How to get FTTH if you are an inbetweener ?

Discodog

Posting this for a neighbour. He has been told that he can't get FTTH based on his eircode. Eir & KC engineers visiting my property say that he should be able to. Eir accepted an order & then cancelled it. Any suggestions ? He gets FTTC but needs a better speed but because of this he doesn't qualify for NBI that serves further down our road. So he's stuck in the middle.

The Cush

Inbetweeners are in a difficult position having to wait until open-eir gets to that area.

What are his FTTC speeds? If less than 30 Mbps he could make a case to be included in the NBP otherwise he'll have to wait for the open-eir fibre rollout to eventually reach him.

Would mobile broadband or possibly Starlink be an interim option?

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874194#Comment_119874194

Open air is there. He is 130 metres from the pole & I have FTTH. The problem is that Eir are going purely by his eircode & they seem to have no idea where he actually lives.

Furze99

Tell him to suck it up and wait. I've had various Eir salespeople and their ancestors promising this, that and the other 'better broadband' since the early 2000s. Last time I looked up NBI based on post code, something about 2025 or 2026 but I don't really believe it. And no, we don't live in some remote part of the west of Ireland. In fact, in many cases they have better connectivity.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874228#Comment_119874228

What is his FTTC speed?

I'm sure they know where he is as he will be on their address reference database as an FTTC customer although this has to be linked to his eircode.

If you enter his eircode on the NBI checker, dept of communications NBP checker or any of the commercial providers what comes up?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874228#Comment_119874228

Get him to check his location on eircode.ie on the off chance it's wrong. 1

If Eir don't know where he is then ask them to confirm his location on eircode.ie matches where they see him.

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874466#Comment_119874466

Around 40 so too good to qualify for NBI. His eircode is correct but comes up as FTTH not available despite three different engineers saying that it is.

The NBI site says that he doesn't qualify & that

"Your nearest Broadband Connection Point is 18.65 km >" It's actually 180metres 🙄

snapper365

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119880868#Comment_119880868

I'm not sure what you mean about 180m (I'm guessing you might mean the nearest fibre distribution point to the house?) but what NBI are referring to when they mention a Broadband Connection Point is:

"public locations which have been selected to receive high-speed connectivity as part of the National Broadband Plan. The locations of the BCPs have been selected by local authorities and include public areas such as community halls, libraries, sports facilities, enterprise hubs, tourist locations and other public spaces."

So they are saying there is one of those 18.65km from the eircode you entered. This will be of little use to you I'm sure, but just to point out that this is what they mean.

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119880868#Comment_119880868

The qualifying criteria for "Broadband" is going to shift from 30 to 100 or higher in the coming years (probably before NBI rollout is complete). They've defined a goal of 100mbps to every house by 2025:

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/broadband-coverage-europe-2021

So I'd be surprised if the government don't revise the criteria for NBI come late 2025/early 2026 to align with the European direction. It's also reasonable to assume there's a chance OpenEir will offer a service to that address before then.

The Cush

Broadband connection point map - https://nbi.ie/bcp-map/

You say above he's 130m/180m from the pole, which?

Try contacting other providers, they may be able to get the reason why the connection isn't available from open-eir. As I posted above, maybe the eircode isn't linked to the current FTTC ARD, maybe no available ports at the DP.

It shouldn't be a cost/pole issue as there's an active line already to the house.

In any case the copper line will be going in the coming years, to be replaced by fibre.

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119881152#Comment_119881152

The neighbour further down has NBI from the same pole so the NBI are very wrong or simply haven't updated their site.

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119881272#Comment_119881272

He measured it accurately at 180 metres. The KN engineer, that did mine, said that he has done several over 300 metres & that the distance isn't the issue. He said that the problem is with Open Air not authorising a connection.

snapper365

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119882171#Comment_119882171

Did you read my post? You are misunderstanding what NBI mean when they refer to a Broadband Connection Point (BCP).

It doesn't refer to Distribution Points (DP) on their network (which is what your neighbour is connected to).

It refers to "public locations which have been selected to receive high-speed connectivity as part of the National Broadband Plan. The locations of the BCPs have been selected by local authorities and include public areas such as community halls, libraries, sports facilities, enterprise hubs, tourist locations and other public spaces."

They are public places where people can access broadband free of charge whilst they wait for NBI to pass their premises. It's a PR exercise essentially.

But that doesn't mean the info on their website is wrong. For example, my house is connected to the NBI network. So clearly the nearest DP is quite close to my house (right across the road in fact). The NBI website states that the nearest BCP to my eircode is 6km away in a village community hall. This is not wrong. That's just where the nearest BCP is.