Eircom eFibre VDSL/FTTC rollout – plans to reach 1.6m premises by mid 2016

red_bairn · 13-02-2015 11:43AM

Just got news on the Greystones eFibre forum from a local that they are sorting out direct fed lines. He spoke to the engineers.

MBSnr · 13-02-2015 12:18PM

Colour and date change.....!!

http://www.eircom.net/efibreinfo/map/

babybuilder · 13-02-2015 03:30PM

Hi live in Linsfort a country area just outside Buncrana. It has a local exchange and is due for efibre upgrade in June 2015. I spoke to an eircom employee recently and he said that it will be fibre to the exchange and that's it.

I live about 2-2.5 km from the exchange. At the moment I'm paying for 3 Mbit/sec package (and getting 2.4 MBit/s most of the time). Our family are light to moderate internet surfers - one iphone, one ipad, one desktop. It is impossible to stream anything when more than one device is in use.
I would like to know should i be getting my hopes up with an improvement in speeds and what increased speeds are likely.

Thanks

The_Pretender · 13-02-2015 03:39PM

babybuilder wrote: »

Hi live in Linsfort a country area just outside Buncrana. It has a local exchange and is due for efibre upgrade in June 2015. I spoke to an eircom employee recently and he said that it will be fibre to the exchange and that's it.

I live about 2-2.5 km from the exchange. At the moment I'm paying for 3 Mbit/sec package (and getting 2.4 MBit/s most of the time). Our family are light to moderate internet surfers - one iphone, one ipad, one desktop. It is impossible to stream anything when more than one device is in use.
I would like to know should i be getting my hopes up with an improvement in speeds and what increased speeds are likely.

Thanks

At that distance from the exchange I'd have thought you'd be lucky to get fibre at all. We're about 1.2km away from the exchange and we get about 20Mb, and people 600/700 meters closer can get 60-100Mb speeds.

Portlawslim · 13-02-2015 06:36PM

Saw a KN engineer at my local cab today and my colour has changed on the map to a nearer date. saw to lads pulling cable to the cab on Tuesday.
what I'm wondering is do they pull cable to the location of the cab before the put the new fibre cab in place?
I'm thinking it could be a new line for the newly built fire station around the corner from me but the cable looked fairly hefty....here's hoping

jca · 13-02-2015 06:49PM

Portlawslim wrote: »

Saw a KN engineer at my local cab today and my colour has changed on the map to a nearer date. saw to lads pulling cable to the cab on Tuesday.
what I'm wondering is do they pull cable to the location of the cab before the put the new fibre cab in place?
I'm thinking it could be a new line for the newly built fire station around the corner from me but the cable looked fairly hefty....here's hoping

When mine was put in last year (lucky me) the fibre was pulled to the cabinet sites before the fibre cabs were placed.

eyebrows63 · 13-02-2015 06:51PM

I,m in Limerick and according to the map e fibre is available in my area but when I enter my phone number it says it's not available. I rang eircom yesterday and was told that I,d have it shortly

jayo26 · 13-02-2015 07:35PM

eyebrows63 wrote: »

I,m in Limerick and according to the map e fibre is available in my area but when I enter my phone number it says it's not available. I rang eircom yesterday and was told that I,d have it shortly

Yhh its same in my area in in wexford and its available in all of the town apart from my estate which is connected to the last remaining silver cabinet in the are they been telling me for Las year and half I would have it soon.

ED E · 13-02-2015 10:50PM

Portlawslim wrote: »

Saw a KN engineer at my local cab today and my colour has changed on the map to a nearer date. saw to lads pulling cable to the cab on Tuesday.
what I'm wondering is do they pull cable to the location of the cab before the put the new fibre cab in place?
I'm thinking it could be a new line for the newly built fire station around the corner from me but the cable looked fairly hefty....here's hoping

If its a big thick loom that could be the cross connect bundle that joins the VDSL onto the POTS lines in the existing cab.

ItHurtsWhenIP · 15-02-2015 05:05PM

MBSnr wrote: »

Colour and date change.....!!

http://www.eircom.net/efibreinfo/map/

Wow - my village is down for an earlier live date. It used to be 2016, but is now Oct-Dec 2015.

Now if only I lived closed to the village (I'm 2KM out).

Zith · 16-02-2015 11:45PM

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

Wow - my village is down for an earlier live date. It used to be 2016, but is now Oct-Dec 2015.

Now if only I lived closed to the village (I'm 2KM out).

