Eircom NGB Letter

starviewadams

Got a letter from eircom this morning talking up their NGB thingy.It was just the usual ''coming soon to your are,exciting new speeds''blah blah blah stuff.

But highlighted in bold was something along the lines of you are currently exceeding your download/upload limit and when you get switched to 8mb ngb we are going to start charging you more money.

We're on 3MB at the moment and it said if we upgrade to the next package for less then €10 we get unlimited downloads

Just wondering if we do upgrade are we tied into another 12 month contract?
Our contract with eircom is up in december and UPC have just finished switching our cables to their fibre stuff on the house so we are joining them as soon as the eircom contract is up

dubtom

I got one too. Funny,mines completely different. Says I'm under my current limit,but my usage allowance will go to 30 gigs( don't know what it is now) if I use more than that,the charge will be €2 per gig,down from €10. Also the speed will rise to 8 meg, no congestion and no extra charge. I think I'll stay with eircom for a while more see how it pans out.

mgsrocks

I tried to ring and email Eircom about the 12 month thing and they couldn't give me an answer!

The email they sent back was a joke, they thanked me for taking interest in NGB and linked me to the website. No help at all.

starviewadams

Actually on closer inspection of the letter it says this:

''Should you wish to withdraw from your current broadband contract without penalty or change to an alternative package,please call us within one month of receiving this letter on..''

So I can quit my eircom broadband contract 6 months early without penalty,stop paying line rental and join UPC,I'm delighted!!

ShadowHearth

hmmmi got NGB lettter today:

it said, that my speed will go up to 8mbit and i will get unlimited download in the next 2 months withouth any charges. Just an upgrade on my current packadge...


interesting... atleast it means they are ctually checking in to every contractthey got, not just made a blank letter with same story to each household...

stackeye

I got an eircom letter a few weeks ago about this, In the letter it states that I am under my download limit so dont have to do anything but I dont think I have spent a month in three years were I was under my download limit, snakes, I rang and changed to the Unlimited package,

NTL are laying Fiber on our road at the moment, Can I cancel my Eircom contract when that becomes available or am I locked into a Contract now?

Feidhlim

starviewadams wrote: »

Just wondering if we do upgrade are we tied into another 12 month contract?

I would assume since this is a different speed / service they will sign you up to a new contract

dubtom

Not sure here,but don't you have to actually sign on the dotted line for it to be a legal contract. Although to be fair,I'm not sure how the law works, recently had a guy from the the gas crowd selling electricty, he caught the OH off guard,signed her up with a package with an opt out clause,meaning,we had to call them to not go ahead. Bloody cheek I thought at the time,but possibly eircom are doing the same.

watty

You don't have to physically sign.

dub45

stackeye wrote: »

I got an eircom letter a few weeks ago about this, In the letter it states that I am under my download limit so dont have to do anything but I dont think I have spent a month in three years were I was under my download limit, snakes, I rang and changed to the Unlimited package,

NTL are laying Fiber on our road at the moment, Can I cancel my Eircom contract when that becomes available or am I locked into a Contract now?

The usual position is that if you have completed your minimum period with an isp usually 12 months then you can give one months notice to terminate the contract. If you have recently changed your bb product then you may have entered into a new 12 month contract. Your best bet if you are in any doubt is to ask your isp and ask them to confirm their answer via email that way you will have proof of what they have told you in the event of them contesting any future termination of contract.

Boggles

So they are increasing the speed to 8 meg uncongested but keeping the cap at a measly 30 gig.

Decreasing significantly the charge for breaking the cap to 2 euro per gig suggests to me strongly they will now inforce the cap and charge accordingly.

Alot of peoples bills are going rise, time to finally look for a new provider me thinks.

dreamers75

My 7mb connection went from 5120/384 to.............5120/512 today :eek:


The speed increase is unreal

Kylo Ren

Lads I got one of these today. Saids the usual will be upgraded to 8mb, going over my limit yada yada....

Was just wondering if it's all just a scam? Will they really give me the 8mb for no extra charge?

Cheers.

bealtine

Keno 92 wrote: »

Lads I got one of these today. Saids the usual will be upgraded to 8mb, going over my limit yada yada....

Was just wondering if it's all just a scam? Will they really give me the 8mb for no extra charge?

Cheers.

Yes they'll give you an nominal upgrade whether or not your line can handle it is another matter.

Far more important is the fact that they will start charging for going over the cap.

http://irelandoffline.org/2010/03/eircom-and-next-generation-broadband/

Sarn

Keno 92 wrote: »

Lads I got one of these today. Saids the usual will be upgraded to 8mb, going over my limit yada yada....

Was just wondering if it's all just a scam? Will they really give me the 8mb for no extra charge?

