Smart Telecom - Is changing that difficult?

Solair

I was just wondering if the change-over process to Smart Telecom is any less horrendous than it used to be?

We've a BT Ireland 7 mbit/s account and since the switch over to Vodafone, it seems to have become quite unreliable. There are a lot of problems with VoIP on the line and we use it for Blueface.

We had Smart Telecom in Dublin, but I remember the change-over process being absolutely horrible with a 2 week disruption to our telephone service due to some kind of eircom screw-up.

However, once the service was up and running, it was well worth it!

This was a couple of years ago, and I am just wondering have things become any smoother?

Unfortunately, as we have a home-office, we cannot afford any prolonged interruption to our broadband or phone services during the change over.

Our local exchange, Wellington Road in Cork, has a Smart Telecom node, so we can get the full service.

Anyone had any recent experience of a switch over ?

We also have a recently ceased 2nd line. So, re-activating that and setting up Smart on it might also be an option.

However, I was wondering if we do that, would it be possible to port the eircom number from our other line over to it ?

MunsterCycling

Did you post this over at the Smart forums last week?

Haven't ported in the last while but the change over was smooth, no disruption to phone, you can always get a midband modem for BB using the trial period and then return it before the trial is up.

Solair

Yeah, I did. Didn't get any info from the Smart forums though.

I don't think they want to talk about it

I'm thinking I might go with setting it up on the old second line.

jor el

eircom won't accept your LLU order until the current DSL is off the line. They will simply reject any order from Smart. So you need to cancel, and have it off your line, before you can even order from Smart.

A new line was a good idea, except eircom have changed the rules now and you need to stay with them for 6 months on any new line install.

Sponge Bob

Have/had you a second line in the house Solair ??

MunsterCycling

jor el wrote: »

eircom won't accept your LLU order until the current DSL is off the line. They will simply reject any order from Smart. So you need to cancel, and have it off your line, before you can even order from Smart.

A new line was a good idea, except eircom have changed the rules now and you need to stay with them for 6 months on any new line install.

When did Comreg change those rules? I thought the new company processed all the transfer details?

jor el

MunsterCycling wrote: »

When did Comreg change those rules? I thought the new company processed all the transfer details?

Which rules?

carveone

Solair wrote: »

Unfortunately, as we have a home-office, we cannot afford any prolonged interruption to our broadband or phone services during the change over.

My sister changed to Smart recently enough and they changed her home phone number even though they assured her they wouldn't. And then they wouldn't change it back - 12 month contract, so tough. My parents want broadband now, 1Mbit would do fine (assuming a contention ratio that doesn't end up at 20kbit). However unless the bb provider can guarantee no number change they can sod off.
A number change for a business would be a disaster.

Edit: Oh no! I screwed up. They changed from Smart to NTL. My bad. Sorry to Smart if they're reading

Sponge Bob

The rules say the number must be portable

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/dynamic/pdf/GLUMP%20CoP%20incl%20TPV%20V1.0.pdf

and

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0775a.pdf

carveone

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The rules say the number must be portable

Thanks for the links. But you'd still want to be careful and have that keep-my-number right embedded in a contract from the provider. Otherwise they'd "lose that information", the way other providers (which I won't name - Prime Time had an expose way back, changed nothing) do when you try to disconnect from their services.

Also, the implication is that you cannot remain with Eircom as a phone provider and have Smart/Imagine/etc as a broadband provider. Which seems odd to me; I'll search other threads instead of hijacking this one!

Sponge Bob

She should have kept her number but smart could have allocated her a SECOND number too. Did she try to 'port' her old number to Smart or to anyone else.

carveone

Sponge Bob wrote: »

She should have kept her number but smart could have allocated her a SECOND number too. Did she try to 'port' her old number to Smart or to anyone else.

I'm not sure, I should go and ask her! Her old number just stopped working and I had to get a new one from her. I'll ask how long it took to change over too; a friend of mine had an adventure with Imagine over 3 months (I'm not sure it was their fault rather than Eircom's) which I'm not interested in repeating with my retired parents. That was 4 years ago though - I think changeovers are much much smoother now than they used to be.

Smart looks good and is way cheaper than Eircom. €8.50? I thought that was some sort of mistake for a second. I also already have a Netgear DG834 somewhere that would should work nicely, WiFi isn't needed.

Funnily enough, I can't proceed using their website - it forces me to choose another phone package like "Smart Complete" which is a bit silly. At least I know my parents exchange will work...

carveone

Apologies to Smart Telecom! My sister changed from Smart to NTL and it was NTL who changed her number. My bad. I guess I should check first then post. Doh!...