National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Mortelaro · 11-02-2020 10:49am

Timmy will get a gig in the new Senate
My opinion now is the NBp is safe given the amount of rural independents elected and what's in the SF manifesto
So hallelujah

ussjtrunks · 11-02-2020 7:41pm

So like will we ever see the rollout site that says when people will actually get connected?

KOR101 · 15-02-2020 12:11pm

The Independent is reporting that a FG condition of entering government with FF is continuation of the NBP.

http://cf.broadsheet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ind-11.jpg

recyclebin · 15-02-2020 12:28pm

The contract it already signed. They're not going to back out now. That article is fluff piece.

The Cush · 15-02-2020 12:50pm

From that articled

Senior ministers have said the price for power Micheál Martin would have to pay is sharing the role of Taoiseach with Leo Varadkar. Other key demands include income tax cuts, improved childcare subsidies and the continued roll-out of rural broadband.
...
The continued roll-out of the controversial National Broadband Plan (NBP), which Fianna Fáil has criticised due to its cost, and other rural development initiatives would have to be included under any deal, according to another minister.

ACitizenErased · 15-02-2020 3:53pm

4site up at my house surveying right now. Live in Cork City.

wexfordman2 · 15-02-2020 4:55pm

ACitizenErased wrote: »

4site up at my house surveying right now. Live in Cork City.

Cork city ? In the nbp area ?

ACitizenErased · 15-02-2020 5:11pm

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Cork city ? In the nbp area ?

Yes, Rochestown (in cork city since the boundary change) is covered by the NBP.

clohamon · 16-02-2020 10:56am

Should be some easy pickings there. I'd reckoned they'd leave urban failures until last. Seems not.
Might encourage Eircom to speed up their urban FTTP program.

Pique · 16-02-2020 2:01pm

Hopefully that would make it harder to kill the deal if they are already actively working on individual connections rather than just the BCPs.

ACitizenErased · 16-02-2020 7:01pm

clohamon wrote: »

Should be some easy pickings there. I'd reckoned they'd leave urban failures until last. Seems not.
Might encourage Eircom to speed up their urban FTTP program.

I’m fully convinced Eirs ignorance to Rochestown is pure laziness honestly. Plenty of houses up here and zero reason to suggest its not “commercially viable”.

theguzman · 16-02-2020 7:10pm

Pique wrote: »

Hopefully that would make it harder to kill the deal if they are already actively working on individual connections rather than just the BCPs.

Exactly this, the best thing NBI could do now is pick the lowest hanging fruit and immediately connect them up to fibre, get out the press and a few happy householders and start positive spin immediately. Get fibre into some rural part of Connemara immediately also. It is going to take time we all realised this but we are into very positive territory compared to even just 12 months ago.

Ultimanemo · 16-02-2020 7:23pm

theguzman wrote: »

Exactly this, the best thing NBI could do now is pick the lowest hanging fruit and immediately connect them up to fibre, get out the press and a few happy householders and start positive spin immediately. Get fibre into some rural part of Connemara immediately also. It is going to take time we all realised this but we are into very positive territory compared to even just 12 months ago.

If we get FF FG GP coalition we will probably be OK, If we got SF and others then it is the end of the NBP

Pique · 16-02-2020 10:33pm

Ultimanemo wrote: »

If we get FF FG GP coalition we will probably be OK, If we got SF and others then it is the end of the NBP

If the Greens get CCCAE it's in danger. Eamon Ryan was dead against it.

Remember this?

Mortelaro · 16-02-2020 10:39pm

Pique wrote: »

If the Greens get CCCAE it's in danger. Eamon Ryan was dead against it.

Remember this?

The greens have bigger fish to fry than stopping the broadband plan whereas it's a central demand of FG ,I would have thought,so no need to worry?

rob808 · 16-02-2020 10:41pm

Pique wrote: »

If the Greens get CCCAE it's in danger. Eamon Ryan was dead against it.

Remember this?

let hope they don't get in because Eamon Ryan give anybody a bad headache listening to his rubbish talk.

Ultimanemo · 16-02-2020 10:49pm

Pique wrote: »

If the Greens get CCCAE it's in danger. Eamon Ryan was dead against it.

Remember this?

They won't have enough TDs to stop it

clohamon · 17-02-2020 11:56am

Pique wrote: »

If the Greens get CCCAE it's in danger. Eamon Ryan was dead against it.

Remember this?

Green manifesto was supportive.

