Eir rural FTTH thread

Gonzo

oscarBravo wrote: »

KN do all the installs, as far as I can tell. The retailer places an order with open eir, and is informed of progress up to the point of completion.

yep, KN doing all the installs in our area. They are very accommodating with moving installs forward to letting you stick to the original date.

Gonzo

Open Eir have a new video on their homepage showing normal people using Fibre To The Home in Killinick (one and oldish lady and the other, a young gamer).

These sort of videos are good, they need to market and make more of these to show people how a fibre connection can change peoples lives in a rural area who formally had slow or no broadband.

http://www.openeir.ie/home/

Greylor

Spotted MCS McCann Cabling Solutions laying cable on behalf of Eir in a Southerly direction of Mullingar (the small road to the right of Lynn road and left of Ballinderry if you're looking at the map...I can't see a road name on it).

They are currently laying cable underground but stopping halfway to the N52 and then bringing the cable up to run along the poles. So it looks like they're moving towards the line South along the R400 in the direction of Rochfortsbridge so as to get FTTH to the school a little down that road. Fortunately I live on that road, before the school.

While it will still be MCS McCann doing the aerial part of the cabling, it's a different team of theirs that does it. They said that the best bet to get scheduling on when the aerial line will be run would be to call Eir. Naturally Eir is so clueless they don't even know who of their own people to speak to.

Hopefully there won't be a huge delay between the underground and the aerial part now that they're actually working on this line.

Bored Accountant

Greylor wrote: »

While it will still be MCS McCann doing the aerial part of the cabling, it's a different team of theirs that does it. They said that the best bet to get scheduling on when the aerial line will be run would be to call Eir. Naturally Eir is so clueless they don't even know who of their own people to speak to.
.

But are you just ringing the Retail arm of Eir?
They have no view of what Open Eir are doing, or any contact with them.
They operate as 2 seperate companies. Comreg has made them segregate their buisness so they don't have competitive advantage over other telecom retailers selling products on the open eir network.

Greylor

Bored Accountant wrote: »

But are you just ringing the Retail arm of Eir?
They have no view of what Open Eir are doing, or any contact with them.
They operate as 2 seperate companies. Comreg has made them segregate their buisness so they don't have competitive advantage over other telecom retailers selling products on the open eir network.

Oh. Didn't know that Eir was split like that.

How do I get hold of Open Eir?

**UPDATE: I spoke to Open Eir and they don't deal with this with the customer directly. They said to talk to Eir retail and tell them to link in with Open Eir to get the information and then relay it back to me. Doing that now.**

daraghwal

Greylor wrote: »

Oh. Didn't know that Eir was split like that.

How do I get hold of Open Eir?

You don't

ED E

Eir will only get a forecast, nothing solid. Wouldnt bother calling, just wait.

daraghwal

Yesterday I was sent an email from pure telecom with their fair usage policy. I talked to them again today to ensure there was no FUP and they said there was at 500GB per month!! And going over that would be dealt with on a case by case basis. Then I mentioned how this could be used up in 1 hour and 11 minutes and they went to their supervisor. I was then told that the FUP has been increased recently (at least they saw it needed to be increased, maybe they will do it again in the future). I was then emailed the new Pure Telecom Fair Use Policy which I was emailed yesterday with the extra addition which can be seen in the screenshot.



The Pure Telecom FUP is now 1 TB and any more is charged at EUR2.50 (inc VAT) for every 10 GB per month.



Separately, is there any way someone with a fast internet connection could keep below 1 TB easily e.g. is there anything that will make the internet appear slower to the likes of netflix so it wouldn't stream in the highest HD quality all the time?

RoYoBo

If someone chooses in advance of installation to go with a company other than Eir (eg Pure) will this slow down their FTTH connection possibilities?

We're not due to be connected until Autumn this year and I'm wondering what's the best option for us. Not in contract (currently with Sky Broadband) but I don't want to mess up our chance to connect ASAP. I had planned to switch to Eir when the time comes to make it seamless, but maybe that's not necessary?

Has anyone here begun (or planned to begin) their FTTH with another provider and how did it go?

Johnboy1951

I see no reason to use anyone other than eir TBH ..... unless Siro or Enet bring fibre to my door.

Maybe after the initial contract is expired and there is a substantial difference in prices I would change.

Essentially I prefer to be in contract with the organ grinder and not the monkey
(no offence intended to anyone, including monkeys)

daraghwal

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I see no reason to use anyone other than eir TBH ..... unless Siro or Enet bring fibre to my door.

Maybe after the initial contract is expired and there is a substantial difference in prices I would change.

