Eir rural FTTH thread III

Airwire: MartinL · 25-12-2019 9:48pm

Headshot wrote: »

Bit strange they don't have any redundancy

We do. For every single site. But you literally can't safeguard for every scenario.

In this particular case, both powersupplies in a router in Athlone failed. And that particular site services one of our 5 OpenEIR interconnects, our SIRO interconnect in Athlone and some connectivity for our Jet and fixed wireless customers. So a subset of OpenEIR FTTH and VDSL connections were offline and based on how we route them, they could be all over the country.

If for example the OpenEIR interconnect itself had dropped, the majority of customers would have failed to other interconnects. But that didn't happen. So people stayed connected, but nothing upstream.

Either way .. the router in question died approx just after 16:00, we had an engineer on site before 18:00 and partial connectivity back by just before 19:00 and the router in question fully replaced, restored, tested and commission at 20:00 .. while we kept posting updates on our twitter feed at http://twitter.com/airwire to keep customers up to date.

I think, that is pretty decent. Especially given that it is christmas day.

Merry Christmas to you all and no .. we won't leave things broke for long .. not even .. or especially not .. on a day like today.

Nonoperational · 25-12-2019 10:24pm

That's seriously impressive customer support... (as is the Vodafone mobile network to be honest. The best I've experienced in any country in the world).

FastFullBack · 25-12-2019 10:52pm

What's the cheapest option for 150MB FTTH? It's available at the inlaws now in Kerry but cheapest I've seen is €55. They're currently on three mobile broadband at €30 and although it's terrible it's just about ok for them.

I'd like to get them upgraded but it's a big jump in price.

tuxy · 25-12-2019 11:18pm

FastFullBack wrote: »

What's the cheapest option for 150MB FTTH? It's available at the inlaws now in Kerry but cheapest I've seen is €55. They're currently on three mobile broadband at €30 and although it's terrible it's just about ok for them.

I'd like to get them upgraded but it's a big jump in price.

I don't know the answer but what you want to calculate is the total cost for the duration of the contract not just the monthly charge. Different providers charge different install fee and some change price after 6 months on a 12 month contract.
Fair usage policies are also a problem with some provider as they cap your downloads at 1TB a month.

Grab All Association · 25-12-2019 11:59pm

cnocbui wrote: »

I have to thank Vodafone for the 20 free GB today, as without it, I would have had nothing when Airwire went down.

Are you PAYG with `Vodafone, or billed? I can't tether my laptop to my phone with Vodafone.

Bill pay. Super connect with Spotify €80pm. I’ve never been charged for tethering so it must be included in my plan.

Marlow · 26-12-2019 12:10am

Grab All Association wrote: »

Bill pay. Super connect with Spotify €80pm. I’ve never been charged for tethering so it must be included in my plan.

This whole charging for tethering is luckily a US only thing. There would be revolution here, if they tried.

/M

Johnboy1951 · 26-12-2019 12:21am

FastFullBack wrote: »

What's the cheapest option for 150MB FTTH? It's available at the inlaws now in Kerry but cheapest I've seen is €55. They're currently on three mobile broadband at €30 and although it's terrible it's just about ok for them.

I'd like to get them upgraded but it's a big jump in price.

I could not give an answer either, but note that sirwire, if it is available in their locality, can do 150/30 for €49 per month after connection etc.
http://www.airwire.ie/index.php/products/ftth

I am sure there are others less costly but I am prepared to pay a little more for good customer service.

Grab All Association · 26-12-2019 3:54am

Marlow wrote: »

This whole charging for tethering is luckily a US only thing. There would be revolution here, if they tried.

/M

o2 iirc used to charge for tethering. A friend of mine in UL ran up a bill of over €1k in just one month (Nokia E65 2008) she ran back to her native Ohio without paying them a penny. This was the network that used to charge teenagers €5 just to navigate their site to buy polyphonic ringtones so I had no sympathy for them.

cnocbui · 26-12-2019 9:38am

Marlow wrote: »

This whole charging for tethering is luckily a US only thing. There would be revolution here, if they tried.

/M

Would you have any ideas what's going on then? If I have an outage, as per yesterday, and turn my Samsung S6 into a hotspot and connect the Macbook to it, I can't get an internet connection. I have had no such problem with Vodafone or a couple other providers in Australia, but I have never gotten tethering to work with my Irish Vodafone SIM. Admittedly I usually only try when they have given me free data. The phone has no problem getting a connection natively.

