NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

MajesticDonkey · 10-02-2015 1:11pm

Good video...the only worrying part is when she said speeds of up to "1 Gigabyte" will be achievable, obviously meaning 1 Gigabit...

ED E · 10-02-2015 2:20pm

Business person, nonntechnical no doubt.

If they go all in it'll be really impressive. The size of the exchange in Belcara really shows how its a small scale trial, but that's the target market I suppose.

Jakey Rolling · 10-02-2015 2:46pm

I would certainly have worries over Eircom hanging fibre off their existing poles.

A year after the storms of January 2014, they have just got round to replacing the worst affected poles around here. Yet they have still left a 50 metre length of cable that is lying on the ground across a field entrance. Copper might have survived the traffic over it, I doubt that fibre would be so resilient!

Given the safety requirement for ESB infrastructure to be structurally sound, and be repaired quickly I would have more confidence in using it to support FTTH.

Gonzo · 10-02-2015 3:25pm

This just can't happen soon enough! hopefully whoever wins the contract can start connecting people up over the next few months with some services live before the end of the year.

ED E · 10-02-2015 3:30pm

Gonzo wrote: »

This just can't happen soon enough! hopefully whoever wins the contract can start connecting people up over the next few months with some services live before the end of the year.

Unfortunately thats a pipe dream. COMREG are still in the process of hiring a technical lead for it, all a long way off.

MajesticDonkey · 10-02-2015 3:40pm

Gonzo wrote: »

This just can't happen soon enough! hopefully whoever wins the contract can start connecting people up over the next few months with some services live before the end of the year.

This is the complete opposite of what should happen. The government and state bodies have a long history of rushing things without due care and planning.

As someone who is currently using a 4Mb fixed wireless connection ("the best a man can get"), I can't wait for this either, but they can bloody well take their time and do it properly!

Sheldons Brain · 10-02-2015 5:40pm

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

I would certainly have worries over Eircom hanging fibre off their existing poles.

A year after the storms of January 2014, they have just got round to replacing the worst affected poles around here. Yet they have still left a 50 metre length of cable that is lying on the ground across a field entrance. Copper might have survived the traffic over it, I doubt that fibre would be so resilient!

Given the safety requirement for ESB infrastructure to be structurally sound, and be repaired quickly I would have more confidence in using it to support FTTH.

In sparsely populated rural areas, the ESB network should be used, and Eircom allowed provide service over this and dismantle their poles. Where there is a certain population density, the present situation can remain.

bk · 10-02-2015 6:06pm

Sheldons Brain wrote: »

In sparsely populated rural areas, the ESB network should be used, and Eircom allowed provide service over this and dismantle their poles. Where there is a certain population density, the present situation can remain.

Yes, there should only be one network and one pole. By why should Eircom be allowed to do this? Why not just allow the ESB to directly run their own fiber over their own poles to people.

Should we really be rewarding Eircom for not investing in their network over the last 20 years and leaving it to fall apart?

And given the difference in finances as described earlier, it is clear that the ESB would be able to deliver it for far less money then Eircom. So why pay more for it?

And finally if the ESB own the network, then the network remains in semi state ownership, rather then private ownership, which is preferable.

The more I think about it, the more I favour the ESB rolling out this rural network.

Of course if the ESB aren't interested in doing this and Eircom are the only ones interested in rolling out FTTH, then of course we should go with them. But they aren't my favoured option.

Hackery · 10-02-2015 10:00pm

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/Our_Network/

Eircom's fibre network is very deep into rural Ireland.

ESB are having big problems with their roll out hence the delay until 2016. This is despite a real push to launch early 2015.

Danny Boy · 10-02-2015 10:29pm

Hackery wrote: »

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/Our_Network/

Eircom's fibre network is very deep into rural Ireland.

ESB are having big problems with their roll out hence the delay until 2016. This is despite a real push to launch early 2015.

Do we really know that the ESB are having big problems?

rob808 · 11-02-2015 12:11am

Eircom really are only one doing trails for rural areas for FTTH.The ESB haven't even said what there doing if they win and no trails.I do think ESB would be the best but there not saying much so really don't know how interest they are in NBP.This LTE A has me worried doubt it would work for me since I have a lot of tress around me doh my satellite work ok but mobile phone useless.I would hope I'm not one of those end of road red ribbon areas that get LTE A would rather FTTH or FTTP.

