Regulation 2.0 coming to Ireland

Battling cable, eircom apparently has similar plans to KPN: pushing fiber deeper into its network (to street cabinets), going from FttExchange + ADSL2+ (with LLU as an option) to FttCabinet + VDSL (with SLU as a theoretical option), thereby:

• creating the option of closing COs, savings costs;
• moving DSLAMs closer to end users, expanding available bandwidths;
• frustrating altnets who have DSLAMs in those COs as well but lack the scale to move them to the street cabinet level, making SLU unfeasible;
• forcing regulators to come up with some other alternative to LLU.

We have seen this in the Netherlands, and now it is spreading to Ireland. Watch out for regulation 2.0 coming to Europe in the next few years.