village - it isn't rated for broadband and won't be replaced any time soon.

That 2.5Mb line supports general browsing and will even run Netflix at a high enough rate to get HD and Dolby Digital sound so I'm happy enough.

I work from home a fair bit and need better access to remote servers in the US and UK. To support that, I use an 02 dongle which regularly gets 5Mb and very often 8Mb - 11Mb. The only down side is that there is a traffic threshold of 15Mb and I've breached that a few times now - € 90 a go. There is a Meteor equivalent which has a 25Mb limit so I may try that.

I've even used Irish Broadband in the past but the reception wasn't great because we're located in a bit of a dip.

Basically getting real broadband at a sensible price in this area isn't possible. Personally I'd pay up to €80pm for unmetered 20Mb/s connection but there are no real options

Chris

Peadar_85

Thanks for the update Chris. Disappointing to hear this though. I wonder if Sky will improve things. I have heard different reports of them using Eircom infrastructure but achieving betters speeds than their service though I also read elsewhere that it's BT's cables they are using which I'd assume aren't in this area either

ChrisMcCauley

Hi all,

Two weeks ago, I complained about the issue to Terence Flanagan the local FG TD, pointing out that Eircom were supposed to be in phase 3 of their Fibre-to-the-cabinet project etc. Just got a letter from his office which says that he has raised the issue with Herb Hribar (CEO, Eircom).

You never know, maybe, just maybe.

Chris

Simon Gruber Says

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Hi all,

Two weeks ago, I complained about the issue to Terence Flanagan the local FG TD, pointing out that Eircom were supposed to be in phase 3 of their Fibre-to-the-cabinet project etc. Just got a letter from his office which says that he has raised the issue with Herb Hribar (CEO, Eircom).

You never know, maybe, just maybe.

Chris

Nothing so far anyway. Still getting a max here of 2.5 MB/s download with Magnet and I've previously been with Eircom, BT and Smart and this is the fastest. UPC 150MB/s is available only a 5 minute walk away and yet we're here with this crap. I can get better speed than this on a mobile hotspot on the rural coast of Donegal. Would have switched to mobile here except my house seems to be in a signal blackspot. I just can't win when it comes to having a decent internet connection in this place. There aren't many business to speak of on this side of Raheny and the population is more older people who would have less use for internet at all. Will the fecking cable ever be replaced I wonder?

allen175

All cabling going to cabinets in raheny have been replaced with fibre, along with the addition of fibre cabs, was completed just after easter, there is no official release date for the coolock exchange, but people are speculating that it will be launched in June, not much longer to wait now.

You might have noticed smaller green cabs beside the existing larger cabs, these are the VDSL2 (fibre) cabs which will supply up to 70mb of broadband into each estate. Accurate locations of the cabs can be found here https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1M_lYcvMkt7xIqqSa43TdS1s25oRqtA2JgpxAkYM#rows:id=4

Simon Gruber Says

So, once those cabinets are switched on, the old cable is redundant?, If so, that's great news! I'm less than 100m from the cabinet and didn't notice there was a new one. Must walk over and see now.

EDIT:- Don't see the new cabinet like in the pictures, just a planning permission notice stuck to the side of the existing one, unless it's put somewhere else or I just didn't see it in the dark, I'll check again tomorrrow

allen175

What part of Raheny are you in?

ChrisMcCauley

That map definitely shows the new cabinet at Maywood / Raheny so that looks great for me. From that cabinet you can almost see my house!

Chris

Simon Gruber Says

I've had a good look around and there is NO new cabinet in Maywood/Bettyglen that I can see. There's a planning permission notice on the two old ones but it has not been built yet, at least not anywhere near where it's marked on the map. There are ones at the entrance to Foxfield, Avondale Park and beside the Bank of Ireland exactly where they're marked.

allen175

hmmm... thats strange i will swing by on my way home and check it out.

Simon Gruber Says

Anyone spot a box in Maywood/Bettyglen yet? Still no luck finding it

allen175

Forgot to update you, had a spin around on wednesday to that cab, i could only see the old cab with planning permission on it didn't see a new cab, might be deeper into both estates. strange that there isn't one beside it considering that raheny has been fully finished for some time now.

ChrisMcCauley

allen175 wrote: »

Forgot to update you, had a spin around on wednesday to that cab, i could only see the old cab with planning permission on it didn't see a new cab, might be deeper into both estates. strange that there isn't one beside it considering that raheny has been fully finished for some time now.

Is it really that surprising? I would imagine that they would need to replace the cable running from the village to Avondale / Maywood before our cabinet coud be replaced with a fibre enabled one.

Chris

allen175

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Is it really that surprising? I would imagine that they would need to replace the cable running from the village to Avondale / Maywood before our cabinet coud be replaced with a fibre enabled one.

Chris

They wouldn't need to replace any existing copper cabling, they would install the cab and run fresh fibre cable to the new cab, leaving the copper cable there for use with phones.