Cuddlesworth · 11-02-2015 12:50pm

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

I would certainly have worries over Eircom hanging fibre off their existing poles.

A year after the storms of January 2014, they have just got round to replacing the worst affected poles around here. Yet they have still left a 50 metre length of cable that is lying on the ground across a field entrance. Copper might have survived the traffic over it, I doubt that fibre would be so resilient!

Given the safety requirement for ESB infrastructure to be structurally sound, and be repaired quickly I would have more confidence in using it to support FTTH.

If done right, most hub locations would have 3-4 redundant links creating a huge meshed network. So you could lose multiple poles and at most have a 1-2 second drop in connectivity.

bk · 11-02-2015 1:22pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

If done right, most hub locations would have 3-4 redundant links creating a huge meshed network. So you could lose multiple poles and at most have a 1-2 second drop in connectivity.

Well there is very little chance of that happening!

FTTH is going to cost enough as it is without running multiple redundant links!!

ED E · 11-02-2015 2:16pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

If done right, most hub locations would have 3-4 redundant links creating a huge meshed network. So you could lose multiple poles and at most have a 1-2 second drop in connectivity.

Ideally yes, but it wont happen. There are large exchanges (1000s of customers) on spurs, no way distrib nodes are getting meshed access.

wexfordman2 · 11-02-2015 2:37pm

ED E wrote: »

Ideally yes, but it wont happen. There are large exchanges (1000s of customers) on spurs, no way distrib nodes are getting meshed access.

I would have thought that with copper infrastructure meshing woykd be difficult, as it requires not just physical connectivity, but the capacity as well.

Would think it would be much easier with fibre.

ED E · 11-02-2015 3:12pm

wexfordman2 wrote: »

I would have thought that with copper infrastructure meshing woykd be difficult, as it requires not just physical connectivity, but the capacity as well.

Would think it would be much easier with fibre.

I wasnt referring to copper infrastructure at all. Most exchanges link to the rest of the core with fibre.

KOR101 · 11-02-2015 8:45pm

Been trying to dig into what's happening elsewhere. The biggest thing that bothers me about what Eircom are saying re FTTH as the best solution is that it exceeds the EU objective (could that cause problems?) and the lack of precedent.

This is Poland's take on it.

http://bitspiration.com/news/technology/digital-poland-program-to-provide-30-mbs-internet-in-every-home/

LTE technology may provide Internet services to the most faraway rural areas, where providing stationary infrastructure is not profitable even when accounting for European funds.

Danny Boy · 11-02-2015 9:10pm

KOR101 wrote: »

Been trying to dig into what's happening elsewhere. The biggest thing that bothers me about what Eircom are saying re FTTH as the best solution is that it exceeds the EU objective (could that cause problems?) and the lack of precedent.

This is Poland's take on it.

http://bitspiration.com/news/technology/digital-poland-program-to-provide-30-mbs-internet-in-every-home/

LTE technology may provide Internet services to the most faraway rural areas, where providing stationary infrastructure is not profitable even when accounting for European funds.

I think there will always be an LTE part to any solution, eircom are saying FTTH for most of it.

Cuddlesworth · 11-02-2015 9:34pm

Danny Boy wrote: »

I think there will always be an LTE part to any solution, eircom are saying FTTH for most of it.

No, they are saying FTTH for everything. Every single house in the country.

I have my doubts about it being anywhere near cost effective.

On the point of meshed networks, we have such a huge problem with ribbon development that its rare to go further than 500 meters before reaching a house on any road in any direction. So in reality, there are very few places in which you would say this is clearly the point in which Hub A ends and Hub B begins. Which to me says that if you're running cable/digging trench and dropping down fibre, its extremely cost effective to run an extra cable and put it that extra 500 meters to create that redundant link.

godskitchen · 11-02-2015 9:46pm

This term, ribbon development, it's starting to annoy me.

Everyone keeps trotting it out as some kind of issue unique to Ireland. It's not.

Iv been to every country in Europe apart from Denmark, and this ribbon development is no way unique to Ireland.

We are a tiny, tiny country. Granted our population is not huge but compared to land mass vs people, we have nothing on most countries.

Can you imagine if the esb, back in the day, trotted out this "ribbon " crap.

This is the market we have.

Danny Boy · 11-02-2015 10:01pm

godskitchen wrote: »

This term, ribbon development, it's starting to annoy me.

Everyone keeps trotting it out as some kind of issue unique to Ireland. It's not.

