National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

It’s a massive project. I don’t think people fully appreciate what’s involved. It’s very much akin to the massive build out of the old digital phone network in the 1980s, when a lot of areas were completely rewired or homes in rural areas were connected for the first time.

That took more than a decade to complete 1981 to 1990s.

You’re looking at a huge wiring job. It involves people actually installing huge numbers of ducts and wires. It isn’t just some software update.

Also Eir and Siro have made significant progress in areas that aren’t NBI and many of those are fairly rural.

Between the 3 of them you’re basically looking at the compete overlay and then replacement of the copper phone network by fibre optics within a few years really.

The copper network took many decades to build. So it’s not exactly a minor job to replace.

oppiuy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929734#Comment_117929734

I think that most are confused as being listed in an intervention area and then seeing all to usual towns and cities with connections already getting set up or surveyed. Im one of those that wrongly assumed that the places worst off would be worked on first.

There isn't any explanation as to why that is on the website. So the Facebook Twitter updates just drive people mad. Seeing Area all over and around Dublin being connected

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929773#Comment_117929773

Many of these people didn't care in 2019. Amazing how vital it's all suddenly become and 'we can't organise a piss up in a brewery' is the new line...

CptMonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929734#Comment_117929734

While covid has caused issues I’m still some what annoyed with my estimated timeline. I’m close to the carrigaline build out and though maybe I’d get in on that but wasn’t the case. So I wishfully thought that the team doing that build out might then move onto other parts of cork.

that and I’m 150 from eircom fibre and can’t get that either. So it gets frustrating

Speak Now

I cant complain as im down for Aug 22 to Oct 22, although 18 months ago the date was closer than it is now 😏

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929883#Comment_117929883

You may be close to carrigaline but there's a queue and an entire country to do. And they've put a plan into place for the rollout. There's an assumption proximity feeds into the rollout as the entire basis. Unfortunately that's not the case it's proximity to your assigned DA and that DA in the overall queue.

Smarter people than you and I have planned this out from a civil works perspective.

CptMonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929912#Comment_117929912

Smarter people than me 🙄

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929922#Comment_117929922

Oh lord. Why the offence. Are you a civil engineer. People are so bloody precious . I said you and me fella. Chillax

xxyyzz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929734#Comment_117929734

Very true but the communication has been terrible. I mean if the NBI website is the only source of truth then people are naturally going to build up hope but if it's blatantly obvious that a DA is going to run 1 to 2 years beyond the predicted date then it should be updated much sooner.

CptMonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930003#Comment_117930003

As it happens I am

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930080#Comment_117930080

This is the crux of the issue:

1. The dates are constantly shifting even for those due to be "ready for order" in the next 3-6 months.
2. People in the DAs that are "done" are still waiting for connections they pre-ordered 6 months ago
3. I'm getting emails from NBI telling me one connection timeframe that are years in the difference from what the site tells me.

At this stage they'd be better off giving half-year ranges. 2021H2, 2022H2, etc. And @Lister while you're right about being a massive undertaking, it's not to the same level as the original rollout. A lot less active equipment, and a lot of existing infrastructure that's being re-used (old ducts/poles). I agree there are a lot of unknowns (and unknown unknown ;-) ) but they need to be more transparent about why the dates for the DAs are slipping each time.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930135#Comment_117930135

Yeah.

.ok cheers ....

Anyway moving on back to the discussion.

Were are still not fully out of pandemic people. So reality check it gets delayed because of this. It doesn't matter how annoyed or frustrated you are we've just had nearly two years of chaos globally.

theguzman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929754#Comment_117929754

Telecom Eireann had around 10,000 to 12,000 employees at the time wheras NBI would hardly have 1,000 and there should be a massive scaling up and bring in several thousand contractors from abroad and issue visas, bring in Chinese and Brazilian fibre joiner contractors and the whole country could easily be wired up in a year or less only throw enough man power into it. However like everything in Ireland it is designed so the maximum amount of pigs can feed at the trough, drag it out as long as possible and slow it down so the maximum amount of money can be earned off it for cronies, training courses and jobs for the boys. This is a one off project and there won't be permanent full time jobs for life like Telecom before. I'm sure several hundred technicians and fibre jointer's could be sourced out of the EU and non-EU only up the salary to entice them in for a quick buck. Look at the UK offering £80k sterling for lorry drivers due to shortages. In China they can build roads fast because the bureaucracy and mindset is different, wheras in Ireland they'd be stuck on public consultations and an taisce and an bord pleanala etc. would bog it down for years. Everything can be a massive project when you have sloth like efficiency and look at what EIR achieved in-house themselves as it was their project and they got the work done. The NBP should have been designed with multiple rewards for targets and basically no subsidy when they started falling behind like now.

joe123

People understand the scale of the project but like anything, there was so much that could have been done better.

NBI for a year and half repeatedly said Covid had little to no impact, then suddenly Covid fucked them. It was then called out in a recent meeting that the true impact of Covid only impacted one team and was not good enough reason to be so far behind schedule.

NBI had little to NO communication outside of fluff for the guts of a year and half - people left totally in the dark.

NBI customer support was and still is a waste of time and only annoys people - stop asking people to contact you only to give them info they already know from the website search. Stop advertising on billboards "Galway Fibre is here" - no, no its not, its here in 2026 if Im lucky.

