UPC Maynooth BB - Kingsbry estate

thebman

Hi guys,

Anyone know when this is planned to be upgraded?

I contacted them before but was told it was being upgraded. Want to have a date as currently the 3 housemates are unable to stay within current BB cap.

smelly sock

Any update on when were getting upgraded? Have contacted them myself a few times and have been told that they will keep me update. Needless to say haven't heard a word back from them.

thebman

Nope not a peep from them. They just ignore my emails and I couldn't be bothered calling.

I was looking at the Imagine port problem at lunch though and if I bypass the router, I can play TF2 without any problems so it seems that could be causing the issue.

Either that or they only turn their software on in the evenings which would mean you could use torrents during the day which would be fine. Just queue them up at night and let them run during the day and done when you get home

smelly sock

Got a PM from another poster saying that due to the bad ducts and bad cabling UPC were unable to upgrade Kingsbury 2 years ago. However they will be out later this year to look at the situation and carry out the upgrade this time. Hope this is accurate.

smelly sock

Heard from a very reliable source that the issue is in fact to do with residents not granting upc permission to carry out works in their gardens to upgrade their cabling etc. Some of Kingsbry is upgraded (the first 40 houses) but a large chunk remains in the dark ages because of stubborn residents.

zekiel

Just rang upc today and found this thread.

Guy on the phone said its a "good possibility" its to do with residents not allowing work.

Grrr.

L1011

It definitely seems to be that way, as if you get the support agent to try a low number (15 I think the last lad tried), it shows as available.

The older end of the estate is overhead wired and while they should have covenants to access the cabling sometimes they're missing and they need permission. 50/50 its either an elderly curmudgeon or a rented house where they can't actually find the owner to contact.

L1011

Just bouncing this as UPC have been digging in the estate and there's what looks like one of their access cabinets inside the main entrance now.

smelly sock

Hi. I have been emailing them lately and asking when they would be providing services. I saw a couple of UPC vans in the estate last week alright but didn't think anything of it. Is it definetly them doing the work?

smelly sock

I saw four UPC vans outside the house last night. They were there for a good 2 hours. Going to fire them off an email this morning. Hopefully won't have to wait to long now.

..Brian..

Quickest way to find out is to just ask one of the lads in the vans are they upgrading for Broadband and Phone. The poeple in the call centre prolly wont find out for ages until it comes up as upgraded on the system.

thebman

Typical, this will probably happen the day after I move out of the estate :P

smelly sock

Haven't seen any UPC vans or guys around since. They have patched the road back up and whatever cables they were laying have gone in. Problem is with UPC the communication within the company seems extremely poor. Could be waiting months for the engineers and techs to tell the sales staff the work is done. B man how did your wimax go for you?

caff

Moving in next week but I eircom ordered, would love to cancel it for UPC, had a look down there today and only saw esb guys digging around. You sure it was upc you saw?

smelly sock

Yeh 100%. The four vans that were parked outside with UPC on the side were hard to miss!! They were working with a lot of cable and had the covers lifted off the ducts. There's a green access box off the main green beside the main road of the estate. They seem to be doing the work in the evening. I'll get talking to them the next time i see them. I'd hold off on getting eircom for the moment. If they UPC are doing this kind of work then it shouldn't be to long of a wait.

thebman

smelly sock wrote: »

Haven't seen any UPC vans or guys around since. They have patched the road back up and whatever cables they were laying have gone in. Problem is with UPC the communication within the company seems extremely poor. Could be waiting months for the engineers and techs to tell the sales staff the work is done. B man how did your wimax go for you?

Imagine is working fine for me still. They've even unblocked torrents

Upload is pitiful though at 256kbs, it takes my housemate 5 minutes to upload one file and it kills the connection for everything else.

Good thing he doesn't need to do it that often but he has to ask when he does to see if I need the connection for anything.

Oh there was definitely vans around yesterday from UPC because some friends were round and asked were they upgrading the area because they saw them.

smelly sock

My girlfreind saw a few vans aswell yesterday in the estate. The were out with the esb for some reason but the girl on the phone from UPC said they were more than likely laying the fibre optic.

ArthurG

smelly sock wrote: »

Yeh 100%. The four vans that were parked outside with UPC on the side were hard to miss!! They were working with a lot of cable and had the covers lifted off the ducts. There's a green access box off the main green beside the main road of the estate. They seem to be doing the work in the evening. I'll get talking to them the next time i see them. I'd hold off on getting eircom for the moment. If they UPC are doing this kind of work then it shouldn't be to long of a wait.

