Eir rural FTTH thread

and... their gone.

back to the all too familiar waiting game!.

everything gone except for 2 reels of black cable beside the cab in Dunshaughlin.

Gonzo wrote: »

and... their gone.

back to the all too familiar waiting game!.

everything gone except for 2 reels of black cable beside the cab in Dunshaughlin.

Yeah stopped raining they need rain.

Intrinsic in laying fibre.

damienirel wrote: »

Yeah stopped raining they need rain. Intrinsic in laying fibre.

perhaps they will be on Friday! Friday is supposed to be another washout like yesterday!

long_b

Some SERIOUS tree clearing going on down my lane. Big crew of young lads down from Cavan.

Really surprising as we're down for Winter 2016/Spring 2017.
The lads said they're working 7 days and there's a huge push on.
They're working away in the dark even !

They had an emergency call out to Meath the other day to clear for a cable pulling crew
who ended up nearly following them around he said.

Not sure how far down the lane they'll be going - will update as to how close to the blue line they stick.

I'm as happy as a dog with two mickies at the moment !!!!

murphaph

Gonzo wrote: »

Terrible day for the lads to be working.

Would you not tell them to come back in spring when the weather is better ðŸ˜‚

long_b wrote: »

Some SERIOUS tree clearing going on down my lane. Big crew of young lads down from Cavan.
Also cable being pulled I'm told.

Really surprising as we're down for Winter 2016/Spring 2017.
The lads said they're working 7 days and there's a huge push on.
They're working away in the dark even !

hopefully your wait between different stages isn't as long as I've been experiencing!

I would say there is a huge push on for 2 reasons:

1 - the project is running months behind at this stage and they are determined to have everything completed by end of 2018.

2 - Siro were very slow for past 2 years but I think they have after gaining serious momentum recently. They recently reported to have overtaken Eir in amount of premises passed and aim to have 200,000 premises ready for FTTH orders by end of 2017.

long_b

For anyone curious as to how fibre is spliced... delicately!

https://youtu.be/DIiBVuuRUt

KeRbDoG

long_b wrote: »

For anyone curious as to how fibre is spliced... delicately!

https://youtu.be/DIiBVuuRUt

Link doesn't work, but yes delicately but when you see an old-timer splice its very quick. The work is more managing the fiber itself, inside the termination boxes - that is an artwork I've yet to master

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Link doesn't work, but yes delicately but when you see an old-timer splice its very quick. The work is more managing the fiber itself, inside the termination boxes - that is an artwork I've yet to master

here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZorJs7fzRHs
"The work is more managing the fiber itself, inside the termination boxes"
Is that because the cable is that bit more rigid than copper and harder to control?

I looked into running fibre in my house when I was building it 5 years ago but the equipment at the time mainly the switches were beyond my budget. The fibre itself wasn't too expensive. In hindsight I should have probably ran the cabling (in a few select runs anyways) and came back to it later, as I'm sure it has become a lot cheaper to do. Fibre is such a fantastic technology - always admired it from my days in college. Even the toslink cables for connecting audio equipment are fantastic, so lightweight and effective, compared to most of the crap we have like hdmi.

Grumpypants

What are our options once the fiber gets to the house, in my house for example the phone line was brought in through what is essentially a side sunroom. At completely the wrong side of the house from my office (games rooms).

At the moment as i'm only messing about with rural 2.5mb/s speed I've just used wi-fi and power plugs. They should be more than enough in reality but if I'm paying for 1gb/s I don't want the power plugs to automatically limit it to 500mbs. And would prefer to plug directly into the PC.

Noticed today that there was work being done on the Gaurus Road outside of Ennis, seemingly connecting houses via ENS1_028.
This is a 'blue line' road. (L4118)
They appear to be using underground ducting with cable coming out onto the poles.
A blue tube out of ground, for a couple of feet, and then a coil of pale or white cable coming out of the tube and hanging on the pole.
Some of the poles seemed quite new.

A considerable amount of fibre has been rolled out in this area .... it can be seen hanging from poles in Noughaval amongst others.

Things are certainly looking good for this area of blue-lines to be available for connection soon.

Grumpypants wrote: »

What are our options once the fiber gets to the house, in my house for example the phone line was brought in through what is essentially a side sunroom. At completely the wrong side of the house from my office (games rooms).

At the moment as i'm only messing about with rural 2.5mb/s speed I've just used wi-fi and power plugs. They should be more than enough in reality but if I'm paying for 1gb/s I don't want the power plugs to automatically limit it to 500mbs. And would prefer to plug directly into the PC.

