Petition to Comreg and National Consumer Agency

ptdireland

Hi All,

I have started to petition Comreg and the National Comsumer Agency to have the mobile operators remove the word "broadband" from their adverts and to stop misleading genuine customers who are led to believe that they are getting broadband when in fact all they are getting is slightly above dial up speeds with terrible reliability.
I have tried all four products from the mobile operators and NONE of them even come close to broadband speeds or reliability.

Therefore, I believe that the words " Mobile Internet Access" should be used instead of the word broadband.
I cannot believe the Government used our money to fund this rubbish and I think enough is enough.
I would like for anyone who agrees with the above to please post a thread and I hope the Minister for Communications who I know follows these boards will take note.

IrishTonyO

You should check the definition of Broadband first, you'll find it can include speeds starting at 256kbps. So anything with a speed of this or above can be classed as broadband

ptdireland

IrishTonyO wrote: »

You should check the definition of Broadband first, you'll find it can include speeds starting at 256kbps. So anything with a speed of this or above can be classed as broadband

Not when you get speeds of 40K one day and 600k the next

Sponge Bob

The ASAI looked into this scam and Comreg and the Consumer Agency told them to butt out even though the ASAI were prepared to act.

Comreg and the NCA never replied to IrelandOffline on the matter

http://irelandoffline.org/2009/08/a-broadband-code-of-conduct-for-ireland/

jor el

IrishTonyO wrote: »

You should check the definition of Broadband first, you'll find it can include speeds starting at 256kbps. So anything with a speed of this or above can be classed as broadband

Speed is only part of the issue though. Broadband should also have low latency, reasonable contention (controlled at least), be always on, as well as a few other things that 3G simply cannot deliver.

As far as the Minister and all the government agencies are concerned, speed is the only issue, and as long as 3G operators can state "up to" a high enough speed, then there is no issue. They don't want to know about things like contention, cell breathing, back haul, congestion, or any other technical mumbo-jumbo.

PogMoThoin

I saw a 3 dongle in an NBS area give 3Mbit the other day with a pathetic 700ms pingtime, painful. This is not broadband and isn't usable

Cabaal

The government is advising end users that so called "Mobile Broadband" will provide minimum speeds of 1MB, I know because I got a newsletter from the greens stating this.

This is a lie as it can not be done as you can't have the same QOS on Midband as you can with ADSL or cable as contention can not be controled in the same way.

Guell72

There is no point contacting Comreg for anything at all. They do Nothing.

ptdireland

This is why we need to get a lot more posts here and then maybe we can send Eamonn Ryan a link to this thread ad see what he says.
Chances of getting a response from the minister are slim but how about emailing Primetime Investigates and see if they would be interested in doing a program about the huge waste of taxpayers money which was given to 3 to roll out this so called broadband.

Keep posting...

75% of nearly all broadband in Ireland is crap in cities compared to other well developed countries.

Eamonn Ryan you need to get off your arse and start to get fibre rolled out across at least the cities of Ireland. This is your 1 job and you not doing it right!

Businesses wont survive as data becomes bigger and bigger and speeds in Ireland stay the same!

Also someone needs to step in and get broadband prices slashed to bring them in line with broadband in the UK.

Agree 100% with this thread. Mobile broadband is useless. So is the "new technology imagine wimax".

ptdireland

Come on guys, surely there are more unhappy users of 3G broadband out there.
We need testimonials posted here both good and bad.

Three are squandering public funds on this ridiculous product they call broadband.
The more posts here the better.

cowboy.1981

ptdireland wrote: »

I cannot believe the Government used our money to fund this rubbish and I think enough is enough.
I would like for anyone who agrees with the above to please post a thread and I hope the Minister for Communications who I know follows these boards will take note.

I think the focus needs to be specifically on the NBS.

At the end of the day the Govt authorities will argue it is none of their business to interfere in the promotion of products offered on a commercial basis by competing companies, without Government subsidy. They can fudge the definition of "Broadband" to help back this up.

However, they can't deny it is absolutely their business that taxpayers money has been squandered on a contract that is failing to meet their own clearly stated specifications for speed, latency, etc.

It is better to make this argument on a narrower issue and win it, than the broader issue and fail.

hotwhiskey

Ok this has been my situation over one year!

One year ago called Eircom to get connected to broadband, I was told sorry your phone line does not support broadband as we are updating are lines constantly and as it comes available we will be in touch.

Meanwhile!

I got a Vodafone 3G wireless modem, Well i don't have 3G not near it, my top speed 50k on a good day.

Then i tried 3, My God what a joke, I had it for 10 days got connected about 6 to 7 times and only for 2 minutes until it disconnected. My brother has 3 he lives a couple of hundred feet from the mast and he is constantly getting disconnected.