Green Party
6.7 Digital Economy (p30)
Implement the National Broadband Plan while exercising all available options to minimise the cost and maximise the use of the new service.
9.6 Rural Regeneration (p43)
Implement the National Broadband Plan and support the development of working from home initiatives in the public and other State services.

https://www.greenparty.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GP-manifesto-2020-FINAL.pdf

clohamon · 17-02-2020 6:43pm

Examiner reporting a High Court challenge from LightNet. For hearing in April.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/west-of-ireland-broadband-provider-challenges-decision-over-next-generation-standards-982275.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm

A broadband provider in the west of Ireland has brought a High Court challenge to a decision that its network does not meet next generation standards under the National Broadband Plan.

Lighthouse Networks, trading as Lightnet, claims the decision by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment means its functional area will not be excluded from the national plan and that it will then have to compete with the State subsidised service.

Lighthouse director Des Chambers, who is also a lecturer in computer science in University College Galway, says in an affidavit the company engaged with the Department and its advisers throughout the assessment process in the expectation that it would apply assessment criteria reasonably, fairly and in line with practice in other EU jurisdictions.

It also relied on the Department's assurance that its (department's) technical experts would attend an on-site meeting to deal with detailed matters.

"Neither of these expectations were met", he says. The impact of this has been the company has not further invested or expanded its network despite having grown rapidly.

Marlow · 17-02-2020 9:30pm

Actions like these were expected.

There is some issues with how the last submitted data were evaluated and goalposts were moved by the department undermining existing providers that actually provide speeds deemed to be within NGA standards.

/M

clohamon · 17-02-2020 10:08pm

Marlow wrote: »

Actions like these were expected.

There is some issues with how the last submitted data were evaluated and goalposts were moved by the department undermining existing providers that actually provide speeds deemed to be within NGA standards.

/M

It would be great if one or some of the (W)ISPs would publish the letter of rejection they got from the Department.

rogue-entity · 17-02-2020 10:24pm

Marlow wrote: »

Actions like these were expected.

There is some issues with how the last submitted data were evaluated and goalposts were moved by the department undermining existing providers that actually provide speeds deemed to be within NGA standards.

/M

I haven't been closely following the NBP saga, but my understanding is that it's aim is to provide a FTTH service to the rural homes that neither Eir, Siro nor Virgin Media will connect as they are deemed commercially unprofitable.

Lightnet, from what I could quickly gather, is a Wireless ISP with FTTH services in a number of areas; it wouldn't make sense for the NBP to overlap those FTTH areas and if those areas are commercially viable then Lightnet would be competing with the aforementioned.
They might have a point if the NBP service area overlaps their FTTH service area, but if it's a case of FTTH (government subsidised or not) vs RF - I don't see how they could compete with the limitations of the technology.

westyIrl · 17-02-2020 11:01pm

rogue-entity wrote: »

I haven't been closely following the NBP saga, but my understanding is that it's aim is to provide a FTTH service to the rural homes that neither Eir, Siro nor Virgin Media will connect as they are deemed commercially unprofitable.

Lightnet, from what I could quickly gather, is a Wireless ISP with FTTH services in a number of areas; it wouldn't make sense for the NBP to overlap those FTTH areas and if those areas are commercially viable then Lightnet would be competing with the aforementioned.
They might have a point if the NBP service area overlaps their FTTH service area, but if it's a case of FTTH (government subsidised or not) vs RF - I don't see how they could compete with the limitations of the technology.

They certainly appear to be making the claim in relation to their RF footprint

Lighthouse says it provides broadband to more than 6,000 premises in Galway, east Offaly, Clare and up to the border of Roscommon. It claims its technology is 30% more spectrally efficient than the current best licensed wireless access services.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I'm sure the Department won't want to let the flood gates open on this which must be test case.

Talk about a PITA if somehow your area was excluded from NBP fiber because you lie somewhere in Lightnet's wireless service area.

Jim

java · 18-02-2020 1:02am

Are there any other providers in the same boat as Lightnet I wonder.

Ultimanemo · 18-02-2020 7:10am

westyIrl wrote: »

They certainly appear to be making the claim in relation to their RF footprint

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I'm sure the Department won't want to let the flood gates open on this which must be test case.

Talk about a PITA if somehow your area was excluded from NBP fiber because you lie somewhere in Lightnet's wireless service area.

Jim

Lightnet data is not accurate, they say they cover our area, I contacted them, their engineer came and said no signal, Airwire map covers my house, I contacted them, same result, engineer came, no signal.

Ultimanemo · 18-02-2020 7:12am

Mortelaro wrote: »

The greens have bigger fish to fry than stopping the broadband plan whereas it's a central demand of FG ,I would have thought,so no need to worry?

