Cork Central Exchange Fibre Rollout

Archronos

Hello,

I have the misfortune of being connected to the Cork Central Exchange (removed) which is unloved by Eircom to date and not upgraded yet to handle 70mb fibre.

My broadband connection through Magnet was on 17mb downstream and 1.1mb upstream til I experienced gaming lag at the beginning of last year, when they shaped my line to leave me neutered at 12mb downstream and 0.5 mb upstream, with the added bonus of no more lag while gaming, but a tedious to use connection for other things.

I was advised by my ISP that if I upgrade to fatpipe before my exchange is upgraded, I'll only get the same speeds as I have now, so I should not bother, but when the exchange is upgraded to 70mb, I will get substantially better speeds and can then benefit from fatpipe.

Does anyone know what Eircom's plans are for that particular exchange? Magnet told me December was the original plan and that overshot and now Magnet has no idea.

dxhound2005

The Eircom map says not until May. Everywhere else around it is already enabled.

http://www.eircom.net/efibreinfo/map/


Did you see any cabinets near you? In the big Fibre thread page 435 Post #6518 someone is speculating that the exchange may be going to FTTH.

On another issue, are eircom possibly doing FTTH in some areas?
I notice that in Cork City centre they've been doing a hell of a lot of work on fibre in existing ducts in recent weeks and there are no cabinets on the central island at all really.

Just wondering if the Cork Central exchange area and possibly Crown Alley in Dublin will go full FTTH to avoid cabinets as it looks like planning permission might be a major problem in the city core areas. Telephone line local distribution in those areas is largely done in vaults under the street.

Archronos

So it's now well into May and the exchange has been delayed to June now. It was already delayed from November to May. Anyone know why it keeps slipping? I thought the actual center of the city would be the highest priority of all but it seems like no-one except me is waiting on it, probably due to UPC's tyrannical reign (I can't get it).

jabberwock

Archronos wrote: »

So it's now well into May and the exchange has been delayed to June now. It was already delayed from November to May. Anyone know why it keeps slipping? I thought the actual center of the city would be the highest priority of all but it seems like no-one except me is waiting on it, probably due to UPC's tyrannical reign (I can't get it).

You will definitely have it in June. Definitely.

SpaceTime

There are three things that would lead me to think that there might be a delay:

1) The City Centre is tight for space and there may be some kind of planning hold up.

2) There are no existing PCP (junction box) cabinets used in that area that I can see. I've never seen one on the central island unless they're tucked away down some lanes or something that I've never noticed. So, that might mean there will have to be a fairly extensive re-jig of the actual phone lines, or some other solution used instead.

3) Many areas of that part of Cork are extremely prone to tidal flooding. I'm not sure if you could safely site FTTC equipment there without risking it being under water every 6 months.

So, maybe they're looking for some alternative approach?

UPC is widely available in the city centre though if you are looking for fast broadband.

They did seem to do a lot of fibre laying though in that area over the last few months. The only thing I could think is maybe they're going to launch FTTP there instead of FTTC?

Crown Alley in Dublin is the other mysterious greyed out area on the map. It's a major exchange that covers a very large chunk of Central Dublin mostly north of the river, even though the exchange is in Temple Bar. It takes in chunks of the south city centre too though. Seems there's all sorts of crossing over between exchanges in that area though depending on the wiring routes.

Ship Street and Merrion exchanges aren't launched either yet. Again, they're both covering areas in the very core of Dublin City Centre.

Maybe they're going to use something else in those areas like FTTP to try and leverage the concentrations of businesses with a very fast product or something?!

They're certainly not providing much info so, I am only speculating on what might be possibly going on.

It's actually a worse situation in parts of Dublin City Centre as UPC isn't widely available in areas of Dublin 1 and 2 which are actually some of the few parts of Dublin that were never cabled.

It does seem very odd though that these exchanges which are all in very busy business districts are not e-fibre enabled. So, there must be some logic to it!

ED E

Crown alley is "Internet House", AFAIK its where some of their network staff are based.

I suspect its all direct fed lines there, no cabs or all underground cabs. FTTP makes sense from there.


Regarding cork, the VDSL cabs are on a maybe a 5" plinth, and while they're weathersealed the base is open to the cabling cavity below AFAIK, so once that floods itll fill up into the very expensive cab. Another place where FTTP is the way to go.

SpaceTime

Crown Alley is actually quite historic. I think it was possibly the location of one of the first telephone exchanges in Dublin and certainly the first automatic ones. So, it probably has ducts feeding a wide area.

