More Eircom misrepresentation

Av8or

Having previously been involved with the Advertising Standards Authority and Comreg over Eircom's blatant NGB advertising (in respect of serious evening-time service degradation) they are back to their old tricks.

They are now claiming to customers in our estate that eFibre will be available from the 25th February and, I quote, "eFibre means everyone in your household can be online at the same time with a superfast connection to their laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets or gaming consoles".

Sounds good, but what they are actually offering is fibre to a nearby exchange and not end-to-end i.e. to the home. As a result, they can offer us 'up to 7Mbps' i.e. slower than our existing PSTN copper broadband connection. I wonder how many will sign up for a costlier, slower package?

ED E

eFibre is VDSL2. It was branded as such as most irish people dont know what ADSL is never mind VDSL.

If you are prequalling for 7Mb you're around 2000m from the cab, most people are closer to theirs. Theres a reason why it all says "UP TO 100Mbps". Unfortunately this all is just the way of the copper lottery.

bk

Av8or wrote: »

Sounds good, but what they are actually offering is fibre to a nearby exchange and not end-to-end i.e. to the home. As a result, they can offer us 'up to 7Mbps' i.e. slower than our existing PSTN copper broadband connection. I wonder how many will sign up for a costlier, slower package?

Eircom won't sell you eFibre if it is slower then your existing ADSL connection.

eFibre is actually Fiber To The Cab (FTTC) + VDSL2 [1]

The cabinets are "normally" much closer to peoples homes then the exchange. And thus then can avail of much faster speeds of "upto" 100Mb/s

In fairness to Eircom, unlike their previous ADSL advertising they are much more transparent with eFibre.

They routinely profile every phone line and can thus tell you upfront what speed you will actually get from it [2]. If you enter your phone number in their online line checker, it will tell you what profile and thus what speed you will get.

[1] For the moment, they are currently testing Exchange launched VDSL (eVDSL), which I'm sure they will also sell under the eFibre name.

[2] Lines can become damaged or change between tests, but it should be accurate for the vast majority of people.

Av8or

I am 1.5km (1.2km straight line - 24db/12db attenuation and 11db/19db noise margin) from the exchange and there are VDSL fibre cabinets 0.5 and 0.3 km from me.

So, an offered speed of 7Mbps doesn't cut it.

ED E

You're direct fed. That loop is likely more like 1700m and the edge of VDSL coverage. Probably just missed the 12Mb profile, if you ordered it you might manage 12DS 1US.

Av8or

I'm assuming that there is no patching from the nearby VDSL cabinet (0.3km, giving us a potential 100+Mbps on VDSL2) to our local cabinet in our street, without going back to the exchange? I'm further assuming that there are no plans for FTTH?

ED E

They're not moving lines that run direct into PCP cabs, but it makes sense that they might in future like BT do.

FTTH is in the works from both Eircom and an ESB/Vodafone joint venture. There are already threads on them. Realistically you're talking 2yrs.

jd

Av8or wrote: »

I'm assuming that there is no patching from the nearby VDSL cabinet (0.3km, giving us a potential 100+Mbps on VDSL2) to our local cabinet in our street, without going back to the exchange? I'm further assuming that there are no plans for FTTH?

I'm a bit confused here - are you saying there is a copper cab on your street that is not beside the vdsl cab .3km from you. There would normally be a vdsl cab deployed a few yards from a copper cab. so perhaps your vdsl cab has not been deployed. Have you checked http://fibrerollout.ie/where-and-when/ ?

Av8or

Their rollout map was where I found the nearest VDSL cabinets to be and, no, there is no fibre cabinet next to our copper cabinet.