Eircom to roll out 1Gb/s FTTH to 66 towns

Hank Scorpio · 24-05-2016 08:20PM

So has anyone gotten this yet? How are the ping times, similar to efibre?

Gonzo · 24-05-2016 08:48PM

don't think ive seen any Eir FTTH ping/speed tests since the one I saw from Balcarra over a year ago.

There are 17 towns activated for Eir FTTH and very little reports from anyone?

swoofer · 24-05-2016 10:30PM

I think the uptake is small, here is a look at mine

and to be honest these speeds are not the norm and wont vary much from house to house or area to area so once you have one you have seen them all.

efibre is different as the range can be quite dramatic.

Gonzo · 24-05-2016 11:45PM

swoofer wrote: »

I think the uptake is small, here is a look at mine

and to be honest these speeds are not the norm and wont vary uch from house to house or area to area so once you have one you have seen them all.

efibre is different as the range can be quite dramatic.

faster than 99% of Ireland, would love to know what speeds the fastest 1% of the country have!

ED E · 25-05-2016 12:01AM

Gonzo wrote: »

faster than 99% of Ireland, would love to know what speeds the fastest 1% of the country have!

I'd be curious to see if anyone has run speedtest over a 10G circuit and how much the test node could push.

daraghwal · 25-05-2016 12:16AM

Gonzo wrote: »

faster than 99% of Ireland, would love to know what speeds the fastest 1% of the country have!

I am pretty sure there is no 100%. If someone is top of a class, their grade is the 99th percentile!

MichaelR · 25-05-2016 01:29AM

daraghwal wrote: »

You would use a lot more fuel in a big fast monster truck or Ferrari than you would in a little micra!
When speed is reduced, e.g. 4K cannot be used and systems such as youtube will use less (maybe 480p) to play a video. Reducing the amount of data being used up.

The problem is that 100M vs 1Gb won't make a difference in video quality, and thus FUP usage. One wants to cut things to something like 5M per viewing device, if not less, to ensure SD. And moreover, for computers, one would want to cut streaming video to 5M while keeping most things at max speed.

MichaelR · 25-05-2016 01:35AM

ED E wrote: »

Might be more effective to run a PFSense box as a caching server. Good chance you'd have to intercept HTTPS transparently to really save but could be done with all but smart TVs etc.

Running a computer, as opposed to a hardware router, is trickier or a few reasons at once - starting with noise. Of course one could get a noiseless box and a good Wi Fi adapter with antennas but this is not going to come cheap.

On the other hand, I just realized that one could probably run PFSense (or just Linux if the right software can be found, or even, ugh, Windows with NetLimiter) on a non-router device, perhaps even some old laptop to minimize costs and noise, and set it up as a proxy server on all the viewing devices. The downside of this solution is that the moment one forgets to set up the proxy server on a new browser, or the configuration somehow resets (on a smart TV. etc), the solution stops working.

Nollog · 25-05-2016 08:32AM

Gonzo wrote: »

swoofer wrote: »

I think the uptake is small, here is a look at mine

and to be honest these speeds are not the norm and wont vary uch from house to house or area to area so once you have one you have seen them all.

efibre is different as the range can be quite dramatic.

faster than 99% of Ireland, would love to know what speeds the fastest 1% of the country have!

Colleges and heanet are the 1%

Gonzo · 25-05-2016 10:37AM

/\/ollog wrote: »

Colleges and heanet are the 1%

and the upload is probably keeping it from higher than 99%! Im sure Eir can easily increase that upload over time.

daraghwal · 25-05-2016 10:44AM

Gonzo wrote: »

and the upload is probably keeping it from higher than 99%! Im sure Eir can easily increase that upload over time.

In any grading system there is no 100th Percentile!

irishgeo · 25-05-2016 11:48AM

any sign of vodafone reselling this? i dont want to move from my broadband only plan?

ED E · 25-05-2016 12:32PM

irishgeo wrote: »

any sign of vodafone reselling this? i dont want to move from my broadband only plan?

As discussed before they probably won't for now, they're in a partnership with the ESB for SIRO so they'll want to promote that rollout not help the other.

damienirel · 25-05-2016 12:33PM

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/rural-broadband-delays-put-us-at-bottom-of-eu-table-prices-double-eu-average-34744541.html

sibergoth · 25-05-2016 02:29PM

yeah if you are FASTER than 99% of people then you are the top obviously !

JohnC. · 25-05-2016 06:53PM

How do Virgin get to peddle the fastest broadband line in their ads when this is available? Is it just because it's not that widely available yet?

25-05-2016 07:22PM

JohnC. wrote: »

How do Virgin get to peddle the fastest broadband line in their ads when this is available? Is it just because it's not that widely available yet?

Highest average speed: http://www.speedtest.net/awards/ie

dam099 · 25-05-2016 07:34PM

511 wrote: »

Highest average speed: http://www.speedtest.net/awards/ie

Their methodology looks flawed to me (although Virgin would still come out top). They are taking average results from the top 10% percentile to supposedly capture customers subscribing to the top tiers.

In Eircoms case due to the "up to" nature of their service this is really probably capturing those close to the cabinet who can get near to 100/20 and 70/20 who may not represent much more than 10% of their customer base. The average across their base would be brought down by the larger numbers who can get nowhere near that (regardless of what they are prepared to pay).

Virgin pretty much offer 120/12 to everyone now (except a small minority still stuck on 30, which is still better than a large portion of Eirs base stuck on very low ADSL speeds).

KOR101 · 26-05-2016 11:54AM

God Bless Competition

:):)

Eir have lots of ads around Balbriggan that 1000mb speeds are now there, but actually they only seem to be in Balrothery.

