UPC 240mb/s + unlimited mobile calls €45

bk · 02-01-2015 1:06pm #1

Looks like UPC have increased the 200mb/s to 240mb/s, dropped the price and now include unlimited landline and mobile calls anytime for €45

http://www.upc.ie/bundles/broadband-phone/

The products seem to now be:

240mb/s - unlimited anytime mobile and landline calls - €45
120mb/s - unlimited anytime landline calls - €40
60mb/s - home phone (no calls included) - €35

All prices are the regular prices after 4 month introductory prices. No indication of upload speeds.

All good news.

However confusingly I got an email from UPC saying that my 120mb/s broadband was increasing from €44 to €45!!! Obviously I'll be contacting them and either switching down to 120mb/s for €40 or upgrade to the 240mb/s for the same money!!

EDIT: Yup, just got a second email from UPC saying that I can opt to auto-upgrade (for €45) to the 240mb/s BB package. I hadn't contacted them yet. I also assume I can downgrade to the 60 or cheaper 120 packages, though in fairness €45 for 240mb/s isn't bad at all.

Don't forget to always check what is available and not just accept price increases.

I think the one area UPC remains weak is the entry level product. I really think they need to make it 100/20 to match Vodafones €35 VDSL product.

Its Only Ray Parlour · 02-01-2015 2:13pm

Did they increase the upload speed?

Slippin Jimmy · 02-01-2015 2:20pm

Just checked mine there. I'm paying €52.50 for 120mb and anytime world. Wonder will i be able to upgrade and save a few quid.

bk · 02-01-2015 2:25pm

Its Only Ray Parlour wrote: »

Did they increase the upload speed?

Unfortunately the site doesn't give upload speeds.

However they recently unofficially increased the 120/10 to 120/12 and 200/10 to 200/20, so I assume that was in preparation for this upgrade.

Thor · 02-01-2015 2:40pm

UPC.ie doesn't seem to be loading for me anymore. It was working a few minutes ago.

Anyone else having issues?

Slippin Jimmy · 02-01-2015 2:42pm

Thor wrote: »

UPC.ie doesn't seem to be loading for me anymore. It was working a few minutes ago.

Anyone else having issues?

Yeah I am having issues here too.

dunworth1 · 02-01-2015 2:44pm

Duffff-Man wrote: »

Yeah I am having issues here too.

yep down for me also.

bk · 02-01-2015 2:45pm

Yup, their site seems to have been hammered and is now down!

absolutegroove · 02-01-2015 2:45pm

UPC or Vodafone.

Just moved into a new house and don't know who to go with for unlimited broadband only

dunworth1 · 02-01-2015 2:46pm

i also haven't received any email yet

Its Only Ray Parlour · 02-01-2015 3:01pm

absolutegroove wrote: »

UPC or Vodafone.

Just moved into a new house and don't know who to go with for unlimited broadband only

Vodafone isn't unlimited, they have a fair usage policy of 300GB.

absolutegroove · 02-01-2015 3:11pm

Its Only Ray Parlour wrote: »

Vodafone isn't unlimited, they have a fair usage policy of 300GB.

Thanks for the info.

Its Only Ray Parlour · 02-01-2015 3:27pm

absolutegroove wrote: »

Thanks for the info.

I left out very important detail: Vodafone charge €1 for 10GB you exceed the cap.

ED E · 02-01-2015 4:36pm

Drip feeding us up to the max of DOCSIS3.0, gives them plenty of time to implement 3.1. VDSL2 is great and all that, but I'm never moving outside of the UPC coverage map, it just cant compete.

Thor · 02-01-2015 4:44pm

This is the email offer that I was sent.

I rang them up to sort out getting the offer, but alas, it doesn't exists. I was told it would actually cost extra per month. The whole no Monthly additional cost means something different to the folks at UPC.

inforfun · 02-01-2015 5:00pm

Yup... got those emails as well.
Increase of €10 a month but to "make up" for that i get another 150 mins.
Cute... but the only times the phone is used when it is one of those scam callers dialing my number.

Increase my BB speed?
Also not going to happen as the part of the world i live in, was actually one of the first areas that had UPC broadband. Max the infra structure can handle in this part is 30 mb.
And their focus is on getting more area's not on improving the ones they already have

So for quite a few years i am paying for 50 or 60 mb and get 30.
To make up for that difference i do get a loyalty discount (this year i had th btsports pack for free) but every single year it is the same horrible stiroy of having to call them, tell them to disconnect everything then unless i can get X.Y or Z

It is just so tiresome because at the same time my car insurance needs renewal and there it is the same story of calling, telling them i go elsewhere et cetra.

