National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Orebro

Dero wrote: »

Haha! Yeah, that was my initial thought too when I saw the red, so fingers crossed. For now though, I'm trying to manage expectations.

Oh for sure - but I tend to analyze any bit of rollout info from official sources as it’s so scarce!

joe123

Anyone know if there is a colour coded OLT map anywhere? I know we have the DA map, but would be interesting to see the actual OLT as it would give a much more accurate representation.

Are NBI paid once an OLT is complete or a Deployment Area? Assume its per OLT?

Also wondering, if an OLT is complete, will that then in someway connect to the neighbouring OLT, it would give another indication of how far away certain areas under "premises pending survey" are.

Redriddick

Pique wrote: »

Happy days. I'm in the Ballymurray area so hopefully they come up here from Kilteevan.

Same as that!!!

kaizersoze

clohamon wrote: »

It's the second anniversary of the announcement of the IFN. If anything it looks like they're scaling back the original ambition from 2019 for “180 towns and cities” “over five years” ? (2019-02-11)
https://www.eir.ie/pressroom/eir-launches-0.5-billion-fixed-network-investment-programme/

That article hasn't aged well......:pac:

47akak

All bar one of the deployment areas currently in build phase or in survey phase listed on the nbi.ie site are PoH locations as far as I can see.

Has it ever been confirmed they will build all PoH locations first? Is that the initial order? The website appears to indicate that's what's happening more or less. The exception is Middleton but it could make sense due to the unusually large number of premises to be connected to that OLT and the fact Carrigaline adjacent will be finished early this year.

My townland is listed under an OLT not listed as being built or surveyed on the nbi.ie but it is a PoH location. I've also seen them doing some work recently (just cutting trees I think, sign just said work being carried out on behalf of NBI). So I'm hoping & putting 2+2 together it will be 2022. But there's no date for any premises on their Eircode checker. If I knew for certain I would forego an investment in Starlink.

Hopefully I'm right, I feel sorry for the people who are 7 or 8 years away, they're probably expecting it a lot sooner and their kids or lives might have moved on by then. Nobody is going to admit it will be nearly 2030. Starlink will be an option but the cost won't be for everyone.

The Cush

joe123 wrote: »

Anyone know if there is a colour coded OLT map anywhere? I know we have the DA map, but would be interesting to see the actual OLT as it would give a much more accurate representation.

Locked away in NBI HQ, not in the public domain. Any OLT deployment area map would be would be a bit foggy around the edges I'd assume until the low level design is complete.

joe123 wrote: »

Are NBI paid once an OLT is complete or a Deployment Area? Assume its per OLT?

According to the Dept officials at the Oireachtas committees the subsidy is paid in 2 stages, firstly once the premises in the intervention area has been passed and verified and second once the premises has been connected and those payments will be made in batches.

Mr. Mark Griffin: The company will not have to get to the end of the 5,000 premises before connections can start.

Mr. Fergal Mulligan: The connections can start once the first 300 or 500 homes are done.

Chairman: They will have put in some of the network, and at the point when the block is done, the Department will give it a block payment for the work done to date and then pay it as connections happen after the event.

Mr. Fergal Mulligan: Exactly.

Source: PAC 28 Mar 2019

joe123 wrote: »

Also wondering, if an OLT is complete, will that then in someway connect to the neighbouring OLT, it would give another indication of how far away certain areas under "premises pending survey" are.

I vaguely remember a discussion somewhere with NBI where they mentioned they would begin the rollout from enet OLT locations initially and move outward from there. Looking at the progress map posted earlier that appears to be happening in Limerick/Clare, Cork and Galway etc.

The Cush

47akak wrote: »

All bar one of the deployment areas currently in build phase or in survey phase listed on the nbi.ie site are PoH locations as far as I can see.

Has it ever been confirmed they will build all PoH locations first? Is that the initial order? The website appears to indicate that's what's happening more or less. The exception is Middleton but it could make sense due to the unusually large number of premises to be connected to that OLT and the fact Carrigaline adjacent will be finished early this year.

