Are eircom upgrading lines?

Sconsey

Hi,

I was wondering if Eircom are in the process (or plan) to upgrade phone lines? I live in Galway city and my phone line currently supports 1Mb (barely!), I can understand if the priority is to get everyones line up to a minimum standard but it would be nice if I could take up a 2/4/8Mb offer from one of the providers. Saying 1Mb == Broadband is pushing it really.

So does anyone know if line upgrades will happen, or are happening, or can be requested?

Cheers.

Sponge Bob

No! If it supports 1mbit they are happy not to go near it, costs too much.

.

Urban Weigl

Praise the lord that you can get 1Mb! Many are far less fortunate.

watty

I think > than 250K "offically" by OECD counts as broadband, if it doesn't use Satellite.

Every supplier is reselling the same line. Even with Magnet/Smart, the line is the same, just not Eircm gear on it. So you are likely to have 1Mbps no matter who is your supplier of dsl.


(Ohh! I'm going to explode! 7000th post)

Foxwood

watty wrote:

Every supplier is reselling the same line. Even with Magnet/Smart, the line is the same, just not Eircm gear on it. So you are likely to have 1Mbps no matter who is your supplier of dsl.

Smart (and probably Magnet?) are using ADSL2 eqipment that can deliver more than 2Mb on a line that will only deliver 1Mb on eircoms equipment.

Hotwheels

my phone line currently supports 1Mb

I'd sell my soul, and da kidz for 1mb...Luck Lucky...etc (see life of Brian)

watty

Foxwood wrote:

Smart (and probably Magnet?) are using ADSL2 eqipment that can deliver more than 2Mb on a line that will only deliver 1Mb on eircoms equipment.

But you wouldn't be sure what speed you would get till you went through the horrid process. It might be 2M, or even 3M but could be 1M or 1.5M. No-one will tell you before changing over. LLU is not sold by Magnet/Smart in very many exchanges either.

Foxwood

watty wrote:

LLU is not sold by Magnet/Smart in very many exchanges either.

The point is that they will give you a higher speed than eircom on the same copper, because they are using ADSL2.

And I understand that Smart will in fact make an estimate of the speed you will get based on the Attenuation and SNR numbers that the eircom line checker database contains. Perhaps someone who has SmartBB on a marginal line can tell us about their experience in dealing with Smart in this regard.

dub45

Foxwood wrote:

The point is that they will give you a higher speed than eircom on the same copper, because they are using ADSL2.

And I understand that Smart will in fact make an estimate of the speed you will get based on the Attenuation and SNR numbers that the eircom line checker database contains. Perhaps someone who has SmartBB on a marginal line can tell us about their experience in dealing with Smart in this regard.

I have a line which is not too comfortable over 3Mb. Smart will lower the speed to whatever suits if you ask the lads through the Smart forums.

I am not exactly sure what the case is if you have a dodgy line and approach Smart to join up - I know at one stage they were getting only minimal information from Eircom in this regard so there was little they could do.

The effects of the line not being able to handle the speed can be pretty dire for instance if mine is not dragged back at certain periods of the late evening I can get sub dial up speeds. (At least one other user has reported a very similar experience in the Smart forum)

My fear in Smart's approach to upgrading everyone is that there are lots of people out there who have not got a clue about line quality etc and with the recent upgrade to 6Mb may not know what is causing the sudden deterioration in their bb experience.

Don't get me wrong I am not criticising Smart it is a very enterprising move but as will most things in this life there is a downside.

Blaster99

dub45 wrote:

The effects of the line not being able to handle the speed can be pretty dire for instance if mine is not dragged back at certain periods of the late evening I can get sub dial up speeds. (At least one other user has reported a very similar experience in the Smart forum)

What does "dragged back" mean?

dub45

Blaster99 wrote:

What does "dragged back" mean?

Sorry I meant if I dont ask Smart to take me back down to the 3Mb basic speed. When they upped the speed last year I had to ask and again with the recent upgrade I also had to repeat the request.