Sorry for this rant

AlanS181824 · 02-01-2015 6:23pm

I'm a happy enough Vodafone customer with 100/20Mb but this is good news for the consumers regardless!

240/20 is pretty amazing!

Snake Plisken · 02-01-2015 8:13pm

I just got a mail today advising prices were going up by €2 a month, I have the broadband and the phone with them but no TV package.

pm. · 02-01-2015 9:45pm

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I'm a happy enough Vodafone customer with 100/20Mb but this is good news for the consumers regardless!

240/20 is pretty amazing!

My advice would be stay with vodafone, i have the 200mb package from upc and as soon as it hits 6pm my speeds just drop sometimes to under 60mb

ran this wired into the router using a cat6 cable

ED E · 02-01-2015 10:18pm

Its worth noting that Ookla designed their servers for tests up to 100mb, after that they may be unreliable and generally can be overloaded too.

Join samknows for some accurate monitoring if you like.

AlanS181824 · 03-01-2015 12:58am

pm. wrote: »

My advice would be stay with vodafone, i have the 200mb package from upc and as soon as it hits 6pm my speeds just drop sometimes to under 60mb

ran this wired into the router using a cat6 cable

Those are very patchy speeds alright.

As ED E has recommended, join SamKnows for a more accurate broadband measurement.

murphaph · 03-01-2015 1:53pm

At what download speed would UPC need to issue new modems to those with tge current latest generation? Does tge current latest model go all tge way to 1Gbps?

ED E · 03-01-2015 3:12pm

murphaph wrote: »

At what download speed would UPC need to issue new modems to those with tge current latest generation? Does tge current latest model go all tge way to 1Gbps?

They can get to around 450mbps depending on bands and encoding schemes. Then they need ti move to 3.1 kit.

regedit · 03-01-2015 6:15pm

ED E wrote: »

Drip feeding us up to the max of DOCSIS3.0, gives them plenty of time to implement 3.1. VDSL2 is great and all that, but I'm never moving outside of the UPC coverage map, it just cant compete.

ED E,
What does that mean? I presume this has tpo do with the bandwidth. What is the max download UPC can provide their customers? If they are at 240 now, what is the max they can achieve?

bk · 03-01-2015 7:20pm

regedit wrote: »

ED E,
What does that mean? I presume this has tpo do with the bandwidth. What is the max download UPC can provide their customers? If they are at 240 now, what is the max they can achieve?

I believe 240mb/s is approaching the limits of the existing deployed DOCSIS 3.0 modems.

I believe they can go up to 500mb/s with new DOCSIS 3.0 modems with more channels supported. I think they are trialling this in some cities in Poland already.

With DOCSIS 3.1 modems they should be able support 1GB/s or maybe even faster in future.

To show how impressive this 240mb/s speed is, the highest they support in their home market of the Netherlands is 200mb/s, in the UK the fastest speed is 150mb/s!

We are surpassing countries like the Netherlands and the UK, awesome.

VDSL can't compete with this at all. Only FTTH can.

Sam the Sham · 03-01-2015 7:26pm

Anyone know if the Cisco 3925 will work with the new speeds or are they going to force me to "upgrade" to a modem that doesn't allow bridge mode or, god forbid, a Horizon box?

colm_mcm · 03-01-2015 7:40pm

Cisco 3925 is an ED3 modem so will work.

ED E · 03-01-2015 7:51pm

Sam the Sham wrote: »

Anyone know if the Cisco 3925 will work with the new speeds or are they going to force me to "upgrade" to a modem that doesn't allow bridge mode or, god forbid, a Horizon box?

colm_mcm wrote: »

Cisco 3925 is an ED3 modem so will work.

As above its compatible. We'll probably be able to keep them for ~1yr or so I'd guess, after this upgrade they'll have another 6 months of no changes until the next boost. If at that point its a little higher again then the cisco would keep up, but whenever the big jump to 3.1 comes then we have to get rid of it. Hopefully by then the 7200 will be history.

Calibos · 04-01-2015 1:48am

ED E wrote: »

As above its compatible. We'll probably be able to keep them for ~1yr or so I'd guess, after this upgrade they'll have another 6 months of no changes until the next boost. If at that point its a little higher again then the cisco would keep up, but whenever the big jump to 3.1 comes then we have to get rid of it. Hopefully by then the 7200 will be history.

Good to know.

For those that don't know what Bridging is... Its ironic that despite the 3925 being a POS, because of its Bridging ability, I'd hold it over my head like Charlton Heston with a Rifle at an NRA meeting while shouting, "From my Cold Dead Hands......".

