Eir rural FTTH thread

tsue921i8wljb3 · 23-11-2016 10:12PM

digiman wrote: »

Some of the towns only have 100 homes passed, very small rollout to be fair. It was announced as 66 towns but seems to have stopped or slowed down a lot anyway.

Yeah the rural project seems to have taken their focus. Hardly surprising with the NBP on the horizon.

digiman · 23-11-2016 10:23PM

Allison Puny Appetite wrote: »

Yeah the rural project seems to have taken their focus. Hardly surprising with the NBP on the horizon.

It's mostly for public perception I think, 66 towns were announced as soon as SIRO announced their 50 and I think they included all the SIRO ones!!

As soon as NBP comes up they talk about 100k rural homes by March 2017, will never hit that target. Then talk about taking in the 300k rural target to 2018 and not mention what's happening with the 100k target. It's all optics to get the attention to the NBP guys that they can deliver better than ENET and SIRO. It's great for the guys on here that will get it soon though!!

I've good confidence the NBP team won't be fooled by this and won't award to Eir just based on that. I'm certain Eir will get at least half, can't see ENET getting any so a reasonable chance SIRO get the other half.

The thing they have going for them is that they have supposedly hit 1.6mill FTTC homes but I would say that number is really closer to 1 million and is grossly exaggerated. Also wouldn't believe their FTTH numbers to date so far, they seem far too high and never really boasted about the fact that they have covered huge parts of some towns. Like Letterkenny, Nass and Kilkenny have 5.5k, 3.9k and 3.5k respectively yet you never hear of anyone on here who really has access to that service!!

Would love to hear how many connections are installed by the FTTH companies

tsue921i8wljb3 · 23-11-2016 10:29PM

digiman wrote: »

It's mostly for public perception I think, 66 towns were announced as soon as SIRO announced their 50 and I think they included all the SIRO ones!!

As soon as NBP comes up they talk about 100k rural homes by March 2017, will never hit that target. Then talk about taking in the 300k rural target to 2018 and not mention what's happening with the 100k target. It's all optics to get the attention to the NBP guys that they can deliver better than ENET and SIRO. It's great for the guys on here that will get it soon though!!

I've good confidence the NBP team won't be fooled by this and won't award to Eir just based on that. I'm certain Eir will get at least half, can't see ENET getting any so a reasonable chance SIRO get the other half.

The thing they have going for them is that they have supposedly hit 1.6mill FTTC homes but I would say that number is really closer to 1 million and is grossly exaggerated. Also wouldn't believe their FTTH numbers to date so far, they seem far too high and never really boasted about the fact that they have covered huge parts of some towns. Like Letterkenny, Nass and Kilkenny have 5.5k, 3.9k and 3.5k respectively yet you never hear of anyone on here who really has access to that service!!

Would love to hear how many connections are installed by the FTTH companies

I agree with all of this. Lots of PR and spin by all concerned as they are terrified about losing control of vast parts of the country for the next quarter century.

The FTTH take-up numbers are interesting. I'm wondering if demand is low in urban areas that may already be serviced by FTTC or Virgin.

digiman · 23-11-2016 10:36PM

Yeah in fairness, Eir deploying FTTH in towns that already have VM and good FTTC coverage of their own was a very stupid strategy and not shocked they have stopped. It may have been just to show SIRO I guess that they couldn't take their patch. I would imagine they would rollout FTTH to new housing developments and grow their town numbers like that over time.

Rolling out to rural Ireland where they will get huge take-up was arguably a much better strategy and ROI could indeed be faster despite being many times higher cost to deploy. Very difficult to know though without knowing take-up rates and cost to fully connect a home, but I suspect it would be close and also once you cover a home in a rural area nobody is going to over-build with you so you have those homes for life. Where as in the towns you could have customer churning to SIRO and VM. You also have to factor in the cost of repairing/upgrading rural areas in comparison to just rolling out new fibre.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 23-11-2016 10:45PM

I just had a look at the eir first quarter results. In it they are claiming 1.6m premises passed with 68% passed by a fibre technology. Then there is only a 29% take up of high speed broadband.

