Eir Fibre Rollout Mapping

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122622119#Comment_122622119

Confusing post.

There are 3 national wholesale fibre providers; OpenEir, Siro and NBI (4 if you add in Virgin Media).

They each rollout and operate their own networks.

NBI is rolling out their network under the state's National Broadband Plan contract.

Retail providers connect premises via one of these fibre networks.

Wholesale provider OpenEir and retail provider eir are part of the eircom group.

NBI's fibre network is 10 Gbps symmetrical from the start. OpenEir and Siro are rolling out 10 Gbps fibre now iirc and may upgrade older parts of their networks in future.

Some retail providers offer up to 2 Gbps on these networks.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122622279#Comment_122622279

OpenEir and SIRO both have capacity for 10gbps but absolutely no way are they “rolling it out” and you wouldn’t be expecting to see if for many, many years to come.

Edit: I misread your post my bad. Yes the fibre rollout from all providers (save virgin) has capacity for 10gbps but that’s just standard with fibre- you won’t have access as a home user to speeds like that for a long time and frankly they’re not necessary! Even 2gbps is far far more than most people would ever need.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122791527#Comment_122791527

10 Gbps XGS-PON is standard now but older parts of the OpenEir network, like the rural fibre rollout, are still 2.4 Gbps GPON. So no option to offer a retail 2 Gbps package to customers connected to that part of the network if they wanted it.

The NBI fibre network hardware, supplied by Nokia, is upgradeable to 25 Gbps if ever required, maybe when they start retailing 5-10 Gbps packages.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122791853#Comment_122791853

ah I know what you mean back when they started the rollout. I dare say the likelihood we’ll see 10gb offerings in our lifetime is potentially slim too- I have availability here for 2gb but only one provider will sell it to me (blacknight).

You’d be surprised how many people on FTTC are happy to stick with that even when offered FTTH which leads me to imagine it is many, many years away we’ll see double digit speeds offered.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122791911#Comment_122791911

Never say never, 5-10 years down the road could bring new demands on the network.

During the tender stage for the NBP we were looking at 150-300 Mbps speeds, by the time the rollout started we were at 500-1000 Mbps.

Personally 500 Mbps would be my option when NBI fibre arrives here.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122791987#Comment_122791987

didn’t say never, I said I don’t imagine it in my life time!

Of course you can never know with technology what tomorrow will bring- I’ve the full gigabit connection at the moment as I said I previously had Blacknight 2gb but it was far too expensive for little point but I could wake up tomorrow and find I need it again.

Hopefully not though cos the price I’m getting at the moment for gigabit is much better than what I was paying. 🤣

crocked77

So Eir came to check our house for ftth but they can’t bring cable under the road. I guess it is too expensive so they want to put a pole in our garden. I’m not a huge fan of this especially as they don’t want to put it in either corner but rather the middle of the bottom of the garden (on on side there are electric cables so they don’t want to be too close to them, the other they say they have no access from the road but where they want to install is similar in my opinion). At the end I guess I can’t force them to go underground but it seems mad that I have to put in a pole to drop it to the ground and then up through the garden to come in at ground level. There is no gable to bring in high at so other than bringing it into the dormer we have no other options ( that would come directly over garden and yard). Not sure if there is much I can do about this unfortunately.

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122792083#Comment_122792083

You mustn't anticipate living that long 😉

Many countries already offer 10gb packages to home users and given the Irish wholesale networks mostly support the technology needed for it I think we will see it in 5-10 years if not less. The Irish providers seem to like doing incremental upgrades so they can sell a new premium tier every couple of years so they may not jump straight to 10gb but may start to double every year or two.

I agree the use case for download speeds above 1Gbps is very limited at present and video streaming bit rates are plateauing so there would need to be a new use case to drive it.

I would rather see a symmetrical 1Gbps package as the current ones are limited in terms of upload if using cloud storage etc.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799584#Comment_122799584

many countries had gigabit many years before we did too..!

I’m sure we will see it but how quickly is the real question. I mean even 2GB packages are scarcely offered at the minute despite it being available for a couple of years now!

Eir don’t offer them at all and to my knowledge have no plans to any time soon (but that could change tomorrow of course)

notahappycamper

FTTH in Dublin 3 is 2 years away I have just found out 🙄

Gonzo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799954#Comment_122799954

Eir don't offer beyond 1Gbps because their rural network cannot go any faster without upgrading Gpon to Xgs-Pon and that upgrade could be as much as a decade away, if not more.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123111480#Comment_123111480

I don’t understand what you mean? Open Eir’s FTTH network can deliver 2gbps and some providers will offer it; eir themselves don’t have the option for consumers, business can get 10gbps as an aside, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with the network tbh

oscarBravo

Their urban XGSPON network can deliver 2Gb/s, but the rural GPON network is limited to 1Gb/s.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123114249#Comment_123114249

While NBI's network is 10 Gbps symmetric XGS-PON from the start the older parts of the OpenEir network are 2.488/1.244 Gbps GPON.