I'll have to research this new offer. I've no reason to want to leave UPC for the foreseeable so the contract renewal doesn't bother me. Been caught out on mobile phone calls so the €45 240mb bundle despite costing more than my current 120mb will save me money probably.

Not worried about 3.1 modem requiring speeds for a good while yet. TBH I don't even need the 240mb. 7 adult heavy internet users in our household all streaming and youtubing and torrenting and even the 120mb never seemed to buckle under the strain.

ixus · 04-01-2015 1:56am

What about the feature where you can register and be able to use wifi off any upc source. If im paying for a premium package, why should anyone else be able to piggy back of my connection?

bk · 04-01-2015 2:08am

ixus wrote: »

What about the feature where you can register and be able to use wifi off any upc source. If im paying for a premium package, why should anyone else be able to piggy back of my connection?

So that you can piggyback on their network when you are out and about (and even potentially abroad as it is expanded across UPC's international network).

It limits "guest" users to just 2mb/s, so it isn't exactly taking a lot of your bandwidth.

You can opt out of it if you don't like it.

pm. · 05-01-2015 11:25am

Is anyone actually hitting this speed now (240mb)? I restarted the router and im hitting just over 200

When evening comes my speeds can drop as low as 60mb wired anyone else get this ?

dalta5billion · 05-01-2015 12:50pm

pm. wrote: »

When evening comes my speeds can drop as low as 60mb wired anyone else get this ?

AFAIK UPC's residential service is contended, no?

ED E · 05-01-2015 3:15pm

dalta5billion wrote: »

AFAIK UPC's residential service is contended, no?

Shouldnt be.

The test servers or the links to them are busy, but the last mile shouldnt be and most likely aren't.

05-01-2015 3:27pm

Seems to be working fine on real world tests at least. I can't comment on speedtest results.

Taken just now:

edit: UPC speedtest

dalta5billion · 05-01-2015 4:54pm

ED E wrote: »

Shouldnt be.

The test servers or the links to them are busy, but the last mile shouldnt be and most likely aren't.

http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/upc-ordered-to-drop-fastest-broadband-claim-from-adverts-345868-Feb2012/

Has anything changed since 2012?

Their business service also seems to be contended.

http://business.upc.ie/customerservice/

ED E · 05-01-2015 5:02pm

Thats misleading reporting as I understand their network. Co-AX cable is used in shared medium design, similar to GPON with fibre to the home. But at 8-1 I and all my neighbours can pull 200Mb concurrently without overloading the node.

Alun · 05-01-2015 5:08pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Seems to be working fine on real world tests at least. I can't comment on speedtest results.

Interesting that the upload is 24Mbit/s ... I couldn't find any info online about that. I'm not fussed about the extra 40 download, but extra upload speed is always good.

BTW when did you order it and how long did it take to become active? I did mine on-line this morning and got an email back saying they'd contact me (no indication of how) in 1-2 days, although I'm not sure why they'd need to. I'm an existing customer so it should be simply a case of changing a setting.

dalta5billion · 05-01-2015 5:18pm

ED E wrote: »

Thats misleading reporting as I understand their network. Co-AX cable is used in shared medium design, similar to GPON with fibre to the home. But at 8-1 I and all my neighbours can pull 200Mb concurrently without overloading the node.

Care to expand? I can't find the original complaint so don't know whether 8:1 refers to actual theoretical throughput or just how the network is designed. Bit odd of UPC to say they have a contention ratio if they actually don't.

05-01-2015 5:24pm

Alun wrote: »

Interesting that the upload is 24Mbit/s ... I couldn't find any info online about that. I'm not fussed about the extra 40 download, but extra upload speed is always good.

BTW when did you order it and how long did it take to become active? I did mine on-line this morning and got an email back saying they'd contact me (no indication of how) in 1-2 days, although I'm not sure why they'd need to. I'm an existing customer so it should be simply a case of changing a setting.

I rang sales about 1.30 today and the speed was increased by 1.45.

Same as that. I am happy with the upload speed increase. Apparently the upload was increased to 20Mb in early November. I only noticed it a few days ago.

ED E · 05-01-2015 5:31pm

This gives a sort of idea of how it works. In reality theres no satellite there now, thats MMDS which is legacy now.

On each co-ax run you can have up to 8 homes is what UPC say, but each home can only subscribe to 240Mbps currently. The CMTS can handle 2Gbps (probably more) and in any case each user has say 4 or 8 channels assigned to them. So the usage of one premises doesnt impact on another at all. They're all on different frequencies.

