The Boards.ie Explainer: FTTH and You

morinda23

Hi all, looking for some advice on FTTH installation. My house was built in 1996 and no visible ducts etc are on the outside of the house through which the old telephone cable is run. Currently the telephone cable pops out through a small corner in the hallway floor and that’s all I see. I thought I had a few installation options for FTTH and ideally wanted SIRO installed as the ducts etc are in place and infrastructure up and running. Unfortunately no ports are available for me to connect with SIRO at my location so that is no longer an option.

I have been left with no option but to go down the OpenEIr route as that is also available outside my house and is supplied through underground with all broadband providers having to selected this option for me.

I would appreciate if anyone could reply on their experience with getting openeir FTTH installed without an obvious duct being available? Overhead is not an option. I fear that the installers will just come to my estate and say you need to install a duct etc and walk away. I want more options than VM due to recent price increases but if this doesn’t work out I may just have to stick with them.

seems crazy to me that SIRO have such a limited number of ports available to connect to.

thanks in advance.

Gooser14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119496974#Comment_119496974

I'm in a rural location & previously had copper phone line into the house via ducting from a pole about 70 mts from house. As the ducting was damaged I thought the KN installers would insist on an overhead install but they didn't. Instead they laid the fibre across my lawn. The fibre they used came already inside ducting of about 25mm dia. The used a shovel type tool to create a V shaped trench across the lawn to a depth of about 150mm. The conduit was pushed into this trench. Within about 2 months of the installation the trench was no longer visible in the lawn. They also had to lift some patio tiles to reach the entry point into the house where I wanted the ONT located. They replaced the tiles & you wouldn't know they had been disturbed.

morinda23

Thanks a lot for your response. From what you are saying I will just have to wait and see what they say when they come out to install. Since all the houses in my estate are pretty similar they just have some way to do the install in a straight forward manner.

Andy From Sligo

is FTTH Symmetrical - I.E. same upload speed as download speed for example before I check with Digiweb? - I thought it was supposed to be .

got ultrafast FTTH and done a test earlier by cable (not wireless) and

454.74Mbps Down - 48.69Mbps upload - 512Mbps FTTH package

Thank you - Sorry if I have posted on wrong thread

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653300#Comment_119653300

No it’s not those speeds look right upload tends to be 10 percent of down

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653300#Comment_119653300

No, asymmetric. These are NBI's wholesale speeds, consumer and business packages respectively

500/50, 1000/100, 2000/200

500/100, 1000/200, 2000/400

Andy From Sligo

ah right thank you

robbie_63

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118522639#Comment_118522639

Where is the other Fibre box located in your setup?

I'm looking to do something similar but all the photos i've seen so far indicate there is fibre termination box that needs power which has to be very close to the outside fibre box?

I would prefer to do the same as yours and run the new connection into house ducting and up into the attic so I can put my modem in the office upstairs?

Eir have no info on what install work is required

horse7

How should I approach this , I have a week or 2 left on virgin Media broadband, I will probably change to FTTH with vodo due to price point, but I need to have the fibre brought into the house (estate). Should I go ahead and sign up with vodo as I know the installation will take at least 2 to 3 weeks,?

RurtBeynolds

I just ordered Sky. Install is not for 2 weeks.

There's no ONT there at present, so guess it's a new connection. What are my odds of getting installed on the first visit? I'm a little concerned about not having broadband in for Christmas. And don't have faith of any problems getting quickly resolved.

Tried hedging my bets by ordering from Vodafone too in case they don't have such a wait, but they won't take the order as apparently there is still an active service there on the land-line (previous occupiers only left on Tuesday so I guess their cancellation is still in progress) .

The Ayatolla

I'm on eir FTTH right now and looking to move to Vodafone FTTH.

Anyone have hassle moving their home phone number? Should be relatively straight forward since it's all on the same line/technology?

mikeecho

Edit.. nevermind.

Looks like they are extending ftth in my area to reach more homes.

So I live in the sticks, I have had FTTH for just over 3yrs now.

I have 500mb, with 1gb available.

Now here's the strange thing, there are lads around during the day with NBI signs, they apparently are upgrading the lines for faster speeds...

But we already have 1gb ftth available..

What's going on ?

KD11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119496974#Comment_119496974

Hi, Did you get this installed in the end? Ive ordered Sky ultrafast but cant seem to get an answer on how they bring the line into the house. The old phone line was tiled over years ago so hoping thats not what they use.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119997846#Comment_119997846

I assume you're in an NBP intervention area that now has open-eir fibre lines since the intervention map was finalised.

Iirc from a discussion with an Oireachtas committee NBI are going to continue rolling fibre into those areas and will get the subsidy for passing those premises.

QikBax

My house failed the installation today and will require too much work to get it ready.

The Eir terms say the 14 day cooling off period is from when the service is installed so I should be covered if I cancel now?

Anyone have experience of this?

QikBax

Rang them and cancelled no problem.

Irish Steve

Currently have FTTC through a 30 plus year old duct that runs to an underground distribution chamber in the street, the duct is about 2" diameter, and as a result of having a third line here a good few years ago for business, there's a second 2 pair cable in the duct. It's an urban area, I wasn't expecting Fibre to be available just yet, given the age of the cabling and ducting in our area.

It seems we can now avail of FTTH, the systems are all saying yes, we're currently with Sky, and it's not too bad, the speeds have dropped a bit in the last while, but it's good enough for most of what we want, but FTTH would be helpful, as it would open up some other options.

