Fibre Rings Cut Back Next Year

spongebob

The first casualty of the Budgetary crises in government is the South East. They won't have their 5Mbit per second within 3 years of March 2002 as promised by Fluffy Hanafin.

Martin Cullens Clinics should get a good attendance on Saturday in Waterford. Here's the story In Detail with a promise that MORE fibre rings are to be cut back ........announcement due next week.

M

dahamsta

And so it begins...

ENN

Work on the first phase of a major broadband infrastructure project for the South East looks set to be postponed until 2004.

The project to construct 100km of fibre optic network in Waterford and five nearby towns was due to begin shortly, but is likely to be postponed by the South East Regional Authority (SERA). The project, known as SERPANT, is one of 19 schemes that were approved by the government as part of an infrastructural plan to develop high-speed Internet technologies throughout the state.

Confirming a report in the Irish Times, SERA Director Thomas Byrne told ElectricNews.Net that although all 19 schemes have been sanctioned to go ahead by the Department of Communications, the authority was told that there would be no funding for the project in 2003. "There is no way that construction of projects for the 19 towns can proceed concurrently," he said, confirming that the SERPANT is one of the projects that appeared to have been moved down the priority list.

[...]

Dustaz

Threads merged.

thegills

Thats a pity alright. I believe that the original 66M is still available though, 33M for 2003 and 33M for 2004.

Given the work completed to date and the current momentum it would be hard to shelf everything for a year and expect the local authorities to rekindle the desire in 12 month's time.

Its crazy when you think that the Jenny Johnstone cost 15M and more recently the Gvnt paid 51M too much to GP's for treating dead people.

Calibos

Here's a quote from Liz McManus in the Bray People today.

Ireland may be in the top league when it comes to world football rankings, but the country is in danger of relegation in the vital league table of new technology.
So said Labour TD Liz McManus who has blasted Minister Dermot Ahern's "utterly hypocritical attitude" towards the access by Irish homes and businesses to broadband telecommunications connections.
"In Wicklow we need to be able to compete on the international stage for business and employment opportunities", she said.
"Only a few months ago the government told us that they would ensure the putting in place of open-access broadband on a national basis." Since then, Dermot Aherne has repeatedly stated his desire to expand broadband throughout the regions and metropolitan areas. Yet, he then turns volte face and becomes an apologist for the Minister of Finance's decision to slash his departments capability of delivering the service.
"We are constantly told that Ireland is striving to be the E-Hub of Europe and the success of our economy in recent times was based on our capabilities in new technologies. But, it seems that the government has decided to settle for what we have thus far achieved", she added.

Liz was also outspoken on the announcement of the scheme last year when her hometown of Bray(pop. 30,000)was not included in any phase of the scheme. This of course meant Bray would be in Phase 3 which is all the towns not included in the first two phases.

This to me meant no 5mbit connections for Bray. Putting aside the arguements that this scheme was either vapour-wire (c)(tm)Calibos or just more unlit fibre because of the problems of the 'last mile connectivity', whatever the chances the towns in the first 2 phases had of seeing their 'fat pipes' with the government paying 90 and 50% respectively of the cost then any town in phase 3 which meant my hometown of Bray had absolutely no chance of ever seeing it because the government was only going to fund 10% of it. As I see it even towns in Phase 1 would have little chance as I reckon the investment needed for the last mile would put off any prospective providers. For us in Phase 3 add to the cost of the last mile investment the 90% cost of the fibre ring to the town and you can see why I dont hold out much hope. Now that the funding is being cut and/or delayed I have just lost hope in anyone getting their 5mbit connection even in phase one or two.

spongebob

I stand well corrected by El Tonto (below), cut down most of the post so.

Heres a summary of the damage.

Biddy Mentioned €44 m spend this year and €60m in 2003 = €104 by 31122003 for phases 1 (19 towns) and 2 (48 more towns) . By the way what have Brennan and Ahern done to Biddys speeched since here old department was carved up between them, sheesh.