If you provide a suitable duct, to your preferred location, I believe they will use it

long_b

Last night the lads doing the tree clearing and ducting said that the crew pulling the cable would be around "within a couple of weeks".

I know gonzo was waiting months between various stages of prep work but has anyone seen a quick progression from ground crew prep to cable laying crew arriving ?

I'd love to believe them but something tells me they may be exaggerating slightly.

long_b wrote: »

Last night the lads doing the tree clearing and ducting said that the crew pulling the cable would be around "within a couple of weeks".

I know gonzo was waiting months between various stages of prep work but has anyone seen a quick progression from ground crew prep to cable laying crew arriving ?

I'd love to believe them but something tells me they may be exaggerating slightly.

I contacted OpenEir as my Exchange seemed to be on the long finger 2017-2020 - from what earlier posters have said there is now a rush on to get all the blue lines finished by 2018. The response I got confirmed that, basically they are aiming to get all of the blue lines finished by then - but it's hard to see that kind of progress - especially from reading posts here it seems very slow, a trickle of fibre here and there but no massive push on at the moment anyways.

damienirel wrote: »

I contacted OpenEir as my Exchange seemed to be on the long finger 2017-2020 - from what earlier posters have said there is now a rush on to get all the blue lines finished by 2018. The response I got confirmed that, basically they are aiming to get all of the blue lines finished by then - but it's hard to see that kind of progress - especially from reading posts here it seems very slow, a trickle of fibre here and there but no massive push on at the moment anyways.

As I see it, running the actual fibre cable out is the quickest part of the whole job.
Before that happens all the preparatory work has to be carried out. No doubt there are areas that require little preparatory work ..... cutting trees, replacing poles, clearing ducts, permission for digging for new ducting etc etc ..... and they will likely get done before the rest.
But if, as we have been led to believe, the manpower is put into the preparatory work then I can see that 'trickle' becoming a stream and then a river of fibre cable towards the end of the time frame.

The end of 2018 for all blue-line areas seems achievable.

Gwynston

Just to recap:

All the blue lines cover the 300,000 projected homes, right?

The 100,000 homes marked in the initial 12-month rollout are what are generally indicated as "Winter 2016" and "Winter 2016 / Spring 2017". Right?

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

As I see it, running the actual fibre cable out is the quickest part of the whole job.
Before that happens all the preparatory work has to be carried out. No doubt there are areas that require little preparatory work ..... cutting trees, replacing poles, clearing ducts, permission for digging for new ducting etc etc ..... and they will likely get done before the rest.
But if, as we have been led to believe, the manpower is put into the preparatory work then I can see that 'trickle' becoming a stream and then a river of fibre cable towards the end of the time frame.

The end of 2018 for all blue-line areas seems achievable.

You are correct in saying the planning etc. is probably the slowest part. But as other posters here have mentioned the stop and start nature of the physical side of the rollout - would make me cautious about believing the deadlines.
However against that argument is the fact that nearly all the fttc work is complete, and we should have a lot more manpower on the ftth work coming soon. I'm not expecting anything in my area until well into next year.

KeRbDoG

damienirel wrote: »

here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZorJs7fzRHs
"The work is more managing the fiber itself, inside the termination boxes"
Is that because the cable is that bit more rigid than copper and harder to control?

That video is using manual joiners (with index gel) for fiber strands, no professional would use those - they would use fusion splicers.

In a termination box you have both the incoming fiber all protected/clad which is securely held so thats easy enough but its when you have a combination of fiber strands with their protective covering still intact and then fibers nearly stripped down to the glass core, spliced and with a protective cover protecting that join from breaking.
To spool the unused fiber is an artwork which I've yet to master

damienirel wrote: »

I looked into running fibre in my house when I was building it 5 years ago but the equipment at the time mainly the switches were beyond my budget. The fibre itself wasn't too expensive. In hindsight I should have probably ran the cabling (in a few select runs anyways) and came back to it later, as I'm sure it has become a lot cheaper to do. Fibre is such a fantastic technology - always admired it from my days in college. Even the toslink cables for connecting audio equipment are fantastic, so lightweight and effective, compared to most of the crap we have like hdmi.

