Moving from MMDS

EdRey

Hi All. I'm currently setup on UPC MMDS in Limerick. I want to switch over to their HD offering, and I've been told that I need to change from MMDS to cable. No problems there (apart from having to fork out 60 bucks to change). The UPC girl wasn't able to give me much technical infomration, so my question is what sort of equipment will I now have? I assume my current square MMDS aerial will now be taken away, and replaced by what? She mentioned a "box" on the side of the house, but is this some sort of wireless receiever? One thing I don't want is a new friggin cable running up the side of my house.

Thanks in advance.

watty

Unless you are in a cabled area, you won't get it. If you are, the cable already goes past your house. The MMDS dish and LNBF does belong to them, but they may not remove it unless you insist.

Non-MMDS UPC is only via Cable.

To be honest if there is cable, get the their Broadband (€8 extra if you don't take TV) and use a Freesat HD reveiver and dish for all the Free UK TV (inc free HD). If you want Sky Sports etc and HD, then order Sky HD+ instead.

Sky HD+ might be free install and unlike UPC you own the gear and still get all the free channels when if you cancel after a year (Though the recording/Playback is disabled without a subscription).
See http://www.techtir.ie/saortv for the various free options.

steveon

Where in Limerick are you based? As watty said you can only get UPC HD services via cable, and not MMDS.

If you can get cable then it would be well worth your while switching from MMDS as you would get an awful lot more channels than currently available on MMDS.

Captain Commie

Ok, i will answer the OP's question, appears the above didnt actually read the question properly.

If you are able to get cable then they will install a point (white box, about the size of a broadband router) onto the wall inside your house which is in turn wired to an external box which in turn connects to the cable in the street.

From the box inside you will then connect the HD+ box and (if ordered) your cable modem.

We recently had UPC installed, whilst the connection box was in place already, it was only a couple of mins to hook all the new kit up.

steveon

Upc have in the past installed MMDS in cabled areas as there may have been a problem in the locality or it may have been done prior to the roolout of digital on the cable.

This is why both myself and Watty are asking the op where he lives as it may not be possible to get HD in his locality...and so we are simply trying to save him time and effort as in 9 tims out of ten UPC dont know what services are available where....

EdRey

thanks for the replies.

Accordingy to UPC, I am definitely in a cable area (Dooradoyle). When I initially signed up with UPC, this didn't seem to be the case, hence the currently MMDS setup. I can only assume sometime in the last 5 years they extended the cable coverage.

To be honest, I haven't heard a peep from UPC in the last week, and they were meant to ring me back within a day to confirm. In fact, now I'm thinking of moving off UPC altogether, getting Sky in for the year, then switching over freesat. I hope by that time adoption of the irish DTT service will be well under way and I can review my options then.

steveon

UPC have not rolled out cable into any areas that werent already served by cable in the last 5 yrs in any part of Dooradoyle.

They have however replaced the cable in areas already served by them, prior to the upgrade these ares may not have had Digital cable and this is why these areas were given MMDS when customer wanted digital. Areas that were MMDS only are still MMDS.

They have recently put some cable into parts of Westbury that were only served by MMDS,...the people on the phone simple look at the computer and say yep we have it in your area, as very often the builder ran the coax for them at the very start of the estate in PHASE 1 but not additional phases, this is evident in estates such as Oakfields, Cragaun etc on the Father Russell Road..some have cable some dont, new part of Estate namely Aisling Geal is MMDS.

I used to work for them so I bet I can tell you if theres cable in your area quicker than they could...They recently told my mate that I was wrong in Cragaun that they indeed could give him Broadband, phone and tv...despite me warning him it was MMDS only...they came out spend half an hr there checking manholes then tried to force him to take MMDS which he didn't want...

EdRey

steveon wrote: »

I used to work for them so I bet I can tell you if theres cable in your area quicker than they could...

OK, your starter for 10 is .. my house is in Kilteragh, phase II (assuming phase I is the white houses at the front of the estate, phase II are all the white/red brick houses to the right of the roundabout, phase III are the houses in front of you as you arrive at the roundabout)

campo

EdRey wrote: »

OK, your starter for 10 is .. my house is in Kilteragh, phase II (assuming phase I is the white houses at the front of the estate, phase II are all the white/red brick houses to the right of the roundabout, phase III are the houses in front of you as you arrive at the roundabout)

If it is Kilteragh close it is cable I have friends who have HD in that area from UPC

Solair

If your house is in a cable area, you will actually have less equipment rather than more. A cable connection simply connects to a 'tap' which may be underground in a vault (manhole) (in newer build areas where Irish Multichannel / Chorus wired) or, in older areas, the taps are typically just located below the roof line of houses.

The cable installation involves running a wire into your home, or activating an existing one. A box slightly smaller than a surface mounted double 13amp socket gets installed on the wall and you connect your cable box to this outlet. The MMDS set-top box will also be replaced with a UPC HD cable box.

The MMDS antenna on your roof will be obsolete, but they seem to usually just leave them in place. If you want to have it removed, be a bit insistent and tell them that you might consider going to Sky if it's left in place.

To be perfectly honest, if you can't get cable, I would go with Sky anyway. The MMDS platform is completely obsolete and provides very limited service, particularly in ex-Chorus areas, compared to what Sky can provide. It's also very pricey for what it is.

Cable's huge selling point is broadband. UPC's cable TV service is comparable to Sky and definitely light years ahead of ex Chorus MMDS.

watty

Apart from Sky Sports, non-Subscription Freesat is better than MMDS.

My Daughter is very happy for FTA satellite + Broadband & phone from UPC cable.

EdRey

So, the call I was meant to get from UPC never actually arrived. Getting DTT setup kept me busy, so I didn't chase this up. Over the weekend the amplifier (?) box that takes the MMDS Aerial feed and does "stuff" before sending the signal to the UPC Sagem box went up in smoke, so I had to get the UPC techies out. They confirmed that I *can* get cable in my area, but he couldn't tell me whether the aerial where the wire would surface. The options would be behind the TV (ok), or at the bottom of the stairs (not OK). Either way it would mean drilling holes in the floor.