At least it might sort out the contention once the exchange backhaul is upgraded to support efibre. I'm 5.5KM from my exchange and lucky to have a 3Meg connection but peak time congestion has now evolved into every week day from 4pm to midnight and weekends practically all day 9am to 1am. Pretty much any time you want to use the thing.

Barry5714 · 17-02-2015 12:33AM

Zith wrote: »

At least it might sort out the contention once the exchange backhaul is upgraded to support efibre. I'm 5.5KM from my exchange and lucky to have a 3Meg connection but peak time congestion has now evolved into every week day from 4pm to midnight and weekends practically all day 9am to 1am. Pretty much any time you want to use the thing.

Ya these peak time slow downs are driving me crazy not quiet as bad as you, weekdays 6pm-12am and weekends about 3pm-12am like clockwork, my exchange is scheduled for e-fibre late Summer early Autumn being 2km from the exchange i'm not expecting a speed increase but at this point i'd be happy with a steady 6mb connection 24/7 instead of it slowing to a crawl [1mb] at the most important time of the day.....

noc1980 · 17-02-2015 12:28PM

My exchange (Farranfore) is getting fibre late this year. I live 3km from Farranfore in a village of 500 people. Anyone know if it's likely they'll put a few cabs down in a village like this, given it's close proximity. When they enable exchanges do they spread cabs out a bit or are you looking at getting whatever speed's available at your distance from the exchange?

ED E · 17-02-2015 12:44PM

Check fibrerollout.ie, any cabs that are planned get listed there.

bk · 17-02-2015 12:46PM

noc1980 wrote: »

My exchange (Farranfore) is getting fibre late this year. I live 3km from Farranfore in a village of 500 people. Anyone know if it's likely they'll put a few cabs down in a village like this, given it's close proximity. When they enable exchanges do they spread cabs out a bit or are you looking at getting whatever speed's available at your distance from the exchange?

Do you mean 500 people or 500 premises?

If it is 500 people, then probably less then 200 houses, which would mean they only need one cab to service the area and it is likely to be in the center of the village or near the exchange. It may also mean exchange launched VDSL. So no cab at all.

ED E · 17-02-2015 01:16PM

I think noc means his village is remote from the village homing the exchange, so it'd need a vdsl node centrally in his village to get any service at all.

Nolars · 17-02-2015 01:19PM

As in my area and lots of areas, there will be 2 or 3 villages 5 minutes from a vdsl exchange with no cabs. Surely it cant be that expensive to put 1 cab in the middle of all these villages?

ED E · 17-02-2015 01:37PM

Nolars wrote: »

As in my area and lots of areas, there will be 2 or 3 villages 5 minutes from a vdsl exchange with no cabs. Surely it cant be that expensive to put 1 cab in the middle of all these villages?

Depends on the existing wiring. It also means running the fibre feed which will usually involve a lot of digging.

Additionally eircom are forking out for something like 9000 cabs(from memory, bk?) each costing a pretty penny, they'll have to recoup some of that outlay before they go buying more.

noc1980 · 17-02-2015 03:04PM

bk wrote: »

Do you mean 500 people or 500 premises?

If it is 500 people, then probably less then 200 houses, which would mean they only need one cab to service the area and it is likely to be in the center of the village or near the exchange. It may also mean exchange launched VDSL. So no cab at all.

Yes, 500 people bk.
It's a dead straight road from the exchange to the village, if that makes any difference...
Farranfore is itself a small village of around 1000, I'm hoping they're planning on connecting the surrounding areas as surely it wouldn't be worth bringing fibre to the exchange just to serve Farranfore? If I was 3km or so outside of Killarney or Tralee I'd hold little hope as those towns are big enough to not require any 'branching out'.

Hackery · 17-02-2015 03:24PM

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/40667-the-interview-geoff/

Interesting interview with some guy from eircom. Talks a lot about G.Fast which surprised me. He mentions that they are running a G.Fast pilot but i'm not sure where it's happening.

yuloni · 17-02-2015 03:46PM

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ED E · 17-02-2015 03:54PM

yuloni wrote: »

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There arent always existing cabs though. And even where there are they dont have infinite cashflow. Not saying they shouldnt or wont do them, just not yet. When they've got to 1.6Mil they'll have significant monthly income and will be able to re-evaluate where next to expand to. Cant do the whole country at once.

MBSnr · 17-02-2015 04:02PM

yuloni wrote: »

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I was thinking the exact same. Village near me is one of those 'supposed' to get fibre by the Gov. scheme but who knows... All of the phone lines for that village come in on one set of poles from a fibre enabled exchange 3.5Km away following the road. Surely Eircom could put a VDSL cab and a phone cab on the road side, approx just outside of the village and everyone there and within a 2Km radius would get VDSL.... It could happen very quickly and for a lot less money than FTTH and save the Gov. a bit.