Marlow · 26-12-2019 9:42am

cnocbui wrote: »

Would you have any ideas what's going on then? If I have an outage, as per yesterday, and turn my Samsung S6 into a hotspot and connect the Macbook to it, I can't get an internet connection. I have had no such problem with Vodafone or a couple other providers in Australia, but I have never gotten tethering to work with my Irish Vodafone SIM. Admittedly I usually only try when they have given me free data. The phone has no problem getting a connection natively.

There could be all sorts of reasons for that. For example depending on the APN you are using in your phone (isp.vodafone.ie or hs.vodafone.ie seems to work best), but this isn't really the thread for that.

/M

PaulRyan97 · 27-12-2019 2:36pm

Has anyone ever had any luck in getting Eir to extend their FTTH lines to connect them? We're 180m from where they stop the line at a junction. We're on the main road as part of a cluster of houses and get only get about 3-4mbps fixed broadband. As we're in a valley, mobile coverage is more or less nonexistent.

Got a letter out that our Eir bill would now be €80 a month, which is really annoying me. If they could get us FTTH I wouldn't be as mad, even if we were only getting 20-30mbps I'd be delighted.

Marlow · 27-12-2019 2:43pm

PaulRyan97 wrote: »

Has anyone ever had any luck in getting Eir to extend their FTTH lines to connect them? We're 180m from where they stop the line at a junction. We're on the main road as part of a cluster of houses and get only get about 3-4mbps fixed broadband. As we're in a valley, mobile coverage is more or less nonexistent.

If you're past the end of a cluster there isn't a chance, I'm afraid. Not even at 50m

/M

Grab All Association · 27-12-2019 5:36pm

Sorted out now. Eircom technician. I explained to him that the KN clown knocked my fibre off weeks ago installing another customers fibre. and it was never properly rectified. Whilst they never lasted long i did get LOS lights and flashing PON a number of times since. I told him and he agreed that the sooner it’s brought back in-house the better. The polish chap from KN that installed the fibre was an absolute gent but others I’ve come across have serious attitude problems and down tools if it’s going to take more than a hour. Eircom is still poor to average in certain departments, but their technicians here in Tipperary are the nicest people who strive not to leave you without service.

Marlow · 27-12-2019 7:24pm

That's going to happen sooner than later anyhow, I think. At least a good chunk of it.

Other departments have already been in-sourced again. It doesn't look like the current owner is much for outsourcing as it is.

Just my personal 2c from observations and talking to OpenEIR staff.

/M

Grab All Association · 27-12-2019 10:28pm

Back to the 1000mb (1014.61mb) now, but earlier today I was going into the mid 1400mbs. I assume I was moved to a different slot and an incorrect speed profile. I presume in that 2hrs+ he affixed a new DP. ONT and cabling are all the same, though he did shine a light from inside through the cable up the DP.

tuxy · 27-12-2019 10:48pm

Grab All Association wrote: »

Back to the 1000mb (1014.61mb) now, but earlier today I was going into the mid 1400mbs. I assume I was moved to a different slot and an incorrect speed profile. I presume in that 2hrs+ he affixed a new DP. ONT and cabling are all the same, though he did shine a light from inside through the cable up the DP.

It's gigabit ehternet from the ONT to the router and router to PC how were you getting 1.4 Gbps?

A new DP would mean reconnecting any neighbours that are on the same DP.
It's possible all he had to do was reconnect the cable correctly to the DP.

brianbruff · 27-12-2019 11:22pm

tuxy wrote: »

It's gigabit ehternet from the ONT to the router and router to PC how were you getting 1.4 Gbps?

A new DP would mean reconnecting any neighbours that are on the same DP.
It's possible all he had to do was reconnect the cable correctly to the DP.

Fast.com can lie at gb speeds

tuxy · 27-12-2019 11:26pm

brianbruff wrote: »

Fast.com can lie at gb speeds

Yeah it can be way off especially at higher speeds.

Marlow · 27-12-2019 11:51pm

Fast.com and the Google speed test are utterly rubbish. The results that come back are generally useless.

Even on Speedtest.net you have to choose your server and the browser you are testing very wisely.

Best is Firefox or the native applications and then use something we know has a 10 Gbit/s+ feed ... like Blacknight in Carlow or Airwire in Galway. Plenty of servers out there with sub Gbit/s uplink. And always test to more than one server .. just to confirm.

/M

Grab All Association · 27-12-2019 11:55pm

Speedtest and Firefox I used to the closest enough server (Blackknight) Carlow. Actually that’s the first time I’ve ever gotten past the mid 900 Mark. So I presume this is probably overestimated too.

tuxy · 27-12-2019 11:57pm

Grab All Association wrote: »

Speedtest and Firefox I used to the closest enough server (Blackknight) Carlow. Actually that’s the first time I’ve ever gotten past the mid 900 Mark. So I presume this is probably overestimated too.

