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Ireland's National Broadband Plan Delayed... Again The Irish government today postponed a key decision on the country's national broadband plan, further delaying deployment of a program originally scheduled for completion by the end of 2020. It has not yet begun. Like many countries, Ireland's major cities are well-served by competitive operators that use a mix of fiber-based fixed broadband, LTE, Gfast and fiber for MDUs. Rural regions, however, have a different connectivity reality. In many cases, the cost versus return of sparsely populated areas and rugged cable-unfriendly terrains of the Irish countryside are prohibitive for many of the nation's leading fiber service providers. As a result, about 540,000 homes and premises remain disconnected from high-speed Internet, the Irish Examiner reported. In November 2018, the government seemed close to a deal, promising to agree to a plan "within weeks." When that never materialized, government officials then pledged to share a deal "before Easter." With that holiday falling this weekend -- and broadband not a planned topic of discussion in the sole session left between then and now -- it's unlikely government will meet this promise.
Cost of delays The deal will cost Irish taxpayers at least €3 billion, according to opposition party Fianna Fáil's Timmy Dooley. Leaders of the party (which means Soldiers of Destiny or Warriors of Fáil) suggest the state-owned Electricity Supply Board as an alternative infrastructure provider. Indeed, ESB offers dark fiber in Dublin via its ESB Telecoms subsidiary. In partnership with Zayo, it also owns and operates a 116-kilometer (72-mile) subsea dark fiber route between Ireland and the UK, and provides other traditional telecom offerings such as managed services, towers and carrier Ethernet. These capabilities make ESB an attractive solution to Ireland's rural-broadband problem, Dooley said. In 2018 and 2017, 89% of Irish households had Internet access up from 87% in 2015, according to the Central Statistics Office. Related posts:
— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana.
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In a flurry of activity throughout the week, Donald (DJ) LaVoy, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the US Department of Agriculture, and his team spent about $145.8 million in the non-urban or suburban areas of seven states.
Calix reported revenue of $120.19 million – up 4% – in Q4 2019, putting a bounce in the step of company president and CEO Carl Russo and a shine to Calix's ongoing transition from hardware vendor to a provider of platforms enabled by cloud, APIs and subscriber experience.
Looking to curtail e-waste and improve the bottom line, BT will require customers to return routers and set-top boxes, although subscribers will not have to pay a fee when they receive regular broadband equipment.
The industry standards organization is looking to ease operator pain from residential WiFi, while it also sees initiatives in connected home and other projects bear fruit.
Deploying DOCSIS 3.1 across its entire footprint gave Rogers Communications the ability to offer speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s,
contributing to a broadband segement that generated about 60% of the Canadian operator's $3.05 billion (US) in Q4 cable earnings.
 WebinarsARCHIVED
Thursday, August 4, 2022
11:00 a.m. New York / 4:00 p.m. London The digital divide in North America is leaving millions without adequate broadband. Incumbents operate in “islands” of connectivity, serving densely populated areas and, at a national scale, perpetuating the digital divide in the gaps in between their service footprints. Regional ISPs have a clear role in closing that gap. These regional ISPs operate in a highly fragmented landscape, including smaller wireless and FTTH incumbents, satellite ISPs, electric co-ops, tribal communities, and municipalities in public/private partnerships. These regional ISPs face the same cyber threats and operational challenges as their Tier 1 counterparts, but with far fewer resources and revenue-generating population density. As a result, many regional ISPs have developed highly innovated business models for access and core technology, partnerships, financing and services. The discussion will cover:
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