Broadband Availability & Comparison

tedstryker

Hey, I live in Belmullet and found this website useful in letting me know what's available in my area...(my cousins friend is involved in it)

Anyway, the site is www.switchandsave.ie - they do home phones and stuff as well. Don;t think they've actually launched yet but I signed up for an account anyway and got an e-mail confirmation so think they must be live...might be some help???

Liam Byrne

Don't know if they're using the same engine/database as getbroadband.ie, but Smart are not listed on the left-hand side or in the Limerick City results, so that means that the site isn't in any way comprehensive......

Pity, coz an actual site that actually listed all the providers and compared all the prices would be a great resource.

Surprising as it might seem, in this area broadband.gov.ie seems to be the most comprehensive resource.

tedstryker

Oh right...ah well, they helped me anyway.

Did Smart not go tits up? Do people still use them after the bad publicity?

jbkenn

Did Smart not go tits up? Do people still use them after the bad publicity?

If you can read this... no, they have not, and, what bad publicity?

jbkenn

tedstryker

Are you kidding me? I read the papers and litsen to the news...just googled 'Smart Telecom Fiasco' and found this on a Parliamentary debate:-

Mr. Kenny: The Taoiseach will also be aware
that 40,000 Smart Telecom customers had their
service disconnected last year. Does he agree
that, in respect of the regulatory impact of such
an occurrence, there is a clear need to tighten up
the regulations which would require Eircom to
give notice to ComReg who, in turn, could warn
customers of a breakdown in the service?

Are you guys working for Smart or something? 40,000 people affected not bad publicity? Thought this forum was independent? V dissapointing...I only joined today and tried to share what I thought was good information!

smellslikeshoes

That was bad publicity for smart but I think their reputation for providing the best broadband in Ireland outweighs their former troubles.

yan

tedstryker wrote:

Are you kidding me? I read the papers and litsen to the news...just googled 'Smart Telecom Fiasco' and found this on a Parliamentary debate:-

Mr. Kenny: The Taoiseach will also be aware
that 40,000 Smart Telecom customers had their
service disconnected last year. Does he agree
that, in respect of the regulatory impact of such
an occurrence, there is a clear need to tighten up
the regulations which would require Eircom to
give notice to ComReg who, in turn, could warn
customers of a breakdown in the service?

Are you guys working for Smart or something? 40,000 people affected not bad publicity? Thought this forum was independent? V dissapointing...I only joined today and tried to share what I thought was good information!

mate, smart telecom is by FAR the best ISP in this country.....

and NO i dont work for them, i am also pissed off that they have very poor customer support (not available 24.7). BUT as i have already explained they are by far the best value for money when it comes to broadband and i am now SOOOO sad that they are not available to the new area i moved....

smellslikeshoes i do agree with you!!!

btw, i was their customer last year when they went busted..... and they cut the service of the telephone lines not the broadband.

watty

Only good value for fast broadband.
There are better value packages for 1Mbps to 3Mbps.
And you are still paying nearly 17 Euro a month to eircom via Smart unless you have fibre.

tedstryker

OK, cheers guys...so it seems only home phone customers were affected...but even if they are the best I can't see how they can attract any new customers without friends endorsements etc. Anyway, thanks.

Liam Byrne

tedstryker wrote:

Are you kidding me? I read the papers and litsen to the news...just googled 'Smart Telecom Fiasco' and found this on a Parliamentary debate:-

Can I ask what prompted you to include the word "fiasco" in that search ? I would've thought (in the context that you mentioned) that a neutral person would be looking for the word "issues", "problems" or similar, but "fiasco" ??

What actually happened was that eircom pulled the plug on Smart reselling their package; if you had completely switched over to Smart's phone and BB (for which eircom unfortunately forces you to change phone numbers, which puts a lot of people and businesses off) then you were AOK, but neither ComReg nor eircom clarified this at the time. And sites like getbroadband.ie or the one you mentioned above don't exactly help clarify the situation either.....

tedstryker wrote:

even if they are the best I can't see how they can attract any new customers without friends endorsements etc

Well, it'd help first-off if comparison sites actually listed them!