You'll be upgraded at no extra charge, whether or not your line will support a higher speed is another matter. The fact that you're exceeding your cap means that NGB will come at a cost to you.

dxhound2005

Looks like it's coming to Dundalk. Got my letter today saying they have now launched their exciting new suite of NGB products and I will be upgraded free of charge within next two months from 7Mb Home Advanced 50GB download allowance to 8Mb NGB Advanced which will give unlimited usage.

Your new package includes unlimited upload and download usage is in bold on the letter.

bealtine

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Your new package includes unlimited upload and download usage is in bold on the letter.

It's not true see www.ngb.ie

AlmightyCushion

bealtine wrote: »

It's not true see www.ngb.ie

This is what it says on the site:

With Next Generation Broadband Advanced you have an unlimited monthly usage allowance. This is subject to a fair usage policy of 250GB per month. For more information see the standard Broadband Terms and Conditions

I do find it stupid that they say it's unlimited but subject to a limit of xGB. Kinda contradicts itself a little but at least they're telling people the limit.

dxhound2005

Thanks guys. The word Unlimited is much abused by phone companies, there was a feature on BBC Watchdog about it recently. 250GB is plenty for me and of course I was never charged for going way over the various limits on my previous Eircom packages. What happens if I go over 250?

bealtine

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

This is what it says on the site:

Again not strictly true either...

Basic Monthly usage allowance of 10GB
Regular Monthly usage allowance of 30GB
Advanced Monthly usage allowance of 250GB

Each version has a different price point.

AlmightyCushion

bealtine wrote: »

Again not strictly true either...

Basic Monthly usage allowance of 10GB
Regular Monthly usage allowance of 30GB
Advanced Monthly usage allowance of 250GB

Each version has a different price point.

Yes but according to his post they'll be upgrading him to the advanced package for free which is the one with 250GB traffic allowance.

bealtine

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Yes but according to his post they'll be upgrading him to the advanced package for free which is the one with 250GB traffic allowance.

Sure but I just wanted it clearly laid out for posterity:)

http://irelandoffline.org/2010/06/when-is-unlimited-not-unlimited/

dxhound2005

Why should I care about posterity? What's posterity ever done for me?
Groucho Marx

Parawind

Got my letter this morning, telling me that we will be "upgraded" (lol) to NGB in the next 2 months and will have a usage allowance of 30gb a month. They also suggest i move to the "unlimited" package since we currently exceed our allowance.

Then i get a call a few hours later from eircom to know if we are happy with our service etc, I informed the woman how extremely unhappy i was with the service and the so called upgrade we will be getting. Not sure exactly how much she understood considering she was speaking with very broken English. She also denied that UPC had 30MB broadband when i said we were thinking of switching.

Then i go out for a few hours and arrive home to find that we are now on the 8MB NGB. So what was the point of the letter, shouldn't it have been sent 2 months ago.

Varik

Is the same cost applied to going over the unlimited limit (infinity+1) or what happens

Parawind

Varik wrote: »

Is the same cost applied to going over the unlimited limit (infinity+1) or what happens

Not sure but i would assume since you'd be on their highest package they wouldn't unless your constantly breaking it.

Hellrazer

Got my letter as well yesterday.Apparently my "upgrade" was completed on the 26th August.

I really should have assumed that eircom were up to something as my connection has been useless since the end of August ie dropouts,slow webpages,crappy download speeds.

Last night I was getting 0.6 mbits per sec so less than a 1mb package.Before the upgrade I was getting consistent speeds of 6.5mb on a 7mb package

Spent 2 hours on to tech support last night and after doing the whole "plug this out,plug that in,reset this and reset that" they decided to test my line.Apparently theres a fault!!!!I told them that at the start of the phone call!!!

I get a supervisor on the phone and explain that every single upgrade that eircom have carried out on my BB since day one has gone wrong from 512-1mb,from 1 mb to 3 and from 3-7 and now the NGB upgrade has gone wrong.
Now its being escalated and I have to put up with dial up speeds for the next 2 days.

Aswell as that if you do nothing and just go for the NGB you are automatically put on another 12 month contract.Im out of contract at the minute and told them that I didnt want a new contract but wanted to keep the rolling contract I have at the minute so thats fine.I suggest to anyone that if you are currently out of contract then ring them to keep it that way otherwise you`ll find yourself tied to them for another 12 months.

String

I got one aswell. Im currently on 7mb package and go over limit every month. My letter says because im an existing customer I am getting the upgrade free of charge and says unlimited usage allowance. How bad

edit: I know in the terms it says 250gb limit but i never go over that anyway.

slimjimmc

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

This is what it says on the site:


I do find it stupid that they say it's unlimited but subject to a limit of xGB. Kinda contradicts itself a little but at least they're telling people the limit.

It does indeed sound stupid and may be considered misleading.

