Upgrading the reach of ADSL exchanges, schedule?

digitalsnub

I was in a certain computer shop a couple of months ago
A friendly assistant there asked me did I want to check my line for eircom broadband

I said I doubted it'd pass but tried anyways

It didn't pass, I explained that I was 6km from the exchange (Ballyjamesduff)
And he said to me he heard Eircom were going to upgrade many exchanges to reach up to 9km by the end of the year

So I'm wondering is there a list of these scheduled upgrades (to already enabled exchanges) available, I'm going bananas checking my line every day!

With eircom / minister dempsey / comreg now boasting that so many exchanges are enabled it would be great if now they can maximise the reach of these...

Back in November I was trying to get Fixed Wireless Access but I've given up on FWA, it was too much hassle trying to get connected, I did eventually get someone on eircom sales who knew what it was, and in fairness was very helpful... they agreed to send someone out to test the line... but I think missed the call (happened just a few hours before the christmas hols began) and never heard anything back since

my latest dial-up bill is 240euros for 2 months... for going about 88 hours over the 150 hour quota... and all with a severely impaired internet 'experience' ... I've paid many lifetimes worth of broadband bills at this stage...

Pierre are you out there?!!!

byte

You're exactly the kind of customer Eircom like! Dial Up Extortion is alive and well still.

I've not heard anything about Eircom upgrading existing DSL-enabled exchanges. They could I suppose move to ADSL 2+, though I'm unaware of any near-future plans to do so?

lucernarian

The highest number I've seen mentioned on the internet when doing research for this is 89 dB with READSL2. That's almost 7.5 km in eircom terms. Unless they are going to use repeaters, which would probably be hoping for too much, that 9 km figure is vapourware.

I haven't heard of any such list, but mabye sometime into the future, they will provide a wireless alternative or use repeaters. Vodafone or three may offer 3G coverage sooner though. Hard luck:o

damien

digitalsnub wrote:

And he said to me he heard Eircom were going to upgrade many exchanges to reach up to 9km by the end of the year

He was talking complete bollox. He probably read that on the internet. There are no official (or unofficial) schedules for 2007 let alone for the exchanges announced recently which don't even have a year attached to them.

SkepticOne

digitalsnub wrote:

my latest dial-up bill is 240euros for 2 months... for going about 88 hours over the 150 hour quota... and all with a severely impaired internet 'experience' ... I've paid many lifetimes worth of broadband bills at this stage...

Maybe consider BT's 240 hour deal at 54.45 euros/month if you are forced to use dial-up. Still expensive but better than throwing money at Eircom for doing nothing.

Also consider non-Eircom sources for wireless (incl 3G). You are far more likely to get broadband from these than Eircom supply you with ADSL at this stage.

Pierre are you out there?!!!

I'm sure Pierre's pretty happy with all the money people are giving him for dial-up.

meathman 007

for once, the sales assistant was not talking rubbish. For years i have tried and failed an eircom dsl line check. However about 2 months i checked and it said something like 'broadband may be available, engineer required'. So i left it and then about a month ago i got a call off an eircom sales person saying i could now get broadband. Aparantly eircom are using new technology to extend the distance from enabled exchanges or something to that effect.
To cut a long story short, eircom engineer is coming tomorrow and will hopefully install 2mb broadband:D , and end my 6 month clearwire nightmare! Fingers crossed....

damien

meathman 007 wrote:

Aparantly eircom are using new technology to extend the distance from enabled exchanges or something to that effect.

If you class "new technology" as lifting artificial restrictions then yeah sure this "new technology" is amazing. I heard they're winning Nobel prizes for bending the laws of physics too.

meathman 007

i only joined this forum a few days ago and i have been shocked at the amount of hatred and bitterness towards certain companies, products etc. I am under no illusions, broadband in this country is an absolute sham to put it mildly, but to be honest id be delighted if i could get 2mb dsl broadband today. I know that i will probobly run into problems with eircom but what are the alternatives?... its depressing when you hear people in England complain about being only able to get 8mb download speeds! Despite everything, i hope the engineer dosnt give me bad news 2moro!

kaizersoze

meathman 007 wrote:

i only joined this forum a few days ago and i have been shocked at the amount of hatred and bitterness towards certain companies, products etc. I am under no illusions, broadband in this country is an absolute sham to put it mildly, but to be honest id be delighted if i could get 2mb dsl broadband today. I know that i will probobly run into problems with eircom but what are the alternatives?... its depressing when you hear people in England complain about being only able to get 8mb download speeds! Despite everything, i hope the engineer dosnt give me bad news 2moro!

Damien is correct though. All Eircom did is relax the line test, nothing more. No new technology involved. They could extend the reach a bit further and be able to offer higher speeds closer to the exchange by upgrading to ADSL2+ but there is no sign of them doing it.