The Boards.ie Explainer: FTTH and You

Julez

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118128185#Comment_118128185

I just changed from Virgin 500mb to Vodafone 500mb for half the price and I'm delighted with it. Had mine installed right next to existing outlet. I might have just got lucky with placement though, but like I say, in terms of internet performance itself I don't notice any difference and speedtests are giving me better results for pings and so on.

Dcully

Still no sign of anything faster than 100mb coming to us in Monasterevin.

Granted my stats are excellent and always get a solid 96 down 19 up, never an issue with the 5 of us in the gaff streaming gaming dloading etc but id like the option of FTTH 150mb.

Sue de Nimes

About to move into a new house in Leitrim that has FTTH available via OpenEir

Is there any functional difference between any of the ISPs offering this? I know it is all the same connection resold, but how many of them just resell a white label service and how many have their own infrastructure on the network?

Do any of them engage in throttling? With my last ISP in the UK I used to use about 1TB per month in traffic. Sometimes I would go down as low as 600GB in a month sometimes as high as 1.2TB or so. Which is the best ISP to go with for that sort of traffic?

Zymurgist

Having an absolute nightmare dealing with Eir recently on this.

I moved into a home that has a FTTH connection in place, however it has not been indexed by OpenEir so all that any provider can offer me is FTTC.

The FTTC box is not compatible with the FTTH connection so I am left without any broadband whatsoever.

Eir say that OpenEir are looking into it but there is no timeframe for a resolution so it could be months before they get back to me, meantime I am not able to contact OpenEir myself as it is only ISPs who can do that.

Has anyone come across anything like this before?

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118187127#Comment_118187127

Is it definitely Eir FTTH? If you are urban could it be SIRO?

Zymurgist

No it's not SIRO just checked there on their website and it says its not available as yet.

I am thinking of going with a smaller ISP who may be more inclined to chase OpenEir rather than Eir themselves who seem to be worse than useless so far.

ED E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118176370#Comment_118176370

but how many of them just resell a white label service and how many have their own infrastructure on the network?

I'd love others input on this but roughly:

Eir - Own national and international infra (have part stakes in some international)

Vodafone - Same level as Eir, more involvement in international markets now

Sky - Mostly a rebadge of BT Ireland

Three Business - White label Eir

Lightnet - Galway City and Loughrea POPs (vs say Eir who have 8-10 nationally)

Airwire - Galway City POP

I am thinking of going with a smaller ISP who may be more inclined to chase OpenEir rather than Eir themselves who seem to be worse than useless so far.

Did you get sorted in the end?

Spooch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118187127#Comment_118187127

I moved into a new build house myself and I'm having the exact same problem. Initially went through Sky. The house is wired for FTTH, OpenEir even had an engineer come out after a week of back and forth, only to be told the house isn't indexed and he cannot connect me for any Broadband, not even FTTC. Got the response form OpenEir to check back every month but no timeframe for connection. It's boiling my blood.

Interested to hear if you managed to get sorted or who you ended up with?

Zymurgist

I ended up hot-spotting from my phone....

I ordered Sky TV and Broadband as apparently it was them who the previous person got their wifi from. Sky came out, saw the FTTH connection, and said we can't do this today as w have you down for FTTC.

3 weeks of back and forth later, "we can only give you FTTC and actually we can't even do that because the engineer says you don't have that connection"

Spooch

That's incredibly similar to what I'm dealing with at the moment, only I can't hotpot very well, the signal is too poor. I'll need to introduce myself to the new neighbours I think and find out what their plans are

babi-hrse

Your house doesn't need to be indexed for copper fttc only ftth.

What's happening here is sky put your eircode down and nothing comes back. "Computer said no" situation.

They then can't find anything on the estate no cable paths no cabinets they only know what district the house is in. So they just generate a provision of service order for a telephone line from nearest exchange. Essentially telling the contractor to get this telephone line from this exchange to that house and use his best judgement how that happens and when it gets built it'll have a full recorded path for example it ran through a cabinet 600m from the house and there's VDSL ports in this cabinets.

Thing is this usually doesn't work save for a few cases of a new built house in the countryside.

They're more of a desperate grasp at providing service because usually when an order comes out for a line under these circumstances where they have no records because there aren't any phone lines out there and never will be.

It's not that they're trying to be disingenuous they just can't see the fibre available to order so they try the next best thing.

brimal

Random question.. but does anyone know where to get a key to open this box? I need to run another cable through it.

Thanks!

Dar1986

Hi All,

I'm thinking of changing broadband and tv from Virgin to Sky. My Virgin modem and tv box is connected to the TV point on the wall hidden behind the television with no visible cables. Can anyone advise if Sky can use the same tv point/coax cable or will they have to run new cables for the broadband?

TIA.

babi-hrse

New cables for the broadband

Fr Tod Umptious

Complete novice question here.

NBI told us we will have FTTH in a few weeks.

I am thinking of switching provider and was talking to Eir on the phone and they said that because NBI are providing the fiber then the only package available is 1Gb, €49.99 two year contract.