No.
Greens don't fry fish, they fry carrots.

Wanderer78 · 18-02-2020 7:57am

Ultimanemo wrote:

No. Greens don't fry fish, they fry carrots.

Fry! We re too mean for that, we eat them straight out of the ground, muck and all

clohamon · 18-02-2020 9:21am

java wrote: »

Are there any other providers in the same boat as Lightnet I wonder.

Following is the list from the Wisdm submission to the consultation, so presumably they all have ‘skin in the game’ as Lidar data is not cheap. There’s also Imagine.

https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/consultations/Documents/88/submissions/Wireless%20ISP%20Group%20NonConfidential.pdf

Airwave Internet
Airwire
Alpha Wave
Aptus Broadband
Atlantek
BBNet
Bluebox
Cork internet Exchange
Digital Forge
Eurona Brisknet
Ivertec
Kernet Broadband
Kerry Broadband
Lighnet
MTS Media
Munster Wireless
Net1
Nova Broadband
NuWave
Orion Digital Services Ltd.
Rapid Broadband
Real Broadband
Regional Broadband
Skytel Broadband
Total Wireless / HiSpeed
Whizzy Internet
WiFiber
Wireless Connect

djd80 · 18-02-2020 11:44am

I'm 10 miles outside of Cork City - so not too far from the city but rural all the same. SIRO stopped about 750m from our house.

Came home yesterday to find two guys parked outside my gate and checking out the poles on the road. Had a quick chat with them and they were surveying from NBI - told me thats the first step in the process - their survey - that gets submitted - signed off - architected and then rolled out.

They reckon they cable on our road will be done within a year.

They had an iPad with them which had a mapping application on it where they were marking the route and identifying the poles and had no problem changing the route they had for my house when I pointed out to them I had ducting run to a different pole - seemed like organised guys.

Whether there is fibre running past our place in a year we will have to wait and see.

One question I have though.

I have a duct running to a pole and then into a panel on the side of my house - similar to an ESB meter box.
Within that box I have power and a CAT6 cable into the house.

Will I be able to use that setup for the Fibre conection and avoid drilling walls etc do ye reckon?

Ultimanemo · 18-02-2020 12:08pm

djd80 wrote: »

I'm 10 miles outside of Cork City - so not too far from the city but rural all the same. SIRO stopped about 750m from our house.

Came home yesterday to find two guys parked outside my gate and checking out the poles on the road. Had a quick chat with them and they were surveying from NBI - told me thats the first step in the process - their survey - that gets submitted - signed off - architected and then rolled out.

They reckon they cable on our road will be done within a year.

They had an iPad with them which had a mapping application on it where they were marking the route and identifying the poles and had no problem changing the route they had for my house when I pointed out to them I had ducting run to a different pole - seemed like organised guys.

Whether there is fibre running past our place in a year we will have to wait and see.

One question I have though.

I have a duct running to a pole and then into a panel on the side of my house - similar to an ESB meter box.
Within that box I have power and a CAT6 cable into the house.

Will I be able to use that setup for the Fibre conection and avoid drilling walls etc do ye reckon?

I like your optimism

ACitizenErased · 19-02-2020 5:49pm

2 lads out surveying for 4site with iPads again today and yesterday in Rochestown, Cork City.

Ultimanemo · 20-02-2020 5:35pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Fry! We re too mean for that, we eat them straight out of the ground, muck and all

People who do that are usually farmers, the typical green person is a guy lives in the city centre.

KOR101 · 23-02-2020 10:28am

The process of rolling-out high-speed broadband to thousands of homes and businesses currently without services will begin in the “coming weeks” with a major review of the existing support network.

