UPC Fibre Power Broadband Availability

Dark Nex

I was just wondering if anybody knew anything about when this would be available in Leopardstown. At the moment on their site, they have areas in green which are available and areas in blue which are proposed. They say that any areas in blue will be finished by the end of 2010. Obviously some areas will be done before others though. I'm going to ring them tomorrow and find out but what was wondering if anybody already had any answers?

http://www.upc.ie/customersupport/service_news/

If Magnet Fibre Optic isn't available in my area I will be going with UPC 30Mb/3Mb. I don't think the Fibre Optic is in my area as they seem to only have it in areas where they could put it in before the houses/apartments were built. Magnet's uploads speeds on the 24Mb and Bolt packages are too low for my liking. I think the Bolt, which is supposed to be for gaming, has a ridiculously low upload cap of 0.8mb.

Dark Nex

I think the 30MB might already be available here seeing as we have an NTL TV box downstairs already. I think that UPC are upgrading the blue areas mentioned above with Fibre so that they'll be able to launch their 100MB product that they announced at the start of the month.

jaws104

that's an interesting picture. Anyone know why south dublin has such bad coverage

lucernarian

The fools that pass as UPC have an inaccurate broadband coverage map anyway. I know for a fact that the SJR Quay area has cable broadband as I've seen it working myself last week in a flat just off Pearse st.

Until UPC sort out their act and end their woeful knowledge of their own network, they are going to throw away customers who are told it's not available when it is. There's been plenty of stories on boards about some hapless "customer service" informing someone that they cannot get broadband despite nextdoor neighbours all being able to get it and with new cabling installed outside the house. One particularly bizarre reason I remember was because the address "wasn't in the system".

Bunch of amateurs.

john kinsella

I am living in Leopardastown and i have it so just give them a call

happydayz182

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

The fools that pass as UPC have an inaccurate broadband coverage map anyway. I know for a fact that the SJR Quay area has cable broadband as I've seen it working myself last week in a flat just off Pearse st.

Until UPC sort out their act and end their woeful knowledge of their own network, they are going to throw away customers who are told it's not available when it is. There's been plenty of stories on boards about some hapless "customer service" informing someone that they cannot get broadband despite nextdoor neighbours all being able to get it and with new cabling installed outside the house. One particularly bizarre reason I remember was because the address "wasn't in the system".

Bunch of amateurs.

you really think if theres a chance its avaible then theyd be telling you its not? sometimes theres tests in areas when cables are newly installed to see if the service is good to provide coveage to all houses in area and the iron out any problems quicker.

channelsurfer2

interesting to see that a lot of the towns outside dublin are enabled. no sign of tullamore though yet. wonder when that will be done?

lucernarian

happydayz182 wrote: »

you really think if theres a chance its avaible then theyd be telling you its not? sometimes theres tests in areas when cables are newly installed to see if the service is good to provide coveage to all houses in area and the iron out any problems quicker.

I don't think it. I'm basing that on reports on boards. I see no reason why people would make up such a variety of stories about occasions where one UPC rep would say there was no bb availability but a call later with another UPC rep would suddenly result in an order being processed.

Also, how would that explain the fact that I've seen UPC broadband in a few parts of one area marked as "unavailable" on the map?

Or how would Testing explain why one person on an upgraded street could order it while another address on the same side of the street could not?

Karmafaerie

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

The fools that pass as UPC have an inaccurate broadband coverage map anyway. I know for a fact that the SJR Quay area has cable broadband as I've seen it working myself last week in a flat just off Pearse st.

Until UPC sort out their act and end their woeful knowledge of their own network, they are going to throw away customers who are told it's not available when it is. There's been plenty of stories on boards about some hapless "customer service" informing someone that they cannot get broadband despite nextdoor neighbours all being able to get it and with new cabling installed outside the house. One particularly bizarre reason I remember was because the address "wasn't in the system".

Bunch of amateurs.

You do realise that it's the contracters that give that information to companies.

If UPC/Eircom/Magnet/Smart etc don't have the address on their system, it's because the address wasn't given to them.
The amount of shoddy, half assed developments that went up around this country over teh last few years, with jokes of managment companies looking after them is beyond belief.



But no, you're right, everything is the providers fault.