So, the exisiting cables come in underground all the way to a normal Eir external cabinet on the external wall, and then both cables go up the cavity to the roof crawl space, and along to the office that's also upstairs, and that's where the terminator, router, and ethernet patch panel and switch are all located, so ideally, if we go Fibre, I'd like the new termination up there as well.

Will whoever pulls in the fibre use the redundant old copper cable to pull in the fibre, as that would not interfere with the existing service, and it would hopefully mean I can put the termination in a more convenient point,

One complication is that OPW are currently finishing ( I hope) a flood relief scheme, and that's meant I can't get access to one of the two small access points between the road and the house, it's buried, and I'm slightly worried that if I leave it too long, the available FTTH ports may all end up allocated to other houses around us, we're in an urban area, and I don't want to miss out by leaving it too long, but the inability to get into the box may cause issues if they can't use the old cable to fish in the fibre.

Is there any documentation on line that will give me any guidance on their rules and requirements for fittling fibre into a house?

Thanks

dextersnp

Hi,

I moved recently to Castletroy, I used Virgin before, but unfortunately it doesn't have coverage at my new address, researching a lot I saw that many people hate Eir and praise Vodafone and vice versa, and the same happens with Sky, from what I understand it varies from region to region overall experience.

From what I've researched, I have coverage from Eir, Openeir, Vodafone and Sky, which do you recommend in general for online play, streaming, best download speeds, custommer service/support and etc?

I need Open NAT to play online and bridge mode too for use my eero router according to my needs.

_John C

Anyone got any pictures of a recent enough openeir underground ftth installation? Pics of how the cable was routed outside the plastic utility box at the outside of the house and pics of the inside equipment.

Our estate has been all cabled up with the splitters installed underground . Just waiting for it to become live

Are they still using separate ntu and ont ?

Can the ntu be fed with the fibre from the rear?

Thanks

_John C

Ran my own duct. Just got to tidy up the inside. Cut duct , fill and paint the wall

Outside.jpg

Inside.jpg

McSim

@ED E

I think the first post can use some update

Vodafone FTTH profile I got is 1000/100 Down/Up

Neighbor got 500/50

I questioned VF about this, as someone I know got 1000/200 earlier, the reply was "Everyone's [connection] profile is different".

As far as I can tell VF never specified Up speed anywhere, only Down.

As well as second post

Eir: Huawei HG659

Above is what they call F2000

Now they supply F3000, which is Sagecom F5366s

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120893768#Comment_120893768

SIRO’s original 1gbps profile was 200mbps but that was reduced to 100mbps years ago. Legacy users (myself included) still have this profile (I believe only if you haven’t switched provider since).

Rackard

Question about getting the FTTH. Parents-in-law I've just realised are paying Vodafone for months now for Phone and Broadband - but the Broadband they're paying for is the 100mb I believe - but their download max i've checked seems to be around a rubbish 2-3mb (upload about .8).

I'm just a couple houses up the road on eir broadband and have FTTH.

I told them to get on to Vodafone about it but they don't really know what to say and Vodafone haven't been to helpful.

Would like to get it sorted for them but not sure how Vodafone works - if we contact Vodafone, will they connect FTTH? There's a box I think on pole outside their house. (I think they piggyback on eir so would we contact eir instead?)

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120955564#Comment_120955564

Don't feel like they need to stick with Vodafone, other providers out there (some examples). If you don't go with Vodafone, wait until the the FTTH service is installed and then cancel the old Vodafone service

Rackard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120972089#Comment_120972089

Of course yeah - just wondering who to contact to get the FTTH installed I suppose more so. Presume you get locked in to a contract with whoever you choose to do it.

KeRbDoG

Yup, there will be contracts of different lenghts depending on who you go with - you can contact any of those suppliers to first check they are indeed connectable to FTTH. Some suppliers have a reduced 6 months payment for a 12 month contract :) so ensure you do the maths :D

KeRbDoG

So Openeir.ie has two Broadband checking applications;

• open eir Broadband Checker
  • https://www.oebroadbandchecker.com
• open eir broadband checker
  • https://openeir.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=a8fdd9780bd84f0799f99522c48f6e66

Both give me different max FTTH services. The first 2Gbps and the second 1Gbps :D. Blackknight state they can only provide a 1Gbps service to my Eircode so either the first checker lies OR the second checker has a lag between what service can be provided and thats used by the ISPs OR its just Blackknight who don't have the infra maybe in my side of the county?

kenyard

I was checking some of the providers of openeir and Vodafone was the only one I could see who offer the 2gbps from openeir.

Lots offer it via Siro I believe but openeir going to 2gbps seems to be relatively recent and very few of the resellers seem to have it setup.

There may be more. I only checked through around 5 of the options and there is around 40.

Could be a number of other things too though as you mention.

CrazyEric

Trying to sort FTTH for my parents. One of the neighbours told me that he spoke to NBI who are working in the area and they said they weren't bringing it all the way to the house, they are going to a local distribution point/pole and running it on the old copper from there. I am not around there to check with them during the week but my understanding was that it would be brought directly to the house if you are in the "intervention area" which my parents are. The old Eir cable was ploughed in through the fields 30 years ago and had constant problems at junctions as there are a lot of houses in the road/laneway tapped off the copper.

Is it true that they can just go to the nearest pole? Sounds wrong to me but I want to know for sure before I call them.

Andy From Sligo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121815413#Comment_121815413

have you looked into Starlink satellite broadband? does not rely on copper at all:

https://www.pcrepairs.x10host.com/satellite_broadband.html