gigabit broadband - why do my neighbours have it but I have been refused?

fuggets

I have been trying to get gigabit broadband at home for the last 2 - 3 years. I have 100Mb broadband but I am told that the duct leading to the property is blocked. The property is rented and my landlord has agreed to allow works to be carried out at my own expense so permission to do this is not an issue. I also have no issue with covering the cost. I live in an estate. The dwelling is approximately 25 feet from the duct junction. I have gone through 5 different providers (Virgin does not provide broadband in the area) - all have refused after numerous Circet (KN Networks) teams have visited the site and carried out various surveys etc. The last team that visited were a light civils team on behalf of Vodafone - they told me the solution was simple - they would apply to have local works done on foot path with coco and then they would run a cable just under the surface of the garden to the property. I waited weeks and contacted Openeir (again) to get an update. Openeir (who handle Circet appointments) told me it was Vodafones problem, the latter told me it was Circets problem. After 3 months of to and fro, Vodafone tell me its ‘undeliverable’ and offered me €50 as some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. Naturally I refused any type of payment on general principle - its not ‘shut up’ money i need. I would rather have gigabit broadband.

Unblocking the duct apparently will not solve the issue according to Circet as the junction at the footpath is ‘too narrow’ and ‘not the right type’. Oddly the same junction type works fine for my neighbours on either side.

At this point I have lost all faith. Vodafone, Eir and Sky have failed despite my best efforts. Circet are a disaster - they dont call customers and they hang around your property for hours on end presumably because if their gps shows that they’ve left early they don't get paid. Openeir are a disgrace - these guys will promise you anything - their managers refuse to speak with customers. Sky are a mixed bag. They have some very pleasant people who cannot help but on a few occasions i have spoken with people who are downright rude and almost on the point of being abusive.

I had a guy call to my door the other day from Sky who trued to tell me that I could get gigabit broadband to the house. It took a full 35 minutes to convince him that it was impossible. I finally got him to query skys own system (on his tablet) - he saw that sky have greyed out my details and he is not allowed to change anything or book an installation. He seemed perplexed. I even had to show him the Sky gigabit router in its unopened box (which i still have from attempt number 1) to prove that i still dont have gigabit. He was a nice guy and apologised for disturbing me in the end. Unfortunately its 35 minutes of my life ill never get back!

I realise that for many this is a first world problem with all that going on in the world but I would love to hear of a solution that hasn’t already failed for me.

deafroadrunner

what about going through neighbours duct and clipping it over. Failing that get on to the local broadband officer to see if they can do anything. Sounds like it’s a less then a metre of ducting to be ran. Don’t see why it should be an issue. Been done loads of times

eggy81

If it was me I’d dig down to the ducting on my side of the wall and cut it and try fish a cable or fish wire into the manhole. From there you can complete a new duct up to the house yourself if cost and permission is of no problem. Put my own ducts in myself for broadband cos no one would tackle it.

FrDougalMcguire

I also have the same issue. I live in an estate with about 20 houses. When I step outside my front door I can see the exchange building where broadband is routed from and I cannot get gigabit broadband. My father house is 5 minutes outside the town i live in and gigabit is available there. Who do I contact to get the ball rolling? I contacted comreg before with an issue when initially setting up broadband and the only could offer me a 4 megabit connection. Hopefully they my come good again?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120513873#Comment_120513873

Was your father possibly part of open-eir's rural fibre rollout? Or the NBI rollout?

What does the open-eir or NBI websites say about your house or estate?

Open-eir's urban rollout is ongoing but could be a number of years before they complete.

fuggets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514036#Comment_120514036

My experience of openeir (nothing to do with Eir) has been horrendous. They cannot even call you back when they say they will, sometimes claim they have no record of your order with your chosen ISP, have a couple of girls trying to do their best on their call lines (but can’t seem to manage anything), will not put you through to a supervisor, say that a supervisor will call you back but this never happens either and are at the mercy of Circet (who they ‘manage’ appointments for). They are worse than useless. There’s only so many times one can keep the thing going in an effort to get gigabit (FTTH) but eventually you just have to give up (after 2.5 to 3 years) and accept this is little old Ireland and nothing gets done unless a brown envelope passes hands. And on the topic of Circet - they are the worst I have dealt with in all of it. Low paid workers that only get paid for the job if they can do it on the day. They creep around your house sitting for ages in their vans because of GPS location trackers on their vans to ensure they are at the address for a defined period to ultimately get paid. Not one of their employees was happy working for Circet when i they were being honest about it.l with me. All were either leaving for other employment or thinking about it. I’ve had engineers from Circet call, light civils teams, heavy civils teams, etc. Any of them (that give a hoot which is basically very few) that call their boss on the day come back with ‘ah. Can’t do it because of blockages’ or ‘my supervisor says no’. They tell me they have to fill out a report and that ends in either the ISP hearing nothing or the ISP telling me (after 50,000 phone calls on my part) that it’s undeliverable. Basically, life is too short to be bothered with Openeir or Circet because their basically sh** shows run by a bunch of incompetents. My health and well-being is worth a hell of a lot more than wasting my life dealing with these people who could not care less. So I have ordered Starlink and as soon as I have set up and tested for a period I’m happy with my ISP will be duly told to sling their hook. I refuse to give any more money to a company that I’ve supported for 10 years and their customer support tell you to ‘get a shovel from a friend or neighbour and start digging’.