Is it possibleto set up a private SIRO/FTTH extension project? Other options?

hadenoughofit

Hi guys. Confused and frustrated, and hoping I have the terminology right.


Digiweb announced last month that they are closing down their Monread Naas mast around now - we've done pretty well on their Metro service for many years. (around 30Mbps download/1Mbps upload in recent months)

Presume it's down to loss of business to SIRO/fibre in the densely populated areas around us.


SIRO/fibre to the house is obviously the preferred option. It's been 'coming' to us for several years according to Digiweb, but so is Christmas.


There's potentially up to 30 houses in the locale and a decent business all on their own sites, and within about 1km of the end of the existing SIRO/fibre cable - about 0.5km from us.



The Comreg roll out maps show SIRO/fibre as slated to come from Johnstown up our country-ish road to a point about 100m from us, but on the opposite side. (in green) No indication of timescale.



We're actually in a narrow strip which abuts the Furness Manor/East side of Johnstown village which for no very obvious reason is not marked green on the Comreg map.


The Airwire checker says we're subject to confirmation within range of a VDSL cabinet. Think it's about 1km away beside this same road on the outskirts of Johnstown village.



The beamed services like Imagine all seem slow, expensive and are i think heavily capped.


4G using a modem seems a toss up between a large data allowance and a slow connection, and a faster (still less than what we have) but capped one - and even presuming a good signal a roulette game regarding what happens when the mast gets busy.


A few questions, informed and/or location specific advice appreciated:


(1) Is there any way to establish the schedule (if there is one) for the planned/or just the likelihood of SIRO/FTTH roll out in our area? Struggling to get past call centres...



(2) Has anybody any experience of/ever heard of a 'group' or regional SIRO/fibre cable extension project being undertaken? I'd be happy to act as a whipper in to form up a neighbourhood interest group. Again struggling to get past call centres...



(3) Failing the above/in the interim - is there any prospect of getting a VDSL connection given the above? Who to contact? What sort of cost and performance?


(4) Failing the above/in the interim. Is there any means of predicting and/or testing the performance of a 4G sim in a given location? Think i would prefer to buy our own modem. Voadphone, O2 and 3 have masts within about 1km, but worried at the prospect of 1,000+ cars stuck in the N7 roadworks jam all calling home from 3 - 8pm. We've experienced services before that fly for the trial period, but then quickly get slow as traffic builds on the mast...


(5) There's small companies about that say they could handle a private scheme to install a mast to beam broadband line of sight (trees may be a problem for some houses) to a group of houses from a nearby fibre connection, and to provide broadband services - but am cautious given risk of poor performance and cost.
Experience anybody? Advice?



Thanks

gctest50

This group managed it a few years ago, scale though

Still.......might give you a few ideas :



http://chippingchain.org/gallery/

hadenoughofit

Thanks GC. Dead interesting. Have made contact to request a chat with somebody with a good overview of what the project has entailed...

RangeR

I'm a bit late to the party but eir offer a bill pay [30 day rolling contract] data sim. I think it's 250GB monthly for €20 or €30. I've not seen it advertised but when I went in store, I got it all set up in minutes. I didn't even know it existed. I was going in for a business landline broadband but the lead time was weeks. I just asked what they could do for me in the meantime.

So, they have the product, it may be business only. Not sure.