National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Mor-Riomhaire wrote: »

Outside Roscommon town, KN crew out here with a Van, and digger. Scheduled for AUG-OCT 2021 connection. Pre-order put in with local provider already. Not sure what's happening to be honest. Lots of looking into the manhole cover going on.

EarWig wrote: »

With 250,000 surveyed, there is zero chance they will be connected in 18 months.

Mor-Riomhaire wrote: »

Outside Roscommon town, KN crew out here with a Van, and digger. Scheduled for AUG-OCT 2021 connection. Pre-order put in with local provider already. Not sure what's happening to be honest. Lots of looking into the manhole cover going on.

MoodeRator wrote: »

All roads leaving Roscommon Town have the same install dates of Aug-Oct. The white cable is the actual fibre being blown now, the same is happenning on our side of town also

TimHorton wrote: »

NBI are incompetent, Putting up welcome advertising billboards and bus shelter posters in the wrong county (30 miles from border)

Jofspring wrote: »

NBI checker at this stage just seems like a complete waste of time.

The state’s multibillion-euro National Broadband Plan has connected fewer than 650 homes and businesses to high-speed internet in its first 18 months, raising fresh concerns over its ability to service to 1.1 million people by 2027.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company awarded the €2.7 billion contract to deliver the rural scheme, last week confirmed that it had made the service available to just over 4,000 premises to date, out of a target of 115,000 by the end of 2021.

The Business Post has learned that of the 4,378 homes and businesses passed so far, just 632 have been connected. This suggests an early take-up rate of about 14 per cent by those with access to broadband through the National Broadband Plan.

A spokesman for NBI said that as a wholesaler it was responsible for designing, building and operating the network but not for selling to end users.

“[We] cannot predict the level of demand that would ultimately lead to connections on the network,” a spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Department of Communications said almost 19,000 premises across Cavan; Carrigaline, Co Cork; Limerick and Galway could order or pre-order broadband through the National Broadband Plan which is intended to provide high-speed broadband to 544,000 premises and 1.1 million people, largely in rural areas.

“NBI expects to pass 7,000-10,000 premises per month by the end of the year, at which stage connections will significantly ramp up across all counties. Connections to the network are demand-driven by households and businesses,” he said.

The news that 0.11 per cent of premises covered by the National Broadband Plan have been connected is likely to heap further pressure on the government and NBI over the pace of progress as people struggle with poor broadband connections across much of the country.

NBI’s 1,000 contractors were allowed to continue work during the Covid-19 restrictions this year but the government has said the pandemic caused a delay in recruiting and training workers. The company slashed its full-year target to between 50,000 and 60,000 premises passed on the back of the significant delays.

Last week it turned to GE Digital, a subsidiary of the US multinational conglomerate, to help “model, manage, and streamline” the rollout.

The small number of homes connected to the network, coupled with delays in passing premises, is also set to raise further questions about the feasibility of cutting the rollout timeline from seven years to five, as the government and NBI are seeking to do.

Both parties are locked in discussions in a bid to expedite the connection of premises currently scheduled for link-up in years six and seven.

Eamon Ryan, the communications minister, and Ossian Smyth, the department’s junior minister, have both said a “new contract” is being worked on but both their department and NBI have confirmed that the intention is to alter the existing contract signed in 2019 rather than to agree a new one.

“Any acceleration to the build programme will require modifications to the main contract signed in 2019. While the main build partners will not change, NBI are exploring all options available in the market to help expedite the build.

“Exploring the potential to accelerate the network rollout is being undertaken in parallel with the measures required to mitigate delays arising as a result of Covid-19. It is premature at this stage to speculate what the outcome of these discussions may be,” a department spokesman said.

Neither NBI nor the Department of Communications expects an acceleration of the plan to result in an additional subsidy above the €2.7 billion cost of the plan being paid by the state.

This suggests an early take-up rate of about 14 per cent by those with access to broadband through the National Broadband Plan.

National Broadband Plan has connected fewer than 650 homes and businesses to high-speed internet in its first 18 months

joe123 wrote: »

14% uptake seems low.

Wonder is that impacted by them rolling out in areas that already have speeds of 90Mb like some reports suggested.

Did they announce what they expcted uptake to be? I know my estate here of 100+ houses, uptake would be almost 100%, everyone is going mad over the **** broadband :pac:

heavydawson wrote: »

You have to factor in the make-up of the population in the countryside. How many of those houses passed are people that:
1. Never had a need for internet (and still dont)
2. Already have sufficient bandwidth for their current needs
3. Are currently tied to an existing contract
4. Are simply afraid of change

The members of boards are _generally_ tech savvy in the first place, and it will seem obvious to any of us that NBI is a no-brainer if our premises was passed. However, that doesn't hold for many people.

I think it'll be a combination of:
1. Early adopters singing its praises (hopefully) by word of mouth in their local communities
2. The bigger non-ISP-exclusive resellers up-selling their packages come renewal time to bundle fibre (think Vodafone/Sky/Three ,etc.). Basically triple (or quadruple, whatever)-play packages that now include NBI. In other words you'll connect to NBI as part of a bigger package.

Remember it's not up to NBI to sell their infrastructure to the end user. It's up to the likes of Sky, Vodafone, etc to do the selling of their services!
NBI have been active on local newspapers/radios, and this makes sense, as they're trying to raise awareness of the project in areas where end users will see work happening.

I've seen nothing from any of the ISPs in my letterbox about forthcoming NBI go-lives in my areas (and it's due Aug-Oct). I'd hope to start seeing something around July/August about pre-orders, but they may simply wait until the network is live.

dam099 wrote: »

Plus sounds like there is active disinformation from some WISPs. Anecdotal I know but one poster earlier in this thread was saying a salesman claimed Wireless was superior as speeds were constrained when using wires.