Dermie (Today ) mentioned €19m spend this year and €32 in 2003 = €51m by 31122003 for phase 1 (19 towns) only.

Phase 2 has disappeared off the radar.

So has some of Phase 1 as they know well in the South East by now. Here is the full phase 1 list before the South East was dropped

Waterford, (has DSL)
Wexford
Carlow
Clonmel, (has dsl and cable)
Kilkenny, (has dsl and cable)
Cork(has dsl)
Shannon/Limerick (Limerick has dsl and wireless / Shannon unlit western digital corridor))
Galway(has dsl and unlit western digital corridor)
Athlone(has dsl Jan and unlit western digital corridor)
Mullingar(has dsl Jan and unlit western digital corridor)
Carrick-on-Shannon
Manorhamilton
Gaoth Dobhair(unlit fibre ring)
Roscommon
Port Laoise(has dsl)
Letterkenny(unlit fibre ring)
Tullamore
Ballina(has dsl)

Phase 2 was this Lot (in RFT format) (before Ahern killed it)

Biddy mentioned Phase 3 Too (in RTF format) but that fell off a cliff altogether.

M

Chips Lovell

Muck,
A few points. Mary O'Rourke costed the first two phases of the project at €160m. This is from the press release on the NDP site:

The Minister launched phases one and two of a regional broadband programme which will ultimately see investment of €160 million in delivering town fibre optic networks in key locations regionally.

Ahern was talking today about phase one, the first 19 towns. Mary O'Rourke actually said they'd they'd invest around €60m in total on phase one, not €104m. This again is from O'Rourke's original press release:

The first phase is being conducted in association with local and regional authorities which will receive 90% funding from the Exchequer. A total of €44 million is already allocated this year in the Department of Public Enterprise vote for the project, which should be completed in full next year at a full cost of €60 million.

So it seems to me that Dermot Ahern is spending €23m more than O'Rourke promised for phase one, albeit in a longer timescale.

JimHacker

I rang the Dept of Communications about this today - they are adamant the story os horse**** - here's teh Dept Press Statement:

Dermot Ahern Says Government Committed to €83 Million Broadband Projects

Dublin, Thursday, 5 December 2002
Dermot Ahern TD, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, today re-affirmed the Governments commitment to its broadband in the regions programme which will involve the spending of ¬83 million between this year and 2004.



The Minister dismissed as nonsense a report that the project was being shelved and declared: We have spent or are spending ¬19 million this year, ¬32 million in 2003 and ¬32 million in 2004. All 19 centres in the broadband Metropolitan Area Networks project are going ahead.



The Minister went on: As regards the report that there has been a cut in the south east project, this flies in the face of the facts. The necessary planning, environmental, design and preparatory work has already begun in that region with regard to three of those towns, Kilkenny, Waterford and Dungarvan.



The funding is in place and the construction stage of the Metropolitan Area Networks is now getting underway. My Department will shortly be signing Grant Agreements with each Local or Regional Authority, as appropriate, enabling all 19 of the projects to commence in 2003.



The south east has six of the 19 towns, under the aegis of the South-East Regional Authority. These towns are Carlow, Clonmel, Dungarvan, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford. We are finalising with the Director of the Regional Authority the timetable for commencement and funding drawdown. As I stated, preliminary work has already begun in Kilkenny, Waterford and Dungarvan.



The South East Region has already benefited from telecommunications infrastructure investment under the NDP 1994 - 1999, when EU Structural Funding helped to enhance the existing telecommunications trunk networks and upgrade cable networks in such towns as Carlow, Thurles, Clonmel and Kilkenny.



The Minister added: The widespread availability of open-access, affordable, always-on broadband infrastructure and services for businesses and citizens is a priority for the Government and my Department. A modern, high-speed, low-cost communications and broadband network is an essential enabler of economic activity and social inclusion.



ENDS.

spongebob

The rollout of Broadband is dependent on being near a Railway line because that's where ESAT are.