Midleton appears to be on the same fibre ring as the Cork-Mahon PoH as we can see from the PoH map but Cork-Mahon isn't an OLT location per the NBP contract, the PoH nearby on the same fibre ring may explain the exception.

The Cush

cregmon wrote: »

Very good webinar this morning from Connected Ireland forum, hosted by Total Telecom & Nokia.

Peter Hendrick gave a an overview of their design & build process as well as a quick progress update (see attached image Attachment not found.).

This from the RTÉ on the Connected Ireland forum discussion

National Broadband looking at ways to speed up national roll-out

Thursday, 11 Feb 2021 12:25

By Will Goodbody
Business Editor

The head of the company responsible for rolling out the National Broadband Plan (NBP) has said it is looking at opportunities to accelerate the seven-year building programme.

But the chief executive of National Broadband Ireland, Peter Hendrick, indicated that getting sufficient skills could be a difficulty.

"In doing so, there are some challenges ahead in terms of getting people into the country, resources, training-up," he said.

"There are lots of students and graduates, getting them trained under apprenticeships. Many of our industry partners have started that process and it is a critical one," he added.

The NBP roll-out was originally planned to take place over seven years.

But the Government is now exploring whether that can be faster, due to the move to remote working brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and the benefits that will flow from increased rural connectivity.

Speaking to the Connected Ireland event organised by Total Telecom and Nokia, Mr Hendrick said the NBI team has grown from 30 this time last year to 900 today.

He said it will increase further to between 1,500-1,800 as the roll-out ramps up and could even reach 2,000 if the roll-out is accelerated.

Mr Hendrick said 35 retailer providers have signed up to supply services using the network.

He said customers connecting to the network for the first time will be offered a minimum speed of 500Mbps, rising to 1Gbps where wanted.

But he added that the network when complete will be capable of handling speeds of up to 10Gbps, making it futureproofed for the next 10-15 years.

"Future-proofing the technology is critical," he said.

He said building work on the roll-out will have begun in all 26 counties by the end of this year.

170,000 premises have now been surveyed and 136,000 designed received for the 544,000 premises that fall under the NBP contract.

Mr Hendrick also said that 113 Broadband Connection Points, which are shared rural community spaces where high-speed broadband is available, have now been connected, with 29 of those in schools.

In the last few weeks, the first premises were formally connected to the National Broadband Plan network.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0211/1196490-nbi-looking-at-ways-to-speed-up-national-roll-out/

The Cush

eir business breakfast hosted by the company on Thursday

He said the company's investment is starting to bear fruit, with the fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband rollout progressing.

Ms Lennon said 314,000 homes in 19 counties have now been passed by the network, or 749,000 when its rural and other programmes are included.

60,000 premises in Dublin have also been passed by FTTH, setting Eir up to to compete more strongly with cable operator Virgin Media.

Ms Lennon said when complete, Eir's fibre network will cover 84% of premises in the country.

She added that the company continues to work with National Broadband Ireland to make its ducts and poles available for the rollout of the National Broadband Plan.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0211/1196478-eir-investor-update/

clohamon

joe123 wrote: »

Anyone know if there is a colour coded OLT map anywhere? I know we have the DA map, but would be interesting to see the actual OLT as it would give a much more accurate representation.

It can be done from the townlands, but it's a pain. Any workflow requires at least some manual checking because the townland names alone are not unique within each county. Not clear why NBI won't release a map, or publish the unique IDs along with the townlands.

Here's Adare OLT townlands (with the Roll-out area in blue). The gaps indicate a townland with no premises or no intervention premises.