Iv been to every country in Europe apart from Denmark, and this ribbon development is no way unique to Ireland.

We are a tiny, tiny country. Granted our population is not huge but compared to land mass vs people, we have nothing on most countries.

Can you imagine if the esb, back in the day, trotted out this "ribbon " crap.

This is the market we have.

Rural electrification - commenced 1946, only completed by the mid 70s

http://www.ouririshheritage.org/page_id__73.aspx

murphaph · 11-02-2015 11:06pm

godskitchen wrote: »

This term, ribbon development, it's starting to annoy me.

Everyone keeps trotting it out as some kind of issue unique to Ireland. It's not.

Iv been to every country in Europe apart from Denmark, and this ribbon development is no way unique to Ireland.

We are a tiny, tiny country. Granted our population is not huge but compared to land mass vs people, we have nothing on most countries.

Can you imagine if the esb, back in the day, trotted out this "ribbon " crap.

This is the market we have.

As noted by the poster above me, rural electrification took 40 odd years to complete AND the levels of ribbon and one off properties back then were a fraction of what they are now. Ireland began with it's bungalow blitz towards the end of rural electrification.

I also beg to differ that ribbon development (and indeed one off development) is common across Europe. It's not even common in Great Britain (it IS common in Northern Ireland as they had a very softly softly approach to planning to "keep the natives happy").

Here in Germany planning law defines "inside a built up area" and "outside a built up area" and the built up area boundaries generally don't change. The default position in German planning law is that it is forbidden to build anything "outside a built up area" unless there are very special circumstances (farm buildings, for example). This has been the case for decades, resulting in urban densification.

I have no idea where this is but I just zoomed in on some random part of Germany and this is what I found. It's so different to the ribbon development you see in Ireland. Small CLUSTERS of maybe 50 or 100 homes in perhaps 1km². These types of settlements are easy and cost effective to provide VDSL to. Rural Ireland essentially needs FTTH as VDSL is next to useless because of the dispersed settlement.

godskitchen · 11-02-2015 11:07pm

Danny Boy wrote: »

Rural electrification - commenced 1946, only completed by the mid 70s

http://www.ouririshheritage.org/page_id__73.aspx

.......what is your point? That it took a long time?

Rural telecommunication 1970-2030?

This is the last thing any provider will have to do for the foreseeable future.

They need to look at it long term and work out the cost over 30+ years. Ribbon development or not, fibre is the only answer so get it done.

godskitchen · 11-02-2015 11:17pm

murphaph wrote: »

As noted by the poster above me, rural electrification took 40 odd years to complete AND the levels of ribbon and one off properties back then were a fraction of what they are now. Ireland began with it's bungalow blitz towards the end of rural electrification.

I also beg to differ that ribbon development (and indeed one off development) is common across Europe. It's not even common in Great Britain (it IS common in Northern Ireland as they had a very softly softly approach to planning to "keep the natives happy").

Here in Germany planning law defines "inside a built up area" and "outside a built up area" and the built up area boundaries generally don't change. The default position in German planning law is that it is forbidden to build anything "outside a built up area" unless there are very special circumstances (farm buildings, for example). This has been the case for decades, resulting in urban densification.

I have no idea where this is but I just zoomed in on some random part of Germany and this is what I found. It's so different to the ribbon development you see in Ireland. Small CLUSTERS of maybe 50 or 100 homes in perhaps 1km². These types of settlements are easy and cost effective to provide VDSL to. Rural Ireland essentially needs FTTH as VDSL is next to useless because of the dispersed settlement.

Yep, I just zoomed into a random part of France. Looks like here. One off housing, clusters of 3/4 houses. You would be hard pushed to say what country it was comparing it to Ireland.

This ribbon development talk is akin to not maintaining roads (you could agree they are not maintained, I would however put the blame on how our council system works for that) because there is only one or two house on the side.

Rubbish, it's what we have and we are stuck with it. Run the fibre now or pay more to do it in the future. Do it now and it will continue to generate cash for you for the next 50-70 years.

Eircom know this.

Danny Boy · 11-02-2015 11:31pm

godskitchen wrote: »

.......what is your point? That it took a long time?

Rural telecommunication 1970-2030?

This is the last thing any provider will have to do for the foreseeable future.

They need to look at it long term and work out the cost over 30+ years. Ribbon development or not, fibre is the only answer so get it done.

