Switching Exchange

Patrickof

Has anyone ever managed to have their landline moved to another exchange?

I live on the edge of Portlaoise (about 2km to Kilminchy exchange) but the landline is connected to the Heath exchange (about 3km further out in the country) which is never likely to have broadband enabled.

I'm trying to see if there's a trunk cable that goes from our local MDF (distribution frame) back to kilminchy rather than on to the Heath. Unfortunatlely, the numbers for eircom all get answered in a central call centre who really can't help.

Maybe the answer is no, but I'd like to ask a local eircom engineer if this is possible.

I've tried Digiweb, but as we're just over the crest of a hill we may be in radio shadow, and they're not too interested in sending out an engineer for a site survey (a 2m mast on the roof may do the job), we've even offered to pay for the survey. Anyone know where the Digiweb transmitter is in Portlaoise and I can get an aerial/antenna company to do a survey seperately?

We had eircom broadband in Dublin and really miss it now we've moved out!!!!!

Solair

It's rather unlikely, particularly in what is basically a rural area. The cabling in your area will all go one direction, i.e. back to that particular exchange.

Even if it were possible eircom wouldn't be interested in doing anything about it as it would cost them too much money.

Eircom/TE used to do this sort of thing for ISDN or if a customer required a line on a digital switch in the old days when crossbar (electromechanical) switching was still in service in some local areas. However, it wasn't a case of routing your line to another exchange. The old crossbar switches usually had digital equipment co-located along side tham which acted as their "digital parent" providing them with a link to the rest of the network. So, when they "moved your line to another exchange" you'd end up with a slightly unusual number (not the same as your neighbours) and a digital exchange line. However, it was just a sub-unit of that exchange located in the same building as your local exchange.

Basically, I wouldn't think you've a hope in hell of moving exchanges unless you move house!

Patrickof

Thanks Solair, thats kinda what I was expecting.

I'm hoping that as we're just across the new(ish) Portlaoise bypass eircom may have laid some cable at the construction time.

What about a tie line (if eircom still do them, M1040 I think they were called) or leased line to Kilminchy (or to my mother-in-law's house which can get broadband). I'd even look into a short range pt-to-pt 2Mb microwave link if I knew I could get LOS from a mast on the roof.

...so near and yet so far......

Solair

A leased line would be an extremely expensive option and I'm not even sure that you could transmit DSL signals over it to be honest. I don't know what technology eircom use for leased lines thesedays. If it's meant for voice/voiceband modem traffic, it's quite possibly not actually a physical line but a permanently open channel that connects two places permanently. In this case, it wouldn't be possible to transmit anything other than voice, modem or fax traffic over it as it would be hopping from switch-to-switch over fiber or microwave links.. just a like any other phone call.

A digital phone network's not all that terribly different from the internet. When you make a call your voice is digitally sampled by a card in your local exchange and makes its way to the other end as a stream of data. Voice and data traffic even shares bandwidth over the backbone network on ATM and even IP links. There's been a steady progress towards a convergance of voice and data. Eircom likes this stuff as it cuts costs and are relatively high-tech at that end of their network.

However, if you want DSL in many places it's a totally different story as the financial model's not really in your favour.

Patrickof

I spent 11 years working in various telcos (not eircom though), but did deal with them a lot. I used to price up DSL equipment for some of the service providers, both exchange side and user side.

THe leased line would need some sort of cisco or similar kit at ither end, but you're right, it'd be too expensive.

We're not on the R445, we're down behind the rock of dunamaise, ballycarroll area, but only just over the crest of the hill.

Solair

Good luck with it anyway... Fingers x'd that there's some wireless option

crawler

Patrickof wrote:

Thanks Solair, thats kinda what I was expecting.

I'm hoping that as we're just across the new(ish) Portlaoise bypass eircom may have laid some cable at the construction time.

What about a tie line (if eircom still do them, M1040 I think they were called) or leased line to Kilminchy (or to my mother-in-law's house which can get broadband). I'd even look into a short range pt-to-pt 2Mb microwave link if I knew I could get LOS from a mast on the roof.

...so near and yet so far......

Jayysss...the old M1020 and M1040 lines.....there were a few of them knocking about until very recently and some still in use! - pre dated even X25 and the "modern" frame relay

Sponge Bob

Analogue tie lines , lovely. Not supplied since the early 1990s . If you want a reroute back 'into' town the best bet is to doorstop an engineer at the main local exchange in Portlaoise and ask nicely . Your number will change as well , you must agree to that .

Patrickof

Hats off to Digiweb, they called out on Friday morning (following a quick email exchange showing our location on a map and that we "might" be in coverage - fingers crossed) to do a site survey and from the top of our chimney they got a LOS to the transmitter with binos. There's a few trees that may be a bit of an issue but hopefully it'll be clear.

Hopefully all will be installed in the next few weeks.

aidan_dunne

Quick question for you, Patrick. You didn't happen to ask the Digiweb guys whereabouts the transmitter is located in Portlaoise, by any chance? Just that my sister has been thinking about getting wireless broadband (she doesn't have a landline at present and would prefer not to have to get one either just for the sake of getting broadband. Plus, she would prefer not to have to hand over money every two months just to line eircom's already swelling coffers! :rolleyes: ) and was asking me a couple of weeks ago about it and I told her that I thought Digiweb or someone similar had a transmitter in town but wasn't 100% sure. So if you happened to know roughly where it was located I might have a better idea if she might happen to be both close enough and have a LOS to the transmitter in order for her to get the service.

Patrickof

They've two transmitters in the town, one should be visible in Kilminchy (near O'Gormans I believe) and the other is at the far end of town, somewhere near the GAA pitch.