Last week i rang Eircom to see whats the story!

Sorry broadband not available in your area. I think i might be dead before it comes here.:(

I still have Vodafone, i can just get on the Internet and no more, YouTube,Music and video downloads a reel no no or any pages with to many pictures, are you reading this Mr Ryan.

I run a business and this is what i have to put up with. It looks like I'm going have to invest in satellite broadband.:( Sorry for the outburst but i had to get it of my chest.

cowboy.1981

hotwhiskey wrote: »

I run a business and this is what i have to put up with. It looks like I'm going have to invest in satellite broadband.:( Sorry for the outburst but i had to get it of my chest.

If you are in an NBS area, 3 are obliged to give you a satellite service for the same price as their dongles. You may have to pester 3 and the Govt authorities before they give in, though. Be prepared for a long battle.

hotwhiskey

cowboy.1981 wrote: »

If you are in an NBS area, 3 are obliged to give you a satellite service for the same price as their dongles. You may have to pester 3 and the Govt authorities before they give in, though. Be prepared for a long battle.

I rang the man from India three times about this,

He said!

I am sorry you are just outside the NBS:mad: and that was to answer to every question i ask him. Total waste of time and money on phone calls.

Whoever drawed up the charts for who gets the NBS have not got a clue, They did not take into account rural business or communities with 20 to 25 houses close together who could do with broadband which is the case in my area as many houses today need this vital tool.

cowboy.1981

hotwhiskey wrote: »

I rang the man from India three times about this,

He said!

I am sorry you are just outside the NBS:mad: and that was to answer to every question i ask him. Total waste of time and money on phone calls.

Don't take his word for it. Make sure to check the maps on the 3 website. It is very clear from these maps which areas are supposed to be within NBS. If you are that close to the NBS, you may have a friend/relative who is within NBS area, and who has no interest in Broadband. They could apply for service on your behalf. Then force 3 to provide the Satellite service, and afterwards move the dish to your own premises. Sneaky way around the problem, but no less honest than the Govt & 3 people who set up this scam in the first place.

PogMoThoin

cowboy.1981 wrote: »

.............Then force 3 to provide the Satellite service, and afterwards move the dish to your own premises. Sneaky way around the problem, but no less honest than the Govt & 3 people who set up this scam in the first place.

:rolleyes: apt username

ptdireland

All broadband operators were asked to supply coverage details in the form of a centre point of their transmission range and the coverage radius from that centre point. It was only when the submission date had passed and no more submissions were accepted, they issued the NBS map which was set out in electoral divisions.
This is what three were supplied with and this is what they tendered for. The coverage areas which were submitted by wireless operators were manipulated and decreased by the dept for reasons only known to themselves but the word is that the areas were decreased in order to justify the NBS.
The dept were advised by Mason Consultants who are based in the UK that mobile based internet was the best option. What a cockup.

Eamon Ryan and his cronies were foolish enough to fall for it and three got millions, not only to fund mobile internet access, but to fund their phone service. No wonder they can afford full page adverts every week in my local rag.
I can assure you that in a few years, this NBS will be in the same category as the E-Voting scandal.

Celtic Broadband

The problem is not for Comreg but more an inherent issue with the Irish National Broadband Scheme. I agree that 3G is not the way to go though HSPA+ may be. The WISP Wireless Internet Service Providers in Ireland need support. Most WISP's offer a good speed Internet connection even though many are small companies competing in a hard market with little if no chanel space. If the government gave perhaps 3.4Ghz or better still 900Mhz licences to WISP within Ireland then this could go a long way to solving the broadband problems in the rural areas.

watty

The problem is Government.
Design of NBS
and Awarding it to anyone.

IT was so badly designed that the WISPs could not tender with any hope. One company had to do all, rather than regions with an overall project manager.
The only people that could tender economically was anyone doing a National Mobile Rollout anyway. Eircom would have been mostly Meteor.

So flawed process and assumptions and data at starts.

In appropriate award as neither tender met the Broadband standards laid out in the scheme. So the Government now has to pretend that Moible is always on and low latency and can't drop below 1.2Mbps. All of that is a lie.

The solution is FTTC + FTTH with a bit of fixed wireless fill in. Not Mobile or Fixed wireless with Satellite fill in.

jay93

i think we can all agree that FTTC+FTTH would be best other than 3G and sattelite to fill in for DSL and cable dead zones but i really cant even see our area ever getting FTTH OR FTTC its a joke there is no companies that are even arsed to get a proper roll out across the country its not that im in the middle ov nowhere im right beside drogheda which doesnt even have UPC or Magnet fibre also ..its DSL or 3G here nothing else.
the town has Digiweb metro i think also imagine wimax exchange can take ''upto 24mb'' while ours can handle 7mb max not good really:(