For some reason that area was also one of the last places in Ireland to go fully digital. It had a crossbar switch serving the 01-670 and 01-671 number ranges until about 2000! There were a few places in Cork City like that too that had 1970s-era pre-digital exchanges that were only cut over to digital in 1999/2000. I remember as I know someone who was trying to get ISDN and there were quite a few issues with having to change number to a collocated digital exchange.

In Cork, the cabinets would possibly need to be at least 1 to 2 feet above street level for total flood proofing.

Cork City Centre's wiring is all underground too - you'll notice very large vaults on most of the major streets when you walk around.

There are similar issues in some older suburban housing estates too where everything was done underground and PCP cabinets were never used.

One other issue to bear in mind in Cork City Centre is that the water that comes up is "briny" (fully of salt). Much of the soil in Cork City centre is laden with salt water too. So it can do severe damage to any electrical / electronic gear if it gets into it.

Archronos

Does this mean that any proposed solution in Cork's central island is unlikely to be as good as the surrounding area?

SpaceTime

If its FTTH it's actually significantly better.

Archronos

And this week in a shocking development, Eircom have updated their rollout to delay Cork City's main island again to July 2014. I'm gonna start recording these actually:

Cork Central: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)

Waterfall: August 2014 (Was October 2014, updated 14 June 2014)
Togher: August 2014 (Was October 2014, updated 14 June 2014)

Kinsale: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)
Macroom: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)
Castlelyons: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)

MrFrisp

Archronos wrote: »

And this week in a shocking development, Eircom have updated their rollout to delay Cork City's main island again to July 2014. I'm gonna start recording these actually:

Cork Central: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)

Waterfall: August 2014 (Was October 2014, updated 14 June 2014)
Togher: August 2014 (Was October 2014, updated 14 June 2014)

Kinsale: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)
Macroom: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)
Castlelyons: July 2014 (Was June 2014, updated 14 June 2014)

This may be a silly question, but the "Togher" one,, Is that the boxes at the end of Lehenaghmore Hill, at the entrance to Palmbury?

I know Eircom are constantly working on the boxes at the side of the road between Ashbrook Heights and Fernwood.

Is that for Fibre also?
.

Archronos

Eircom have updated their rollout again, with some interesting developments:

Cork Central: COMPLETE

Waterfall: August 2014 (Checked 11 July 2014, last updated 14 June 2014)
Togher: October 2014 (Checked 11 July 2014, was August 2014, last updated 11 July 2014)

Kinsale: COMPLETE
Macroom: COMPLETE
Castlelyons: COMPLETE

I myself still can't get fibre in my area, which I think is related to cabinet rollouts, if you check the Wholesale page of Our Network on Eircom Wholesale's site (I can't link it as I'm a Boards nub).

Cork Central only seems to have 1 on the banks of the Lee, and 1 other one with a TBD construction date on the west side. For the rest of the island, what would be the plans there? Am I stuck now still with no fibre til some indeterminate date I can no longer track now, as Eircom only needed to enable 1 cabinet in my area to count it as "enabled"?

SpaceTime

They'll be losing a lot of business customers to UPC and direct fibre from the companies using the MAN network in the city centre then.

I know a lot of SMEs are changing to UPC in Cork due to much better speeds than ADSL2+

Milex

I am currently with Magnet (DSL, Cork City Center) and I asked about a Fibre connection for my apartment, and I got this email response:

==============================================================================

I have spoken in depth with our service delivery department and based on available information we believe that cabinet CKC1_004 will be used to service the Cornmarket Apartments which does not currently have a go live date, we cannot ascertain when this will be done, information which is used is done via the below link, I believe you have used a similar method for your research below,

(go into the NGA roll out cabinet is identified as CKC1_004)

As I am not allowed to post links, I had to add some spaces.
http:// www. eircomwholesale. ie/Our_Network/


1. When, am I going to be able to get faster internet at this location? Hopefully in the coming months once referenced cabinet is live
2. What resources can I use to track the progress of any work that has not yet been done to facilitate this? As above
3. If you do not know how to answer any of these questions, who does, and how can I reach them? You could try Eircom directly however we are unable to get a date so I’m afraid you will get the same answer.

Apologies that these answers seem a bit vague however we cannot get definite go live dates for individual cabinets.

==============================================================================

Well, I guess the City Center is only partly "Fibre ready" for now, therefore I need to wait longer.

danny004

When I look at the cork map one of the view areas left not on the plan is Ringaskiddy.It used to be on the plan for late 2014 but has now disappeared but then I saw it listed as part of the national broadband sstrategy.Does anyone know how this has happened also being industry zoned I would have thought this would be one of the first areas to be enabled

ED E

CKC is direct fed ready. In an urban area like that a lot will probably be done that way. Give a few months for direct fed to be released to line ops and a huge swathe will go active.

