National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

You can't revoke wayleave on someone elses behalf; and realistically a phone call isn't going to do it either. The document is signed, your instructions were worthless. Your father has to look to revoke the wayleave, not you.

Hedges don't generally get to wire height.

I don't think you know what you're talking about. And I'm half wondering is this entire thing a spoof.

Yes, but not just NBI, OpenEir and SIRO are used too along with the likes of ENET, BT Ireland, Virgin Media, Viatel and ESB Telecoms. Essentially whatever's available and within commercially acceptable terms.

Where the likes of NBI are rolling out, they're doing so by virtue the fact that no-one else would, so they're often the first opportunity for mobile providers to be able to establish a site in the area. Most of these areas are outside the reach of even E1 circuits (often used for older 2G/3G only sites) and terrain makes linking into the various mobile networks national microwave backhaul impossible as well.

Unfortunately, though, that does mean that the likes of the two most recent storms will see damage to either the power or fibre network will usually mean all form of communications go out for the area. You'd whole clusters of towns and villages in Eowyn where it was several days before the media realised the scale of the damage, simply because those in the areas affected had zero connection to the outside world.

Gone to pre-order for my rock in the Atlantic either today or very recently - found out from someone else, no email yet. Pre-order gone in with Airwire.

Going to be fun arranging the connection to a stone cottage, and through a third party (relative opening it up) cause I probably won't be there for install, but we'll get there.

Airwave* yeah. Awkwardly confusing names there.

Post-discount rate is cheaper than I pay Virgin for the same service by 13/month. I can't get anything faster than VDSL (on rotting 1970s wires) if I don't use Virgin and they absolutely know it, if I try argue price down.

Not every site requires fibre. If there's a nearby site with line of sight that already has fibre it's often easier to microwave backhaul to that instead of going through the hassle (and delays) of civils to get fibre in. Microwave will easily do »1Gb without problems at short distances with relatively small drums.

Anyway - don't wish to derail the thread further with mobile talk :)

Ok, their loss I guess.

And meanwhile the world moves on.

This might have been asked before, but should be getting NBI in the next month or two.

I assume I will have multiple providers to choose from once I go live?

Are there any companies which come highly recommended? I appreciate that they are only sellers of the service, but some are sure to have better customer service than others?

APOLOGIES , JUST SEEN THERE IS A DEDICATED THREAD FOR SUCH QUESTIONS

For the record. Letter to The Irish Times. (2025-03-01)

Sir, - The seven-year, €2.7bn National Broadband Plan will complete next year, months earlier than planned and costing millions less than expected, so long as the current pace of laying fibre is maintained.
To keep that pace, the project will need to draw down €80m of next year's budget during this year. This is not an additional cost as you reported ("National broadband plan to require additional €80m", Business, February 28th); it is a rescheduling of budgeted payments because the project is moving faster than planned.
While it is crucial to publicly scrutinise cost overruns on sheds, walls, and scanners, we could also learn from successful projects. Why is the largest infrastructure project in the state completing early, below budget and with higher-than-expected benefits to the public?
Let's have a public inquiry. I would be happy to testify. -

Yours, etc, OSSIAN SMYTH,
Former minister for communications,

And just below Ossian Smyth's letter in the Irish Times; a letter from Starlink's man in Ireland, (Messer1 here on boards), still pushing his Plan B (Starlink) to be included in the NBP

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2025/03/01/letters-to-the-editor-saturday-march-1st-national-broadband-plan-attacks-on-diversity-programmes-and-trumps-america/

Sir, - You published a letter from me back in 2019 about the National Broadband Plan and satellite broadband which predicted that “unless there is a change of political heart, it is likely that Ireland will be digging up roads and stringing fibre across fields at great cost to taxpayers while satellite constellations are orbiting overhead and offering high-speed broadband services to rural households at competitive rates and at zero cost to the exchequer”.

As indicated in “National Broadband Plan to require additional €80m” (Business, February 28th) the Exchequer has to date expended about a billion euro on the plan. This has resulting in about 115,000 connections at a capital cost averaging about €12,000 per customer. While this cost will fall as more passed premises are signed up, Starlink has by comparison already made over 13,000 connections mainly in rural areas and digital blackspots at no cost to the Exchequer.