Essentially I prefer to be in contract with the organ grinder and not the monkey
(no offence intended to anyone, including monkeys)

One thing with Pure Telecom their support is great and they actually talk to people higher up if needed as was the case when I looked for the FUP.

long_b

daraghwal wrote: »

Separately, is there any way someone with a fast internet connection could keep below 1 TB easily e.g. is there anything that will make the internet appear slower to the likes of netflix so it wouldn't stream in the highest HD quality all the time?

You can set the maximum quality that Netflix will stream at in your Netflix account settings

daraghwal

long_b wrote: »

You can set the maximum quality that Netflix will stream at in your Netflix account settings

Thanks. I don't mean just that. I mean is there a solution that reduces data usage even when on a fast connection, so you don't end up using all your data on unnecessary things like 4k streaming and other activities that use a large amount of data across all platforms.

Gonzo

I have a feeling Eir may increase the FUP later this year, if the number of complaints over it is anything to go by recently and continue to rise as the service becomes more popular.

Back in 2003 Eir started with a 2gig data cap per month with 512k broadband, this was quickly increased to 4gigs, then 10, 50, 100, 500 and now 1000. For many year's Eir would not charge customers for going over the limit and would turn a blind eye to it. I've only heard of them really taking the data limits seriously recently with people being billed excess charges.

plodder

daraghwal wrote: »

Thanks. I don't mean just that. I mean is there a solution that reduces data usage even when on a fast connection, so you don't end up using all your data on unnecessary things like 4k streaming and other activities that use a large amount of data across all platforms.

I think you would have to configure that separately on each site you are downloading/streaming from.

Gonzo

Data limits were originally put in place so 'downloaders' wouldn't ruin the quality of service on other customers or to download 24/7.

Back then it would be people leaving torrents running 24/7 filling up their hard drives. I can understand why fair usage policys where put into practice but today, things are very different.

I think streaming applications such as Netflix, Spotify and Sky should be taking out of the equation for data usage on home Fibre packages much like mobile networks are now starting to take social media applications out of the data usage equation on their networks. This would make a huge difference. I see streaming networks and social media networks essential part of daily internet usage and should not fall under the data allowances.

Even with a 1tb fair usage policy on a FTTH service, I can see now how just using Netflix regularly at 1080p on multiple devices in a househhold can exceed a monthly allowance. FTTH is amazing but at the moment you don't need to be a 'downloader' to easily go over these limits, and I think that needs to be changed quickly.

daraghwal

Gonzo wrote: »

I have a feeling Eir may increase the FUP later this year, if the number of complaints over it is anything to go by recently and continue to rise as the service becomes more popular.

Back in 2003 Eir started with a 2gig data cap per month with 512k broadband, this was quickly increased to 4gigs, then 10, 50, 100, 500 and now 1000. For many year's Eir would not charge customers for going over the limit and would turn a blind eye to it. I've only heard of them really taking the data limits seriously recently with people being billed excess charges.

Yep, I'd say there will be an increase when there is a greater demand for it. Historically they've been pretty reasonable regarding the FUP. It wasn't too long ago I was on 30GB/month!

garroff

Some Openeir poles in my neighborhood have been painted with the letters LS and LE in the last week.
Anyone know what the letters stand for .....I,m guessing...L....START  and  L....END. 
Can anyone enlighten me and does it mean that we can expect some BB work shortly?

Westnet: Paul

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I see no reason to use anyone other than eir TBH ..... unless Siro or Enet bring fibre to my door.

Maybe after the initial contract is expired and there is a substantial difference in prices I would change.

Essentially I prefer to be in contract with the organ grinder and not the monkey
(no offence intended to anyone, including monkeys)

Oi! I resemble that remark!

tsue921i8wljb3

Westnet: Paul wrote: »

Oi! I resemble that remark!

Paul, on Gonzo's points about caps. Would it be fair to say that ISPs don't want heavy users on their network? You say at the minute your company has no such policy. As you add more and more FTTH customers would there come a time if you got enough heavy users that you may have to reassess this? Surely there comes a point where it begins eating into your profit margin?

Gonzo

daraghwal wrote: »

Yep, I'd say there will be an increase when there is a greater demand for it. Historically they've been pretty reasonable regarding the FUP. It wasn't too long ago I was on 30GB/month!

that's why I think they'll have to change it and hopefully soon, there is already a demand for it!.

Either increase the data allowance considerably or keep it as is but not include data from Netflix, Youtube, Sky on Demand, RTE Player, Spotify, social media etc.

tsue921i8wljb3

Gonzo wrote: »

that's why I think they'll have to change it and hopefully soon, there is already a demand for it!.