Starting next month, staff attached to National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the firm awarded the National Broadband Plan contract last November, will be travelling roads and lane-ways within a 20 kilometres radius of Cavan Town to kick-start the delivery.
There are, at present, some 16,200 premises across Cavan currently without access to high-speed broadband. This figure represents 38% of all premises, both business and residential, and to solve the issue the government announced it would invest €65 million in supporting the roll-out plan.
Joe Lavin, Chief Commercial Officer with NBI told Councillors at their monthly meeting last Monday, February 17, the benefits of high-speed internet connectivity will be felt in communities from as early as this time next year once work is completed on building out the network.
What is needed to deliver such high-speed connectivity will start next month (March 2020) with an extensive survey of the existing Eir network in “townlands around Cavan town”.
The survey, he said, will provide NBI with a “detailed plan” for how every every premises in the area will eventually be connected.
“We'll be looking to see if there's space in underground ducts, or space on poles, and where we need to get additional poles if necessary,” said Mr Lavin.
Nationally, NBI believe that in order to pass the 536,000 homes and businesses nationwide, it will require 89,454 kilometres of overhead fibre-optic cabling, 1.46 million poles, with a further 15,057km of cable to be placed underground.
Cavan was the third local authority meeting to be addressed by Mr Lavin, who said that the county is “high” on the agenda for high speed broadband delivery.
Mr Lavin explained to the meeting the network will be expanded “like a jigsaw” from central locations, starting with Cavan Town.
Cavan Town will act as a connection point in the high-speed national broadband network backbone, that will then link with “nodes” located in more rural areas.
Some nodes across the county, such as those located in the east and west of the Cavan, would be connected to core connectivity points in neighbouring counties Monaghan and Leitrim.
NBI will have “boots on the ground” and staff “pulling fibre-optic cable” to build out of the network from the second half of this year, with a suggested completion date of early 2021 when home and business owners will then be able to place connection orders.
Those areas not included in the current phase of the roll-out would be included in an extended survey to be carried out between 2021-22.

https://www.anglocelt.ie/news/roundup/articles/2020/02/22/4186073-no-one-left-behind-as-broadband-rollout-starts-in-march/

Sponsorgate · 24-02-2020 4:01pm

djd80 wrote: »

I'm 10 miles outside of Cork City - so not too far from the city but rural all the same. SIRO stopped about 750m from our house.

Came home yesterday to find two guys parked outside my gate and checking out the poles on the road. Had a quick chat with them and they were surveying from NBI - told me thats the first step in the process - their survey - that gets submitted - signed off - architected and then rolled out.

They reckon they cable on our road will be done within a year.

They had an iPad with them which had a mapping application on it where they were marking the route and identifying the poles and had no problem changing the route they had for my house when I pointed out to them I had ducting run to a different pole - seemed like organised guys.

Whether there is fibre running past our place in a year we will have to wait and see.

One question I have though.

I have a duct running to a pole and then into a panel on the side of my house - similar to an ESB meter box.
Within that box I have power and a CAT6 cable into the house.

Will I be able to use that setup for the Fibre conection and avoid drilling walls etc do ye reckon?

Be interested to find out your setup. Currently building a house & want to have infrastructure in place so can just hook up to it when the time comes( i'm not to optimistic it will be anytime soon)

Orebro · 24-02-2020 6:17pm

NBI response to queries on their Facebook page about when people can find out timelines:

thank you so much for reaching out to NBI on Facebook. National Broadband Ireland (NBI) have started the first design surveys for the National Broadband Plan (NBP). These are being undertaken in Cork, and will shortly commence in Galway, Limerick and Cavan. When surveys are completed in each deployment area, this will enable low level designs for fibre rollout there. We expect to have a high level phase one of the rollout plan on our website at the end of March.
In Year One (2020) almost 300 Broadband Connection Points – for free public access to high speed internet – will be in place across the Intervention Area (IA).
In Year Two, NBI will be working on the fibre build in every county across Ireland and up to 115,000 premises will be passed.
By Year 4 over half of premises will be passed. The network build will take up to seven years as it will cover 96% of Ireland’s land mass and involves laying 100,000 km of fibre.

ussjtrunks · 24-02-2020 6:18pm

Does that mean Cork Limerick and Galway would be the first counties to get rolled out if that’s what they are looking at rn?

ACitizenErased · 24-02-2020 10:23pm

ussjtrunks wrote: »

Does that mean Cork Limerick and Galway would be the first counties to get rolled out if that’s what they are looking at rn?

I assume they're doing the easiest ones first. IE nearest to cities.

ECO_Mental · 24-02-2020 11:48pm

Orebro wrote: »

NBI response to queries on their Facebook page about when people can find out timelines:

thank you so much for reaching out to NBI on Facebook. National Broadband Ireland (NBI) have started the first design surveys for the National Broadband Plan (NBP). These are being undertaken in Cork, and will shortly commence in Galway, Limerick and Cavan. When surveys are completed in each deployment area, this will enable low level designs for fibre rollout there. We expect to have a high level phase one of the rollout plan on our website at the end of March.
In Year One (2020) almost 300 Broadband Connection Points – for free public access to high speed internet – will be in place across the Intervention Area (IA).
In Year Two, NBI will be working on the fibre build in every county across Ireland and up to 115,000 premises will be passed.
By Year 4 over half of premises will be passed. The network build will take up to seven years as it will cover 96% of Ireland’s land mass and involves laying 100,000 km of fibre.