Raheny is now live for fibre as of today, so in theory you should be able to order fibre from the different ISP's

ChrisMcCauley

allen175 wrote: »

They wouldn't need to replace any existing copper cabling, they would install the cab and run fresh fibre cable to the new cab, leaving the copper cable there for use with phones.

Raheny is now live for fibre as of today, so in theory you should be able to order fibre from the different ISP's

Thanks for the speedy reply but wouldn't they need to dig up the road from the village?

I've been told that there is only low-grade copper down there from the cross-roads to Maywood / Avondale so surely someone would need to get the spades out?

allen175

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Thanks for the speedy reply but wouldn't they need to dig up the road from the village?

I've been told that there is only low-grade copper down there from the cross-roads to Maywood / Avondale so surely someone would need to get the spades out?

as i said already, with fibre they don't need to touch the existing copper cables, the old cabs will remain there for voice services, no broadband will be going through the copper after everyone gets on the fibre bandwagon, the only bit of digging that needs to be done is for installing power to the new cabs.

ChrisMcCauley

Hopefully I'm just being to skeptical but I don't believe that there is fibre in the ground near Matwood / Avondale at present. I was told by their engineers that Eircom routinely ran fibre to new developments in the area but had not installed fibre from the village to the Maywood area.

Chris

allen175 wrote: »

as i said already, with fibre they don't need to touch the existing copper cables, the old cabs will remain there for voice services, no broadband will be going through the copper after everyone gets on the fibre bandwagon, the only bit of digging that needs to be done is for installing power to the new cabs.

Simon Gruber Says

There are fibre cabinets around the area, the closest ones to maywood\bettyglen are at the entrance to Maywood/Avondale Park near the bus stop, across the road at the Bank of Ireland and across the road from the Topaz garage at the entrance to Foxfield. There is a planning notice on the cabinet on the main road into Bettyglen/Maywood but unless they hid it in a bush or put it undergroud somewhere, I have yet to find one. I can't see any reason why this one wouldn't have been put in when the rest around the area were unless there was a planning objection. What anyone's objection to this box beside existing ones would be is beyond me so I figure that's unlikely. If they have forgotten this area again, I'll be livid. It's gotten to the stage where the lack of a decent internet commection will negatively affect the value of your house as anyone who needs to work from home would not be able to do so. So I just hope we're connected and I just can't see the VDSL cab. We'll know soon enough anyway as the service launches today. Perhaps the other cabinets in the area are enough to connect to and they didn't need the one here or something. Fingers crossed that we won't still be stuck on the current crap connection we have at least. Any improvement will be welcome.

ChrisMcCauley

Simon Gruber Says wrote: »

Perhaps the other cabinets in the area are enough to connect to and they didn't need the one here or something. Fingers crossed that we won't still be stuck on the current crap connection we have at least. Any improvement will be welcome.

I hadn't thought of that, perhaps they can run the cable from the fibre cabinets elsewhere into Avondale Pk. Definitely hope so because I'm tired of my 2.5Mb connection and I don't believe there is any fibre near our existing cabinet.

ChrisMcCauley

Got a callback from Eircom. Apparently we'll get a call in a few days to arrange for an Engineer to call out to do the upgrade. I'll keep you posted !

ChrisMcCauley

Hi,

I checked this morning and there are two new green cabinets embedded in new concrete near the junction of Maywood and Avondale Park. I guess that's why I go the callback from Eircom - we're probably good to go. I would guess that folks near that end of Maywood would similarly be fine.

Chris

allen175

have the cabs been marked here https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1M_lYcvMkt7xIqqSa43TdS1s25oRqtA2JgpxAkYM#rows:id=4

ChrisMcCauley

allen175 wrote: »

have the cabs been marked here https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1M_lYcvMkt7xIqqSa43TdS1s25oRqtA2JgpxAkYM#rows:id=4

It's marked as Coolock - CLK - Avondale


Chris

allen175

ok so from the looks of that address checker, avondale park, raheny park and maywood ave, cres, lawn and 2 houses in berryglen are the only addresses available in there at the moment. to check yourself select dublin, then dublin 5, the start typing maywood.

ChrisMcCauley

Hi,

Got a text today to say that the engineer is calling out on Wednesday to do the upgrade to 70Mb. Fingers crossed!

Chris

Brian CivilEng

There are two cabinets within 200m of me in Raheny, I'm well inside the area in the 'available now' bit of eircom's map yet I can't get eFibre yet. It's very annoying. Most of Raheny village seems to be available, yet Watermill Rd isn't there yet. Going to explode with anticipation.

allen175

abitofacomedian wrote: »

There are two cabinets within 200m of me in Raheny, I'm well inside the area in the 'available now' bit of eircom's map yet I can't get eFibre yet. It's very annoying. Most of Raheny village seems to be available, yet Watermill Rd isn't there yet. Going to explode with anticipation.

are the 2 cabs marked on the map? haven't seen any around watermill / all saints area.

