National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Pique

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117933902#Comment_117933902

The report is here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117900434#Comment_117900434

The 'few people from one team' was Kelly Communications, who had 30% of the contract and that entire workload was pulled and handed to KN instead.

Page 6-8 on the PDF https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/debateRecord/joint_committee_on_transport_and_communications/2021-09-15/debate/mul@/main.pdf

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117934018#Comment_117934018

Excellent analysis and should give clarity to folks that hear second hand information like one team etc.

One team can mean and entire countries worth of engineers . We have one team in NZ and it's 300 or so people . Our one team in Ireland is double that.

Politicians love a good spin though on subjects they don't have the first clue about though. That much is evidently clear .

Steve F

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

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

Hopefull I will be connected by December 2021 according to NBI site

WestWicklow1

On a positive note... There's lots of NBI work going on the N81 (runs through Blessington, Co. Wicklow) and in the town itself.

While out riding in all over very rural west Wicklow I'm noticing lots of crews and lots of work being done.

My eircode is still 7-9 months away though but will be very happy if it happens then.

Location: West Wicklow

clohamon

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

A recent PQ response from Ossian Smyth (if you can believe DECC) points to other factors besides KN and Kelly problems.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2021-09-16a.41

My Department has worked closely with NBI to put in place a remedial plan under the Contract to address the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic on the project for 2021. The impact on future years continues to be assessed. NBI is putting in place mitigation measures to address the impact of the pandemic on the programme to date. These include

- Increasing the rate of pole replacement and duct remediation per month

- Bringing in more resources to NBI

- Purchasing more materials earlier

- Bringing in more subcontractors

As for whether KN were prioritising IFN work over NBP work; I'm not sure if you were suggesting that.

joe123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117934018#Comment_117934018

That entire workload was pulled and given to KN instead.

Hendrick had to admit it wasn't reasoning enough for the delays and that the delay here was sorting the handover.

Have to laugh at some of the craic. Its actually good to critique and question and ask why isn't it done better as long as there is reasoning, which their obviously is. Personally I like knowing the dates, but to have a blinkered approach and ignore faults like some one here is funny to me.

Terrible attitude to have in any work to just let things slide. Some people are like that though, hence you see projects fall apart or be far less efficient than they should be.

Agent Avenger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117924354#Comment_117924354

That’s good to hear! Haven’t been around Passage in a while so missed all the works, I’m closer to Monkstown. Nothing happening here yet but at least they are still around the area and might get to us soon.

heavydawson

https://www.businesspost.ie/telecoms/5000-to-get-alternative-to-fibre-broadband-77c1d369

Several categories of homes and businesses could be served broadband through alternative technology solutions such as wireless internet as part of the state’s National Broadband Plan, the Business Post has learned.

The multibillion-euro rural broadband scheme is set to deliver fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband to 540,000 premises across the country over a seven-year period.

The contract allows, however, for between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of premises to be catered for through alternative technology solutions.

This would mean that about 5,000 homes and businesses would not be offered a FTTH connection, which is considered by many to be the most reliable and future-proofed technology currently available.

The Business Post has learned that the 5,000 or so premises are broken down into three distinct categories.

These include a small number of homes in cities which are not served by commercial operators and do not have good broadband services, known as “urban infill premises”; and premises not easily served by NBI’s fibre network but which are “adjacent to” other operators’ existing fibre infrastructure.

The final category of home is those referred to by NBI as being on “rural ribbons”, which would be expensive to connect to the fibre network it is building.

A spokesman for the Department of Communications said it was aware of NBI’s plans for those premises. He said the company would continue to be the wholesale provider for the NBP overall and could not outsource that role to any other operator.

“NBI is seeking alternative networks, or technologies, that could assist NBI in addressing a very small number of difficult to reach, or high-cost premises in the intervention area through this tender process,” he said.

“NBI will continue to be the wholesale provider of the broadband service to the market regardless of whether or not it uses alternative networks, or technologies, to reach any premises involved.”

