Vectoring: Upgraded landlines to boost broadband for 1.2m

clohamon

Adrian Weckler Technology Editor – 20 September 2013

The improved landline system will make fibre broadband of up to 100 megabits available to some communities for the first time. The broadband boost is part of a new programme of network upgrades that will see the operator introduce higher speeds around the country.

Under the plan, almost half of all Irish homes and businesses will now be connected to broadband of over 70Mbs over ordinary landlines, while 27pc of all Irish homes will get 100Mbs.

This compares to speeds of under 10Mbs which are currently being delivered outside of fibre-connected areas in Ireland. These speeds are far below Irish and European targets. The additional broadband speeds, powered by the introduction of technology called vectoring, could see Ireland inch closer to targets set out by the Government under its National Broadband Plan.

FASTER

"We're one of the first operators in Europe to roll out this kind of technology," said Eircom's director of wholesale operations, Carolan Lennon. "It means that by 2015, at least 42pc of all homes in the country will get connectivity of 70Mbs."

Ms Lennon said that 300 "communities" would see the benefits of the faster broadband, some of which are outside high-speed broadband areas served by rivals such as UPC.

"It also means that by early next year, we'll pass out UPC's network in terms of fibre broadband availability in Ireland," she said. "We're already up and running in areas such as Letterkenny, Castlebar and other areas where rival fibre services are not available. That will continue."

However, the Eircom plan may not address the intensifying digital divide affecting large parts of rural Ireland. At present, more than 400,000 Irish homes will remain stuck with crawling basic internet access.

The Government has pledged to connect every home to fibre-speed broadband services of 30Mbs by the end of next year.

However, senior telecom industry figures believe that the Government's allocated capital investment plan of €175m falls far short of the sum required.

Ms Lennon said the faster services will be free of charge to existing and new Eircom customers. She also said rival operators that use Eircom's landline network would not be charged to access the new higher speeds.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/upgraded-landlines-to-boost-broadband-for-12m-29592294.html

watty

This maybe affects 30% or more of people with DSL already, but mostly people who would have far better than average speed already. It will help no-one without broadband and very few people with poor connection.

It's to compete with UPC better in UPC areas. Though the best way to compete is to cut EVERYONE'S line rental down to €9 inc of all charges. That requires no technology. The current price is perhaps the most expensive in the world.

clohamon

watty wrote: »

This maybe affects 30% or more of people with DSL already, but mostly people who would have far better than average speed already. It will help no-one without broadband and very few people with poor connection.

Why is it not a consistent or proportionate improvement across all speeds?

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/34241-eircom-to-deploy-vectoring/

watty

clohamon wrote: »

Why is it not a consistent or proportionate improvement across all speeds?

It's to do with reduction of cross talk, which makes SNR worse and thus speed poorer. Cross talk only is an issue in fat multi-pair urban cables for high density housing and only if a significant percentage of pairs actually have a DSL service.

So if you feed a cabinet with fibre it's not too significant compared with DSL from the exchange. Also on more than 1km the distance is more significant than reducing crosstalk.

bealtine

Reasonable piece on cross talk (in general)

http://www.fie-epn.net/profesores/phidalgo/trabajos/trab_7.pdf

and some background on VDSL

http://www.broadband-forum.org/marketing/download/mktgdocs/MR-257.pdf

GIMickey

So when vectoring is brought in, in early 2014, what towns will see it first?

Also will it be another lie in terms of speed.

i mean i was told my line can hold 70mbps, yet im gettin 50mb (not complaining) my modem tells me i can get 104mbps.

So will i get 70mb when release or will i get 100mb?

Suppose we will have wait and see

bealtine

GIMickey wrote: »

So when vectoring is brought in, in early 2014, what towns will see it first?

Most likely anywhere where eircom compete with UPC...certainly at the outset

i mean i was told my line can hold 70mbps, yet im gettin 50mb (not complaining) my modem tells me i can get 104mbps.

50 is the standard profile only a few areas have 70 as their standard profile