Fibre line can be upgraded to XGS-PON by replacing the OLT and ONT at each end of the fibre.

Gonzo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123114764#Comment_123114764

I wonder will OpenEir eventually upgrade us on the rural network or will they leave it the way it is for years. Seems an easy upgrade but something they probably will only do when speeds of 1gbps are no longer considered decent and that could be many years away.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123115491#Comment_123115491

Easy but at what cost. They probably regard a 1 Gbps connection sufficient for now

oscarBravo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123116011#Comment_123116011

That's a view I have some sympathy with.

The Real B-man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123114249#Comment_123114249

Completely different network that's NGN its a direct fibre and connects to different equipment in the exchange businesses pay for the privilege.

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123145122#Comment_123145122

Oh I say they pay big bucks sure enough. I mean consumer 2gb is at least €70/month so can only imagine 10gb!

Thankfully by the time consumers need it the price should be a bit more palatable!

L1011

All openeir hatches; and also some ESB ones (but not water) on my road and some nearby areas have been sequentially numbered in white paint

Is this any possible indication of a survey for FTTH? Newer estates in the town have it, older-but-newer-than-mine have SIRO but I'm stuck with Virgin coax only.

bob11

I see a lot of activity happening in Dublin 6 / Rathmines - Ranelagh area eventually. and some fibre slack reels are starting to appear on poles, so competition to Virgin Media will be coming at last ..

How long does it generally take between this activity and getting activated on system ?

jos22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123230345#Comment_123230345

same in my area, also wandering this. in my estate the old Eircom poles in now in 4 different neighbours gardens, which connect up about 30-40 houses. pole in garden closest to the road needs to be replaced, but they are refusing to allow them replaced it.

both Siro and openEir are doing works in our area. had the power turn off twice for most of the day when they were digging up areas around ESB poles and running cables along them

Raichų

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123230345#Comment_123230345

how long is a piece of string? Open eir probably have a date to switch it on- even if it’s ready before that they won’t activate it til that date.

Aine1981

Is there any update on fibre rollout to Clane Co Kildare? I live within a 2 minute walk from the village and my neighbour to my left has fibre via siro but there seems to be 3 houses on our road that don't have it (including us). We are houses along a road in an crocan not in an estate. We built the house in 2018 and eir came and connected us with the copper wires at the time. We were with Vodafone using the wires using FTTC up to 2 years ago and then moved to Three. I am not too happy with the mobile broadband and as the contract is nearly up started shopping around. On talking with eir we were informed the copper line is now deactivated or cut and our only option is mobile from all providers now. Is there any chance that this was cut on the plan that we will be connected in 2025? NBI wont help as we can get over and above the speeds that they intervene with. Open Eir doesn't take queries from the public looking at their website.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123312780#Comment_123312780

Contact one of your local TDs, they may able to get an answer from them.

With SIRO in the area it may not be a top priority to get fibre to serve a few properties any time soon.

Were the other 2 houses on the road connected to the copper line at the same time as you back in 2018?

Unfortunately the copper network is moving towards decommissioning so they won't be spending money to get a few houses back online with it and mobile under the USO obligations is an acceptable alternative.

I always smile at the stupidity of that Three Ireland 5G advert, the lad with the kango offering wired broadband. Nothing beats fibre direct to the home.

Aine1981

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123312832#Comment_123312832

Thanks Cush for your reply. Of the 3 houses with no connection to fibre both have the cooper but one was built in 2018 like us and the other in 2003 and connected in those years. I looked up SIRO and they don't seem to have our eircode in their plans but open eir are saying we are in the rollout but that's all they say really. I will check in with a TD and see if they know anything.

desdman

I'm currently on the 100mb(average 55mbps download speed testing to a neutral server like Blacknight or Strencom) FTTC with Eir, as they still don't offer FTTP; in this day and age seems crazy to me with the national broadband plan not fully implemented. When this will be an option for me, Eir don't know.

I live in the Southside of Dublin and close enough to the mountains where the masts are. My mum lives in Westmeath and yet can get access up to to 2GB through Eir. She's with Virgin but still has access to 1GB broadband.

My contract is just up with Eir but the cut off point for disconnection is on April 29th. Is it worth moving to Virgin Media for the 1GB broadband(€40 for 12 month deal) or stick with Eir for more or less the same price of €40 a month in the hope that they soon offer a move to FTTP. Then again, I would have to be re-contracted when Eir does make the upgrade available. The best Eir are offering is the €40 a month with Sky offering for €30 for 12 months, but using the same line as Eir with average 70mb speeds.

I've never had an issue with the Eir broadband over the last number of years, apart from a little bit of slowness here and there when downloading on demand services from Sky etc. I'm not sure what the service would be like with Virgin Media, as I've never experience with it, nor, not knowing any neighbours that has Virgin Media in their home. If I do go with Eir again, I could take up the 30 day cooling off period if it's a thing that it takes a few weeks for a VM engineer to come out and install the new broadband.

If anyone has any thoughts on what I should do or experienced a move to Virgin, I would really appreciate your thoughts.