Does Eir have plans up upgrade vdsl connections to FTTH?

brimur69

I live in an estate just off the main street of a small village. All the estates that are just off the main street are unable to get 1Gb FTTH internet, we are all on VDSL and get about 25-30Mbps based on my own internet and talking to the neighbours. All homes on the country roads around us just outside of the main street and these estates have the option of 1Gb from Eir. Is there a reason we are not able to also get 1Gb? Why didnt Eir extend the 1Gb all the way through the village instead of stopping on the outskirts? Is it a common occurrence and is there a plan to upgrade these connections? Just to add, we are not considered low enough to be included in the NBI scheme .

ED E

(Example numbers)

You had 10Mb, those out the road had 2Mb.
You got 30Mb, they still had 2Mb.
Then FTTH started, made more sense to hit the underserved areas first where there was no competition.


You'll get it, its called IFN. Itll take a while. Small village - think 2025.

brimur69

ED E wrote: »

(Example numbers)

You had 10Mb, those out the road had 2Mb.
You got 30Mb, they still had 2Mb.
Then FTTH started, made more sense to hit the underserved areas first where there was no competition.


You'll get it, its called IFN. Itll take a while. Small village - think 2025.

I agree completely with your rational, just wondering why they didnt just upgrade the main street while they were at it. As in was it a technical issue getting in the main street or just too busy and trying to move onto the outskirts of the next village to fill a quota.

The Cush

This is what eircom said recently in relation to copper based services and IFN

The current IFN programme is expected to be completed in 2024, and open eir will make a formal announcement by 2025 regarding the withdrawal of access to these copper-based services and associated timelines.

Comreg has begun preliminary discussions with stakeholders to establish a framework for the transition from copper to fibre

The Cush

brimur69 wrote: »

I agree completely with your rational, just wondering why they didnt just upgrade the main street while they were at it. As in was it a technical issue getting in the main street or just too busy and trying to move onto the outskirts of the next village to fill a quota.

eircom allocated €250m to spend on rolling out rural fibre just outside their VDSL areas, initially to 300k premises but stretching to about 340k in the end. This was to grab the "low hanging fruit" of the state's national broadband plan (NBP) areas, to make it almost uneconomic for other NBP bidders to compete for the rest of the NBP area, eircom ultimately withdrew from the NBP process.

The NBP's purpose is to provide high speed broadband to premises with speeds currently less than 30 Mbps. Villages with VDSL exchanges and premises with speeds of 30Mbps or more available weren't included in the €250m spend so that the money could be spent in as many rural areas as possible, no point in eircom spending scarce cash in areas already served with decent broadband by their own copper network.

Villages like yours are caught between the state's NBP and eircom's €500m IFN rollout to high population towns, it could be 2025 or later before they reach you.

theguzman

Could a house in one of these areas on say 25meg get included in the NBP?

The Cush

theguzman wrote: »

Could a house in one of these areas on say 25meg get included in the NBP?

I assume so if their connection is less than 30 Mbps, but may have to be verified by open-eir's line stats.

Below is my local village from the NBP map. X marks the location of the eVDSL enabled exchange, note the nearby premises that are included in the NBP that can't get 30 Mbps from the nearby exchange