Brian CivilEng

allen175 wrote: »

are the 2 cabs marked on the map? haven't seen any around watermill / all saints area.

Both on the Howth Rd, none around All Saints (I've been looking).

ChrisMcCauley

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Hi,

Got a text today to say that the engineer is calling out on Wednesday to do the upgrade to 70Mb. Fingers crossed!

Chris

Work done. Getting 50Mb to the house and a little less through the router. Getting 46.80 down and 13.24 up. Previously it was 2.6 down and 0.32 up.

Note that we are really close to the cabinet which is getting 70Mb but that drops off very quickly to 50Mb at the house.

niamh86

Hi Chris,


Where in Raheny are you?

Thanks

red_bairn

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

Work done. Getting 50Mb to the house and a little less through the router. Getting 46.80 down and 13.24 up. Previously it was 2.6 down and 0.32 up.

Note that we are really close to the cabinet which is getting 70Mb but that drops off very quickly to 50Mb at the house.

How close? 100m? Did you ask to go on the 70Mb package?

Brian CivilEng

I heard back from Eircom about my local cabinet, the one on the Howth Rd at the junction with Watermill Rd is installed but not yet commissioned. They told me July, I will be waiting with bated breath.

ChrisMcCauley

red_bairn wrote: »

How close? 100m? Did you ask to go on the 70Mb package?

I can see the cabinet from the house so I'd estimate that it is about 50m away. We're on the 70Mb package but capacity at the house is only 50Mb.

Just thinking though, perhaps they've only commissioned us for the 50Mb package - it's too much of a coincidence that we're getting exactly 50Mb at the house. I'll check but to be honest I'm pretty happy.

Downloaded a movie for the kids 3.28GB (according to iTunes) and it completed within 10mins.

red_bairn

ChrisMcCauley wrote: »

I can see the cabinet from the house so I'd estimate that it is about 50m away. We're on the 70Mb package but capacity at the house is only 50Mb.

Just thinking though, perhaps they've only commissioned us for the 50Mb package - it's too much of a coincidence that we're getting exactly 50Mb at the house. I'll check but to be honest I'm pretty happy.

Downloaded a movie for the kids 3.28GB (according to iTunes) and it completed within 10mins.

Well there seem to be some Vodafone customers on other threads getting in the 60s, so people reckon that Eircom are being very conservative about giving up to 70 atm. But why if you can get an attainable rate at 60 -70? It's a bit weird. Well enjoy the connection and happy streaming/downloading (back I Korea I'd put on the kettle, go to the shop and come back to find my Blue ray movie already downloaded).

Simon Gruber Says

I knew it. They didn't install the cabinet on the Maywood/Bettyglen road. Called Magnet to upgrade and they said not only is it not available, there's no ETA either. Houses only a few hundred metres around me can get it, yet I'm stuck with this crap connection as always :mad:

Simon Gruber Says

Anyone have any suggestions for anyone to contact to find out why this cabinet was skipped?

allen175

Simon Gruber Says wrote: »

Anyone have any suggestions for anyone to contact to find out why this cabinet was skipped?

Take a look at the planning permission notice and look it up on the councils website, planning permission might have been rejected.

red_bairn

Simon Gruber Says wrote: »

I knew it. They didn't install the cabinet on the Maywood/Bettyglen road. Called Magnet to upgrade and they said not only is it not available, there's no ETA either. Houses only a few hundred metres around me can get it, yet I'm stuck with this crap connection as always :mad:

So you mean they didn't commission it? If it's there already, it's installed.

If houses around you can get it, you can get it. Unless you are to be setup to another cabinet from another road. Trust me. You ain't the only one frustrated with them atm.

allen175

red_bairn wrote: »

So you mean they didn't commission it? If it's there already, it's installed.

If houses around you can get it, you can get it. Unless you are to be setup to another cabinet from another road. Trust me. You ain't the only one frustrated with them atm.

cab was never installed, there is planning permission notice on the existing cab but no sign of a new cab anywhere around it.

red_bairn

allen175 wrote: »

cab was never installed, there is planning permission notice on the existing cab but no sign of a new cab anywhere around it.

I suppose you mean the cross hatched distribution cabinet, correct? How far away is the nearest VDSL cabinet to you?

allen175

red_bairn wrote: »

I suppose you mean the cross hatched distribution cabinet, correct? How far away is the nearest VDSL cabinet to you?

Yeah i did mean the distribution cab, my nearest cab is about 800m give or take.

Simon Gruber Says

red_bairn wrote: »

So you mean they didn't commission it? If it's there already, it's installed.

If houses around you can get it, you can get it. Unless you are to be setup to another cabinet from another road. Trust me. You ain't the only one frustrated with them atm.

Yes, there are seperate cabs for the two halves of the housing estate, one half has it installed and is connected. On my side they never put in the VSDL cabinet at all and we cannot connect to the other halves as it's too far away.

Just a planning notice pasted on the old one on our side but the work was not carried out.