(Basemap - OSM contributors )

Redriddick

So following on from my very small post yesterday.........the nbi lads are outside my house.
Needless to say they weren't out of their van and I was out to them.
I am.down a boreen with just 2 houses, we have a duct from the head if the road and the lads said it is big enough for fibre for 20 houses, good job I told eir when they put it in that i would be building more houses, ha!
Asked them when it would possibly be live and they said a month or 2.
In Ballymurray outside roscommon town.
Pique, I'd say they will be around for the next few weeks.

ussjtrunks

North Cork has a lot of places with poor internet, hopefully at some stage soon we can drop the fixed wireless. Areas around killavullen, Castletown etc are rely on some form of wireless internet atm and doneraile is very poor

BarryM

Coincidently, a young lady, on PK about the latest leaving cert fiasco, said she lived 'in town' and the wifi was ok, but she had friends who lived just outside the town (Roscommon) who could not keep up with the online from the school because the reception was useless.

I suppose in our privatised telecom world there is no question of the gov having a quiet word, in the light of covid, with eir. vodafone, esb, etc., to lend a bit of a hand?

ArrBee

ussjtrunks wrote: »

North Cork has a lot of places with poor internet, hopefully at some stage soon we can drop the fixed wireless. Areas around killavullen, Castletown etc are rely on some form of wireless internet atm and doneraile is very poor

I think you'll find that describes the whole country.
Hence the need.

ussjtrunks

ArrBee wrote: »

I think you'll find that describes the whole country.
Hence the need.

I’d just like some indication when it will arrive was contemplating going with starlink if its gonna be a long wait

bennyineire

BarryM wrote: »

Coincidently, a young lady, on PK about the latest leaving cert fiasco, said she lived 'in town' and the wifi was ok, but she had friends who lived just outside the town (Roscommon) who could not keep up with the online from the school because the reception was useless.

I suppose in our privatised telecom world there is no question of the gov having a quiet word, in the light of covid, with eir. vodafone, esb, etc., to lend a bit of a hand?

If only it was that simple

heavydawson

BarryM wrote: »

Coincidently, a young lady, on PK about the latest leaving cert fiasco, said she lived 'in town' and the wifi was ok, but she had friends who lived just outside the town (Roscommon) who could not keep up with the online from the school because the reception was useless.

I suppose in our privatised telecom world there is no question of the gov having a quiet word, in the light of covid, with eir. vodafone, esb, etc., to lend a bit of a hand?

If people want it done faster, they'd better be ready to accept increases on top of the 3 billion, and I don't think anyone would stomach that, never mind that the EU would probably want to be consulted on state intervention grounds. The only thing the government could conceivable do is intervene in geographical mobile coverage subsidies. That would be an entirely separate scheme to NBP, but not necessarily a bad thing. Subsidizing and/or owning/building the cost of cell placement in areas where it's not commercially viable to do so, and allowing all mobile operators to utilize the infrastructure.

joe123

heavydawson wrote: »

If people want it done faster, they'd better be ready to accept increases on top of the 3 billion, and I don't think anyone would stomach that, never mind that the EU would probably want to be consulted on state intervention grounds. The only thing the government could conceivable do is intervene in geographical mobile coverage subsidies. That would be an entirely separate scheme to NBP, but not necessarily a bad thing. Subsidizing and/or owning/building the cost of cell placement in areas where it's not commercially viable to do so, and allowing all mobile operators to utilize the infrastructure.

Would be a waste of time and money that. Not to mention you'd have the loons out complaining about mast placement and all sorts.

Not quite as bad as the BCP's but its expensive to get cells put up as it is, and this would be throwing money at a relatively short term solution considering we are already a year into the 7 (hopefully 5) year rollout.

Theyd be better off trying to add any additional funding towards the actual FTTH rollout. Even if it meant 5-10 OLTS getting done a year sooner, it would make more sense. Or give Open Eir / ESB some extra money to assist.

daraghwal

heavydawson wrote: »

The only thing the government could conceivable do is intervene in geographical mobile coverage subsidies. That would be an entirely separate scheme to NBP, but not necessarily a bad thing. Subsidizing and/or owning/building the cost of cell placement in areas where it's not commercially viable to do so, and allowing all mobile operators to utilize the infrastructure.