Point is the ESB took 40 years to rural electrification, they've been in the telecoms market since 2000 with minimal impact, and now their project scheduled to start in late 2014/15 has all of a sudden been pushed back by a year.

So I don't exactly have blind faith in them to do this either, all we know to date about their fibre prowess is they've connected a few houses in Cavan.

Cuddlesworth · 11-02-2015 11:32pm

godskitchen wrote: »

Yep, I just zoomed into a random part of France. Looks like here. One off housing, clusters of 3/4 houses. You would be hard pushed to say what country it was comparing it to Ireland.

This ribbon development talk is akin to not maintaining roads (you could agree they are not maintained, I would however put the blame on how our council system works for that) because there is only one or two house on the side.

Rubbish, it's what we have and we are stuck with it. Run the fibre now or pay more to do it in the future. Do it now and it will continue to generate cash for you for the next 50-70 years.

Eircom know this.

http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/documents/census2011vol1andprofile1/Profile1_Town_and_Country_Entire_doc.pdf

Page 12. We have a problem with ribbon development and at least 70 years of very bad planning. Its not a assumption, its a real and valid problem. Our Electricity grid costs far more then is should for either the country size or population size.

I've been to Sweden and other countries that work. Even in rural areas, people live in towns. A town is considered above 150 people per kilometer squared.

Jakey Rolling · 12-02-2015 12:14am

What to make of this?
http://www.stdc.ie/rural-broadband-for-south-tipperary/

South Tipp Development Company acknowledging the NBP target of 2020 but going ahead with some wireless solution in partnership with Wuhan Vstar - apparently Okayed with ComReg. Better than 30Mbps?

Anyone have insight on their technology?

MajesticDonkey · 12-02-2015 12:34am

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

What to make of this?
http://www.stdc.ie/rural-broadband-for-south-tipperary/

South Tipp Development Company acknowledging the NBP target of 2020 but going ahead with some wireless solution in partnership with Wuhan Vstar - apparently Okayed with ComReg. Better than 30Mbps?

Anyone have insight on their technology?

Interesting, thanks for the link!

rob808 · 12-02-2015 12:53am

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

What to make of this?
http://www.stdc.ie/rural-broadband-for-south-tipperary/

South Tipp Development Company acknowledging the NBP target of 2020 but going ahead with some wireless solution in partnership with Wuhan Vstar - apparently Okayed with ComReg. Better than 30Mbps?

Anyone have insight on their technology?

I would rather stay with DSL than wireless.

MajesticDonkey · 12-02-2015 1:09am

rob808 wrote: »

I would rather stay with DSL than wireless.

DSL isn't available in "rural" South Tipperary, and indeed much of "rural" Ireland.

jd · 12-02-2015 1:26am

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

What to make of this?
http://www.stdc.ie/rural-broadband-for-south-tipperary/

South Tipp Development Company acknowledging the NBP target of 2020 but going ahead with some wireless solution in partnership with Wuhan Vstar - apparently Okayed with ComReg. Better than 30Mbps?

Anyone have insight on their technology?

In Wexford too
http://www.wexfordpeople.ie/business/ultrahigh-broadband-speed-trials-in-taghmon-30979920.html

Ultra-high speed broadband could be on its way to rural Wexford at last, with Taghmon leading the charge.

A three-month technical trial testing a new service to rural areas will begin in Taghmon within months.

Formal agreement on the trial was signed between Wexford Local Development and Chinese broadband firm Wuhan Vstar earlier this month.

Brian Kehoe, Chief Executive of Wexford Local Development, said communities in rural Wexford cannot afford in either economic or social terms to wait on others, no matter how well-intentioned, to address the broadband gap.

'This digital divide is costing rural Wexford access to jobs, training and social opportunities and must be addressed urgently,' he said.

The technology to be pioneered in the three month trial is wireless-based, but recent innovations in technology abroad mean it can potentially offer much higher average speeds than has been available to most rural customers and even far in excess of the government's own targets under the National Broadband Plan.

rob808 · 12-02-2015 1:36am

Well guess there goes our NBP government probably see this and go fixed wireless for all dam was looking forward to FTTH

.

dalta5billion · 12-02-2015 1:39am

I'd like to see details on this "agreement" - has money changed hands?

Jakey Rolling · 12-02-2015 10:56am

rob808 wrote: »

I would rather stay with DSL than wireless.

Pretty dubious about any wireless solution myself. May provide a suitable stop-gap for some until FTTH is implemented.

