If Eircom BB is available, are all others too?

bren4q

Eircom broadband is up and running now in our area in Meath, on the Balrath exchange. Upon enquiring, an Eircom sales rep was unable to test the line to confirm that it supported DSL. My brother next door signed up with Eircom and it wasnt until he had the modem-router set up and logged on that we could see for sure if it was available or not. And it is. Hurrah!

I'm considering Perlico or UTV for providing BB in our own house. What I'm wondering is, if Eircom BB is up and running, does this automatically mean that Perlico, UTV, and other DSL providers are all automatically available too? And straight away?

Or would they have to wait a while before they are "allowed" or activated within the area (or something like that)?

I have tried the phone line tester with the other providers, but like with Eircom, it is also inconclusive. I assume there is no point in ringing Perlico or UTV because they will only use the same line tester, yes?

kaizersoze

They're all available to you but if your line is failing the test, none of them will accept an order.

Spear

bren4q wrote: »

I'm considering Perlico or UTV for providing BB in our own house. What I'm wondering is, if Eircom BB is up and running, does this automatically mean that Perlico, UTV, and other DSL providers are all automatically available too? And straight away?

No it doesn't. Eircom availability means a lot of other will since they merely resell Eircom's service. Local loop unbundling is required for some services such as Smart. Some such as BT make use of both LLU and reselling Eircom.

admol

If you can get broadband with Eircom then you can it with all providers as they work off the same line.

What does your line test say on Eircoms site?

RangeR

admol wrote: »

If you can get broadband with Eircom then you can it with all providers as they work off the same line.

Please see the post above yours. You are inaccurate. They are not guaranteed to get LLU providers

kaizersoze

It's clear from the original post that the OP is asking about the Eircom resellers and not the LLU operators.

RangeR

kaizersoze wrote: »

It's clear from the original post that the OP is asking about the Eircom resellers and not the LLU operators.

In fairness, the op asked about other DSL providers. It's not clear if they wanted bitstream or LLU or both. Anywho, it doesn't really matter, they have the info they need.

bren4q

Digging up this thread again, I'm afraid. Really just to fill in on how our broadband pursuits panned out, and wondering if our experience has happened to others. Its a bit long but you might know the answers to the questions at the bottom without reading all the background.

As of right now, the phone line checker on Eircom says:
"May be suitable; subject to confirmation"

On Perlico, it says:
"Congratulations! You are eligible to receive Perlico Broadband!"

When I first posted my query, neither line checker was giving a positive response. I cant remember what the Perlico one said at the time, but it wasn't as good as what it says now.

So because Perlico give a more enthusiastic phone checker result than Eircom , and becuase they are a bit cheaper than Eircom, we decided to opt for a Perlico phone and broadband bundle. This meant switching over from Eircom and the fairly lengthy procedure that this entails. You dont have to do a whole lot but it can take a couple of weeks to complete.

Our phone got switched over to Perlico first and then the broadband was supposed to be activated a week or 2 later. Instead, we received a letter telling us that our line was not suitable for broadband.

We queried this and said that the online phone checker passed with unbelievably spectacular sky-high flying colours and that my brother, living 20 meters aways, gets broadband fine. We were told that distance from phone exchange affects broadband reception, and that the tests they carry out themselves are more thorough than the online phone checker. Broadband was not an option - period. They said that we could take solace in the fact that we still get their telephone service. Wup-dee-doo.

We explained that we only switched to Perlico for the broadband offer and asked why they couldnt have told us our line was unsuitable before leaving Eircom. Their answer was that they cannot carry out thorough line tests without taking it over from our previous provider. We were also a bit miffed that it didnt say anything in the terms and conditions about situations like this.

We spoke with Eircom and they said that we may still be able to get broadband, but it wasn't definite - same as what the line checker says. So Eircom at least were still saying "maybe", whereas Perlico had gone from "Congratulations! You are eligible to receive Perlico Broadband!" to "No way hosay".

So we have switched our phone service back to Eircom, feeling somewhat bitter towards Perlico's tease tactics, and we have ordered Eircom broadband, waiting with our fingers crossed.


If you've read this far, fair play to ya! What I was wondering from all this is:

1. Is there a magic 8-ball handling all of the phone line checkers? - "Can I get broadband?" - "Signs point to yes", "Don't count on it", "Reply hazy, try again" ...

2. Are there such things as these thorough line tests that are more accurate than the line checkers, and can they only be carried out when the provider has control of the line (i.e. your account is with them)?

3. Does it seem normal that one house can get broadband fine while the house next door cannot? Is it just unlucky that one house is 20metres further away from the local exchange and that this happens to be the cutoff point for a good BB signal?
Or are there other factors as to why one house gets it and not the other - e.g. the cable that is in the house maybe?
Or is it just a case that Perlico have more stringent rules around the minimum signal strength before they allow broadband?