I wonder how detailed this will be, will they be showing roads they will be passing down and when??

user1842 · 25-02-2020 8:44am

ECO_Mental wrote: »

I wonder how detailed this will be, will they be showing roads they will be passing down and when??

Why cannot they get this information from open eir. Surely if you are paying to use their poles, they should tell you where the poles are.

Gary kk · 25-02-2020 11:35am

Was kilkenny not meant to be done before cavan

heavydawson · 25-02-2020 12:27pm

user1842 wrote: »

Why cannot they get this information from open eir. Surely if you are paying to use their poles, they should tell you where the poles are.

I suppose one reason is that Open Eir are only using _some_ of the poles that NBI will be using. NBI are likely focusing on the poles that don't already have fibre strung over them, so they need to do their own assesment.

heavydawson · 25-02-2020 12:28pm

Orebro wrote: »

NBI response to queries on their Facebook page about when people can find out timelines:

thank you so much for reaching out to NBI on Facebook. National Broadband Ireland (NBI) have started the first design surveys for the National Broadband Plan (NBP). These are being undertaken in Cork, and will shortly commence in Galway, Limerick and Cavan. When surveys are completed in each deployment area, this will enable low level designs for fibre rollout there. We expect to have a high level phase one of the rollout plan on our website at the end of March.
In Year One (2020) almost 300 Broadband Connection Points – for free public access to high speed internet – will be in place across the Intervention Area (IA).
In Year Two, NBI will be working on the fibre build in every county across Ireland and up to 115,000 premises will be passed.
By Year 4 over half of premises will be passed. The network build will take up to seven years as it will cover 96% of Ireland’s land mass and involves laying 100,000 km of fibre.

Anyone know what exactly they mean by "Phase one"?

user1842 · 25-02-2020 5:16pm

heavydawson wrote: »

I suppose one reason is that Open Eir are only using _some_ of the poles that NBI will be using. NBI are likely focusing on the poles that don't already have fibre strung over them, so they need to do their own assesment.

Yes but Open Eir are using the rest of the poles for their copper service. I dont understand why NBI need to do a pole survey. If Open Eir cannot provide this information to NBI then what the hell is going on at Open Eir.

NBI should just prioritise connections to houses that currently have an Open Eir copper line (which I would think is the majority of houses). Basically start hanging the fibre on the poles now.

My worry is that NBI is now doing Open Eir's job and identifying poles that need to be replaced and thus the tax payer is paying to rebuild Open Eir's private network.

fergus1001 · 25-02-2020 7:04pm

user1842 wrote:

Yes but Open Eir are using the rest of the poles for their copper service. I dont understand why NBI need to do a pole survey. If Open Eir cannot provide this information to NBI then what the hell is going on at Open Eir.

I'd say it's to map out the route the fiber will take rather than the condition of poles ect although open eir should have GIS spacial data for this

The Cush · 25-02-2020 7:12pm

In my local exchange area open eir mapped all poles and replaced as necessary a few years ago both in the 300k and intervention areas, similar in neighbouring areas.

allanpkr · 03-03-2020 3:45pm

Mortelaro wrote: »

This contract will be paused next week when FF get back in
There will be a review and there will be a long committee hearing on the subject
NBI can sue,but that will take years

not gonna happen . its goi g ahead whoever decides to run country

allanpkr · 03-03-2020 3:48pm

Mortelaro wrote: »

Well obviously I hope ye are right but Tim as minister and Soc Dems kicking up about Dennis O'Brien having the sub contracts
I would be concerned

no need its always gonna go ahead now

allanpkr · 03-03-2020 3:55pm

clohamon wrote: »

It would be great if one or some of the (W)ISPs would publish the letter of rejection they got from the Department.

but i think future proof allies all appeals .in that article it compares itself to the best wireless broadband.

ACitizenErased · 03-03-2020 9:21pm

KN out in Rochestown, Cork again today. This time with cable and iPads.

ECO_Mental · 07-03-2020 1:15pm

Parents just had a visit from the NBI lads doing their survey in around the Ballygarvan area in Cork. They said they should have it in about 18 months or so. My parents put me down for a connection also as I am planning to build a house there this year finished in 18 months time

:D:D

I was one of the first people on here to get FTTH 4 or 5 years ago and had been enjoying 1Gbs since then, but I sold my house to build my new one and now my rented house has only 20-30mbs at best (in the middle of cork city:mad:) It was a big worry for me moving to the country where the checkers were saying i could only get max 10mb:eek::eek::eek:

I will rest easy tonight:p

National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

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