I recall from the video of the trial village in Mayo (Belcarra) they are stringing fibre up on the poles. Makes perfect sense to me.

bk · 17-02-2015 04:23PM

MBSnr wrote: »

I recall from the video of the trial village in Mayo (Belcarra) they are stringing fibre up on the poles. Makes perfect sense to me.

Sure, it makes sense, but it is extremely expensive to do. The biggest cost is getting the guy to go out and up the ladder. You are talking 70 to 80% of the expensive of laying fiber.

To give you an idea, BT in the UK charge about €10,000 for just one 2km fiber run, plus €110 per month!

murphaph · 17-02-2015 04:49PM

I am very confident that they reset those poles in Belcarra. They looked suspiciously vertical to me. Stringing fibre along the average rural Eircom line would be a fools errand IMO.

MBSnr · 17-02-2015 04:50PM

bk wrote: »

Sure, it makes sense, but it is extremely expensive to do. The biggest cost is getting the guy to go out and up the ladder. You are talking 70 to 80% of the expensive of laying fiber.

To give you an idea, BT in the UK charge about €10,000 for just one 2km fiber run, plus €110 per month!

Seriously I'm amazed - How can fibre cost that much more to string up compared to copper pairs? It's just the splicing and termination that costs. (Ok and straighten a pole...) I've paid to have fibre cores drawn though a number of building risers over the years. Cost to do that was minimal (as in the work required was the same regardless if it was copper or glass). I realise that shielded fibre must cost a good bit but I don't recall it being much diff as copper costs these days. Getting the specialist splicing man or your local electrician to punch the pairs was the cost factor difference at the time.... I'd hazard a guess the price has reduced since I last got it done 5 yrs ago as more have the termination kit now.

BT charge that for ducted or on poles?

bk · 17-02-2015 05:29PM

Fiber isn't more expensive then copper, the cost is pretty much the same.

The point is most of the copper network is already in place and has been for many years. The copper network was built up over many decades, as people got phone lines installed (remember it use to take 2 years or more to order a phone line back in the Telecom Eireann days).

We are now asking them to replace the entire, extensive copper network with fiber in just 3 years! That is why it would be so expensive. A lot of work to do in a short period of time.

yuloni · 17-02-2015 05:44PM

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ardmacha · 17-02-2015 06:01PM

bk wrote: »

The point is most of the copper network is already in place and has been for many years. The copper network was built up over many decades, as people got phone lines installed (remember it use to take 2 years or more to order a phone line back in the Telecom Eireann days).

Or P&T days, Telecom Eireann was already an improvement.

bk wrote: »

We are now asking them to replace the entire, extensive copper network with fiber in just 3 years! That is why it would be so expensive. A lot of work to do in a short period of time.

Some plan is needed to bring fibre to all areas, fibre to any businesses, schools etc and some sort of lightweight mini cabinets to connect to this network to augment the service for other users still using copper in the meantime, pending further rollout.

There is no point in having the ESB and Eircom having separate physical networks in outlying areas.

SeamusFX · 17-02-2015 06:27PM

Zith wrote: »

At least it might sort out the contention once the exchange backhaul is upgraded to support efibre. I'm 5.5KM from my exchange and lucky to have a 3Meg connection but peak time congestion has now evolved into every week day from 4pm to midnight and weekends practically all day 9am to 1am. Pretty much any time you want to use the thing.

I've got the same problem, except since the nearest Cab has gone live about 2km away instead of getting better, it's gotten worse at peak times which is about 3pm-1am my speeds grind to a halt and sometimes it's so slow it can't even connect. I've had numerous call outs, I bought a new modem, tried almost everything and it all boils down to too many people online and not enough band width. We've had Broadband here for about 6 years now and at peak times it's slower now than it was 6 years ago, since there are now a lot more people online and with Netflix and all, the lines are getting a lot more activity,but the local lines haven't improved. I thought efibre would be my savior, but i think it's the opposite and it appears I won't benefit from efibre at all, since although I'm only 2km from the cab and about 1km from the next planned cab, since I'm in a rural setting and not in a housing estate, it looks like eircom will probably give me the two fingers and as well ESB also is only concerned with highly populated areas. For the past 2 years I was waiting on efibre, but now I realise it's like waiting for godot and it will probably never come. Now with the price increases, wireless internet is looking more attractive.

Eircom eFibre VDSL/FTTC rollout – plans to reach 1.6m premises by mid 2016

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