I know it is a mix of mainly FTTC and FTTH in those numbers but 29% was a surprise to me. I thought it would be higher.

https://www.eir.ie/opencms/export/sites/default/.content/pdf/IR/reports/2016_2017/quarter1/eir_1st_quarter_results_to_30_September_2016_1.pdf

digiman · 23-11-2016 10:47PM

digiman wrote: »

The thing they have going for them is that they have supposedly hit 1.6mill FTTC homes but I would say that number is really closer to 1 million and is grossly exaggerated.

Just to quote myself on this one, if you look at their website they say the following about Summerhill in Co. Meath.

Summerhill

440 premises in this exchange can now access up to 70Mb/s fibre broadband. Estimated date for first Live Fibre Services is early/mid 2017

Look on google earth or even eircode.ie and count the buildings within 1.5km of the town and see how many you can come up with. I've not done it but I'd say you would struggle to get more than 200!!

Same can be said for a lot of other rural exchanges.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 23-11-2016 10:51PM

digiman wrote: »

Just to quote myself on this one, if you look at their website they say the following about Summerhill in Co. Meath.

Summerhill

440 premises in this exchange can now access up to 70Mb/s fibre broadband. Estimated date for first Live Fibre Services is early/mid 2017

Look on google earth or even eircode.ie and count the buildings within 1.5km of the town and see how many you can come up with. I've not done it but I'd say you would struggle to get more than 200!!

Same can be said for a lot of other rural exchanges.

There obviously is some discrepancy as the Department have had to go back and redraw their intervention map to take account of premises that had been claimed as covered but really were not.

long_b · 23-11-2016 11:10PM

They dropped their estimate from completed by 2020 to completed by 2018
That's from 4.5 years to 2.5 years.

How could we have thought that they're anywhere closer than "rough order of magnitude" estimates at this stage ?

Yet we cling to these 3 month timeslots guesses like they're gospel.

More fool us.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 23-11-2016 11:13PM

long_b wrote: »

They dropped their estimate from completed by 2020 to completed by 2018
That's from 4.5 years to 2.5 years.

How could we have thought that they're anywhere closer than "rough order of magnitude" estimates at this stage ?

Yet we cling to these 3 month timeslots guesses like they're gospel.

More fool us.

I think it is just a reflection of the desperation of people to have a decent connection. It is only natural to believe and hope for the dates to materialise.

Gonzo · 23-11-2016 11:13PM

Allison Puny Appetite wrote: »

The FTTH take-up numbers are interesting. I'm wondering if demand is low in urban areas that may already be serviced by FTTC or Virgin.

I been mentioned that since day 1 back before Eir even announced the 66 towns. Siro were the first to announce an FTTH rollout. The media were talking it up as if it was going to be a rural rollout, but when Siro named the locations they were all urban districts with Virgin Media and/or FTTC. Back then I kinda said whats the point when most people in those areas already have fast connections for relatively low cost.

Most are paying 40-60 euros for their fast connections, so why pay 60-95 for a few extra hundred megs. Steaming/browsing/gaming etc would be very similar across all fiber providers, it's only the extreme downloaders or people who need to have the fastest connection possible would be willing to fork out an extra 20-30 euros per month.

rob808 · 24-11-2016 01:03AM

Gonzo wrote: »

I been mentioned that since day 1 back before Eir even announced the 66 towns. Siro were the first to announce an FTTH rollout. The media were talking it up as if it was going to be a rural rollout, but when Siro named the locations they were all urban districts with Virgin Media and/or FTTC. Back then I kinda said whats the point when most people in those areas already have fast connections for relatively low cost.

