Comms Eircom to pass 1m homes and firms with fibre this summer

Nolars

“This summer we expect to have 1m homes passed. If you think from a standing start in April 2012, where we put our first cabinet in place to have over 4,000 erected and over 1m homes passed.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/37760-eircom-to-pass-1m-homes-and/

JD6910

am i correct in saying its not fibre to the actual home though?

ESB/Vodafone are planning to take fibre right into the home............

watty

They do say "passing homes" sadly
It's the existing copper to your home, so speed can be 1Mbps to 100Mbps depending on distance from cabinet, number of lines using Broadband (crosstalk) and line quality.

Dredd_J

They are passing my house for sure. Just not coming into it.

Since launch, everybody within 500 Meters any direction of me either has Eircom Fibre or their number is showing up as can get it on the checker. Yet I have less than 1Mb broadband and the checker says the max i will get is 3, and i am in a fibre enabled area, but my address isnt enabled.

Eircom are not helpful at all and will not even look at my phone line. There is clearly a problem with the line, but they wont even send someone to look at it.

I am 600 M from the cabinet.

I got Vodafone to put another line in last year but they just connected the other pair from the same line, so that was never going to work. No matter how much I asked the engineer to not do that, he did anyway.

I even pointed out the terrible state of the line coming along the poles on the road.

I have been on to Comreg but they might as well be Eircom for all the good they do.

Is there any way at all I can get Fibre? I would even pay someone to come an fix the lines along the road, but they wont give me that option either.

Help.

clohamon

Dredd_J wrote: »

They are passing my house for sure. Just not coming into it.

Send an email to the NGA mapping address at the department. nbp@dcenr.ie

Include a google maps link to your location or lat/lon coordinates. State the current speed, and that having made enquiries with the provider and ComReg that there appears to be no NGA in your location. You should probably state that you are not making a complaint but making a submission to the mapping process.

Keep it short, factual and polite and ask for an acknowledgement.

A map of NGA is due to issue in a few months from DCENR. You might be able to see if your submission has been noted

Dredd_J

clohamon wrote: »

Send an email to the NGA mapping address at the department. nbp@dcenr.ie

Include a google maps link to your location or lat/lon coordinates. State the current speed, and that having made enquiries with the provider and ComReg that there appears to be no NGA in your location. You should probably state that you are not making a complaint but making a submission to the mapping process.

Keep it short, factual and polite and ask for an acknowledgement.

A map of NGA is due to issue in a few months from DCENR. You might be able to see if your submission has been noted

Whats NGA. Ive sent maps with houses and phone numbers (with account holders names) all around, houses left and right behind and in front of me, that actually have fibre from Eircom. I have marked, the cabinet, the houses, even the lines from the poles and the distances. I have sent this to Comreg and Eircom and I made hundreds of phone calls to both. And just been treated really badly in fact.

I have even offered to get my own engineer to check the line from the cabinet to my house, which i am happy to pay for, and been told that if I try that i could end up with a fine or in jail. My number is the only one that comes up as not being fibre enabled in the area.
Its so frustrating.

clohamon

Dredd_J wrote: »

Whats NGA.

Next Generation Access; Eircom's e-fibre will probably qualify as NGA.


Have you tried to order the service from your provider - Vodafone?
Have they confirmed that the service is unavailable on your line?

Either way, you might consider checking whether Eircom can offer the e-fibre service and if they will commit to providing it.

Dredd_J

clohamon wrote: »

Next Generation Access; Eircom's e-fibre will probably qualify as NGA.


Have you tried to order the service from your provider - Vodafone?
Have they confirmed that the service is unavailable on your line?

Either way, you might consider checking whether Eircom can offer the e-fibre service and if they will commit to providing it.

Yes I tried Vodafone too.
They were the ones who suggested the other line be installed for me to get it.
Then Eircom installed the other line (the other pair on the same line as before). Vodafone tested it and said "Sorry that doesnt qualify for eFibre either". Ever since they have been trying to get me to pay for this line that I only had installed to get eFibre.

Eircom in the meantime will not entertain me at all.
They have fobbed me off literally hundreds of times.
All I need is for them to let me pay for someone to fix the line back to the cabinet. And all they will say is eFibre is not a guaranteed service - end of story. They are without a doubt the worst ever people i have ever tried to buy something from.