However, afaik, the unlimited bit refers to the period when you can use the service and not the volume of data exchanged, i.e. you can use it at anytime for as long as you want so long as you don't exceed the monthly data allowance.
I believe it stems from the bad old dial-up days when you paid by the amount of time you hogged the phone line just like for a voice call. You'd have one rate for business hours (peak) and a cheaper rate for off-peak. Some package deals of that era restricted you to off-peak hours or a maximum number of hours per month before getting billed for higher costs. When this new fangled always-on broadband thingy came to market you could stay connected for an unlimited period for the same price.

fornjot

Noticed my podcast downloads were about 33% faster last night, and hey presto, Eircom's letter lands in the door today. Rebooted my modem and ran a speedtest. I'v gone from 3Mb to, wait for it, 4.5 Mb.

Anyone remember the fanfare when we went from dial up to ISDN? The logo on the back of eircom's vans showed a huge hole torched into the back of the van by the roaring internet speed. Yawn. Here we are again. A small incremental improvement sold as "next generation". In IT terms, Moore's Law usually applies, which is a doubling of all things digital every 2 years. It appears nobody told eircom about Moore's Law.

Still, just checked my usage in 3 weeks, and I am about 90% below the one month limit. I browse a lot, download about 50 podcasts a week, social network, but don't game or watch online TV, or that much Youtube.

Averall I'm happy enough.

:rolleyes:

Parawind

I got upgraded the other day and checked my usage allowance, i was 7GB over it already. But since they changed me over to NGB on the 21st of the month i assume they won't begin charging til the begining of the next month.

didntgotoplan

My mother just told me about this, we were on the 1Mb package and are now on the NGB Basic 10GB usage.

So I'm confused, does this mean we are getting more or less usage with the new package? (Sorry I'm not in the know technology-wise and google doesn't tell me much! )

I've notice that my internet strength has gone down a lot since and it takes longer to download stuff. We do have 4 laptops and my brother has X-box live in the house. 2 of the laptops would be used for about 5 hours each a day and the other 2 would be about an hour or so each.

As little as I know about internet, my mom knows nothing about this and all she knows is that eircom told her that this was a better deal since we are currently not exceeding usage for this new package.

Sponge Bob

They will only charge you another c.€30 a month max

ArthurG

All,

Got the attached a few days ago.

Rang eircom this morning to check if I would go on to a new 12 month contract when I change over (quoting evidence from here).

I was firmly assured by the lady I spoke to that there would be no new contract, only should I change my talk package or whatever would that happen.

Is that the experience of people or are they being economical with the truth??

ZOLTAN28

I have this NGB nonsense and their 30 GB limit which is impossible to stay beneath in a house full of wireless devices - they haven't yet charged me but as soon as they do I am gone - absolute joke as there has been no increase in speed whatsoever.

Lab_Mouse

We have been chargeed for going over the 30 limit the last two bills.
Also since being 'upgraded' to ngb the internet has connection has got worse.Lag playing online,lag watching youtube and lag jsut using boards.

Ringing magnet later.Eircom can fuk off.

cuppa

just got my bill and was charged 16.50 for july and 16.50 for august,thats 32 euro extra on my bill.
Its time for a change


Total Downloads to date this month: 66162 MB (64.612 GB)
Total Uploads to date this month: 3210 MB (3.135 GB)
Combined Download + Upload to date this month: 69372 MB (67.747 GB)
Product Allowance: 30720 MB (30 GB)
Combined Excess: 38653 MB (37.747 GB)
Percent of Total Allowance used to Date: 225%
Last usage recording date/time: 2010-09-27 15:41:59

Guess im over for September aswell


Month Bytes Uploaded Bytes Downloaded Combined Usage Allowance Used
September 2010 3210 MB (3.135 GB) 66162 MB (64.612 GB) 69372 MB (67.747 GB)

100%+
August 2010 3932 MB (3.840 GB) 71930 MB (70.245 GB) 75862 MB (74.085 GB)

100%+
July 2010 2959 MB (2.890 GB) 42962 MB (41.955 GB) 45921 MB (44.845 GB)

100%+
June 2010 2590 MB (2.530 GB) 33958 MB (33.163 GB) 36548 MB (35.693 GB)

100%+

Hellrazer

I was under the impression that the NGB 8mb was 50 gig per month not 30???

Glad I signed up for UPC so!!

bealtine

Hellrazer wrote: »

I was under the impression that the NGB 8mb was 50 gig per month not 30???

Glad I signed up for UPC so!!