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Or how would Testing explain why one person on an upgraded street could order it while another address on the same side of the street could not?

Do you know how a cable network works?
You can have service on every house on a street but not in one house.

You can have one resident blocking cables going through their property causing everyone else to be unable to get service.
You can have a particular building on a street that has a deal with one provider to block every other operater from service.
etc...
etc...
etc...

It's not black and white my friend.

paulm17781

Karmafaerie wrote: »

You do realise that it's the contracters that give that information to companies.

If the companies don't know what their contractors are doing, that should be cause for greater concern.

Karmafaerie

paulm17781 wrote: »

If the companies don't know what their contractors are doing, that should be cause for greater concern.

Contracters as in the builders Paulm.
Not the ones working for UPC/Magnet etc.

When a new estate / apartment buliding is built the cabling isn't done by the telco operaters.

It's done by independant electricians.

Then once the building / estate is complete they're supposed to contact the providers and arrange for the internal networks to be connected to the greater one.

Of course, being Ireland, things don't always work that way.

I move address a lot, and tend to go for new buildings.
I've had issues a few times where it can be months after I move in, and still the connections haven't been freed up to the providers, and in a few occassions they never are, as the building managment has exclusive deals with one particular provider.

The last time I moved for instance, one apartment I was about to move into seemed perfect until I realised that while in the city center, UPC (whom I had a contract with) weren't available for any service as Sky had a contract with the building managment.

If the building is unlisted for UPC/Magnet etc, then they won't have a record of it.
So if you give an address, then more than likely the address won't show.

Sponge Bob

Karma means building contractors not UPC contractors...surely.

Actually UPC recently took over one of those 'providers' when they went into liquidation, anyone remember Broadworks who provided a rather crummy service to "approximately 20 housing estates in the Leinster area" ???

see

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cablemonopoly/signatures?page=16

DingDong

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Also, how would that explain the fact that I've seen UPC broadband in a few parts of one area marked as "unavailable" on the map?

Or how would Testing explain why one person on an upgraded street could order it while another address on the same side of the street could not?

TBC the key to the map is its "Dublin's upgrade plans" not Dublin service availability. It not for informing the general public what services they can get. It sole purpose is what's to be upgraded in 2010. Some of the areas that are in white do indeed have all the available services already.

The only reason I can see why one customer service rep would give different information is they entered the address wrong when checking available services. That or the address was release the next time the customer calls.

Dark Nex if you live in the The Gallops as stated in the other thread you started triple play services is available to you.

Dark Nex

john kinsella wrote: »

I am living in Leopardastown and i have it so just give them a call

Cheers. I'll check it out so. I thought it might already be available alright.

DingDong wrote: »

Dark Nex if you live in the The Gallops as stated in the other thread you started triply play services is available to you.

Who are triply play? Do you mean the three services phone, broadband and TV are available from UPC in The Gallops?? . . . Google is my friend

DingDong

Dark Nex wrote: »

Cheers. I'll check it out so. I thought it might already be available alright.



Who are triply play? . . . Google is my friend

Sorry ment to write triple play service from UPC, meaning you can order phone broadband (currently up to 30Mb) and TV

Dark Nex

DingDong wrote: »

Sorry ment to write triple play service from UPC, meaning you can order phone broadband (currently up to 30Mb) and TV

Thanks for your help.

lucernarian

Karmafaerie, I wasn't thinking about the developments which are scattered (roughly speaking) along the M50. It would be unfair to castigate ignorance of a new address.

That wasn't the basis of my criticism.

For streets and housing estates existing since pretty much at least the 80s and normally younger than that, cable was hung along fascia boards or along the walls of houses throughout the city. It was very rare for any objections to such errection of cable as firstly Rte relays or CMI or whatever company would offer sweeteners, and also cable meant that people could watch NI tv without very expensive aerials and usually in better quality too.

So if you walked around almost any part of Dublin that's not some isolated apartment development beyond the M50 or some industrial estate, you would see that cable taps are present on/beside pretty much every house or business.

I seriously doubt that the average semi-d in Dublin would have exclusivity contracts associated with it.

As for cables going across houses, that was more of an issue with the network rebuild that UPC are undertaking. The availability of sky and a variety of other reasons are present today but not 20 years ago. What UPC do to counteract this is to dig the footpath around the house and bring it underground for that short stretch and/or other rerouting measures. The cable run never just stopped at one house along a terrace of houses. Those issues merely cause rollout delays, and the houses would still be served by the old cable that was put up years ago for analogue/ ordinary digital TV.