Archronos

Thanks a lot for your help everyone - Magnet are answering me as well now so it's been a good week of information, even if it isn't in my favor. Looks like it'll be Autumn/Winter before I see any movement on this again.

Archronos

Still no movement on the CKC1_004 box to the west of the island, but another has now appeared on the wholesale map at the GPO in the center of the island where the main exchange is, titled CKC1_E01. Like its predecessor 004, this box is just planned and work hasn't started.

SpaceTime

Just change to UPC if you want fibre. Eircom will probably try to do exchange-launched VDSL which isn't FTTC at all.

jabberwock

SpaceTime wrote: »

Just change to UPC if you want fibre. Eircom will probably try to do exchange-launched VDSL which isn't FTTC at all.

He can't. UPC do not service his Apts.

SpaceTime

jabberwock wrote: »

He can't. UPC do not service his Apts.

Talk to some of the residents and the management company. Might be possible to get UPC to connect up. They can wire up apartment buildings very quickly.

Milex

I'd love to go with UPC, but it isn't possible in my apartments. I already talked to the building manager and to UPC.
This apartment building is not connected to cable TV at all, only sat dishes on the roof.
The building management does not intend to take the costs to wire up cable, as phone and internet is available through land-line, and TV through sat dishes. I guess they just don't care about a good internet connection.
All apartments are taken anyway, the location is so good, apartments are modern, and the price is not to bad. If one comes available, like 20 parties try to get it, nothing is empty for longer than a few weeks for printing and other repairs before someone is moving in again.

I believe the only way to get UPC in this building is, if UPC pays all costs to wire up the building. It'll be 70 apartments, not to bad, but no idea if this would cover the cost, as there is no guaranty to get a lot of customers out of it.

SpaceTime

They could possibly use the satellite wiring.
All they'd need is a box installed on the roof so that anyone ordering could be connected to UPC rather than Sat.

jabberwock

SpaceTime wrote: »

Talk to some of the residents and the management company. Might be possible to get UPC to connect up. They can wire up apartment buildings very quickly.

I was full sure I replied to this last night, must have hit preview instead of submit.


In Archronos' situation, the apt block is owned by 1 person which will not allow UPC in.

SpaceTime

You'll just have to move then. FTTC is looking highly unlikely in that area now and VDSL from the exchange will be more like suped-up ADSL unless you're extremely close.

'Cork Central AXE' is in the upper floors of the back of the GPO behind the Imperial Hotel.

So if you're within about 500m you'll get decent speeds eventually.

I hate this thing of advertising properties as having cable TV which subsequently turns out to be satellite or worse, MMDS.

I always checked the address before I rented anything as good broadband is a big deal to me.

bk

Milex wrote: »

I believe the only way to get UPC in this building is, if UPC pays all costs to wire up the building. It'll be 70 apartments, not to bad, but no idea if this would cover the cost, as there is no guaranty to get a lot of customers out of it.

UPC do normally pay all the costs for wiring the building if they decide to go ahead with it.

They did for my apartment building. 7 years with no UPC while the houses across the road had UPC.

Initially they couldn't do it as the cost for wiring being quoted to them by their contractors was too high. But in fairness to them, they kept coming out and doing surveys and figured out how to do it for cheaper so it came in under budget and they went ahead and wired it up.

There was no cost to the building owners or apartment owners and they did a very nice, neat and tidy job. A vastly better job then the ugly mess Sky made wiring up the building!

BTW, no they won't use the Sky wires to connect up apartments, it isn't their cable to use.

jabberwock wrote: »

In Archronos' situation, the apt block is owned by 1 person which will not allow UPC in.

Then the owner of the building is an idiot!

They might be popular apartments at the moment, but high speed broadband is increasingly becoming a pre-requiste for many young people looking for a place to live, in particular the sort of well paid IT professionals that these sort of apartments attract.

Having UPC broadband would definitely increase the value and rental rates of the building.

I bet it is one of those greedy celtic era developers looking for a kick back or "hello" money from UPC to service the building.

We had the same problem in my building, one of the directors of the management company was looking for "hello" money from UPC and all other sorts of ridiculous things. UPC rightfully said no and getting UPC into the building was held up for 6 months!

In the end UPC threatened to pull out if he didn't cope on and a couple of us residents threatened to have the director removed at the next AGM. That changed is tune very quickly.

The point is don't just give up! Get a few residents together and have them write a registered letter to the management company asking why UPC isn't allowed into the building and asking that it be changed.