Ireland Roll Out National FTTP

ESB and Vodafone today signed an innovative joint venture agreement to invest �450 million in building a 100% fibre-to-the-building broadband network offering speeds from 200 Mbps to 1000 Mbps, propelling Ireland into the ranks of the world's fastest broadband countries . Ireland will also become the first country in Europe to utilise existing electricity infrastructure on a nationwide basis to deploy fibre directly into homes and businesses, initially reaching 500,000 premises in 50 towns. The fibre will be deployed on ESB's existing overhead and underground infrastructure, ensuring a fast and cost efficient roll-out to every county in Ireland and reversing the digital divide between the capital and regional towns.

http://www.esb.ie/main/press/pressreleaseWS.jsp?id=4074

The green light for the project was given by the EU recently. And a quick video showing fibre being installed across electricity poles - here.

Edited by Spud2003 (Tue 28-Oct-14 09:02:44)

It's OK, Ofcom won't allow it to happen here. Nor will the government - bankrupting BT Group is not an option.

The Electricity Supply Board, known for short as the ESB, is a state owned (95%) electricity company in Ireland. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concern in a liberalised and competitive market. It is a statutory corporation whose members are appointed by the Government.

I think things like this change the landscape, not just in Ireland, but for neighbours like the UK. The public and politicians will start asking, "If Ireland can do it, why can't we?".

As stated at the end of my post.

Lots of waffle will be generated to prove how impossible it would be given the different demographics of the two countries.

Note the funds allocated do seem to be for the initial rollout, with the rest to follow after 2018. If the whole thing is to be done by overhead cables that does of course make a huge difference to the costs. The total population is under 5 million as well.

This model has been around for nearly two decades in the East Coast of the US and in the Chicago area. To challenge the separate telephone (Verizon) and cable (Time Warner Cable) monopolies a company called RCN formed joint ventures with various electricity companies to provide competing phone, cable & broadband services using the electricity poles and ducts. At that time both Verizon & Time Warner Cable wouldn't compete with each other or provide new services.

RCN set out to shake things up. They concentrated on the richer suburban communities plus the many apartment buildings that are characteristic of dense US cities. As a consequence they got a viable share of prosperous markets with a bundled offer of services that was unusual at the time. They are still in business today but Verizon's decision to opt for FiOS (FTTH) in response has limited their growth.

The crucial element was access to electricity distribution infrastructure, much of which is installed on overhead poles in US cities and suburbs. This is the key difference between the ESB/Vodafone partnership and the situation in the UK. If the UK were to permit use of electricity poles and/or ducts for fibre distribution, it is possible to imagine the development of a third network in some cities.

However, cable penetration in Ireland is considerably smaller than in the UK. UPC (owned by Liberty Global who own Virgin Media) has about 20% of the market whereas Virgin's market share is nearly twice that. In addition, Eircom's capital budget is more restricted than BT's so it is some way behind BT in rolling out its eFibre (FTTC) offering.

In summary, ESB/Vodafone are not doing anything particularly unusual but they are taking advantage of an opportunity that probably does not exist in the UK.

In summary, ESB/Vodafone are not doing anything particularly unusual but they are taking advantage of an opportunity that probably does not exist in the UK.

You mean ladles full of EU cash when all we get are bills?

Except in Cornwall, although we got a predominantly FTTC network out of it with only drips and drabs of seemingly arbitrary FTTP..

I thought cable penetration in Ireland was one of the highest in Europe?

In reply to a post by sor:

Except in Cornwall, although we* got a predominantly FTTC network out of it with only drips and drabs of seemingly arbitrary FTTP..

*Am I correct in reading that as "We in Cornwall only got dribs and drabs of seemingly arbitrary FTTP"?

Maybe that's the case for the part of Cornwall where you live, but it's certainly not the case for me, where I'd say probably at least 50% of the town has FTTP available.

Edited by Rastus (Thu 30-Oct-14 13:02:54)