Substandard Broadband - UTV / Eircom

Xcellor

For about 7 weeks I have an issue with my broadband. I am currently with U.TV. The problem manifests itself at 5-6pm onwards until midnight or thereabouts. During this time the latency on the connection which is 30ms through the day jumps to 500ms and stays like that until early morning. The download drops to between 0.5mbs-1.0s.

A few details. I am on U.TV 7.6 (12:1) contention. I have escalated this issue to U.TV who have in turn gone through all the usual motions to rule out a problem on my side and have claimed it is an Eircom issue. It has been escalated to Eircom what must be 4-5 times and Eircom keep coming back saying there is no fault. In their latest statement they have said it is contention in an attempt to wash their hands of it. I lodged an official complaint with U.TV last week and have contacted Comreg with the details.

I am not willing to accept this level of service as acceptable. My exchange was just enabled in January and it seems that since that time it has become over subscribed causing this issue. At the moment I am paying for a service that for the most part I can't use. In the evenings is when I use it the most for VOIP and online gaming.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks,
X

Nody

I'm quite certain that UTV has no required ping etc. listed in their contract with you so that would be very difficult to go after them for.

As noted it sounds a contention issue in the exchange (Eircom issue) more then a UTV one honestly. Sounds as Eircom has oversold in the exchange and that the hook up line can't handle the traffic.

Only other route beyond Comreg would be to try to switch to Eircom (that can have magical fixes appear) and then back to UTV again or some one else after that.

You're more likely to get an answer over in the Broadband forum though.

smelltheglove

I had a similar isue with upc although they blamed it on roadworks:eek: The only time I could get only for about 2 months was between 8 and 9 and other than that it was on and off all day. All I could do is harrass them with calls but even at that nothing would happen, it corrected itself over time. I asked for refunds and nothing would happen. In the end I cancelled the service and had 6 months worth of arguments and stress over it. IS there another provider you can switch to? Tell UTV that you are pulling oput of the contract as you are not being supplied the service they had promised. Also contact the regulator although I didnt have very much luck with them either.

jor el

Problems with speed and ping, form 6-11PM, generally are contention, or lack of sufficient backhaul to the exchange. If you had a line problem, it wouldn't manifest itself at peak hours.

Your only solution to this is an alternate supplier, that uses a different technology or different equipment in the exchange. LLU operators such as Smart and Magnet have their own exuipment, and control their own contention and backhaul to the exchanges. Wireless from Imagine Breeze and Digiweb Metro, or cable from UPC would also be separate from eircom's issues.

For gaming, you should be on the 7M package, not 7.6M. 7.6M has high interleaving, which is not good for pings. 7M was introduced to alleviate this.

Xcellor

I could switch to another provider but I believe the same issue will be present. At the moment I am trying to contact people in the Newtownforbes, Longford area with broadband to confirm my suspicion.

Since all ISPs use an Eircom resold package and are routed through the same exchange any user of the Internet duing this period of time should experience a problem.

I am going to talk to some of my neighbours about it and see what their experience is.

While UTV may not explicity state an SLA (service level agreement) there are minimum standards that a service has to reach to be classed as "fit for the purpose". A broadband with latency worse than dialup is not fit for purpose. I don't believe I would have problems getting out of a contract etc, but I need broadband...

I am hoping Comreg will put some pressure on them to resolve the issue.

X

Xcellor

jor el wrote: »

Problems with speed and ping, form 6-11PM, generally are contention, or lack of sufficient backhaul to the exchange. If you had a line problem, it wouldn't manifest itself at peak hours.

Your only solution to this is an alternate supplier, that uses a different technology or different equipment in the exchange. LLU operators such as Smart and Magnet have their own exuipment, and control their own contention and backhaul to the exchanges. Wireless from Imagine Breeze and Digiweb Metro, or cable from UPC would also be separate from eircom's issues.

For gaming, you should be on the 7M package, not 7.6M. 7.6M has high interleaving, which is not good for pings. 7M was introduced to alleviate this.

Unfortunately my exchange only has Eircom resellers. There is no smart/magnet or I wouldn't bother wasting my time on this. The only wireless solution is Last Mile Broadband and from the stories I have heard about them I wouldn't be inclined to try that route.

In a small village of probaly less than 500 people, on a service which is 12:1 contention, I don't expect for contention to basically reduce my connection to this. I think the backhaul thing is more likely to be the reason.

Are Comreg able to push Eircom to provide a minimum level of service. i.e. it must be better than dialup...?

I don't think U.TV offer a 7mb service. But regardless with 30ms pings I don't have issue playing games, I'm sure I could get it lower but I'm not that serious of a gamer

TheDriver

my parents had same problem and are with eircom, they were going to send engineer out etc but then found out ALL neighbours are same issue which suddenly fixed itself when all neighbours went down to exchange to ask questions

jor el

Xcellor wrote: »

In a small village of probaly less than 500 people, on a service which is 12:1 contention, I don't expect for contention to basically reduce my connection to this. I think the backhaul thing is more likely to be the reason.

