# Trying to get fibre



## joer (26 Jan 2016)

I am an Eir customer trying to get low speed Fibre broadband to no avail. The low speed is in my neighbours house but I cannot get anyone to provide it to me. Sales are a disaster to deal with. Both our lines are from the same Exchange,same Cabine and to the same pole. When I tell sales this they say 'it is not in my area'. Her line is from Vodofone but I tried them also and they told me the same. What do I have to do. I have renewed my contract only because I had no option. Any advice welcome, thanks.


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## joer (26 Jan 2016)

sahd said:


> Does this coverage map help ?  http://fibrerollout.ie/where-and-when/


Hi sahd
The map is exactly what the sales people go by. But if my neighbour can get 8mg and all I can get is .5mg you would imagine there should be a chance that I could get this as well. Even when they bring up her number on their system and see that I am next door it still makes no difference to them.


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## Leo (27 Jan 2016)

You could try the Eir forum on Boards.


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## stefg (27 Jan 2016)

Hi joer,

I understand the frustration, we had the same issue for almost a year.  When the Eircom engineer (well the KNN contractor for Eircom) installed our line he told us we could have eFibre but it would be less than 10Mb and he even drove to the cabinet and did extra tests to check it but confirmed it would be ok.  However when the broadband was enabled we did not get eFibre, we got an unusable slow connection.  

Our neighbours had an 8mb fibre connection and we had <0.25 Mb regular connection, despite repeated queries and calls to Eircom they insisted we couldn't have eFibre and that just because our neighbours had it doesn't mean we could have it even though the http://fibrerollout.ie/where-and-when/ map showed we were on the same cabinet.  They also suggested making a complaint about the engineer who told us we could get it but would not send out an engineer to check or allow the previous engineer to be contacted in relation to this.  

Eventually frustrated with Eircom's "Computer says no" attitude we switched to Vodafone for a landline only because it was cheaper.  After a couple of weeks the line went dead and we had to raise a service ticket with Vodafone.  A KNN engineer called me to say he was at the cabinet and it was an accident that caused us to get disconnected and he had sorted it now but he also asked why we did not have or want broadband as eFibre was available!!!  I explained the story to him and he said to put the order in with Vodafone and mark it for his attention, 2 days later we had 7Mb broadband!!

The funniest part is our neighbours did some renovations to their house a few months later and disconnected from Eircom while they moved out for the works and when they returned and wanted to reconnect, they were told that "eFibre is not available in your area" despite them having it a few months earlier.  After a very stern complaint and threat to cancel and refusal to pay a disconnection fee they got their eFibre connection back.

EFibre availability is not well managed at all, I hope you get sorted soon


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## MrEarl (27 Jan 2016)

Joer,

Formal complaints in writting to the service provider, copied to Comreg and your local politicans would me by first recommendation. Get all parties involved, whether they like it or not.  You'd be amazed at what politicans can manage to get sorted, coming up to an election ! 

I would also phone up a few of your service providers competitors and discuss moving your tv, broadband etc. to them - I'd suspect you may quickly find some of them can get you a broadband service (albeit, perhaps not the "top" speeds).  As I understand it, the likes of Sky pay Eir for use of their lines, but have to pay Eir something extra to get an engineer out to change "ports" (whatever they are) etc.  Nonetheless, the attraction of getting a new customer for multiple services will get them going no doubt (and I'm not specifically recommending Sky here by the way, just using them as an example).


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## stefg (27 Jan 2016)

MrEarl said:


> I would also phone up a few of your service providers competitors and discuss moving your tv, broadband etc. to them



Unfortunately the other providers get the eFibre availability status through Eir, so if they say it's not available then so will all the alternative providers using the same network


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## joer (27 Jan 2016)

stefg said:


> Unfortunately the other providers get the eFibre availability status through Eir, so if they say it's not available then so will all the alternative providers using the same network


Thanks to all.
I actually tried Vodofone who my neighbour is with but they gave me the same,sorry,story. The polititans might be a good bet now that they are looking for votes. I will try the letter to Comreg too and see if that helps, thanks again.


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## Leo (27 Jan 2016)

Is there a limitation on connections per cabinet?


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## joer (27 Jan 2016)

Hi Leo 
I do not know whether there is a limitation per cabinet but if there was I would imagine I would be told this,but none of the engineers that I know in the company have ever mentioned that this might be the situation.


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## MrEarl (27 Jan 2016)

joer said:


> Hi Leo
> I do not know whether there is a limitation per cabinet but if there was I would imagine I would be told this,but none of the engineers that I know in the company have ever mentioned that this might be the situation.



Joer,

Forgive me, I am clearly missing something important here.

If you neighbour has broadband, why are Eir saying you cannot have it ?

Is Virgin available where you live and if so, have you tried them (given they run their own lines) ?