When they upgraded Lucan Village they had signs up where they were working saying something along the lines of "fibre powered BB coming to your area soon". It was available about a week after they finished up. And I had it installed a few days later

smelly sock

Haven't seen any of those signs in place but then again I'm think Lucan village would have been a big upgrade. Your talking probable no more than 100 houses here. Time will tell I suppose!!

thebman

smelly sock wrote: »

Haven't seen any of those signs in place but then again I'm think Lucan village would have been a big upgrade. Your talking probable no more than 100 houses here. Time will tell I suppose!!

I think it is them, the roadworks are the same as we had back home when eircom were upgrading the place.

They did make an awful mess of patching back up the road however, lets hope UPC do a better job.

Since it is one estate, it probably doesn't warrant the signs on the road since they can just flood the place with UPC BB is here after they are done in letterboxes and it will cost less than a few of those signs. They are reserved for bigger areas I imagine.

I have the old analog cable in the house at the moment anyway and there is a nasty 50hz hum coming out of it on a few of the channels and it has been cutting out more and more so I think the cabling in the estate started to fall apart and they have to repair it so might as well replace it with the proper stuff if you are going to do that.

smelly sock

bman will this make you reconsder your move?!! I bought so I'm delighted at the prosepct of getting some decent broadband in. Hopefully because it's such a small upgrade it won't take to long to become available.

smelly sock

Those lads are out digging for the ESB. We'll have to see if theres anyone else floating around from UPC. Ask them what the story is.

thebman

They could be splitting the cost of digging and resurfacing though.

caff

Anybody have eircom in Kingsbry, just got it in and now told that we can't get their NGB 24meg only standard 8 meg?
Even though on their map all of Kingsbry should be covered by the NGB?

L1011

caff wrote: »

Anybody have eircom in Kingsbry, just got it in and now told that we can't get their NGB 24meg only standard 8 meg?
Even though on their map all of Kingsbry should be covered by the NGB?

Kingsbry and Straffan Wood are wired to the Business Campus exchange. Which doesn't have NGB. The rest of the town is wired to the Moneycooley exchange, which does.

You can get 24Mbit off the Business Campus exchange but for an extortionate sum on business packages - and its been available for a very long time too, well before NGB.

thebman

MYOB wrote: »

Kingsbry and Straffan Wood are wired to the Business Campus exchange. Which doesn't have NGB. The rest of the town is wired to the Moneycooley exchange, which does.

You can get 24Mbit off the Business Campus exchange but for an extortionate sum on business packages - and its been available for a very long time too, well before NGB.

Yes that price would probably be for an uncontended or lower contended line though I would imagine.

smelly sock

I'm not going near any more ISP's until UPC is available. I'll be waiting but I'm not throwing money away on eircom or imagine.

Agent J

I've gone from having UPC top line residental package for the last 4 years to having to rely on Eircom standard broadband.

*suffers withdrawal symptoms*

smelly sock

Agent J wrote: »

I've gone from having UPC top line residental package for the last 4 years to having to rely on Eircom standard broadband.

*suffers withdrawal symptoms*

Agent J I can't begin to understand how depressing that must be. That's real pain.

I was out talking to one of the UPC lads yesterday. They were there again. He said that theie not doing the upgrade at the moment but they will be doing it a some stage. He said "it will be a while."

I won't be holding my breath.

I have no idea what they are doing at the moment as there were another 2 or 3 vans there last night again. I doubt there replacing existing cable for their analogue service.

I got the impressinog that he didn't really want me asking to many questions either.

Agent J

Cheers for the data Sock.

Ah well.. Ill keep hoping...

smelly sock

I see the UPC guys are still floating around the estate.

I wish they'd ever get the finger out!!

Need broadband now.

sowdublin

boardies,

i'm really disappointed that upc is not available at straffan wood. i'm moving there (living in dub city and have amazing upc broadband at the moment) in a couple of months. if upc is not available, then what other options are good? thanks a lot for the help..

Agent J

Eircom. And it physically pains me to have to suggest that to another human being.

And its doubtful that its covered by the ADSL2+ either so its bog standard i'm afraid.

There is imagine wi max but my information says to avoid like the plague..