Either increase the data allowance considerably or keep it as is but not include data from Netflix, Youtube, Sky on Demand, RTE Player, Spotify, social media etc.

Netflix gives ISPs hardware which basically stores the entire Netflix catalogue within the ISP network. This minimises transit costs to the ISP. Should they be including this type of data in their counting?

https://openconnect.netflix.com/en_gb/delivery-options/

long_b

Signed up with a very knowledgeable Eir rep there.
Have almost NEVER been so happy to sign anything in my life (qualification just in case the wife reads this post )

Ordered the 1Gb because .... ours go up to 11 ... years of pain ... won't get the chance again.

Will be back down to the 300 Mb by the end of the 14 day cooling off period

EDIT He confirmed that different sections of an exchange go live at different dates, and that they are given batches of leads as this happens.

He also said there was no contention which does sound a little untrue

EDIT EDIT He also said I was the first 1Gb he had sold

Tom Mann Centuria

Our installation was 18th, it's now tomorrow! Only (ONLY!) 150mb to start with, but it's going to be cheaper than what I pay now for 3mb. Very happy.

Johnboy1951

getting frustrating here now knowing I have at least another year to wait ......

daraghwal

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

getting frustrating here now knowing I have at least another year to wait ......

Equally frustrated. Thought I was going to be part of the 300,000 homes until the new NBP map came out. Now I just come here to see updates and speedtests that I know I won't be able to achieve for another few years ...

Peppa Cig

daraghwal wrote: »

Yep, I'd say there will be an increase when there is a greater demand for it. Historically they've been pretty reasonable regarding the FUP. It wasn't too long ago I was on 30GB/month!

Isn't it a bit crazy that us poor souls on 1 or 2 or 3mb have been waiting a decade + for decent speeds. Now that it is here/on the way we will have to be throttling back on usage, keeping an eye on how many movies kids are downloading etc to try and avoid exceeding 1TB....

I think 55 or 63 per month etc is more than enough to be paying for broadband only without threat of additional charges for watching too much online TV.

Don't get me wrong it's great (actually more than great) but.....

Gonzo

Peppa Cig wrote: »

Isn't it a bit crazy that us poor souls on 1 or 2 or 3mb have been waiting a decade + for decent speeds. Now that it is here/on the way we will have to be throttling back on usage, keeping an eye on how many movies kids are downloading etc to try and avoid exceeding 1TB....

I think 55 or 63 per month etc is more than enough to be paying for broadband only without threat of additional charges for watching too much online TV.

Don't get me wrong it's great (actually more than great) but.....

I totally agree, FTTH is amazing and Eir's network in particular is seriously impressive and the silky low pings, but the 'fair usage' is a bit of a killjoy alright. My connection is idle 80% of the time so that I can plan ahead to not exceed my allowance by the end of the month.

It's nowhere nearly as bad as Imagine where you can't even download a game, but the data restriction is very tight indeed and doesn't reflect the huge increase in speed and how much data is transferred by streaming in 1080p.

We just gotta hope Eir see sense with this allowance and provide a more suitable allowance soon enough. The 1tb fair usage policy is another reason why I didn't jump at the 1000, even a 10tb allowance would be smallish for that sort of speed.

I would love to think that maybe Virgin Media could join as a reseller and offer truly unlimited plans, I would jump at that and go for the 1000 without a second of a thought.

BorneTobyWilde

If FTTH is installed is it all wireless or cables to PC'S and tv's so on?
Is the wireless modem as fast as cable direct to pc?

I only have DSL and if i use the modem i have now to connect to a device it would lose signal within feet of modem. What if you have a big house, will this FTTH keep it's speed if used wirelessly ? Right now I have modem beside PC and plugged directly into it.

Gonzo

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

If FTTH is installed is it all wireless or cables to PC'S and tv's so on?
Is the wireless modem as fast as cable direct to pc?

I only have DSL and if i use the modem i have now to connect to a device it would lose signal within feet of modem. What if you have a big house, will this FTTH keep it's speed if used wirelessly ? Right now I have modem beside PC and plugged directly into it.

KN will install it and it will be wireless. It's up to you to hardwire it up after the installation. There is an ethernet cable provided but it is tiny, not much longer than your arm!. Luckily I found a 4 meter cable lying around in the house and hooked by pc to the router.

My wireless speeds are nowhere as fast as wired. The upload is roughly the same as it's under 50, but the download is generally 60-105 on wireless within 15 feet of the router but this drops off quickly to 20-40 in other rooms and as low as 5 or 6 in part of the garden.

I highly recommend that if you have a desktop pc or laptop that you hardwire it. Ordering 300 or 1000 is a total waste if your only going to be using wireless.