I think UPC could do a lot better in dealing with addresses and availability. If a whole street is able to receive analogue cable and the area is upgraded, there shouldn't be any inconsistencies when some of those houses decide to order broadband. Also, if an address isn't in a system then it has to be added somehow. If an order is made, what's stopping a UPC techie to pay a visit to the house to see what the story is? Eircom/wireless companies do that just fine, it doesn't seem like a complicated plan for any professional company to implement. If you order something off eircom, an engineer gets directions if necessary and pays the house a visit and outlines costs/what has to be done. If you have a phone line, either you can definitely pass for broadband or you can't because a linesman recorded the line as technically unsuitable because of distance or pairgains or the exchange isn't enabled All it takes is one phonecall or a visit to the eircom website.

One story on boards involved a phone call to UPC where the person couldn't order any cable, in their house (I believe No. 9 on the street) despite the fact that addresses 5, 7, 11 and 13 were all customers and were eligible to order broadband. This was in a row of terraced houses. Such "computer sez no" attitudes are completely unprofessional.

Karmafaerie

What you have to understand to TBC is that - especially in Dublin - there have been so many different smaller companies, laying so many different networks, that it's not going to be a simple transition.

UPC bought out NTL, and Chorus, but both of them bought out so many itterations of othe companies.
There are going to be mix ups and mistakes made.

In the smaller cities like Limerick and Galway it's not as bad, but in Dublin it's going to cause problems.

PeakOutput

any idea about castltetroy in limerick having access to fibre?

that map and the website really dosnt help

lucernarian

How many years has it been since Cablelink eventually was the sole supplier of cable in Dublin? Sure they were sold about 10 years ago and NTL ran it since then until UPC bought them. It must be what, 20 years since Dublin's cable has been supplied by the one company.

If they can't give accurate information to customers after 20 years of running a network then they are gravely incompetent.

Given by the experiences that have been posted on this forum, it seems the structure and way that customers are dealt with has not changed significantly since UPC took over. They centralised customer care in the ex-chorus facility that had the worst reputation with some regular posters on boards.

I'm leaving it at that, Dark Nex's question has been answered by DingDong.

Karmafaerie

I used to live by Oaklawns, down by the University, and had UPC broadband there.

PeakOutput

Karmafaerie wrote: »

I used to live by Oaklawns, down by the University, and had UPC broadband there.

ye i had upc broadband in briarfield this year but does that mean that the fibre network is there too?

Karmafaerie

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

How many years has it been since Cablelink eventually was the sole supplier of cable in Dublin? Sure they were sold about 10 years ago and NTL ran it since then until UPC bought them. It must be what, 20 years since Dublin's cable has been supplied by the one company.

If they can't give accurate information to customers after 20 years of running a network then they are gravely incompetent.

Given by the experiences that have been posted on this forum, it seems the structure and way that customers are dealt with has not changed significantly since UPC took over. They centralised customer care in the ex-chorus facility that had the worst reputation with some regular posters on boards.

I'm leaving it at that, Dark Nex's question has been answered by DingDong.

First off you don't seem to understand that I'm talking about teh cables layed.
Cablelink didn't lay all the cables in Dublin.
A miriad of different companies layed different specs of cables.
While UPc have been rolling out their own network, in a lot of places the old network is still in use, so Would cause problems.


secondly, the Chorus center had a reputation that was a millioon times better than the NTL one, and Chorus itself had a much better reputation than NTL.

But as you said it's gone off topic, so lets leave it at that.

paulm17781

Karmafaerie wrote: »

secondly, the Chorus center had a reputation that was a millioon times better than the NTL one, and Chorus itself had a much better reputation than NTL.

I'd be pretty certain the opposite of that is true.

Sponge Bob

Karmafaerie wrote: »

The Chorus center had a reputation that was a millioon times better than the NTL one, and Chorus itself had a much better reputation than NTL.

Never was a more untrue statement made. NTL were always streets ahead of Chorus both technically and in terms of customer service. Sadly the far more competent NTL callcentre in Waterford was closed down 3 or 4 years ago and their poor customers (mainly) in Galway and Dublin were left to the tender mercies of the Roxboro road bunker thereafter.