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## Leo (28 Jan 2016)

That's what I'm wondering. Are they imposing a limit to protect the experience of those already on the service so that it doesn't degrade their performance to the point where their shiny fibre product really isn't all they crack it up to be. 

There is a limit to the bandwidth of fibre, I'm just not familiar with the lines or equipment being used here to know if that's influencing who can get it and who can't.


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## joer (28 Jan 2016)

Hi there.
My neighbour has ,low speed fibre, at her house from Vodofone. I have seen it work. I went to Vodofone to see if they would provide it to me but they gave me the same story, " her line must be from another Exchange or Cabinet" . I know for a fact that this is not the case. (I worked for Eir,so much for looking after former employees), They can even bring it up on their system and see that we are both working from the same pole they still give me the sorry story. Virgin are not available to me as I am not in the town. I have never heard it said that there was any limit to the amount of fibre in any area. Ringing Comreg was also a waste of time. I will have to make do with what I have until fibre is in my area,whenever that will be.


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## jdwex (28 Jan 2016)

There is a limit of 192 lines enabled per cabinet, unless an extra rack is installed at the cabinet.  Node level vectoring is needed in this case , otherwise crosstalk interference is unacceptable. The fact that your neighbour is only getting 7mb mears you are probably around  max range of vdsl, speed attainables  drop sharply with distance

If you go to this site 
[broken link removed]

Could you copy and paste what it says when you enter your number?


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## MrEarl (29 Jan 2016)

joer said:


> Hi there.
> My neighbour has ,low speed fibre, at her house from Vodofone. I have seen it work. I went to Vodofone to see if they would provide it to me but they gave me the same story, " her line must be from another Exchange or Cabinet" . I know for a fact that this is not the case. (I worked for Eir,so much for looking after former employees), They can even bring it up on their system and see that we are both working from the same pole they still give me the sorry story. ....



If I were you, with that level of knowledge and supporting evidence, I would drag my local TDs by the ear into Eir's head office and address this ... demanding nothing less than a face to face meeting with their CEO (and let him / her see you holding you TDs by the ear, in the knowledge of what they can expect if they don't deliver) to explain how this situation can arise. 

This is a clear case of he who shouts the loudest, gets served etc


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## joer (30 Jan 2016)

I did not know there was a limit to the enabled lines per cabinet. I have never had anyone tell me that either. Our lines are 2km from the cabinet so it would not be possible to get any more than 7mg. I would settle for 4mg. I think a trip to head office is going to happen whether or not I have anyone by the ear .


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## jdwex (30 Jan 2016)

joer said:


> I did not know there was a limit to the enabled lines per cabinet. I have never had anyone tell me that either. Our lines are 2km from the cabinet so it would not be possible to get any more than 7mg. I would settle for 4mg. I think a trip to head office is going to happen whether or not I have anyone by the ear .



I think the problem is that you are right at the distance  limit of what will qualify for vdsl.  Are you 100% sure that your line goes through a cabinet and not directly back to the exchange?
Your line has to be capable of 7mb to get vdsl - that is the minimum speed for a stable connection. Take a look at page 48 [broken link removed]

The limit is 192 enabled vdsl lines per cab unless there is an additional card installed (and is suitable for node level vectoring, there could be some comreg regulatory/ technical restrictions.)

I'm in an apartment, some apartments below me can get 100 while I prequal for 90!

You should have a look at the boards broadband forum.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=259


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## joer (31 Jan 2016)

I am positive that both my line and my neighbours are from the same cabinet. Before she got fibre her line would only have been able to get up to 2 mg like mine. The most that I ever got was .9. We are 2 km from the cabinet. I know that when fibre became available first they were filling out applications up to 1 km from the cab. Then they would push it out further. If my neighbour did not have it I would not have a problem waiting but it annoys me to think it is out this far but not to me.


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## jdwex (31 Jan 2016)

joer said:


> I am positive that both my line and my neighbours are from the same cabinet. Before she got fibre her line would only have been able to get up to 2 mg like mine. The most that I ever got was .9. We are 2 km from the cabinet. /QUOTE]



I'd say she  just about qualifies, and you unfortunately just about don't. Basically eircom wholesale  produce a list of lines monthly that qualify for vdsl, and the speeds they qualify for. They then supply this to the retail operators (including eircom retail). Are there other neighbours beside you? Do any of these qualify?


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## joer (31 Jan 2016)

There are only three customers served from the DP pole . The third customer does not have broadband at all.


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## Purple (2 Feb 2016)

I am waiting 2 months for a KNN Engineer (the term is used lightly by them) to fix my landline so that I can get Sky broadband. I would never use Eir/Eircom/P&T as over 25 years I have never had a good experience with their staff. I find them totally incompetent and disinterested. Unfortunately I need them to install the line so I can get Sky broadband (who have excellent customer service staff). So far KNN have made 5 appointments over 2 months, only turned up for 3 and failed to install a working line. 
Good to see you can take the man out of Eircom but you can't take Eircom out of the man!


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