An NBI spokesman said that if alternative providers were contracted to serve some of the premises covered by the plan, it would ensure that the service met its contracted obligations with service level agreements underpinned by penalties.

The Business Post has learned that five alternative providers have responded to the tender issued by NBI expressing an interest in serving those customers.

NBI has so far fallen behind on its rollout of the network, with just 632 of the 540,000 homes and businesses connected to the network by mid-June.

Delays partly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a remedial plan with drastically reduced targets set for 2021.

Under this new plan, NBI hopes to make the network available to 60,000 homes by the turn of the year, down from its original target of 115,000.

Steve F

Just fiiled in a pre order form on the Digiweb website

Asked for an evening phone call...wonder will the agent be able to give me a timeframe for connection?

oppiuy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944312#Comment_117944312

Thanks for posting this.. looks like the start of the back tracking process that not all homes will get fibre. Looks like they will connect up most urban areas and move out a small way but likely that all those folks In pending survey 2024/2025 and living quite rural will be left out

NBAiii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117935085#Comment_117935085

I was not suggesting KN prioritised eir work. There is no evidence for that.

This quote from Ossian Smyth gets more to the heart of the matter:

While the Covid-19 pandemic has created many challenges, NBI has also faced many more complexities working with existing networks and subcontractors than initially envisaged. This is due to the sheer scale and complexity of rolling out fibre to the home in a rural environment. This has included significant tree trimming to ensure cable can be placed on overhead poles, remediation of ducting that has been in place for many decades and the co-ordination of hundreds of contracting crews while addressing the many issues arising week on week which could not have been foreseen until the build crews are actually on the ground.

Basically, setting up a brand new wholesale organisation and expecting it to pass 120,000 premises in its first year of construction was fanciful in the extreme. Both NBI and DECC have consistently over promised and massively under delivered on targets.

FACECUTTR

Got an email saying January 2025 to December 2026 !!! East galway might as well be on Jupiter.

clohamon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944312#Comment_117944312

The plan has envisaged 1-3% non-standard connx since December 2015, so not much new there.

The urban in-fill looks like it will be taken care of by the IFN and the recent 200k addition - assuming the 200k is sincere. Or by the others.

Sub-contracting rural ribbons is the predictable consequence of Denis Naughten's porous 300K concession. Eircom will now get paid a premium to connect the homes that they should have covered on their own euro, had the concession been area-based rather than premises based.

In relation to service level agreements and penalties applicable to any sub-contractor; DECC do not apply or enforce penalties to any commitment and Eircom have already stated that they see the higher SLAs of the NBP as contagion that will infect their main business.

Lastly there seems to be a list of difficult and deferred premises that NBI submit to DECC. It would be interesting to know how many there are at this stage, where they are, how long the deferral period is, and whether the premises owners have been notified.

NBAiii

In realtion to the above post, NBI are now counting pre-order premises in its "available to order" figures. They mentioned 23,000 premises to the Committee last week. The true figure that was actualy available to order and be connected within ten days was 14,500. The remaining ~9000 premises are pre-orders which may not be available for up to three months (more for some on this thread). How many of the 60,000 to be "passed" by the end of the year will be pre-order. The following table shows a breakdown of premises passed and available for connection per county on September 10:

As for actual connections:

It is understood that as of 3 September over 2,300 orders have been made with almost 1,500 actually connected.

Pique

Eircom have already stated that they see the higher SLAs of the NBP as contagion that will infect their main business.

A damning indictment of Eir when a better service is seen as a contagion that could 'infect' their business model.

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944573#Comment_117944573

Where are you getting this info? I'm grateful for it, but I'm assuming you're working for NBI or the DECC !

GreenJedi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944573#Comment_117944573

the locations and figures that you have quoted, are they all due to go "live" on September 30th?  (2021!!!)