When I was building my house I just ran a some multi mode and single mode bulk fibers from a central comms cab one side of my house to the other side of my house which is the only place external cable can be pulled in. I eventually convinced someone to lend me a fusion splicer to splice the single mode fiber in the house into patch panels and I ran underground fiber between myself and neighbour, I could have a fiber run from my comms cab to their attic

You can't plan everything when building a house, but that was one of the small good ideas I had. So hopefully if/when FTTH shows up my direction I can bring their fiber equipment into my comms cab

long_b wrote: »

Last night the lads doing the tree clearing and ducting said that the crew pulling the cable would be around "within a couple of weeks".

I know gonzo was waiting months between various stages of prep work but has anyone seen a quick progression from ground crew prep to cable laying crew arriving ?

I'd love to believe them but something tells me they may be exaggerating slightly.

The lads were back here one afternoon in the first week of July and a neighbor asked them when would our area get completed, they said 'in a couple of weeks - 2 months). Nearly 5 months on from that they have returned this week so I wouldn't necessarily believe they are going to be back in a few weeks. A few weeks could be 6 months.

Some other places have had a much easier time getting wired up in one sitting.

To recap on what has been done so far in my area:
1st week of April - ducting work started over the course of 5 days. They disappeared by Friday 8th.

They reappeared around 1st week of July for 1 day work uncovering more manholes.

Finally reappeared this Monday gone by and working on the same area of ducting. They were back today as well for a short time and were extending the ducting coverage.

In total that's 8 days work spread over 7 months. This time around the work does seem on a grander scale as several other blue lines in Dunshaughlin are now been worked on at same time. It seems to be ducting that's been worked on everywhere. I still haven't seen any fiber splicing/pole work going on tho.

oleras

Lots of activity outside my house today, manhole covers being lifted , that i never knew even existed, and fiber being pushed through. I am on a blue line for winter16/spring17,PWL1_001.

oscarBravo

KeRbDoG wrote: »

So hopefully if/when FTTH shows up my direction I can bring their fiber equipment into my comms cab

I wouldn't count on it. The ONT is the demarcation point between the wholesaler's and the retailer's networks; having a third party's fibre upstream of the ONT is unlikely to fly.

Good call on the fibre in the house anyway. I wish more houses had any form of useful cabling in them.

oscarBravo wrote: »

I wouldn't count on it. The ONT is the demarcation point between the wholesaler's and the retailer's networks; having a third party's fibre upstream of the ONT is unlikely to fly.

Good call on the fibre in the house anyway. I wish more houses had any form of useful cabling in them.

If your comms area backs onto an external.wall and you intercept any existing ducting with your own it shouldn't be a problem. As long as its an equal amount of work for them they don't care where the drop is terminated.

If they do not bring in my connection within the duct I have arranged then I will do without it.
No way will I permit them to drill my house wall or bring their cable in any way I do not agree with.

oscarBravo

ED E wrote: »

If your comms area backs onto an external.wall and you intercept any existing ducting with your own it shouldn't be a problem.

Ducting, sure. Fibre not so much.

oscarBravo wrote: »

Ducting, sure. Fibre not so much.

There's a question for you OB, on the consumer side they've an SC connector but for commercial joins they use a splicing table for less loss. Would you get away with a male to female connector for an internal run (without telling OpenEir/SIRO ofc) or would that fail horribly?

KeRbDoG

ED E wrote: »

There's a question for you OB, on the consumer side they've an SC connector but for commercial joins they use a splicing table for less loss. Would you get away with a male to female connector for an internal run (without telling OpenEir/SIRO ofc) or would that fail horribly?

If you had a SC APC patch with a suitable coupler, I couldn't see them even noticing.

If its a SC APC (angled physical contact) to SC UPC (ultra physical contact) it might cause issues, I guess to reduce reflectance because its a bidirectional fiber (single fiber for RX/TX right?) by using the SC APC connectors.

KeRbDoG wrote: »

If you had a SC APC patch with a suitable coupler, I couldn't see them even noticing.

If its a SC APC (angled physical contact) to SC UPC (ultra physical contact) it might cause issues, I guess to reduce reflectance because its a bidirectional fiber (single fiber for RX/TX right?) by using the SC APC connectors.

Yeah, its SC APC, single fibre (Passive split on the downstream, upstream TDD is my understanding).

oscarBravo

ED E wrote: »

There's a question for you OB, on the consumer side they've an SC connector but for commercial joins they use a splicing table for less loss. Would you get away with a male to female connector for an internal run (without telling OpenEir/SIRO ofc) or would that fail horribly?

As long as the ONT syncs up properly, it should all be good. I don't think introducing new potential points of failure is a great idea, mind. And from what I've heard, SIRO will be quite flexible in terms of where they bring the fibre into the premises.