Next Generation Broadband Basic €46.79 10GB
Next Generation Broadband Regular €51.78 30GB
Next Generation Broadband Advanced €61.73 250GB

Hellrazer

bealtine wrote: »

Next Generation Broadband Basic €46.79 10GB
Next Generation Broadband Regular €51.78 30GB
Next Generation Broadband Advanced €61.73 250GB

Thats some serious rip off.I was always on a 50gb cap with the home plus package (I think it was that package)

kk887

Hellrazer wrote: »

Thats some serious rip off.I was always on a 50gb cap with the home plus package (I think it was that package)

home plus 7 mb is 50 gb alright
home plus 3 mb is 30 gb that before i change to upc

i am glad that i change to upc as I was using nearly 220% allowance at the time with eircom:rolleyes:

Boggles

bealtine wrote: »

Next Generation Broadband Regular €51.78 30GB

Vodafones similar package is €52 per month with 120gb cap, which I think most here will agree reflects the reality of modern internet use more favourably.

The main reason I have put up with eircom is because they didn't enforce caps.

What they have effectively done with these new packages is raise the cost of alot of peoples bills by up 200 euro a year.

I don't think even Eircom are that stupid, there must be motive in this madness. They are banking on losing customers IMO, thus reducing their market share to the point where they are no longer seen as a monoply.

IF they reach there targets, they can come back into the market and undercut everyone.

As consumers we have no choice really but to dance to this tune, best advice is no sign with someone else for 12 months and see how the market is this time next year.

cuppa

I just changed to magnet swift package ,phone stays with eircom.
package is up to 5meg (line can only take 5meg,same as i got with eircom)
Its 40 a month,with no dl cap,,i had then for years in old house and ping was better on magnet.
said i dont have to cancel eircom,they will do that.

Dcully

cuppa wrote: »

I just changed to magnet swift package ,phone stays with eircom.
package is up to 5meg (line can only take 5meg,same as i got with eircom)
Its 40 a month,with no dl cap,,i had then for years in old house and ping was better on magnet.
said i dont have to cancel eircom,they will do that.

Cuppa could you please let me know how you get on with magnet swift.
Im stuck on bog standard eircom, no plans for NGB in our area, no option of any form of fibre.
Apart from eircom the only option i have is magnet swift.
Im sitting here right now pinging anywhere between 200-500 , usual story every evening at peak times the last 6 months.
Eircom refuse to address the obvious congestion, i just wonder will going from eircoms 48:1 contention to Magnet s offering of 12:1 make a difference at peak times.

HellboundIRL

I just checked my number on the NGB website, my area (Loughrea) is supposed to be enabled and migrated at this stage but when I enter my details I get -

..."your current broadband product is not one of those which is due to be migrated to NGB, only 1mb, 3mb and 7mb products are part of the NGB migration program."

Anyone else get this at any stage? I'm on the 7mb home broadband professional package, I plan on giving them a call but wasn't sure if the NGB website is maybe a little premature in saying that my area has been enabled.

Samba

Hmmmz,

Just checked my my previous bills and I while I went sligthly over my 50GB allowance I wasn't charged, this month i'm a few gigs over the limit.

I'm just curious though, on the stats page my limit is marked as "unlimited" is that the case for anyone else?

While the stats page states unlimited my bill says 50GB, one whiff of an overcharge and eircom will be losing the house line and 3 other business lines I have with them.

amacachi

Got a letter last week from them mentioning the upgrade and the 10 quid extra for "unlimited" broadband which still has a lower allowance than what I currently use. I think there's a simple reason they don't charge for going over the allowance, namely that would've had to try and charge me a few thousand a month. :pac:

Magnet: Rory

Dcully wrote: »

Cuppa could you please let me know how you get on with magnet swift.
Im stuck on bog standard eircom, no plans for NGB in our area, no option of any form of fibre.
Apart from eircom the only option i have is magnet swift.
Im sitting here right now pinging anywhere between 200-500 , usual story every evening at peak times the last 6 months.
Eircom refuse to address the obvious congestion, i just wonder will going from eircoms 48:1 contention to Magnet s offering of 12:1 make a difference at peak times.

The honest answer here is that the Swift service may make a difference. If we can get your phone number we can find out if the exchange has the profile available.

It is 100% dependant on the services available at exchange level.

Sponge Bob

Is it a bitstream 'profile' applied post package Rory or an LLU profile ( or both...depending) ??

Magnet: Rory

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Is it a bitstream 'profile' applied post package Rory or an LLU profile ( or both...depending) ??

Its a bitsream profile. We sell it in areas where we have no LLU. The name of it on the eircom system is also "Swift".

Dcully

Magnet: Rory wrote: »

The honest answer here is that the Swift service may make a difference. If we can get your phone number we can find out if the exchange has the profile available.

It is 100% dependant on the services available at exchange level.

Hi Rory we spoke recently,you checked my line and said i could get 8mb @ 12:1 contention,still weighing up my possibilities.
Dont want to to enter a 12 month contract only for the off chance something faster might be available in my area, doubtful i know.
If i was sure the better contention would improve things at peak times i would jump at it.