Lack of transparency, delays, vagueness, repeatedly talking about acceleration for nearly 2 years with no info behind it, guff, fluff and dates getting pushed all over the place.

Not to mention the whole project could have been handled so much better if Siro/OpenEir/NBI all worked together instead of what transpired. A start up company with little to no involvement from Eir or ESB. And then not to mention the random encroachment OpenEir seem to be going ahead with, with little to no reasoning behind it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929855#Comment_117929855

Very true. When living and working on Dublin I thought this was the biggest waste of money imaginable. An utter mismanagement of our limited resources. The value to the country of connecting some cottage a mile up a boreen i thought was highly questionable.

Of course now I am owner of said cottage I am on the other side. But accept fully that someone has to be at the back and this will take a long time (and I am not convinced that it will conclude as currently envisaged). In the meantime there is Starlink, and I’m lucky enough to have broadband service through the local radio tower. I suspect had I not previously been a city dweller, with a more balanced view on this, I would be getting as frustrated as other posters

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930504#Comment_117930504

All beautiful words. But EIR destroyed the start of the project with games and siro had no interest. ESB would have had to been dragged kicking and screaming.

Lot of revisionism going on here.

Pique

So many large scale infrastructure project planners and managers in here recently. Such a shame NBI didn't hire ye all and we'd all have fibre by now.

touts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117925593#Comment_117925593

In Tipperary and got exactly the same. Basically they have zero intention of ever connecting my house but are quite happy to suck up taxpayer money for as long as possible creating plans and doing surveys.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928081#Comment_117928081

Use WiFi calling inside the house. Most new Smart phones support it, and as far as I am aware all the UK networks support it. WiFi calling will ensure that incoming, outgoing calls and texts are carried over WiFi within the home. You may need to check if texts are covered by all the networks. (In ROI, only one network fully supports WiFi Calling)

jod20

Jan 2025-Dec 2026 here too, anyone else going to try Starlink instead?

touts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117931591#Comment_117931591

Tempted but not yet. I'm hopeful 5g will provide a more reliable alternative before Starlink get fully up to speed. So waiting to see. But certainly I expect Starlink to deliver a viable option for me years before the NBI. I'd also expect NBI are likely to go bust (i.e. the government tell them to **** off and pull the contract) before Musk and when you look at Musk's finances that's a damning indictment of NBI.

ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117931591#Comment_117931591

talking to a mate to put up an external aerial to give me a better mobile signal first I think.

mun1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117931658#Comment_117931658

I done this with a 3 router last year and it works a treat while i wait for NBI. Put aerial on gable point of house. Even though I don’t have direct line of sight to mast , once its pointing in the general direction i get 100Mbs+ in the morning times and 10 MB+ in evenings .

Hococop

Tli van driving slowly on our road checking the line, been on pre order 120 days or more I'd say, hopefully that was them doing a final check and it's activated soon, wishful thinking ha

EarWig

The EIR rural rollout started out with a lot of unhappiness about the failure to meet target dates. People calmed down a lot once the rollout eventually got up a head of steam. NBI will get there. Six months from now the talk will be mostly about new areas being connected.

db

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117932440#Comment_117932440

They've been in my area for the last couple of weeks. One of them had to access a pole at the back of my garden and he told me the line on the road was live and tested so just waiting for an installation date now. Hoping they will change to ready to connect at beginning of October.

NBAiii

NBI's Covid excuse starts to look rather flimsy when you consider that in the period of June 2020 to June 2021 eir managed to pass 181,000 premises with fibre. Including the first two quarters of 2020 and they would easily have passed ten times as many premises as NBI. KN are eir's main build contractor. Perhaps the eir KN contractors didn't suffer Covid like the NBI KN contractors seemingly did.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117933665#Comment_117933665

To be fair , given the geography Eir could run 100 metres of Fibre and pass 50 premises in a town or whatever whereas NBI might not even pass 1.

They are also at completely different stages of the process - Eir know exactly what infrastructure needs to be installed and in what location.

NBI are still in the survey , "Who needs what" stage of things.

Not saying I'm thrilled with the delays , but it's not really apples to apples.

joe123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117933665#Comment_117933665

Exactly this. It was put to NBI what did Covid actually impact and it transpired it was a few people from one team only. Basically said then well thats not in anyway a usable excuse to be so far behind schedule.

Cant remember where I read it but I think it was in the recent meeting with Hendrick and the government.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117931476#Comment_117931476

Thanks for that,discussion now appears to be getting more complicated,and might morph into its own thread..BT have admitted that when they remove my existing copper landline,with the accompanying 50v dc,I will no longer be able to connect an old phone to make Any calls.,even emergency. They sell a battery back up, 4 AA, 2 amphr batteries, dc to dc converter, 12 o/p. Two of these would be required,one for new hub ,just arrived,and one for fibre to premises box. Run them for an hour,they say,

Getting to your point, I live in a Notspot,2g outside the premises nothing inside,so never will be a mobile signal.

Conclusion, new BT Digital disservice, will mean,people in rural areas,prone to winter power out or new home connections, ( normally power off for 8 hours,) will be worse off,but for the greater good will have to endure,