NBAiii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117945131#Comment_117945131

Sorry, I should have provided links. The information is from the Oireachtas site. I don't work for NBI or DECC!

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2021-09-21/121/speech/395/

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2021-09-16/63/speech/416/

the locations and figures that you have quoted, are they all due to go "live" on September 30th?

No, they are the number of premises in each county that are currently live, as of the 10th of September. "Live" in this instance means if you order you should be connected within ten days.

Orebro

As someone in one of these rural ribbons surrounded by Eir fibre - come and take our road Eir, we'll welcome you with open arms!

micksey1969

Our estate wasn't in the intervention area as NBI said we could get 30mbps when my speed is 28mbps Co Carlow area . After months and months of emails and pictures NBI finally included the whole estate and connections are due between november 21 - january 22. Now i find out that Eir is doing the estate instead as part of the 200,000 FTTH so god knows when that is. Im now in the process of selling the house (not because of the broadband) and I've looked at a house out the country, no broadband from Eir or any WISP company so it will be Starlink at €90 a month at that house. Im looking at a house this evening in a town which has 1GB from Eir ,Virgin media and siro. Both house are a 10 minute drive from one another. A friend of mine is 10 minutes from the local town which has fibre and his landline speed is 1mbps. We put up a Mikrotik LTE 6 antenna with an Eir 4G sim and he's now getting 40 down and 30 up, he's doing cartwheels around the garden all weekend. The broadband in this country is frustrating to say the least.

mp3guy

Has anyone who has NBI/NBP broadband noticed congestion? I have 1Gbps with Digiweb and every evening, without fail, around 7pm-11pm, the speed drops to 100-300Mbps (I run speedtests hourly automatically). My neighbour noticed the same thing. This is over ethernet, and at this time the internet at home is idle (busy with dinner, getting people to bed). It's usually fine a bit later and e.g. me watching Netflix at midnight doesn't seem to make the speedtests flinch.

I thought congestion was a thing of the past?

oscarBravo

I thought congestion was a thing of the past?

Maybe everyone is running speedtests hourly automatically.

cargo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117953517#Comment_117953517

Not according to the footnotes on Digiweb's Product Offering webpage

Not sure I'd be happy with getting 10% of what I was expecting.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117949862#Comment_117949862

Is there a kit that can be purchased with that dish. Im only a few miles outside Castlebar and have been told it will be 2026 before we get broadband

Nolars

• 22,746
• Premises available for order

Updated now from 20,000 on the site since I last checked.

mp3guy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117953573#Comment_117953573

Wow did not know that. Is that just Digiweb or all NBI resellers?

oscarBravo

Seriously, think about it. The idea that everyone in the country can have an uncongested service at all times is bonkers. If ten people with 500Mb/s service run a speed test at the same time, that would use 5Gb/s. If a thousand people with 500Mb/s run speed tests simultaneously, there will need to be 500Gb/s available in order for none of them to notice any congestion.

Is anyone seriously arguing that the network should be provisioned so as to guarantee sufficient bandwidth for everyone in the country to max out their pipe simultaneously?

If you're worried about congestion, stop running speed tests. If your service is unable to meet your requirements because of congestion, ask your provider to fix it. If it is able to meet your requirements, why do you care what speed it's running at?

cargo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117953666#Comment_117953666

I'd say it's just a generic disclaimer so applies across the board. I only looked up Digiweb as that was the provider mentioned. Someone on here might know more about the SLA's the resellers have to adhere to.

mp3guy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117953693#Comment_117953693

I care about getting the service I paid for (in fact at times, the speed is dipping below 10%, so out of the service agreement). That's why I run speed tests. I have to monitor it myself because they won't fix it unless I highlight it. I notice it, particularly the ping degradation. My prerogative to make sure it's meeting the bar.

micksey1969

It has a router built in to the dish and you plug the ethernet in to it and the other end has a POE and that goes into your desktop or laptop. I connected it to a tp link router set up as an access point but mikrotik have a router for around €30.