recommend me a flat rate isp

M@lice

Just wonderin if any1 has any recommendations.

I'm lookin into 1 of the lighter usage off peak flat rate services, sumthin like 20-60 hours. At the moment i'm on a 64k isdn line.

I've looked up eircom, iol and utv. Any idea which 1s hav the best pings/dl speeds etc? Am i leavin any1 out that i shud b considerin?

At the moment i'm leanin towards utv cos they hav a 30 hrs package for all times of the day for €9.99 with the 1st month free deal which sounds gud.

Also i'm a bit confused by the esatbt iol charging bcos €30 i can get 120hrs off peak and then 4 the same price i can get 180hrs anytime! if you don't believe me look here.

http://www.esatbt.com/ie/residential/internet/netsmart.html

And also hear eircom are just not to b dealt with. Heard storys like.

Any help appreciated. Thx!

sceptre

Hi M@lice

Pretty much all the current packages are listed here. The Esat 120 hours offpeak-only deal is a carryover from the days up to last summer when they were paying Eircom per minute for your access. Ignore it, can't think why it's still listed as an option.

All three ISPs have had the odd few problems at times. Pings on UTV were relatively sub-standard. I'm not a customer of their's so I don't know if all is well again or not. Eircom aren't that bad (though I wouldn't go near them but that's just a personal preference) but a few people seem to have reported access problems lately. With regard to download speeds, they're all about the same. Small tip though - try the equivalent "free" (pay pre minute service) from each company briefly. I can't get higher than 33.6k on any of the Eircom services (another reason I stay away) so it'd be pointless for me to get flatrate/reduced rate from them. Not a hard and fast rule but it might result in you eliminating one of the three.

If you're a gamer, I'm sure a few people will give you the update on pings. If you're a lightish user, it's largely a choice between UTV and Eircom if you want to save ten or twenty euros (keeping in mind: the Eircom 60 and 25 hour packages are off-peak only and that the only option from UTV short of the full package is the 30 hour one). Of course if you currently use the Net during the day you'll be saving money even by going for the packages with maximum hours.

I've probably left a few things out that you want to know. Or I've been less than clear so pester the board with wuestions in this thread to your heart's delight.

seamus

Yeah I signed up with UTV for the XL package (180 hours) I think on the 6th of January. Since then I've clocked up 42 hours online (madness ), which is 6 hours more than I paid €40 for last month.

Pings seem poor, but that doesn't concern me very much. I've always got a solid 40kbps with good throughput regardless of who I've dialled up with, and I've tried them all, so value for money was the main thing. As sceptre said, UTV have no median package, but even so, I personally am saving money even only using a fraction of the 180 hours, and bar leaving it on downloading overnight every night, the 180 hours basically means I can dial up when I want, for as long as want, and don't have to count the hours. On a lesser package (UTV's 30 or eircom's 60) I'd still be counting the hours. (God I sound like an ad).

Only thing has been a few busy tones which Inever ever used to get, but it doesn't bother me. As sceptre said, I would never go with eircom, for personal reasons. The only good thing as far as I can see with the eircom packages is the lack of a minimum contract clause - However it still requires you to be very careful if/when cancelling the flat rate packages with eircom.

M@lice

Well the house bill is eircom at the mo and far as i can see we hav to change our provider to utv to get their internet service. I don't think this is an option. Is there anyway around this? Is it the same with iol?

Morgoth

If you get flat rate with UTV you have to get you telephony with them as well. However, I don't see how this is an argument against them as they provide a quality service (except for slightly higher pings than IOL) and phone calls with them are cheaper than with eircom anyway.

With IOL you can just get the flat rate and keep your calls with eircom, but for the 180 hour package at least, IOL are €30/month while UTV are only €25/month. IOL give you low pings though, but their customer service is a joke.

You're probably going to end up with two bills anyway but again I don't see how this is an argument against any company. With UTV you get the bill online, fully itemised, so you still only get one bill in the post from eircom (for your line rental).

End of the day, I'd recommend UTV 180 hour package if you use anything over about 80-100 hours a month (or if you use more as well, of course), it means you never have to worry about hours, you get it cheaper than other providers, you get cheaper phone calls too and probably the best customer service of the three main ISPs.

I also would never go near eircom, ever again.