It's impossible that the result is accurate, gigabit ethernet and there are overheads to take into account too.

Grab All Association · 28-12-2019 12:06am

tuxy wrote: »

It's impossible that the result is accurate, gigabit ethernet and there are overheads to take into account too.

I assumed so. What I was worried about was them putting me on a lower speed like my neighbour was back in the summer from 300 to 150. Their dogs ate through the fibre and copper wires.

As for the DP. It does looks more matt in appearance (behind my fence) I assume if it was the sticker would just be moved depending on condition and removability. The cabling going over my roof did come down slightly aswell. Over two hours so I assume there was a lot of work done. About 20 visits back out to the van carrying items. I think I have a photo I uploaded on here from when it was first put up to compare it with.

babi-hrse · 29-12-2019 4:09pm

Grab All Association wrote: »

I assumed so. What I was worried about was them putting me on a lower speed like my neighbour was back in the summer from 300 to 150. Their dogs ate through the fibre and copper wires.

As for the DP. It does looks more matt in appearance (behind my fence) I assume if it was the sticker would just be moved depending on condition and removability. The cabling going over my roof did come down slightly aswell. Over two hours so I assume there was a lot of work done. About 20 visits back out to the van carrying items. I think I have a photo I uploaded on here from when it was first put up to compare it with.

He most likely respliced the ends and pulled out the neighbour and put you back in your own slot. Sometimes the individual strands can get kinked by a careless installer and break the cable the neighbours position may have been broke and rather than failing the install he went ahead and took it upon himself to cause a fault to get a job across the line. The Eir lad may have then been fixing the network strand for the neighbour after reconnecting you to your port so as to not leave the neighbour without. This is all guesswork but that's the way it sounds.

Eoin3 · 29-12-2019 5:13pm

Managed to get fibre without being on the list.

Don't really know how we got it honestly. We had contacted a lot of different people, Eir, OpenEir, KN, sales people going door to door, sales people in stores etc. Number of them said they would look into it and follow up for us. One of them obviously got our Eircode added at some stage.

Makes for a nice Christmas present after many years of waiting

Airwire: MartinL · 01-01-2020 11:36am

We have updated the database for OpenEIR FTTC/FTTH today.

It can be found at https://www.airwire.ie/avail

medoc · 03-01-2020 10:15pm

For the first time since install I’ve been having drop outs all evening. When I log into the Fritzbox the log says Timeout during PPP negotiation. It has happened about 4 times all evening so far. Any ideas what this might be? I’ll contact Digiweb in the morning if it’s still happening.

tuxy · 03-01-2020 10:20pm

medoc wrote: »

For the first time since install I’ve been having drop outs all evening. When I log into the Fritzbox the log says Timeout during PPP negotiation. It has happened about 4 times all evening so far. Any ideas what this might be? I’ll contact Digiweb in the morning if it’s still happening.

If the ONT is not showing lose of signal when it happens then it's probably an issue with Digiweb.

medoc · 05-01-2020 11:57am

tuxy wrote: »

If the ONT is not showing lose of signal when it happens then it's probably an issue with Digiweb.

Didn’t look at the ONT at the time so can’t say. It’s been fine since. Must have been a temporary fault or maybe Digiweb were up to something.

Airwire: MartinL · 07-01-2020 5:18pm

We have updated the database for OpenEIR FTTC/FTTH today.

It can be found at https://www.airwire.ie/avail

Stary · 07-01-2020 11:12pm

Hi everyone, I have enjoyed following and reading this thread and am curious to find out and hopefully solve this question I have on the NBP strategy.

So, for the longest time now I have been regularly checking on the DCCAE website to see how my home (based in Mayo) is been classified and it have not changed from being AMBER - "AMBER areas - are the target areas for the State intervention of the National Broadband Plan"

So, I was delighted that the NBP was finally signed off last November as it meant that I was going to be FTTH at some time or other.

At around the same time (November last) I had a cold call from a Eir sales rep to announce that he could sign me up for 150meg FTTH. (I had noticed KN ran fibre along the poles on my road recently). I naturally jumped at this opportunity, but subsequently realised that in my haste I was tied into a home BB + phone package with Vodafone, so cancelled the Eir order and re ordered with Vodafone.

Long story short and after a few "failed" attempts to install, (I installed a new duct to nearest pole and cut down trees/bushes between it and the DP) I am waiting on the engineers to arrange an install date. Fingers crossed it will be soon.

Anyway, my question is how come, if I am (still) classed as being Amber, can an ISP jump on the back of the NBP rollout and basically undercut the whole NBP strategy. Did the NBP not realise that this could happen or am I missing something here?

Eir rural FTTH thread III

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