Changing from NTL to Eircom??

Stephen P

I'm moving into an apartment in a couple of months and was thinking about getting Eircom BB. I have NTL BB at the moment and I'm not totally happy with them. Is Eircom recommended? Is there much of a difference in speeds between the 2MB & 3MB service? Have they plans to introduce higher speeds? Do you need an active phone line for their service? Is there tech support free and any good? Is their hardware supplied good?

Thanks in advance!

RangeR

stephen p wrote:

I'm moving into an apartment in a couple of months and was thinking about getting Eircom BB.

Is Smart Telecom not available in this new area?

stephen p wrote:

I have NTL BB at the moment and I'm not totally happy with them. Is Eircom recommended?

Hmmm, Eircom's service seems to be rock solid, though it pains me to say.

stephen p wrote:

Is there much of a difference in speeds between the 2MB & 3MB service?

I'm sure there is but don't have them.

stephen p wrote:

Have they plans to introduce higher speeds?

Unlikely, this side of Christmas anyway.

stephen p wrote:

Do you need an active phone line for their service?

Of course. They won't allow you to order broadband until you order a line. When you order a line, they give no promises that it will pass for broadband. This will cost you one to two months line rental before you know, depending on how fast they are.

stephen p wrote:

Is there tech support free and any good? Is their hardware supplied good?

Free, I think so. Good, I don't know. Hardware is adequate, no bells or whistles.

stephen p wrote:

Thanks in advance!

You're welcome

watty

Eircom performance depends on the phone line quality & distance. Even a new line is not a guarentee of good quality. But if the line supports DSL, then indeed the service is good, though if there is an outage the front line support in the past have usually not been aware of it.

Stephen P

IrishTLR wrote:

Is Smart Telecom not available in this new area?

The area is Clondalkin, is Smart Telecom available there do you know? Is Smart BB any good?

daramullally

I too am looking for an alternative to NTL. I am in Lucan and have been with them since 3/4 years. I have been fairly happy with the service up to the last 6 months, now I am getting a lot of outages and the customer service has been awful.

My telephone line passes all the online tests for the DSL products. Who is the best to go for (2MB product)? Is it safe to sign up with SMART? I thought they were in trouble last year.

Cabaal

stephen p wrote:

The area is Clondalkin, is Smart Telecom available there do you know? Is Smart BB any good?

Although it wouldn't be 100%
Find out a neighbors number and check it here http://www.smarttelecom.ie/

RangeR

stephen p wrote:

The area is Clondalkin, is Smart Telecom available there do you know? Is Smart BB any good?

I work in Clondalkin [Nangor Road / Riverview Bus Pk] and we have Smart. Although, we are on the Walkinstown Exchange and can only sync at 2Mbps even though we are paying for a 5Mbps service. We are staying on this package for the perks that go with it

But do follow Cabaal's guidlines to be sure.

RangeR

daramullally wrote:

Is it safe to sign up with SMART? I thought they were in trouble last year.

They are about as safe as any other internet provider in the market, except eircom. Although I don't know how safe eircom are at the moment. Take from that what you will.

Cabaal

IrishTLR wrote:

we are on the Walkinstown Exchange and can only sync at 2Mbps even though we are paying for a 5Mbps service. We are staying on this package for the perks that go with it

Its a upto 5MB service so they'll give you whatever you can get...even if thats just 512K

RangeR

Cabaal wrote:

Its a upto 5MB service so they'll give you whatever you can get...even if thats just 512K

Of course, but we're still happy

dub45

IrishTLR wrote:

I work in Clondalkin [Nangor Road / Riverview Bus Pk] and we have Smart. Although, we are on the Walkinstown Exchange and can only sync at 2Mbps even though we are paying for a 5Mbps service. We are staying on this package for the perks that go with it

But do follow Cabaal's guidlines to be sure.

Why pay for a 5Mbs service if your line is not up to it? Why not downgrade to the Smart basic 4Mb?

JNive

as far as i know, when you sign up to smart you sign up on the 3mbps service, if your line supports it you can then upgrade, and if it doesnt support the higher speed you can downgrade at no charge etc.

So just request the package which your line supports, if you can only sync at 2mbps on the 5mbps service, try downgrading to 3 mbps, you will probably sync at that perfectly. ( or 4mbps , but either way you pay the 4mbps price )

RangeR

Really sorry for dragging this waaaaaaaay OT. We're on the 5Mb connection for the 6 or so IP addresses that come with it. Anyway, supporting Smart is a good thing these days.