NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

Did any of ye look at what was allocated in the '18 budget for NBP?

Éamon Ó Cuív in the Dail, although they must be in pole position to get the rest with subsidies......

We should be fair to Eir and everybody involved. Eir got the notion of doing a rural roll-out and there was great difficulty in the Department dealing with this. People were saying it will be done or it will not be, etc. Eventually, an agreement was signed that Eir would do a certain area and no more or less. We must be careful. Is it a fact that if Eir started to extend beyond those agreed borders, the rural broadband plan would have to be remapped and we would start once again on this roundabout that has been going on for years? What we need is quite simple; we need the Government to step in fast with a national rural broadband programme and put fibre in every house and business in the country.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/committees/?id=2017-11-15a.1517&s=national+broadband+plan#g1580

Gonzo wrote: »

If Imagne really are going to try and take their areas out of the NBP, lets hope the government see's sense and not fall for Imagine's plans.

If this does become a reality, there could be large portions of rural Ireland with nothing other than Imagine available.

What happens if a customer can't get a line of sight/ proper connection?
What happens if a mast is then full and Imagine won't supply a customer in one of their areas?
What happens if Imagine pile everyone onto the masts with massive contention with no more bandwidth available?
How long will it take Imagine to retire each wireless product before introducing a new wireless product when product becomes obsolete?

Even if none of that happens and you can get Imagine perfectly fine, it still has the enormous problem of being a monopoly and having a completely captive audience. If fiber is down and I'm not happy with my provider, I can switch to another. If Imagine is the only one in the area, they have no incentive at all to actually offer decent customer service.

See my post on FTTH thread re NBP

KOR101 wrote: »

In case you missed it, the NBP is already underway .........

Ireland's National Broadband Plan will deliver fibre to the home (FTTH) services to 200,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2018, according to the programme's director, Fergal Mulligan.

Mulligan said that the project had so far provided FTTH services to 100,000 homes and businesses across Ireland, with that figure set to double by the end of 2018.

https://www.totaltele.com/498805/Ireland-to-deliver-FTTH-to-200000-premises-by-2018

My God....either Fergal Mulligan has caught the "Commerical development is part of NBP" virus Mr Naughten has or that site has mis-quoted him.
Either way, tut tut tut!

Fergal Mulligan, who he? Is he a new appointment in the Dept? I didn't think the Dept was going to a DO anything, just manage. If he is the money manager then grand, how much, when, where? Not a whole lot in the '18 budget, that I saw.

.

Which party is Mr. Naughten, so we don't vote for them again

KOR101 wrote: »

In case you missed it, the NBP is already underway .........

Ireland's National Broadband Plan will deliver fibre to the home (FTTH) services to 200,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2018, according to the programme's director, Fergal Mulligan.

Mulligan said that the project had so far provided FTTH services to 100,000 homes and businesses across Ireland, with that figure set to double by the end of 2018.

https://www.totaltele.com/498805/Ireland-to-deliver-FTTH-to-200000-premises-by-2018

What the what the what the what the???

Great, after all the delays, the NBP has *provided services* to 100,000 homes and businesses! Without putting a shovel in the ground!

Surely this is a misquote. The NBP has connected nobody. Zero. Eir have passed 100,000 commercially.

Mulligan has been running the NBP for years. He knows this.

Ultimanemo wrote: »

I think what they are trying to do is: We achieved at least 30% of NBP objectives, so we can take a break for a few years now.

Right, as somebody who is living in an amber area - who do i complain to about this?

As others have said, Mulligan should knows better than this. If it is a misquote, then fine - but it should be acknowledged as such.

This isn't on. The NBP cannot claim wins it hasn't earned. It needs to get on with the job of actually creating success stories. People need to be held to account. This false inflation of figures is no better than what the Gardai were doing.

It might be stretching things a little from the user perspective, but it is not surprising to read this claim.

I suspect it is being claimed on the basis that

1. eir would not have had any interest in doing their 300k roll-out without the NBP 'threat' to their monopoly, so the NBP is directly responsible.

It is difficult to deny that.

2. Siro would likely never exist but for the NBP ...... so their roll out is also due to the NBP.

Again difficult to argue the contrary.

It is but a small step to claim the NBP is responsible for those roll-outs and connections.

IMO, this is not worth arguing about.
All that matters is that connections become available to those who want them, as soon as possible, by whatever provider is working in the area - NBP subsidised or a commercial roll out triggered by the threat of the NBP tender awards.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It is but a small step to claim the NBP is responsible for those roll-outs and connections.

IMO, this is not worth arguing about.
All that matters is that connections become available to those who want them, as soon as possible, by whatever provider is working in the area - NBP subsidised or a commercial roll out triggered by the threat of the NBP tender awards.

I dunno - I take your point, but when these schemes come around for review, there will be less pressure on to get on with things if the connected numbers already 'look' good. If those numbers have been artificially inflated, then it ultimately means that people will be waiting even longer to get connected via genuine NBP-driven mechanisms.

People connected because of the 'threat' of the NBP does not equal people connected by the NBP. If the NBP being just around the corner was all it took to get companies like Eir to invest and get more infrastructure out there, then it would seem to me like they should have been doing it in the first place.

Schorpio wrote: »

I dunno - I take your point, but when these schemes come around for review, there will be less pressure on to get on with things if the connected numbers already 'look' good. If those numbers have been artificially inflated, then it ultimately means that people will be waiting even longer to get connected via genuine NBP-driven mechanisms.

People connected because of the 'threat' of the NBP does not equal people connected by the NBP. If the NBP being just around the corner was all it took to get companies like Eir to invest and get more infrastructure out there, then it would seem to me like they should have been doing it in the first place.

Of course they 'should' (from a consumer POV) ...... but they had no need to do so (commercially) as they (eir) had an effective monopoly with their copper, which came under threat with the NBP, thus triggering investment to help maintain their dominant position.

If Siro was born without the NBP it would probably have had the same effect ...... but of course that did not exist without the NBP either.

Eventually (years down the road) some commercial roll out would have been undertaken ..... only in the commercially very profitable areas.

I would have no problem with a statement like .....
'the NBP is responsible for X number of premises being connected to FTTH at this time'.
I believe it to be true.

"Ireland's National Broadband Plan will deliver fibre to the home (FTTH) services to 200,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2018"

The above quote could be (political speak) interpreted the same.
It is deliberately designed to mis-inform, IMO, but is that not what we expect? :rolleyes:

Today's news that Xavier Niel is making a move on eir could and should make a difference. Neil, who started life, using a Sinclair ZX81 and the Minitel, to write the first (soft) porno app for it. He is a tech entrepreneur of a different type, who picked up a fledgling ISP called Free, funded by ads, and has turned it into a major player in France.
However, he was aided by the French regulation which requires the former monopoly, France Telecom, to generate a network which is 'open' in the true sense, they are obliged to create, maintain and update the network and offer access to everyone who needs service. Free is one of those. 
Now, if eir was obliged to do that, what would Irelands's BB service be like? Not what is in now where eir is dragged kicking and screaming into supplying any kind of service to other operators and manages to upstage the national plan to upgrade access by 'offering' to upgrade, maybe, 300k of those whom they consider worth upgrading. 
Hurry up M.Neil!!