Are you guys working for Smart or something? 40,000 people affected not bad publicity? Thought this forum was independent? V dissapointing...I only joined today and tried to share what I thought was good information!

Nope, definitely not working for Smart, but they provided broadband to me when no-one else could, and they're charging me almost half of what eircom would while giving me a much better and faster connection, e.g.

• eircom 1MB with 48:1 contention, pitiful 10GB cap : €24.99
• Smart 3MB with 1:1 contention, no caps or limits : €15.81
• eircom 3MB with 48:1 contention, 30GB cap : €48.40

You do the math and then come back and ask why us Smart folk are happy.....that's a saving of over €390 a year on the closest equivalent package (assuming you ignore the contention and caps) and is even a saving of €110 a year if you settle for eircom's "starter" package!

Watty's right in saying that you could do better if speed and caps aren't factors in your comparison, or significantly cheaper if you can go wireless and avoid the exhorbitant landline cost that everyone has to pass on to eircom (I think Digiweb's 1MB is only a flat €19.95 without the extra €24) but when it comes to providing a damn fine connection further from the exchange, there's no-one can beat Smart's offering.

And that is precisely why people who are with Smart are so quick to sing their praises......I don't think there's many companies in Ireland that have the same level of loyalty that Smart's customers do, because they' (the customers) have gotten a damn good product at a damn great price! I've recommended them to 3 or 4 friends at this stage, and I'd do so again, no problem.....

P.S. Wasn't completely knocking the site, BTW.....just pointing out that it wasn't comprehensive enough, which is easily fixed if your cousin's friend gets on to Smart and also checks out any other options that might be available, e.g.

That switchandsave site lists 8 possible results for me, while broadband.gov.ie lists 21; if you leave out wireless (which involves leaving out Irish BB from switchandsave's list....which they mightn't like considering they're advertising there ) the switchandsave site lists 7 results and the .gov site lists 9........mind you, it gets confusing; while the switchandsave site doesn't list Smart or Cinergi, the .gov site doesn't list Gaelic Telecom or UTV, and neither mentions either Chorus and Ice Broadband, which are listed on getbroadband.ie..... :eek:

So maybe there is no comprehensive list anywhere ?

thebman

I doubt there is. Why don't you borrow information from the government site and add it to your own since you have operators the government doesn't then it you'll have a much more comprehensive list than most other broadband in your area type sites.

For example, I did a search for Mucklagh, Offaly and it lists only satellite operators when Last Mile are in the area and on the governments website. Ice now cover this area and are on neither site last I checked and 3 offer mobile broadband coverage to the area now.

Its a hard thing to do though to make a comprehensive list for each area.

Site is easy to navigate and does look good though. Much easier to navigate than the government website which you actually need broadband to view properly.

inlikefin

This is good information, especially Smart comments....although I was living in a house in Dublin where we had Smart and do remember it was a mess. I think they gave us top speed broadband at a reduced rate which was obviously to keep as many broadband customers from switching elsewhere. Seems they have kept it like this and everyone appears to be happy...which is good...still don't believe you're not affiliated to Smart though Liam ...it was a bit of a fiasco for those with home phone package surely...anyway, fair play to Smart if they have kept the BB guys happy.

Looked at Switch site and gov site - Gov site did seem quite comprehensive although found it a little user unfriendly, the switchandsave.ie has a good look and feel to it but doesn't list all providers in my area - I would guess they get income from certain providers...and those not paying the bounty don't get listed??? Shame, cos otherwise found it useful and good sections on homephone, mobile etc as well.

Broadband does seem to be gradually rolled out more across the country so we're in a better position than ever with more choice etc...now if those sites could just catch up we'd all be happy...or would we???