Most are paying 40-60 euros for their fast connections, so why pay 60-95 for a few extra hundred megs. Steaming/browsing/gaming etc would be very similar across all fiber providers, it's only the extreme downloaders or people who need to have the fastest connection possible would be willing to fork out an extra 20-30 euros per month.

Hey Gonzo KNN were doing more Fibre on pole on R125 the road dunshaughlin to ratoath today they seem to getting further day by day.

Gonzo · 24-11-2016 01:39AM

rob808 wrote: »

Hey Gonzo KNN were doing more Fibre on pole on R125 the road dunshaughlin to ratoath today they seem to getting further day by day.

Most of eastern Dunshaughlin rural area is almost complete. Only the remaining segments on the R125, bog road and the little 0.5 km stretch of road I live on.

They could easily finish all 3 by Friday evening hopefully.

long_b · 24-11-2016 07:54PM

Well hello gorgeous!!!

EDIT: That appeared out of nowhere about 1 km from my house.
And ... the pole outside my house (last on the blue line) has a lovely black cable running up to a white box

I'm pretty amazed by how quickly the fibre has been pulled past the houses - like frickin shoemaker's elves.
BOOM !

Don't ask me if everything's wired up back to the cabinet.

i'm so happy I could nearly kiss ArkL0w.

Nearly.

PS I know it's still going to be months probably before I can get it but ... I think there's fibre OUTSIDE MY HOUSE !!!!

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-11-2016 08:26PM

long_b wrote: »

Well hello gorgeous!!!

EDIT: That appeared out of nowhere about 1 km from my house.
And ... the pole outside my house (last on the blue line) has a lovely black cable running up to a white box

I'm pretty amazed by how quickly the fibre has been pulled past the houses - like frickin shoemaker's elves.
BOOM !

Don't ask me if everything's wired up back to the cabinet.

i'm so happy I could nearly kiss ArkL0w.

Nearly.

PS I know it's still going to be months probably before I can get it but ... I think there's fibre OUTSIDE MY HOUSE !!!!

That is ducting.

Gonzo · 24-11-2016 08:30PM

yeah that's the same ducting that's sitting at the bottom of my road since April.

Fiber will only appear after poles have been coded. It is much thinner and will be coiled around the top of poles.

kevinbad2010 · 24-11-2016 08:31PM

Guys seems like my town has been updated from 70Mb/s to 100Mb/s what does this mean?

and it has changed from a date in around 2017 to this "FTTH fibre rollout programme inlcudes premises in this exchange area" actually a good amount of towns have changed from this around the cork area

http://fibrerollout.ie/where-and-when/

what does this mean?

long_b · 24-11-2016 08:42PM

Gonzo wrote: »

yeah that's the same ducting that's sitting at the bottom of my road since April.

Fiber will only appear after poles have been coded. It is much thinner and will be coiled around the top of poles.

The pole that that's on has WP8 marked on it.

On the last pole is a much thinner cable with no writing on it.

Gonzo · 24-11-2016 08:49PM

long_b wrote: »

The pole that that's on has WP8 marked on it.

On the last pole is a much thinner cable with no writing on it.

you must be near wiring stage then.

everywhere around me got wired up within 3 days of those codes painted on road beside poles except the lane that I live on!

If there is a WP1 in your area that's wired up there would be 2 coils of fiber on the pole and a placeholder for a splice box.

long_b · 24-11-2016 08:49PM

kevinbad2010 wrote: »

Guys seems like my town has been updated from 70Mb/s to 100Mb/s what does this mean?

and it has changed from a date in around 2017 to this "FTTH fibre rollout programme inlcudes premises in this exchange area" actually a good amount of towns have changed from this around the cork area

http://fibrerollout.ie/where-and-when/

what does this mean?

If you're hoping to get FTTH (fibre to the home) then it's bad news - probably 2018.

