Eircom house visits to drive broadband

16-01-2007

by Maxim Kelly

Eircom is attempting to come good on its promise to supply broadband to anyone who asks for it in urban areas.

Following commitments made in autumn last year, the former state telco is pledging to satisfy all broadband enquiries in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. The initiative is based on re-testing phone lines that were previously considered sub-standard for carrying a broadband signal.

It is expected that the move will yield an extra 12,000 broadband subscribers throughout the five cities. An Eircom spokesman explained that engineers will go to households of customers who previously failed the line test, and assess each individual case. This means more people should be able to connect via DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), although speeds will vary depending on the standard of the phone line.

Urban customers whose lines fail this new round of testing will not have to pay the engineer call-out fee. An Eircom spokesman told ENN that broadband experts will then assess the practicalities of providing a wireless service to these city addresses.

Eircom is aiming to roll out a new Wi-Max wireless network by the third quarter of 2007, and the company admits that line-of-sight assessments may be premature at the moment, as the Wi-Max masts needed to relay the wireless signals in city centres have not yet been erected.

Beyond the five urban zones, Eircom landline subscribers across the country whose phonelines had previously failed the necessary broadband quality tests are also being encouraged to have their cables re-tested. The opportunity applies to customers already connected to broadband-enabled exchanges but whose line test previously failed due to the distance from the exchange.

The company expects this re-testing to facilitate an extra 24,000 new connections outside urban zones. It said the existing telecommunications infrastructure has been tweaked to facilitate more high-speed internet access. This has been accomplished by "extending the decibel range" of lines that formerly didn't quite cut the mustard.

Eircom chief executive Rex Comb issued a statement on the latest initiative to improve broadband penetration. "Today's announcements demonstrate that we are serious about driving broadband in Ireland," he said.

"As a result of the initiative to take all orders in the main urban areas and to extend the reach of broadband in rural areas over 36,000 additional customers can now order broadband. Eircom has set itself very strong targets this year for increasing broadband availability and take-up."