A chara, – Your article "Low rural broadband take-up rate alarms Government" (News, November 9th) is not surprising but I suspect that the low take-up has little to do with subscriber interest and a lot more to do with installation capacity.
In January this year Eir contacted me to let me know efibre was available.
I duly signed up only to be told that the trunking in place was unsuitable. In April Eir contacted me again to suggest an overhead line, to which I was agreeable.
Since then, no word, until I contacted them only to find there was no record of my second order.
A third order was placed and an engineer duly arrived this morning.
The only problem was that he was told to bring copper to the house as a new connection, with no mention of efibre.
Attempting to contact Eir is a gargantuan task as calls are inevitably placed on hold, with no indication of the hold time. I was on hold for an hour at one stage, at which point I gave up. Eir has discontinued their access by email and offer a “chat” facility which greets potential customers with the “next available customer representative will be with you shortly” statement. Shortly is something of a gross exaggeration.
It is risible that the primary provider is virtually uncontactable and customers are effectively left in the dark regarding actual installation. I am in the fortunate position of being able to see the efibre box on the pole directly outside my front gate. It’s those last few metres that are causing the problem. – Is mise,
MICHEÁL Ó BRAOIN,
Droichead Abhann
Uí gCearnaigh,
Co an Chláir.