If you're close enough to a cabinet/exchange to get FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) then it's good news as they've increased the maximum speed you can get.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-11-2016 08:50PM

long_b wrote: »

The pole that that's on has WP8 marked on it.

On the last pole is a much thinner cable with no writing on it.

If they are marking poles it seems there is a good chance that they are cabling the area. What date is your exchange down for?

kevinbad2010 · 24-11-2016 08:51PM

long_b wrote: »

If you're hoping to get FTTH (fibre to the home) then it's bad news - probably 2018.

If you're close enough to a cabinet/exchange to get FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) then it's good news as they've increased the maximum speed you can get.

But if that's the case why not do 100MB from the start instead of 70MB?

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-11-2016 08:55PM

kevinbad2010 wrote: »

But if that's the case why not do 100MB from the start instead of 70MB?

They have enabled a technology called vectoring to certain exchanges. It increases the theoretical maximum speed from 70 to 100Mb. Previously they could not enabled it in exchanges due to the potential for interference.

long_b · 24-11-2016 08:57PM

Allison Puny Appetite wrote: »

If they are marking poles it seems there is a good chance that they are cabling the area. What date is your exchange down for?

Was Winter 2016 /Spring 2017 but was updated with the rest to mid 2017 a few days ago.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-11-2016 08:59PM

long_b wrote: »

Was Winter 2016 /Spring 2017 but was updated with the rest to mid 2017 a few days ago.

That is strange. Hopefully they are cabling it. You could have FTTH in a few weeks!

Gadgetman496 · 24-11-2016 08:59PM

long_b wrote: »

Well hello gorgeous!!!

EDIT: That appeared out of nowhere about 1 km from my house.
And ... the pole outside my house (last on the blue line) has a lovely black cable running up to a white box

I'm pretty amazed by how quickly the fibre has been pulled past the houses - like frickin shoemaker's elves.
BOOM !

Don't ask me if everything's wired up back to the cabinet.

i'm so happy I could nearly kiss ArkL0w.

Nearly.

PS I know it's still going to be months probably before I can get it but ... I think there's fibre OUTSIDE MY HOUSE !!!!

I can't help getting the impression you are excited

long_b · 24-11-2016 09:00PM

Gadgetman496 wrote: »

I can't help getting the impression you are excited

Breathing into a paper bag here!!

Can we take a pledge that, if you can downgrade your plan, that whoever gets it first gets the 1Gb package for like a month - just for speedtest shiggles and such ?

IF you can downgrade.

kevinbad2010 · 24-11-2016 09:21PM

Allison Puny Appetite wrote: »

They have enabled a technology called vectoring to certain exchanges. It increases the theoretical maximum speed from 70 to 100Mb. Previously they could not enabled it in exchanges due to the potential for interference.

I thought 70MB speed still had vectoring enabled

so is VSDL not vectoring with 70MB speeds while VSDL2 is vectoring with 100MB speeds?

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-11-2016 09:30PM

kevinbad2010 wrote: »

I thought 70MB speed still had vectoring enabled

so is VSDL not vectoring with 70MB speeds while VSDL2 is vectoring with 100MB speeds?

It's all VDSL2 in Ireland. Vectoring improves the maximum VDSL2 speed to ~100Mb.

kevinbad2010 · 24-11-2016 09:32PM

Allison Puny Appetite wrote: »

It's all VDSL2 in Ireland. Vectoring improves the maximum VDSL2 speed to ~100Mb.

Okay I see

also you said "then it's good news as they've increased the maximum speed you can get."

You would have to call them up on that to actually get the increased speed otherwise it will be the same as always right?

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-11-2016 09:37PM

kevinbad2010 wrote: »

Okay I see

also you said "then it's good news as they've increased the maximum speed you can get."

You would have to call them up on that to actually get the increased speed otherwise it will be the same as always right?

I did not say that. long_b said it. You would not have to call them. If your line was suitable the modem should re-sync automatically I believe.

Eir rural FTTH thread

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