Eir and low rural broadband take-up rate

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.

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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.