The envy of the village ComReg’s latest batch of area broadband statistics has just been published, and among the “Small Areas” tier is Loughglinn, where there exists one house – in a village full of obsolete copper – that has managed to secure fibre-to-the-home under the NBP. Meanwhile the rest of the village remains in limbo and will have to make do.
Today’s quarterly presentation from Eircom contains more disappointment on FTTP progress. Only 24k premises were passed in Q2 2026 which is about half the rate it was achieving in 2023. As the weather was fairly benign it has to be assumed that this is the trend for the future. On the basis of last 12-month figure (129k) Eircom is unlikely to complete its 1.9M target before mid 2029. On the basis of last quarter’s results it could be well into 2030. We would question also whether a proportion of the quarter’s roll-out is new build or whether it refers exclusively to the...
‘The policy is the policy until the policy changes’ The Government’s Digital Connectivity Strategy dates from 2022 and contains three targets. We can dispense with target number three, the BCPs and schools, which was met some time ago, and number two, the 5g target, is worth a post of its own. The question here is whether the Government credibly can cling to the claim of ubiquitous gigabit coverage by 2028. The strategy was supposed to “evolve“. In 2023 the Department committed to an update no later than 2025. That didn’t happen, but last December we were advised the strategy would...
The Plan The Gigabit Infrastructure Act is the EU’s latest attempt to get network utilities and public bodies to share their existing physical infrastructure (PI); poles, towers, ducts, cabinets etc., with telecoms networks. It does so by a presumptive right to access, a Single Information Point (SIP) – to discover the PI, and a dispute resolution body. The net objectives are to accelerate deployment of Very High Capacity Networks (VHCNs), and to reduce environmental and financial costs. It also provides for coordination of new PI developments between telecoms and other networks, and requires the SIP to act also as a portal...
For many years Virgin Media provided broadband and TV services over coaxial cable and charged handsomely for the service. Admittedly the service was quite stable and probably worth the premium price being charged for the service in comparison to XDSL services (broadband over the phone line service) of that time. We’ve been contacted by a number of Virgin customers who are being charged up to 100€ for basic services whereas the norm for these services now is in the range of 30/40€ and they’ve been wondering why. With the advent of FIBRE to the home services that are becoming common...