All other options are through the phoneline which Eircom is the gatekeeper.

sowdublin

thanks a lot Agent J...

collier

To check if your area is been upgraded call UPC Network Upgrade Dept. on 1800 940 420 or email networkupgrade@upc.ie

Agent J

Straffan wood is NOT covered by UPC. I can tell you that as a fact because i checked with them myself a few months ago. Whatever genuis built it didnt lay cabling.

smelly sock

Stay away from IMagine who provide the wimax muck. Any product they offer will be bad I believe. Vodafone or Eircom is your best bet.

I'd go for Vodafone. I don't think they monitor the usage as much. Eircom monitor it like a nanny state or dictatorship.

L1011

Agent J wrote: »

Straffan wood is NOT covered by UPC. I can tell you that as a fact because i checked with them myself a few months ago. Whatever genuis built it didnt lay cabling.

Straffan Wood was cabled for a firm called e-nvi who got bought by Smart before they hit the wall. The remaining shell of Smart won't answer my emails about what they intend to do with it.

sowdublin

smelly sock wrote: »

Stay away from IMagine who provide the wimax muck. Any product they offer will be bad I believe. Vodafone or Eircom is your best bet.

I'd go for Vodafone. I don't think they monitor the usage as much. Eircom monitor it like a nanny state or dictatorship.

@ smelly sock, thanks a lot. will certainly not go for wimax... heard enough gud things bout it ... will select the best bet'n vodafone & eircom...

Hi,
What's the latest on UPC broadband in Kingsbry?
Looking at houses in the area and this is essential as we work from home.

Also, what's the estate like to live in? I read on another thread that there are a lot of students and that it supposedly has a high burglary rate? Nothing against students but if there are a lot of rented houses in the same estate it might not be ideal for young families.

Any advice appreciated.

smelly sock

Ixelles,

It's a grand spot to live. Yes there are students but for the most part they are grand. Regarding people getting burgaled I don't htink it's as bad as anywhere else. I'm living there 5 years and I have heard of only a few. And it's a big estate. I have been chasing UPC up about there upgrade plans. Nothing in concrete. In fact I don't think it'll ever be done

Vodafone probably your best bet. You might get 5 meg but wouldn't hold my breath.

colm_mcm

I used to live in kingsbry years ago, the houses are quite noisy, as in they're not very well insulated and the floors creak a lot. It was very studenty when I lived there alright.

Thanks Colm, thanks Smelly,

The lack of fast bb would rule it out for me because I need it for work. I know people who've had Vodafone and heard mixed reports.

Would also be worried if insulation were an issue. Seems like energy costs will probably rise over the longer term so if you plan to live somewhere for 40 years or so you'd want to invest in decent insulation.

The main thing that puts me off living in areas popular with students is that it means lots of turnover which makes it harder to build a sense of community. Where I live now has a lot of students and it makes it a bit more vibrant but wouldn't really want to commit to a very studenty place for life.

colm_mcm

If youre buying, then a big thing or me would be that they only have one bathroom.


(way off topic now!)

smelly sock

It really depends on the part of the estate you want to buy in. Some cul de sacs are grand with a nice bit of privacy but then there are parts which are full of rentals.

The broadband thing is a pain in the neck though.

Obviously if you have the money go for a newer house with more of a modern build. (bathroom downstairs, better engery rating).

But if your operation on a strict figure then some of the spots in the estate could suit you.

smelly sock

anyways lads,

Anyone hear anything more on this? I haven't rang UPC anyway. They just lie.

TCP/IP

I have a contact in UPC I will ask him for you guys. His word will be taken as gospel he is that high up.
He helped me get UPC to cover my estate in Newbridge so I will see what he has to say.


Hope this helps
TCP/IP

smelly sock

TCP/IP wrote: »

I have a contact in UPC I will ask him for you guys. His word will be taken as gospel he is that high up.
He helped me get UPC to cover my estate in Newbridge so I will see what he has to say.


Hope this helps
TCP/IP

TCP/IP your a legend.

They'd get great business in the estate as we have no other real decent BB infrastructure. Well over a couple of hundred houses in the estate as well.

Any info is appreciated.

thanks

TCP/IP

Ok I have the info but I wont post it on an open forum so please PM me if you want the info.

L1011

UPC are currently (as in going door to door this week) trying to get new wayleave agreements in the estate.

dredg

MYOB wrote: »

UPC are currently (as in going door to door this week) trying to get new wayleave agreements in the estate.

Interesting! I'm over in Meadowbrook, currently on 3mbit and aching for faster broadband.