People on MMDS systems have contention from the CMTS onwards and thus will slow at peak load times, but thats why they only sell 20Mb or 30Mb to them. When those nodes get a fibre link then they can upgrade everyone to the 240Mb package(or below).

dalta5billion · 05-01-2015 5:38pm

ED E wrote: »

This gives a sort of idea of how it works. In reality theres no satellite there now, thats MMDS which is legacy now.

On each co-ax run you can have up to 8 homes is what UPC say, but each home can only subscribe to 240Mbps currently. The CMTS can handle 2Gbps (probably more) and in any case each user has say 4 or 8 channels assigned to them. So the usage of one premises doesnt impact on another at all. They're all on different frequencies.

People on MMDS systems have contention from the CMTS onwards and thus will slow at peak load times, but thats why they only sell 20Mb or 30Mb to them. When those nodes get a fibre link then they can upgrade everyone to the 240Mb package(or below).

Thanks!

UPC should really be selling the fact that it's uncontended (for the most part), considering that the DSL providers love touting that part.

bk · 05-01-2015 6:29pm

To be honest "uncontented" is misleading, the entire internet is contended!

Eircom's service is only uncontented on the copper telephone line as far as the VDSL cabinet. From their it is contented on the fibre backhaul with all the other VDSL users.

And there is nothing wrong with this, as long as the bandwidth demands and backhaul is well managed and upgraded on a timely basis, then no one should ever notice slowing down.

Even FTTH using the typical technology of GPON is contented, similar to how UPC cable is. Yet I don't think anyone would turn down a 1Gb/s FTTH GPON connection now would they.

On the whole, most people report excellent speeds on UPC, normally close to the max.

pm. · 05-01-2015 8:06pm

i reckon it is contented this morning my speed was 205mb just ran another speedtest on the upc site and i am now getting 33mb. i also called upc at 6pm for them to upgrade the line to 240mb

Last Result:
Download Speed: 33429 kbps (4178.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 17650 kbps (2206.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 8 ms
Jitter: 3 ms
5/1/2015 19:02:12

also one from speedtest.net

ED E · 05-01-2015 8:24pm

Download an iso from heanet for a real test.

Alun · 05-01-2015 8:25pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I rang sales about 1.30 today and the speed was increased by 1.45.

Same as that. I am happy with the upload speed increase. Apparently the upload was increased to 20Mb in early November. I only noticed it a few days ago.

.. and there was me thinking that it'd be quicker to arrange it online. Silly me

I've just rebooted my modem and I'm still on 200.

pm. · 05-01-2015 8:35pm

ED E wrote: »

Download an iso from heanet for a real test.

could you link me the dl ?

sonofenoch · 05-01-2015 8:38pm

Snake Plisken wrote: »

I just got a mail today advising prices were going up by €2 a month, I have the broadband and the phone with them but no TV package.

Mine went up 1 euro 1 cent......same just BB and phone, I actually don't even know what speed I'm on (it certainly never goes above 100mb) on a supposed 120mb package

Signed for the new deal offer, was paying 43.99 .....now for 45 I get 240mb (allegedley)

ED E · 05-01-2015 9:34pm

pm. wrote: »

could you link me the dl ?

http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ubuntu-cdimage/daily-live/20150105/vivid-desktop-amd64.iso

On a 120/12Mb connection:

Peaked at 14.1~ MB/s which is 112.8Mbps, not bad considering my home server is running away and google music is streaming.

pm. · 05-01-2015 9:43pm

ED E wrote: »

http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ubuntu-cdimage/daily-live/20150105/vivid-desktop-amd64.iso

On a 120/12Mb connection:

Peaked at 14.1~ MB/s which is 112.8Mbps, not bad considering my home server is running away and google music is streaming.

Thanks Ed E my speeds are jumping between 3.1 and 4.8 m/s what should my full speed be considering im on the 240/20 package

regedit · 05-01-2015 9:45pm

email from UPC today:

We’re writing to inform you that the price of your UPC service will go up by €2.01 a month from 1 February 2015 and will be reflected in your next bill. While a price rise is never welcome, it means that we can bring you even more of the best value and most exciting entertainment in 2015.
Some of our Home Phone call rates will increase from 3 March 2015. You can find more details on these changes in the link below.
We’re changing your UPC service and making it even better:

Faster Broadband Speeds
From Summer 2015 we will be increasing the speed of your broadband from 200Mb to 240Mb, so you can experience uninterrupted HD video streaming, faster downloads and more people in your home can connect with more devices.

Why are they waiting until summer if the price increase is kicking it from Feb!?

UPC 240mb/s + unlimited mobile calls €45

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