A quick search doesn't throw up anything regarding Wuhan's apparent deployments in rural China and Australia.

KOR101 · 14-02-2015 4:07pm

In today's |Irish Times....

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/ireland-s-broadband-black-spots-1.2103169

He acknowledges that people are frustrated by having to wait for broadband, but he asks for patience. “We want people to keep faith with it, because, when they get it, they are going to get it at a standard comparable to anywhere in the world,” he says. Monthly progress reports will be published between now and 2020.

White has already spoken to the European Investment Bank and the European Commission about finding the bulk of the estimated €500 million to fund the State end of the project. “I would see this as being funded from a variety of sources,” he says.

And this...

A draft intervention strategy, outlining how the plan will be rolled out, is to be published in the middle of this year, after consultation with the public and commercial operators. Then plan will go to the European Commission, which has to be satisfied, first, that the State is not intervening where the commercial sector should be and, second, that the new service will be a big improvement on what is currently available.

rob808 · 14-02-2015 9:38pm

KOR101 wrote: »

In today's |Irish Times....

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/ireland-s-broadband-black-spots-1.2103169

He acknowledges that people are frustrated by having to wait for broadband, but he asks for patience. “We want people to keep faith with it, because, when they get it, they are going to get it at a standard comparable to anywhere in the world,” he says. Monthly progress reports will be published between now and 2020.

White has already spoken to the European Investment Bank and the European Commission about finding the bulk of the estimated €500 million to fund the State end of the project. “I would see this as being funded from a variety of sources,” he says.

And this...

A draft intervention strategy, outlining how the plan will be rolled out, is to be published in the middle of this year, after consultation with the public and commercial operators. Then plan will go to the European Commission, which has to be satisfied, first, that the State is not intervening where the commercial sector should be and, second, that the new service will be a big improvement on what is currently available.

A cording to that look like schools and businesses be connected to first so guess if your near one you get connected.

Johnboy1951 · 14-02-2015 10:15pm

rob808 wrote: »

A cording to that look like schools and businesses be connected to first so guess if your near one you get connected.

I would like to think so .... hopefully the cable passes me on the way to the local school

KOR101 · 14-02-2015 10:18pm

Actually the IT article appears to be based on an interview in the Silicon Republic.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/40696-the-interview-alex-white/

In the IT article,

The Department of Communications has said it will provide the network of fibre-optic cables to connect rural areas. Whichever operator or operators win the contract will then link rural homes to that network, bringing high-speed broadband the last step of the way to the public.

And in the Silicon Republic article,

White said that while 30Mbps is the bare minimum download speed covered in the plan, because the network will be fibre and because it is going to be technologically neutral, the intervention by the State will mean that commercial operators could ratchet this up using G.Fast and GPON technologies to even higher speeds.

“30Mbps is just a minimum requirement. The technologically neutral aspect of the network means other providers can plug in. When I first came into this office I used to raise an eyebrow at the phrase ‘future-proofed’ (it sounded like ‘state-of-the-art or ‘world class’), but it actually does have real meaning because fibre can take the upgrade. So we could be starting with 30Mbps but in a few years we could be talking 1Gbps. Why not?

bk · 15-02-2015 10:22am

Interestingly according to the above article, Eircom, BT Ireland and ESB/Vodafone have all expressed interest in bidding for the contract.

In particular ESB IMO.

Also that Minister White seems to be saying explicitly that it will be either GPON or G.Fast FTTH. Very good news, no crappy wireless.

rob808 · 15-02-2015 11:08am

How does the bidding work a sackly is it like the highest paying bidder wins with that money going with the NBP roll out.

skydish79 · 15-02-2015 12:33pm

bk wrote: »

Interestingly according to the above article, Eircom, BT Ireland and ESB/Vodafone have all expressed interest in bidding for the contract.

In particular ESB IMO.

Also that Minister White seems to be saying explicitly that it will be either GPON or G.Fast FTTH. Very good news, no crappy wireless.

Given the reserves that esb and Vodafone have I'd hope they get the contract

dalta5billion · 15-02-2015 1:12pm

I'd prefer to see a PtP fibre rollout TBH, or at the very least an upgradeable GPON rollout with proper use of ducting to enable an easy upgrade to PtP. If we really want to encourage tech businesses to set up in rural Ireland we need to make it possible to run your own data centre from your home if you so desire.