Because it's coming from NBI that's all that is available regardless of the reseller.

I had a webchat with Vodafone and they said 500Mb, €35, 1 year contract, or 1Gb, €49.99, 1 year contract, no problem.

Who is telling the truth ?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118754921#Comment_118754921

NBI offer 3 wholesale residential products 500 Mbps, 1 & 2 Gbps, but it looks like eir are only offering the 1 Gbps "gigabit" product via their NBI webpage. They do link from there to to their broadband bundles page which has a 500 Mbps product for €39.99 for 24 months which can only be ordered via web chat.

Can't find any mention of their NBI gigabit product in their pricing documents.

Here is their gigabit fibre promo page - https://www.eir.ie/gigabitfibre/

Standard Gigabit Fibre terms: Subject to availability. Comparison is based on eir's 1Gb FTTH compared to eir's 'up to' 100Mb FTTC. Price depends on the chosen FTTH bundle of Unlimited Fibre 500Mb or Gigabit Fibre 1Gb. €34.99 p/m for 12 months (€75.99 p/m thereafter) is for Unlimited Fibre 500Mb on a 12 month contract. Gigabit Fibre 1Gb is €49.99 p/m for 24 months (€85.99 p/m thereafter) on a 24 Month contract. Gigabit fibre broadband is your own line from the distribution point straight to the home. Unlimited elements subject to fair use. Offer available to new residential customers. Installation/Connection & Activation Fees may apply. Ireland's No.1 Broadband Provider based on market share, for verification, see Quarterly Key Data Report Q3 2021 on www.comreg.ie. For full terms see www.eir.ie/termsandconditions/.

oscarBravo

...the only package available is 1Gb, €49.99 two year contract.

Because it's coming from NBI that's all that is available regardless of the reseller.

Completely untrue.

tlaavtech

{Deleted}

jm08

Can anyone tell me what the Eirgrid line looks like coming into the house (which was built in the 1980s) which used to have an eircom phone line. Some work was done in the hall and lines ripped out. I'm now trying to figure out if this is the Eirgrid line so that I can change broadband supplier from Virgin?

This is a photo of the wires that I have located which I think might be. Is it the heavy grey cable or the two single cables (red and black in top of photo).

babi-hrse

Lol the top those are old power cables I wouldn't recommend you keep going if your unsure.

The heavy grey could be armoured phone line. I think I can see a white wire inside it but it's hard to see clearly on the grey. But there's enough of it exposed to call someone out to work with it.

White orange green black or white blue white orange. If your seeing red and yellows with others your probably looking at alarm cables or in your case the power from a house wired more than 40 years ago

jm08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118914388#Comment_118914388

I think the red and black wires were alarm wires. The grey cable has a white wire inside so hopefully that is the Eirgrid cable. I had vodafone out a few years ago, but didn't know about the grey cable then and vodafone could not locate where the cable was on the outside. I tried contacting Eirgrid about it, but they didn't reply.

Thanks for your help babi.

hada87

Hi all

FTTH has been made available and our current contract with Virgin is now up for renewal and will be jumping up in price to €50 or so. Obviously I'm looking at FTTH options with Pure etc which are cheaper and faster.

A key question I have (which the sales guy at Pure was unable to answer!) was whether the installer needs access to where our current router is plugged into the wall. The reason I ask is that we had shelving installed over the phone line access point on the wall, leaving only access to Virgin's router...

Grateful for any input!

The Cush

With a new FTTH install you and the installer will discuss on the day where and how the new fibre line enters the house.

Normally the ONT is mounted within 1m from the house entry point, adjacent to a power socket. The router is then connected to the ONT.

hada87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118989394#Comment_118989394

Thanks. So for the purposes of the new entry point and installation of the ONT, the installer shouldn't need access / to use the broadband entry point we use for our current Virgin set up?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119001127#Comment_119001127

Virgin's cable infrastructure is separate to the open-eir or SIRO networks.

Is there underground ducting in place to run the new fibre line from the street to the house?

hada87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119001303#Comment_119001303

Thanks. I don't know re the ducting. Would this impact on installation?

It seems both Eir, Pure and Sky FTTH are available in my area.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119009081#Comment_119009081

Depends on where the network drop point is located, the connection point from where fibre is run to your house. It could be in a manhole on the footpath/street, on a pole or maybe on a wall of a terrace.

If the fibre is underground a duct will be required, maybe you have one for a old copper telephone line that can be reused.

Cream2000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/108569638#Comment_108569638

I got Vodafone FTTH installed recently. Looks like the ONT and ODP are separate. This seems very silly to me as they have to be connected with a fibre patch cable. Surely this is not the proper way to do it these days?

20220503_195010.jpg

quartz1

Fiber seems to have been pulled through the ducting and up a pole outside my house . A box has now been attached to the top of the pole. Photo attaching .

Does this indicate that it might should be soon available or could it sit like that for months or years .

BArra

provisioning may be a month, or a few months. its not set it stone

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