National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Yes, I think there is a misunderstanding there, hence my original question as to how to go about how to get to chat to someone in NBI. Previous communication with NBI has not been very satisfactory. The man I chatted to from Digiweb was apologetic but not terribly helpful, saying this is what it is.

Will try and contact NBI again tomorrow.

As The Cush has mentioned you can send them a DM on Facebook/Instagram. Their email address is - contactus@nbi.ie

Here's some other options you could maybe try -

National Broadband Plan Customer Service -

broadband@css.gov.ie

broadband@dccae.gov.ie

Or maybe you could get in contact with your local Broadband Officer -

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-rural-and-community-development-and-the-gaeltacht/publications/broadband-officers-contact-list/

800m is a very long way to duct a cable. You will need some access points in between. Its possible that the 14/10 micro duct had the fibre cable preinstalled?

The longer the run between access points the bigger the diameter of cable you need. Friction builds up very quickly as length increases in narrow ducting. If you used 1/2 inch standard hydrodare I'd be surprised if you'd get 100m before things get very difficult. Don't forget its the installer that will have to run the fibre.

But check with the NBI they must have solutions that cover your situation.

please keep us posted as I have possibly a 480 metre underground cable run for them to do OR they can put up 2 new poles (instead of 10) to run the cable up to a 400 metre+ row of poles along a hedge where the original Éir phone line came in

@The Cush which option do you think they would go for?

yes existing poles

I will cut the ditch myself

If you aren't a gamer you are not going to notice the difference between Starlink and Fibre. tbh I think my Starlink connection was a little faster when it comes to browsing and thats compared to vodafone 1GB fibre.

Does anyone know typically how long it takes to go from a pre-order to a order (ready for connection). My area is down as pre-order since the 30th of January and im still waiting to get connected.

My NBI Airwave Fritzbox resets the Wifi SSID but not the password to the Airwave preconfigured name after a power cut. Not after a brief reset, but only a full lengthy power outage

This knocks off all my monitoring kit in the house

Anyone any ideas wtf is going on?

A full reset would make sense if a device is susceptible to that; but it is retaining the WPA2 key I set.

None of the previous 4G routers I had here - Huawei, ASUS, TPLink - ever had issues with unstable power either. Fritz kit may be rather overrated; I'll look at replacing it with an ASUS which will probably cost less than a decent UPS!

If you have the config saved then why not test it by switching it on and off quickly a few times. Although a power outage can be worse with the voltage not always dropping off completely adding another variable.

An update: a slight miscommunication, NBI now say they will send out engineer once I have the ducting all done.

Priced up some 50mm hydrodare ducting, it's not cheap for 750 meters. And rent of a minidigger on top of that.

Feel a bit let down by NBI, next door neighbour got fibre totally for free, they knew we were looking for it and should have laid bigger ducting. Bah. Ordered since last July, bored of waiting.

Anyway, Starlink arrived in the post this morning. Up and running in 10 minutes, looks like it will suit us perfectly, had the 2 tv's streaming, son doing some big playstation downloads and daughter doomscrolling, everyone saying how much quicker and very little lag/congestion.

Deleted. NotShero has already addressed the issue re Broadband Officer.

Sorry, I couldn’t make out from your post whether the old Eir route to your house is completely gone — have the poles been taken down?

I know you mentioned concerns about trees bringing the cable down. With some maintenance and cutting back the trees, is there any chance you’d still have a viable route there?

If the original route could be brought back into use, Eir should really be responsible for replacing any poles along that route where needed, as it’s their infrastructure.

Even if NBI have already installed the first ~50m with 50mm ducting, it sounds like you still have another ~700m to cover — which is a significant distance and not a small installation job.

One option you could consider proposing to NBI is a “meet in the middle” approach — for example, they could supply the ducting free of charge, and you arrange installation yourself. That might help move things forward more quickly and reduce overall costs.