Have a google of NBS :pac:

Tommy Lagahan

daraghwal wrote: »

Have a google of NBS :pac:

0.5mbit ptsd intensifies

NBAiii

There was an interesting product roadmap pdf published by NBI today. Probably of most interest to those here is the proposed introduction of >1Gb/s products in Q3 2021:

Q3 2021 sees the planned introduction of >1Gbit/s services for all consumer and business Bitstream and VUA products

Planned increase in speeds for all consumer and business Bitstream and VUA products to include new and existing connections where appropriate

https://nbi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NBI-Product-Roadmap.pdf

Mor-Riomhaire

Redriddick wrote: »

So following on from my very small post yesterday.........the nbi lads are outside my house.
Needless to say they weren't out of their van and I was out to them.
I am.down a boreen with just 2 houses, we have a duct from the head if the road and the lads said it is big enough for fibre for 20 houses, good job I told eir when they put it in that i would be building more houses, ha!
Asked them when it would possibly be live and they said a month or 2.
In Ballymurray outside roscommon town.
Pique, I'd say they will be around for the next few weeks.

That's great news, I never asked them, just offered tea :)

rounders

NBAiii wrote: »

There was an interesting product roadmap pdf published by NBI today. Probably of most interest to those here is the proposed introduction of >1Gb/s products in Q3 2021:




https://nbi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NBI-Product-Roadmap.pdf

Sorry rookie questions coming;

What is considered Transmission Products? Servicing 4G/5G masts?

I guess in home services would be allowing tv and other services through the fibre network

Passive I guess they mean allowing other services use the ducts but I thought NBI weren't actually installing many ducts so I didn't think they could re-rent the ducts they rent off of Eir to be used by other venders?

Redriddick

Mor-Riomhaire wrote: »

That's great news, I never asked them, just offered tea :)

I offered them tea, and when I went to town got them 2 packets of bars.
All done at lunch and duct in place around the pole at the head of the road.
The lads did say there was one spot up near curry railway crossing where they couldn't put ducting ir anything. They reckoned that section could be held up due to having to get permission from Irish rail for works.

wexfordman2

Redriddick wrote: »

I offered them tea, and when I went to town got them 2 packets of bars.
All done at lunch and duct in place around the pole at the head of the road.
The lads did say there was one spot up near curry railway crossing where they couldn't put ducting ir anything. They reckoned that section could be held up due to having to get permission from Iran rail for works.

Iran rail ?

Ayatollah it wasn't going to be easy

Redriddick

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Iran rail ?

Ayatollah it wasn't going to be easy

Ha!!!!

ArrBee

ussjtrunks wrote: »

I’d just like some indication when it will arrive was contemplating going with starlink if its gonna be a long wait

I'm exactly the same but with a 2yr 5g contact.
I'm trying to sleuth my way to understand if it's going to be 2yrs or more.
For me, I reckon it will take less than 3yrs...

NBAiii

rounders wrote: »

Sorry rookie questions coming;

What is considered Transmission Products? Servicing 4G/5G masts?

I guess in home services would be allowing tv and other services through the fibre network

Passive I guess they mean allowing other services use the ducts but I thought NBI weren't actually installing many ducts so I didn't think they could re-rent the ducts they rent off of Eir to be used by other venders?

I'm not entirely sure about the transmission products.

In home seems to be router or IPTV equipment installation by the NBI installer.

NBI would be installing a lot of duct though most of it would be sub-duct in preexisting eir duct. I guess their agreement with eir enables them to sell access to this in the future (2024).

KOR101

NBAiii wrote: »

There was an interesting product roadmap pdf published by NBI today. Probably of most interest to those here is the proposed introduction of >1Gb/s products in Q3 2021:




https://nbi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NBI-Product-Roadmap.pdf

You would have to wonder about the demand for that product. Why so soon..........anyone?

The Cush

KOR101 wrote: »

You would have to wonder about the demand for that product. Why so soon..........anyone?

WFH and WFH beyond Covid, rural business broadband etc. comes to mind.
We see people moving from urban to rural areas and I assume they will want to continue to work from there beyond Covid.

As the network is XGS-PON from the start, all the way to the router, it costs nothing to add it to the suite of products available, there when required by an end user.