Chorus, pre takeover by UPC, were the worst in Ireland at absolutely everything, network/plant/billing/cs/maintenance, simply utterly awful

Karmafaerie

paulm17781 wrote: »

I'd be pretty certain the opposite of that is true.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Never was a more untrue statement made. NTL were always streets ahead of Chorus both technically and in terms of customer service. Sadly the far more competent NTL callcentre in Waterford was closed down 3 or 4 years ago and their poor customers (mainly) in Galway and Dublin were left to the tender mercies of the Roxboro road bunker thereafter.

Chorus, pre takeover by UPC, were the worst in Ireland at absolutely everything, network/plant/billing/cs/maintenance, simply utterly awful

How little ye know.


To sum it up, when UPC was recently voted the third least trustworthy company in Ireland, the article concerning it was titled "Former Golden boys Chorus still suffering from NTL problems"

Chorus were an infinately better run company publically.
As evidenced by the fact that NTL was way more hated.

NTL had a more restrictive suspension policy.
NTL had longer call queues.
NTL had way longer waits for service calls.
NTL had longer and more frequent outages.
NTL had more repeat service calls.

NTL did have a better channel line up however.



And I've had dealings with both of them personally to back that up.


Why the hell do you think the center was moved to the Chorus center.
Sh1ts and giggles?!!


Chorus was the first company that UPC bought, they then spent about two years buying NTL, and seeing how things ran.
When UPC officially bought NTL, in 2006 I believe, the plan was to relaunch as UPC Ireland in 2007.
Instead when they realised exactly what a shambles NTL was, it inded up getting pushed back to 2010!


Chorus > NTL.

paulm17781

Karmafaerie wrote: »

To sum it up, when UPC was recently voted the third least trustworthy company in Ireland, the article concerning it was titled "Former Golden boys Chorus still suffering from NTL problems"

Where was any of this printed? I never had to deal with Chorus but I never heard a good thing about them. NTL CS were fine, not great but fine. There was a noticeable drop in quality when it moved to Chorus, that's why NTL people couldn't understand why the good call centre closed. Do you have a link to that article? Thanks.

Karmafaerie

paulm17781 wrote: »

Where was any of this printed? I never had to deal with Chorus but I never heard a good thing about them. NTL CS were fine, not great but fine. There was a noticeable drop in quality when it moved to Chorus, that's why NTL people couldn't understand why the good call centre closed. Do you have a link to that article? Thanks.

And you don't think the drop in service may have had anything to do with the fact that two companies servicing hundreds of thousands of people were merging?
And that such a merger isn't going to be free of problems.

Or that the NTL agents in Limerick weren't the same people as those in Waterford, so they were being trained in?
Meaning that any problems experienced were inevitable when a work force is changed.

Or that UPC ran Chorus differrently than Chorus ever ran Chorus, so NTL moving to UPC's way of operating has nothing at all to do with Chorus.

It wasn't a case of Chorus taking over NTL.

UPC took over Chorus, and then later they took over NTL, changing the operating policy of both companies.

Chorus for years had a great reputation.
They often had same day service calls for God sake!
(Happened to my parents once. They called up with their tv down, and 20 minutes later got a call from a technician who was passing by and asked if he could come in now).

They were ran more like a friendly company than a faceless corporation which is what NTL were and UPC are.

You ask the vast majority of Chorus customers, going back decades, and you'll see that until UPC bought them out they were never though of badly.



Don't get me wrong, financially they made so many comical mistakes, but they rarely had a call queue, and their service call times were less than UPC now, never mind less than the ages NTL used to make you wait.


As I said, the center in Limerick and the one in Waterford were both vying for the overall job, and the one in Limerick got it for a reason.

Unfortunately it doesn't make a difference, as UPC came in and changed everything anyway.

Flaregon

Still waiting in clondalkin :?, stuck paying 110e + vat for my broadband because of the lame NGB, the old 3 mb dlod what u liked was perfect .

Karmafaerie

PeakOutput wrote: »

ye i had upc broadband in briarfield this year but does that mean that the fibre network is there too?

I've no idea mate.

