Can't Get Fiber - Options?

RichardAnd

Hi all,

I had an engineer out from Eir this afternoon to look at installing fiber broadband in my house in Wexford. He said that to do so, it would be necessary to dig up my front garden, which is simply not happening.

Other than fiber, what other options could I get? Obviously, there is mobile broadband, but are there other options? I do have an old phone line in the house, if that allows for something else.

For now, I'm just hotspotting from the phone, which is actually working very well!

Thanks

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058288211/cant-get-fiber-options

Forget the phone line, copper is being decommissioned in the coming years.

FWA from the mobile network operators and Imagine or a satellite service like Starlink are your alternative options.

phormium

I have the bog standard old stuff from the phone as like that there is a serious amount of garden needed to be dug up and trees to be cut if I wanted fibre, they keep telling me I can have it and won't believe me when I say it won't work due to the trees which I'm not cutting down. So for past few years when I switch I have had to go through the whole palaver of letting them come to see for themselves and then just giving me the phone line stuff.

Now if it's going totally in coming years then I'll worry about alternative then but for now it works perfectly fine.

Gusser09

My advise would be to dig and lay the ducting yourself on your own terms. If you want decent broadband connectivity there will be no other way around this. There has to be a compromise. It's not big working to lay a 4inch duct.

heavydawson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058288211/cant-get-fiber-options

if there's an existing phone line in the house, it's quite possible the fibre could be run the same route? Is the phone line coming in overhead to a gable or underground in a duct somewhere?

In my case, the old phone line duct had partially collapsed, so they ended up using the old phone as a pull rope to bring the fiber through the duct. Obviously it meant getting rid of the old phone line, but I wasn't using it anyway...

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120357959#Comment_120357959

This. Lay your own duct via whatever route is best for you, using whatever machinery is least dsisruptive at a time which is least disruptive.

Fibre is the only proper boradband, if it is at your gate then you would be mad to not get it into the house.

cnocbui

You don't have to dig up the whole garden, it's just a narrow trench that you wouldn't even be able to remember where it went after 2 years of growth.

If you have an old phone line in a duct, it would be worth your while seing if you can get it freed up and moving so you could use it to pull fibre through. Why people in this country don't seal the ends of ducts is beyond me.

smuggler.ie

Is there duct depth requirement/regulations?

Does it have to be 4" diameter, is 2" not enough?

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358357#Comment_120358357

2in more than enough, put in a pull wire when inserting the duct and make sure there's no hard angle turns in the duct

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358385#Comment_120358385

That info for OP, perhaps he/her will find use for it.

RichardAnd

Thanks for the replies, lads.

The actually issue was that the engineer couldn't find any duct into the house. He speculated that it was under the front steps, but couldn't be sure. An excavation would be as much to find it as to install it, and I don't want my garden ruined.

I think it's going to have to be mobile broadband. It's not ideal, but I don't download much, nor do I game, so I can't see there being an issue.

charlie_says

Can recommend Starlink

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120359694#Comment_120359694

Sure if you find the end of it then you do not need to dig up the garden, only the step.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120359694#Comment_120359694

For FTTH I'd suggest what was said in post #4 - you don't need then to use the old entry route into the house so noneed to dig up the steps, you can pick a less distructive location/route. A small hand dug trench in a garden, once done right (avoiding trees etc), disappears within the year with grass growth.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120369666#Comment_120369666

And of course there is probably a drive or entrance which is not a garden. Put the duct under the kerb.

phormium

Won't it very much depend on where the fibre is on the pathside and where it can come in to the house to have electrical sockets handy? So the engineers told me anyway! I have a rectangular site with a rectangular house on it so looking down from above the fibre connection on the path side is back right hand corner so I have to come in there to the garden (which is through the trees) and diagonally across that corner of the garden to reach the house. They also said it must come in somewhere that they can install the box and plug stuff in so need sockets nearby. Another option was coming in through the existing ESB line which is in the same place on the path but apparently there was no suitable duct there for that either.