While NBP costs will escalate as it moves into ever more rural or remote areas, Starlink will be launching a much more powerful next-generation network and will be joined later in this decade by at least two significant competitors. Surely it is time to execute a plan B for the NBP by embracing the use of satellites to deliver broadband to the most remote corners of its Intervention Area. – Yours etc,

BRIAN FLANAGAN,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

"This has resulting in about 115,000 connections at a capital cost averaging about €12,000 per customer."

Of course the NBP is subsidised on premises passed, and this is at 338,171 premises as of a week ago, 60% of premises in the intervention area. Of these premises 34% are connected, 116,182 premises.

National broadband plan to require additional €80m – The Irish Times

Minister told about gigabit ‘urban blackspots’ and potentially uneconomic locations

Fri Feb 28 2025 - 06:00

The Government will be asked to provide an additional €80 million this year to the national broadband plan, the Department of Arts, Culture and Communications has indicated.

Briefing documents provided to Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan state that the €400 million allocated in the budget last October was estimated to be more than €80 million short of capital funding that had been sought for this year.

“Ministerial support is required for an increase in the funding, of some €80 million capital funding, from that allocated to the national broadband plan for 2025,“ say the briefing documents. ”This is required to ensure that the Minister will meet contractual obligations to National Broadband Ireland (which is designing, building and operating the new high-speed fibre broadband network for rural Ireland) in 2025.”

The documents state that €978 million of subsidy had been paid to National Broadband Ireland to date under the national broadband plan contract.

The documents also say that €41 million in adviser payments and €6 million in local authority payments had been made to date in support of the implementation of the national broadband plan.

In a statement the Department of Arts, Culture and Communications told The Irish Times that, as part of the budget process for 2025, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications – which held the communications portfolio before it was reassigned under the new Government – was allocated €400 million for the deployment of broadband through the national broadband plan project.

“The project has continued to build substantial momentum and recover the time lost through Covid-related delays and it is now on track to deliver in excess of 420,000 premises passed by the end of the year,” it said.

“If this forecasted level of deployment is maintained throughout the year, and these additional premises are passed, then it is estimated that a further €80 million will be needed to meet contractual obligations to pay for milestones that will be achieved.

“A similar approach was adopted in the budgeting processes undertaken both in 2023 and 2024, where a conservative budget figure was agreed at the start of these years and additional funding was then sought when National Broadband Ireland exceeded its forecasted delivery of premises passed in that year. It should be noted that the overall national broadband plan project is currently running under budget and is aiming to be completed in advance of schedule at the end of 2026.”

Separately officials told the Minister in a note marked confidential about what was described as “gigabit urban black spots”.

“There is evidence emerging that certain premises not currently covered by the national broadband plan may prove to be uneconomic for commercial operators to provide a gigabit service to,” it said. “One of the issues that is proving problematic is where there are no existing ducts in urban areas to facilitate connection to premises. The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications is planning to launch a pilot scheme in 2025 to establish if this voucher-based solution could be rolled out to address this problem, known as ‘direct buried leads’, more widely.”

In its statement the new Department of Arts, Culture and Communications said it was currently carrying out a detailed analysis of a range of scenarios where it may be uneconomic or where there were barriers identified inhibiting commercial operators from provide gigabit broadband services to certain premises that are not part of the national broadband plan.

“Once this exercise has been completed, the department will examine the optimal solutions to addressing such potential gigabit black spots,” it said.

“As part of that process, the department will consider whether it would be beneficial to conduct a pilot scheme to assist in making a more informed decision around the various options. It is also important to note that the mobile phone and broadband taskforce is designed to address barriers to the deployment of telecom infrastructure and will focus on actions to address black spots in any case.”

Honestly this is a bit of a misleading headline.

This isn't about increasing the cash for the NBP, it's about increasing this year's budget allocation of €400 by €80m from the overall €2.1bn NBP subsidy. No increase in the overall subsidy

A factor of the increased speed of the rollout. The faster rollout is what's required considering the delay during COVID.

I'm assuming it was more than an agenda as he's been advocating for it since before it was launched here.

He was one of the first here to have it installed and based on previous posts he has it foc.

So maybe contracted to promote Starlink?

The fibre cable from the DP to the ONT in the house is about 10mm diameter.

Squeezing it in might be a bad idea

A 10mm drill bit should do the job.