So i have 2 lines now. One with Eircom. One with Vodafone, which has never been used. One cable coming to my house. And no eFibre.

clohamon

Dredd_J wrote: »

So i have 2 lines now. One with Eircom. One with Vodafone, which has never been used. One cable coming to my house. And no eFibre.

Sorry about your problem.


As you know it's all eircom infrastructure so eircom would probably not risk fixing their own line and at the same time claim that the other (Vodafone) line was not fixable. They would get into trouble with ComReg. eircom might be more interested if Vodafone weren't at the party but they might have also have calculated that fixing your line is too costly.

There is no Universal Service Obligation for broadband so ComReg only mandate a 'functional network connection' of 28Kb/s

Have you tried UPC? or look at the IrelandOffline maps for Fixed Wireless Providers. Failing that, the ESB/Vodafone joint venture might eventually come into your area but it could be several years.

Dredd_J

clohamon wrote: »

Sorry about your problem.


As you know it's all eircom infrastructure so eircom would probably not risk fixing their own line and at the same time claim that the other (Vodafone) line was not fixable. They would get into trouble with ComReg. eircom might be more interested if Vodafone weren't at the party but they might have also have calculated that fixing your line is too costly.

There is no Universal Service Obligation for broadband so ComReg only mandate a 'functional network connection' of 28Kb/s

Have you tried UPC? or look at the IrelandOffline maps for Fixed Wireless Providers. Failing that, the ESB/Vodafone joint venture might eventually come into your area but it could be several years.

unfortunately its only Eircom landline in my area. The only mobile alternative is Vodafone, but the caps and prices are not workable. No UPC. There is Ripplecom, but they have caps nearly as bad as the mobile companies, so they are a non runner.

We couldnt even watch movies if we had such small caps. So not worth it.
I know there was a thing in the UK where if you paid £2000 that BT would be compelled to give you fibre to the home if you were within 1km of a cabinet.
I would gladly pay double that here to even get the service my neighbors have. But its not even an option for me

bk

Dredd_J wrote: »

I know there was a thing in the UK where if you paid £2000 that BT would be compelled to give you fibre to the home if you were within 1km of a cabinet.
I would gladly pay double that here to even get the service my neighbors have. But its not even an option for me

Yes, that is the BT Fibre On Demand scheme where anyone in the UK can order FTTH, but has to pay the full cost of running the fibre to their home from the nearest VDSL cab. You are charged by distance. For instance a 2km connection will cost €8000 plus €130 per month usage.

It is expensive, but a very good scheme that I'd love to see Eircom do here in Ireland too. There are certainly people out there who would be willing to pay for finally fixing their broadband problems.

There is no reason Eircom couldn't do it, there VDSL cabs are certainly set up for it, with extra fibre for future FTTH runs. I think the only reason they aren't doing it is that they currently don't have much experience in doing FTTH installs and they are currently rightfully more focused on getting the low hanging fruit of VDSL done first.

I'm hopeful that when Eircom finish their VDSL rollout, that they will turn their attention to starting to do more FTTH and FTTB installs. I hope they will have a comprehensive FTTH rollout to compete with the ESB and UPC and they might also put a scheme in place.

Obviously that will take time before resolving your issue, in the meantime I think there are two things you can do:

1) If you know and are friendly with one of your neighbours, pay for them to get eFibre installed and share it with wifi or more robust fixed wireless gear.

2) Write a letter to the new Minister of Communications and also the EU regulators and CC the letter to Eircom and Comreg, outlining your problems and the amount of effort you have gone into resolving it.

You might be surprised with how quickly your line ends up getting fixed when the EU regulators suddenly become aware of issues here in Ireland.

In other words make yourself a nuisance and keep trying until it simply becomes cheaper for Eircom to fix your line then to deal with questions coming from the Department of Comms and EU regulators.

But before doing this, you should first follow Comregs Complaints Policy, see section 7 of the following document:

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0320.pdf

Basically:

1) Write a registered letter to Eircom, raising an official complaint, spelling out the details of your complaint and requesting Eircom to respond to the issue in two weeks, including a plan and timeline on how to resolve the issue.

2) If Eircom fail to respond and sort the issue, then make an official complaint to Comreg, again by registered letter and again sending them all your correspondence with Eircom

If all of these fail, then you should contact the department of comms etc.