Yes, I would expect eircom to have a sub-par backhaul connection on that exchange, given your (remote?) location and the small potential customer base. Meaning that even a few dozen users are enough to cause a problem for you.

Xcellor

jor el wrote: »

Yes, I would expect eircom to have a sub-par backhaul connection on that exchange, given your (remote?) location and the small potential customer base. Meaning that even a few dozen users are enough to cause a problem for you.

Actually its the closest village to Longford. Less than 3 miles. Unfortunately I can't get on the town exchange... I'm hoping comreg will put some pressure bt im nervous this could be just one of those issues that Eircom will try and shirk away from.

X

Welease

Sadly I don't think you will get anything from Comreg on this one.

Large chunks of the country still don't have access to decent broadband, a lot of the infrastructure is old and unable to carry high speeds. They don't seem overly bothered about that, so I can't see them lifting a finger to help you with degraded ping times. (and I'm not dismissing your issues, broadband outside Dublin is shocking in this country but Comreg, Government, Eircom etc. don't really seem to give a toss)

foggy_lad

you are wasting your time trying to deal with eircom as you have no contract with them, contact ComReg and make an official complaint to UTV and if the issue is not sorted out you have no option but to try a different provider and keep trying until you find one that works.

Kashkai

My parents live on the northside of Dublin and their supposed 3MB broadband from Perlico is an absolute joke. For example, downloading software updates for their Norton internet security takes a full night (download speed of less than 900 bytes a second (thats not a typo - I did mean bytes no kilobytes). Trying to access you tube videos is a no go and SKype doesn't work either. Their neighbours have no problems whatsoever with their broadband. Calls to Perlico have resulted in Eircom checking the line and finding no faults or so the parents have been told. Its ridiculous and a waste of money paying Perlico for "broadband" thats not even up to dial up standard.

Soundman

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

My parents live on the northside of Dublin and their supposed 3MB broadband from Perlico is an absolute joke. For example, downloading software updates for their Norton internet security takes a full night (download speed of less than 900 bytes a second (thats not a typo - I did mean bytes no kilobytes). Trying to access you tube videos is a no go and SKype doesn't work either. Their neighbours have no problems whatsoever with their broadband. Calls to Perlico have resulted in Eircom checking the line and finding no faults or so the parents have been told. Its ridiculous and a waste of money paying Perlico for "broadband" thats not even up to dial up standard.

Could be that their Norton "Internet Security" is causing the problems in the first place. It has been known to happen considering how bad their software is (or at least was, I'm presuming not much has changed with them). Unfortunately though, disabling the software doesn't really help to test as they manage to leave things running, or else disabling triggers threat alarms and it shuts all internet traffic in and out down completely.

nmesisca

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

My parents live on the northside of Dublin and their supposed 3MB broadband from Perlico is an absolute joke. For example, downloading software updates for their Norton internet security takes a full night (download speed of less than 900 bytes a second (thats not a typo - I did mean bytes no kilobytes). Trying to access you tube videos is a no go and SKype doesn't work either. Their neighbours have no problems whatsoever with their broadband. Calls to Perlico have resulted in Eircom checking the line and finding no faults or so the parents have been told. Its ridiculous and a waste of money paying Perlico for "broadband" thats not even up to dial up standard.

make sure that you are deriving the internet connection from your Primary phone connection (the phone cable that gets in your house, not a cable derived by it). also make sure EVERY connection is equipped with ADSL filters. if this doesnt work I would suggest you open the little box where the phone cable gets plugged in. sometimes one of the connections gets loose.

craichoe

Actually the best support i've ever recieved was from Smart telecom, went onto their forum and posted that my pings were all over the place and line was extremely slow.

An admin contacted me, advised how to troubleshoot the phoneline, took my line stats and changed some stuff on their side.

I was sorted in 2 days

Eventually it was my line couldn't handle the speed and they had to throttle it back. was happy with a reliable uncontented 4 meg line with good pings

I have 20mbit ADSL at the moment... moving house and tempted by the Local providers 120mbit offering

Rebel021

craichoe wrote: »

I have 20mbit ADSL at the moment... moving house and tempted by the Local providers 120mbit offering

Who's offering 120mbit????????????????

Xcellor

Just to give update.

U.TV got back to me saying that this has been escalated to senior levels in Eircom. Eircom say its a contention related issue. It's out of U.TV control etc etc. They have offered a gesture of goodwil once the issue is resolved... (If the issue is resolved?)

From the broadband forums it seems other Eircom users/resellers of Eircom are experiencing the same problem! Seems this issue is more widespread...

craichoe

Rebel021 wrote: »

Who's offering 120mbit????????????????

Nobody in Ireland

I moved country ..
http://www.upc.nl/internet/internet_120/