Heard some banging outside my window this morning. A Virgin Media crew pulling rope through the drains. They said I'd get a flyer through the door in about 6 weeks. I asked what sort of cabling they were using, fibre or co-ax. They said they didn't actually know for sure, as another crew do that work, but they said it was fibre in Drogheda.

Is a lot of this sort of thing happening? Do we need a thread for the Virgin media rollout? Is there anywhere else they are trying to get a jump on the competition like this. Serves Eir right, if you ask me.

Johnboy1951 · 26-05-2016 12:41PM

A Virgin Media crew pulling rope through the drains.

Through what drains?

KOR101 · 26-05-2016 01:00PM

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Through what drains?

loyatemu · 26-05-2016 01:19PM

KOR101 wrote: »

Is a lot of this sort of thing happening? Do we need a thread for the Virgin media rollout? Is there anywhere else they are trying to get a jump on the competition like this. Serves Eir right, if you ask me.

Yes, Greystones - there's an old cable TV network that hadn't been upgraded since the 80s (formerly owned by Chorus). Virgin started replacing the cables last year and have just made broadband available to order in the last couple of weeks (so I'd take that "6 weeks" estimate with a pinch of salt).

Eir have 1Gb/s available but only in a couple of newer estates. We're on the list for Siro as well but it's hard to see where it will be worth their while if Eir and Virgin have the town covered.

Virgin's infrastructure is similar to Eir's FTTC/eFibre in that they run fibre to cabinets on the street and then copper into people's houses; the main difference is TV cable copper (coax) is higher capacity than phoneline copper so they can deliver 400Mb/s now, and probably 1Gb/s once the new version of DOCSIS is rolled out.

KOR101 · 26-05-2016 01:28PM

loyatemu wrote: »

Eir have 1Gb/s available but only in a couple of newer estates. We're on the list for Siro as well but it's hard to see where it will be worth their while if Eir and Virgin have the town covered.

But the point is that they don't really have these towns covered. I bet Virgin media is doing this BECAUSE of the Eir ads. My original plan was to wait for SIRO, but if it's not symmetrical then there's no point. I won't switch for a 95mb to 350mb jump.

loyatemu · 26-05-2016 01:38PM

KOR101 wrote: »

But the point is that they don't really have these towns covered. I bet Virgin media is doing this BECAUSE of the Eir ads. My original plan was to wait for SIRO, but if it's not symmetrical then there's no point. I won't switch for a 95mb to 350mb jump.

I assume Virgin have a bunch of places like Greystones where they have non-upgraded network in-situ. It's not a huge job for them to upgrade these as they already have ducts, manholes etc in place and cables already attached to people's houses (certainly easier than building a network from scratch). So why not upgrade anywhere that Openeir or Siro have announced and get the jump on them.

Virgin's old network covers all the old estates in Greystones, and the newer estates already have Virgin, Eir FTTH or both. Not much left for Siro.

KOR101 · 26-05-2016 09:44PM

loyatemu wrote: »

Virgin's infrastructure is similar to Eir's FTTC/eFibre in that they run fibre to cabinets on the street and then copper into people's houses; the main difference is TV cable copper (coax) is higher capacity than phoneline copper so they can deliver 400Mb/s now, and probably 1Gb/s once the new version of DOCSIS is rolled out.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I'm pretty sure there are no street cabinets. The estate was built around 2002-04, and clearly had all the cable TV piping from the start (but never used), including junction boxes at each house, where the ESB and GAS boxes are.

I just noticed they've pulled blue rope into my junction box. Does that suggest fibre all the way?

ED E · 26-05-2016 11:58PM

Orange is subducting & blue is fibre, so it could well be.

Virgins/NTLs CMTS cabs are much shorter than POTS/VDSL cabs so you may not notice them. And some are on the sides of homes.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 27-05-2016 12:26AM

Interesting to note that Virgin Media in the UK have announced a FTTP rollout to ten rural communities as part of the larger Project Lightning initiative which will see one million FTPP connections by 2019. However seeing as they did not enter the NBP bidding process it is unlikely that the Irish arm of the company has any such aspirations. They might though have plans to upgrade some of their legacy areas to full fibre.

https://recombu.com/digital/article/virgin-media-rural-fibre-broadband-rollout

Mc Love · 27-05-2016 09:13AM

Anyone have an idea what the new fiber cabs look like? I think there is a new one after being installed near my house. Its about half the size of the FTTC cabs and has a power sign on it.

ED E · 27-05-2016 10:12AM

Mc Love wrote: »

Anyone have an idea what the new fiber cabs look like? I think there is a new one after being installed near my house. Its about half the size of the FTTC cabs and has a power sign on it.

There aren't any. FTTH OLTs are stored in the exchange.

The small aluminium boxes with yellow stickers are ESB mini pillars.

bk · 27-05-2016 11:39AM

KOR101 wrote: »

Is a lot of this sort of thing happening? Do we need a thread for the Virgin media rollout? Is there anywhere else they are trying to get a jump on the competition like this. Serves Eir right, if you ask me.

I think a lot of people don't appreciate the amount of work that Virgin/UPC have been doing on their network behind the scenes over the last 10 years.

They have basically ripped out the majority of coax across the majority of network and replaced it with much higher quality coax and fibre to nodes to allow them deliver vastly higher speeds.

They have built a network over the last 10 years that allows 1/3rd of the homes in Ireland get 360Mb/s today and will be upgradeable to 1Gb/s in the next year or two.

They have been doing this work very quietly in the background, with non of the hoopla you get from Eir. It is this continuing work that you are seeing KOR101 now in your own area.

I realise it isn't as sexy as FTTH, but I don't think people appreciate that it is Virgin who are driving the Irish broadband market and are pretty core to it's current strength.

Eircom to roll out 1Gb/s FTTH to 66 towns

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