Also, I'd like if the government got involved in subsidised transit to/from Ireland. No point in domestic Gigabit connectivity if your international links are only running at 10Gbps. Ideally the entirety of the ESB's Emerald Bridge or some number of dark fibres could be regulated to provide cheap transit to the UK. This would probably not be allowed by the EU though.

rob808 · 15-02-2015 1:43pm

Well p2p has a distance of 10-40km so that be good for villages and ribbon development close to them were as GPON has 20km distance and WDM PON has 100km which they would most likely use since the distance it gives.I would hope they use p2p and GPON but see them using WDM PON as well.

I only hope LTE A used for the worst cases since download cap aren't really great with price for some of the fixed wireless,useless company like regional broadband can offer the 30mb but higher in future. I think that because wouldn't seem fair if some rural have broadboard up to a 1GP in future and others just say has say 40mb.

It look like vodafone entertaining tv market as well like Eircom doing now
Independent.ie/business/Irish/vodafone-plans-tv-services-in-Ireland-as-Quad-play-beckons-30992612.html

KOR101 · 16-02-2015 10:41am

Another Irish Times article....

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/rural-ireland-needs-better-broadband-to-compete-globally-1.2104949

Nothing new in it, but there does appear to be some sort of groundswell for serious speeds. The farmers getting behind it is significant too.

Three case stories to accompany the article.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/jason-coyle-i-have-to-put-it-to-a-window-at-an-angle-1.2104968

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/technology/eoin-%C3%B3-riain-laments-poor-service-in-electronic-communications-1.2104966

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ger-o-sullivan-it-s-like-being-in-the-stone-age-in-2015-1.2104955

chasm · 16-02-2015 4:45pm

KOR101 wrote: »

Another Irish Times article....

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/rural-ireland-needs-better-broadband-to-compete-globally-1.2104949

Nothing new in it, but there does appear to be some sort of groundswell for serious speeds. The farmers getting behind it is significant too.

Three case stories to accompany the article.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/jason-coyle-i-have-to-put-it-to-a-window-at-an-angle-1.2104968

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/technology/eoin-%C3%B3-riain-laments-poor-service-in-electronic-communications-1.2104966

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ger-o-sullivan-it-s-like-being-in-the-stone-age-in-2015-1.2104955

Went into the Dcenr.gov.ie website to view the map and the site is down!

Cuddlesworth · 16-02-2015 5:06pm

KOR101 wrote: »

Another Irish Times article....

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/rural-ireland-needs-better-broadband-to-compete-globally-1.2104949

Nothing new in it, but there does appear to be some sort of groundswell for serious speeds. The farmers getting behind it is significant too.

Three case stories to accompany the article.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/jason-coyle-i-have-to-put-it-to-a-window-at-an-angle-1.2104968

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/technology/eoin-%C3%B3-riain-laments-poor-service-in-electronic-communications-1.2104966

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ger-o-sullivan-it-s-like-being-in-the-stone-age-in-2015-1.2104955

I completely agree with a state sponsored backbone which business can avail of, but this article rips the piss. How can you move into one of the most desolate places in the world, then expect first class broadband infrastructure? Knowing he needed it before he moved?

squonk · 16-02-2015 5:20pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I completely agree with a state sponsored backbone which business can avail of, but this article rips the piss. How can you move into one of the most desolate places in the world, then expect first class broadband infrastructure? Knowing he needed it before he moved?

To be honest he sounds like a complete idiot! Surely he had been down to Conemara prior to moving and could have ascertained that the infrastructure wasn't very good down there? Conemara is beautiful but there reaslly isn't the kind of infrastructure there for fast broadband. I mean, any fool would know that after spending a weekend there even! From the sounds of it anyway he'd do OK with mobile broadband and surely he could publish blog updates that way?

ED E · 19-02-2015 12:17am

Interesting pub from COMREG today:

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1517.pdf

Strawberry HillBilly · 19-02-2015 8:31am

For the slow lad down the back what does this mean in (preferably) monosyllabic words

KoKane · 19-02-2015 8:31am

So does anyone have any theories behind the current Eircom price increase and the option for getting out of their contract?

Does anyone think something is coming? Perhaps Eircom reckon they're gonna be losing customers soon and will try to cover the damage because maybe they reckon its temporary?

If a price war is the likely outcome of the ESB FTTH rollout, perhaps Eircom simply want to start the war at a higher price?

Would be curious to hear any ideas anyone has.

NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

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