I know that supposedly 80% of Limerick City is cabled, but due to the antiquated city boundry, Castletroy is outside that.

lynchie

Flaregon wrote: »

Still waiting in clondalkin :?, stuck paying 110e + vat for my broadband because of the lame NGB, the old 3 mb dlod what u liked was perfect .

They are upgrading Clondalkin at the moment. They have been busy digging up and laying fibre along the old nangor road the past 6 days.

Flaregon

lynchie wrote: »

They are upgrading Clondalkin at the moment. They have been busy digging up and laying fibre along the old nangor road the past 6 days.

cool , I'm right beside the fonthill road so looking at that map I my never get it.

paulm17781

Karmafaerie wrote: »

And you don't think the drop in service may have had anything to do with the fact that two companies servicing hundreds of thousands of people were merging?
And that such a merger isn't going to be free of problems.

No it was pretty much overnight. There were many problems that went with the merger, the call centre was the shock one.

You ask the vast majority of Chorus customers, going back decades, and you'll see that until UPC bought them out they were never though of badly.

They're the ones I asked. I had always assumed when UPC took over things would improve on both fronts. No one I ever asked (admittedly very few) about Chorus had good things to say.

As I said, the center in Limerick and the one in Waterford were both vying for the overall job, and the one in Limerick got it for a reason.

Lower cost?

Unfortunately it doesn't make a difference, as UPC came in and changed everything anyway.

And now we're getting somewhere.

Anyway, other than your slightly OTT defensive answer. Do you have a source for that? I was curious as to where / what it was printed in, or if people outside Limerick agreed with this. In my experience, the NTL call centre was leagues better. I am only looking for where it said Chorus > NTL.

Flaregon

Anyone have a better map then there blue & green 1 ?

I looked up my area on google map
but it didn't help much.

Karmafaerie

paulm17781 wrote: »

No it was pretty much overnight. There were many problems that went with the merger, the call centre was the shock one.



They're the ones I asked. I had always assumed when UPC took over things would improve on both fronts. No one I ever asked (admittedly very few) about Chorus had good things to say.



Lower cost?



And now we're getting somewhere.

Anyway, other than your slightly OTT defensive answer. Do you have a source for that? I was curious as to where / what it was printed in, or if people outside Limerick agreed with this. In my experience, the NTL call centre was leagues better. I am only looking for where it said Chorus > NTL.

I don't have the paper.
I'm not a paper reader, and only bought it due to the fact that I was going on a plane/train journey.
It would have been on 29/04 as I was heading over to the Liverpool Atletico game (to see that cnut Forlan!:mad:).
I read about it in both the Mirror and the Irish Times.

Also, as I said, I've had dealings with both companies, and know a few accountants who used to work with Chorus.
Financialy they were a joke.
They made so many mistakes and cost themselves so much money, you wouldn't believe the stories I've heard.
(Millions worth of equipment purchased and never used but instead let to rot in boxes).

But as for custoemr care they were much better.

This is Ireland, and everyone complains about everything, but Chorus had a much better public face.

As I said, they were well known for same day service calls.
They wouldn't disconnect service until way after the due dates.
Waiting 10 minutes to get through to them was an extreme aberation.

They were always thought of as a lesser service, but a better staff.
Which is ironic to me, as in the space of 5 years, UPC have pretty much reversed it.

paulm17781

Karmafaerie wrote: »

I read about it in both the Mirror and the Irish Times.

Sadly nothing about it in the Irish times archive. I really would like to have read that, I've never heard a good thing said about Chorus before.

happydayz182

Karmafaerie wrote: »

They were always thought of as a lesser service, but a better staff.
Which is ironic to me, as in the space of 5 years, UPC have pretty much reversed it.

How is that the case? Better service lesser staff?

Karmafaerie

happydayz182 wrote: »

How is that the case? Better service lesser staff?

Well Chorus offered 6MB BB and UPC offer 30.
Chorus offered a carrier phone service using Eircoms lines, UPC ahve their own.
Chorus had a fairly average channel line up, and UPC's - while no world beater - is better.

However a lot of the "local business" feel that Chorus had is gone.
UPC are more of a faceless multinational comparativly.
Also the wait time when getting through to them is much higher, and call outs are slightly longer away.

UPC have a lot more staff than Chorus I'm sure, but have a hell of alot more customers.