4. If we cant get broadband, even though we're in a broadband enabled area, what else can be done to get DSL? Do we wait on Eircom to ramp up the power or something? Could it be that the cable in our house is too old and we just need ask Eircom to replace it? Or do we give up on DSL altogether?
So far neither provider has been forthcoming with solutions.

axer

If all else falls through then get a cat5 cable and bring it from your house to your brothers house and share their broadband. You could also do this with wireless if you knew how. Cat5 technically is not for outdoors but sure just buy a box of it (about €50 for 305m) and if it deteriates then replace it. It should last a good few years at least. Split the broadband price between the two of you. Win-Win situation. Please note this may or may not be against the T&C's.

Perlico did not test the line at first - they just have a database of phone numbers (The "line checking" only looks up a database of numbers). Yours was probably marked as "unsure" but they probably changed all of them to "passed" whereas eircom always seem to be on the more conservative side. You cannot really know until an actual test is done.

bren4q

I had thought of running a cable between the 2 houses. Although there is a small field between the 2 which may have cattle or farm machinery on it. The houses are probably more than 20 metres apart I suppose, but still only a stone's throw.

They have a wireless router next door and I tried to pick up the signal, but its not strong enough. Couldnt even get it out in their driveway. I wonder if a wifi range extender would be powerful enough....

What you're saying about the database of enabled numbers makes sense. It might explain why the area was broadband enabled but the line checker was failing, and then shortly after it was passing. Was probably failing first cos the database wasnt yet updated.

axer

The maximum length of cat5 cable you are recommended to have is 100 so you should be still fine. Keep it into the hedge or something (better make the cable longer and out of the way than shorter and in harms path).

Javan

bren4q wrote: »

If you've read this far, fair play to ya! What I was wondering from all this is:

1. Is there a magic 8-ball handling all of the phone line checkers? - "Can I get broadband?" - "Signs point to yes", "Don't count on it", "Reply hazy, try again" ...

2. Are there such things as these thorough line tests that are more accurate than the line checkers, and can they only be carried out when the provider has control of the line (i.e. your account is with them)?

3. Does it seem normal that one house can get broadband fine while the house next door cannot? Is it just unlucky that one house is 20metres further away from the local exchange and that this happens to be the cutoff point for a good BB signal?
Or are there other factors as to why one house gets it and not the other - e.g. the cable that is in the house maybe?
Or is it just a case that Perlico have more stringent rules around the minimum signal strength before they allow broadband?

4. If we cant get broadband, even though we're in a broadband enabled area, what else can be done to get DSL? Do we wait on Eircom to ramp up the power or something? Could it be that the cable in our house is too old and we just need ask Eircom to replace it? Or do we give up on DSL altogether?
So far neither provider has been forthcoming with solutions.

As a rule, if Eircom DSL service is available to you, than all Eircom resellers are available to you. After all, the resellers are just reselling the Eircom service. There is no technical difference between Eircom and Perlico service.

The line checker can give a few different results. These basically boil down to:
Your exchange is not enabled (wait for Eircom to put equipment in your exchange and try again).
Your exchange is enabled and your line passes the tests for S/N ratio etc. (Ask and ye shall receive).
Your exchange is enabled but there is a 'non-standard delivery'. From what you say I guess this was the result for your line. This can mean one of a number of things. Perhaps your S/N is borderline. Perhaps there is DSL equipment in your exchange but all the ports are used and you'll have to wait for more to be added. Perhaps you have a split line and that needs to be resolved before DSL can be enabled. ... or perhaps something else.

When you order DSL if you are 'non-standard delivery' then Eircom can come back to the reseller with more information after the order is placed. That information may be available to Eircom before the order is placed, but it is not available to Perlico or other resellers until after the reseller sends the DSL order to Eircom.

Without knowing the details of your case, I'm guessing the original line check result was 'non-standard delivery', and the additional information after the order was placed told of a significant problem.

There is very little that you or the reseller can do about this. Unless and until the incumbent tells you or Perlico what is wrong, you will be unable to get DSL.

On your third question: there are lots of reasons one house can get DSL and next door cannot. Wiring is one; either the wiring in the house or the pair connecting you to the exchange. Not all the cables in the ducts under the street are equal, and you might happen to have one that is poor quality.
When I worked tech support for an ISP I remember a case where the customer had a wire in the house that went behind their fridge/freezer. Whenever the compressor came on their Internet connection would be broken. The solution was to shield the phone cable where it passed through the kitchen.

Perlico definitely do not have any stricter conditions for line quality than Eircom. There is no technical difference whatsoever between Eircom bitstream sold by Eircom, Perlico or anyone else.

Hope that helps.

bren4q

Thanks for all that info. Our house is about 30 years old whereas the one next door (that already has BB) is only 5 years old, so maybe the phone cable in our place is a bit long in the tooth.

We're back with Eircom now and at least they are willing to send out a broadband modem so that we can trial the connection ourselves. If it doesn't work I guess the thing to do is to lean on them a little bit first to see what can be done regarding a solution. The thoughts of running a cable between the two houses is not too appealing - doing a nice tidy job of it could be a lot of work, bearing in mind we have garden areas on all 4 sides of both houses.

Cheers guys.