Ask the Dept again

1. What is the specific timescale for the Completion of phase 1 in full given budgetary constraints.

2. What is the specific timescale for the commencement of and the subsequent completion of phase 2.

3. When will phase 3 start?

4. Why have the strategic planning guidelines in the National Spatial Strategy not included any guidelines for planners to provide local authority owned ducting in order to provide a parallel access path for copper local loops if incumbent carriers are not prepared to provision adequate bandwith (5Mbit) on their own local loops.

5. When will any of the phase 1 and phase 2 towns get 5Mbit capability per local loop, so far the max is 1Mb

6. Is there any slippage from the committment to supply 5Mbit local loop capability in all towns in phases 1 2 and 3 by March 2005 as per the original 3 year plan in march 2002

I would dearly love to see their answers posted in here!

M

SkepticOne

If people in the South East region are concerned that the project may be postponed, they might consider contacting the South East Regional Authority (SERA). Contact Details are here.

I suppose the important questions are:

1. Have they been told that the project will be delayed? If not, when will it be complete?

2. What services will be provided when the project is complete.

MDR

Fibre, Fibre, Fibre, Fibre .... :mad:

Ok, I do admit in the medium to long term we will need more fibre.
But in the short term we have 230,000 km of the stuff, and the vast majority of it unlit. Ok the budget seems to have been cut slightly, but a far more pressing concern for me has always been the last mile issue.

We can talk fibre till we're blue in the face, but until COMREG sorts out affordable last mile access, any new fibre laid is gonna end up either un-used or as voice network backhaul for telco's. Our Capital city has fibre is criss-crossed by fibre like spagetti and it still hasn't resulted in affordable broadband. Ok, Broadband for the regions is very important, but if we can't even provide in Dublin with the ample existing infrastructure there, what hope does Carrick On Shannon have ?

Last Mile, Last Mile, Last Mile .... :mad:

phew, rant over ...

spongebob

The funding for the last mile is €300,000 and thats it.

Ahern thought the €300k was so generous he issued a press statement on it Here .

Apart from that , not a sausage for the last mile.....anywhere....

While ye Waterford people are in hassling Martin Cullen at his clinics, ask him as Minishter for the INN-virin-MINT why he never got the local authority planners to mandate public ducting in new housing and industrial schemes as part of his Spatial Strategy , that would have the effect of breaking monopolies on the last mile and would make Tony O'Reilly most unhappy.....isn't that right minishter.

M

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Muck
While ye Waterford people are in hassling Martin Cullen at his clinics, ask him as Minishter for the INN-virin-MINT why he never got the local authority planners to mandate public ducting in new housing and industrial schemes as part of his Spatial Strategy , that would have the effect of breaking monopolies on the last mile and would make Tony O'Reilly most unhappy.....isn't that right minishter.

Are there any telcos currently pressing for this measure?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by MDR
Ok, I do admit in the medium to long term we will need more fibre.
But in the short term we have 230,000 km of the stuff, and the vast majority of it unlit. Ok the budget seems to have been cut slightly, but a far more pressing concern for me has always been the last mile issue.

That's the reason for my second suggested question: What services will be provided when the project is complete? I think it's important that people understand what these fibre-rings are about: industry and jobs outside of the major cities, not home dsl and cable modems and such (at least in the short term).

ednwireland

Home DSL isn't whats being provided by our wonderful telcos its a business offering (it's pricing was similiar to BT's when announced and similiar speeds) don't know the comparison now ! what SME's need , most of the companies outside of major population centres is DSL fibre rings sound good but provide nothing to anyone except large companies which lets be honest is fairly unlikely with our current price hikes and anti competitive gov. who expect people to take low pay rises and award themselves 12% backdated 12 months
SO DSL is the only thing that most companies in ireland would be able to afford the fibre rings are basically red herrings as far as i can see because they will provide nothing to the average business in ireland.

SkepticOne

Yes, but I think the allure (such as it is) for the regional authorities of the fibre rings is that it may attract larger companies out of Dublin. DSL caters to both small businesses and the home market. I should have included them too.