Thinking of changing from Sky to UPC?

dartbhoy

I'm thinking of changing from Sky to UPC after getting a flyer in my newspaper yesterday morning about the offer from UPC at present regarding broadband,phone and digital TV.

However I've had an experience with the pre UPC company Chorus and let's just say I had some issues with them! Are UPC a reputable company or are they just as bad as those cowboys chorus were? Thanks in advance for any replies.

whiteandlight

Been with UPC for two years now for phone broadband and telly, been great service. They even sent us a new free wireless box a few weeks back. I will say the UPC box is slower than the sky box to respond but its not major IMO

Cantona's Collars

Sky for tv and UPC for broadband/phone gives you the best of both worlds.

UPC can't compete with Sky for it's tv service but has a great broadband service.

You pay a surcharge for having broadband as a standalone product but this charge of around €7.50 pm is reduced if you take the phone service (which you don't even need to use)

Kristopherus

Sign up through Boards & get €50 voucher.:):):)

steveon

dartbhoy wrote: »

I'm thinking of changing from Sky to UPC after getting a flyer in my newspaper yesterday morning about the offer from UPC at present regarding broadband,phone and digital TV.

However I've had an experience with the pre UPC company Chorus and let's just say I had some issues with them! Are UPC a reputable company or are they just as bad as those cowboys chorus were? Thanks in advance for any replies.

Make sure you live in a cabled aread otherwise you wont be able to get broadband and only MMDS tv which is rubbish when compared to satellite. UPC realiability is generally very good but this depends on area to area.

Kristopherus

steveon wrote: »

Make sure you live in a cabled aread otherwise you wont be able to get broadband and only MMDS tv which is rubbish when compared to satellite. UPC realiability is generally very good but this depends on area to area.

Steveon, I'll have to disagree with you on mmds. I have it with multiroom pvrs and it is just as good as $ky ever was. No pixillation, no interference of any kind. And way,way cheaper.And I live in an urban area, where interference is more likely.

steveon

Kristopherus wrote: »

Steveon, I'll have to disagree with you on mmds. I have it with multiroom pvrs and it is just as good as $ky ever was. No pixillation, no interference of any kind. And way,way cheaper.And I live in an urban area, where interference is more likely.

Pvr's are only available on cable not mmds. Different system.

Creasy_bear

Hello All,

I'm thinking of switching to upc from sky (the bundle tv/phone and broadband)

I was just wondering what are they actually like to deal with? I'm hearing great things about the phone and broadband.......the tv not so much though

would really appreciate some advice.

Kristopherus

There are loads of threads on the same subject. Do a search and you should get plenty info.

Kristopherus

steveon wrote: »

Pvr's are only available on cable not mmds. Different system.

Not so. I have 2 of them.:)

icdg

Moving to Cable.

And merging similar threads.

deanh

Kristopherus wrote: »

Not so. I have 2 of them.:)

AFAIK. PVR's are only available on ex-NTL MMDS. Most of rural Ireland gets their MMDS from ex-Chorus system which doesn't offer a pvr.( not compatible)

Freddie59

steveon wrote: »

Pvr's are only available on cable not mmds. Different system.

Incorrect. And +1 to that poster's comment on quality.

Creasy_bear

Kristopherus wrote: »

Sign up through Boards & get €50 voucher.:):):)

eh?

Cantona's Collars

Kristopherus wrote: »

Steveon, I'll have to disagree with you on mmds. I have it with multiroom pvrs and it is just as good as $ky ever was. No pixillation, no interference of any kind. And way,way cheaper.And I live in an urban area, where interference is more likely.

Ha Ha,finally caught you out with your Sky hating:D:D You have UPC MMDS. Guess where they get a lot of their channels from? That's right....Sky.

Like it or not some of your money still ends up with Sky;):p

MMDS is a poor service and rapidly becoming obsolete,it can't hold a candle to satellite or even cable.

As I said before the best option is Sky for tv and UPC for broadband.Even their new head of operations in Ireland said as much.

Creasy_bear

zerks wrote: »

Ha Ha,finally caught you out with your Sky hating:D:D You have UPC MMDS. Guess where they get a lot of their channels from? That's right....Sky.

Like it or not some of your money still ends up with Sky;):p

MMDS is a poor service and rapidly becoming obsolete,it can't hold a candle to satellite or even cable.

As I said before the best option is Sky for tv and UPC for broadband.Even their new head of operations in Ireland said as much.

We have sky in the house already - was looking at multiroom for two bedrooms up stairs. €15 a room each month sounded a bit steep as opposed to ups €5 a room. No idea how much each charge to install though

Cantona's Collars

Creasy_bear wrote: »

We have sky in the house already - was looking at multiroom for two bedrooms up stairs. €15 a room each month sounded a bit steep as opposed to ups €5 a room. No idea how much each charge to install though

If you have it more than 12 months do the old cancel and sign up under another name trick,multiroom will only cost €15 for the 2 rooms instead of €15 each.

They also give you HD ready boxes for the extra rooms now.Plus if you take the HD pack then they give you the HD pack free on the other boxes.

Kristopherus

zerks wrote: »

Ha Ha,finally caught you out with your Sky hating:D:D You have UPC MMDS. Guess where they get a lot of their channels from? That's right....Sky.

Like it or not some of your money still ends up with Sky;):p

MMDS is a poor service and rapidly becoming obsolete,it can't hold a candle to satellite or even cable.

As I said before the best option is Sky for tv and UPC for broadband.Even their new head of operations in Ireland said as much.

Good man Zerks, your powers of deduction are astounding:D:D:D. I'm only stating my experience. For your info I also have a Ferguson Ariva 120 Combo box serving another tv, and the difference in quality of picture is undectectable.

There's little or no chance of UPC dumping MMDS before 2020. There is no alternatve to cable being provided by UPC for non-city customers, and as the country is f**ked, UPC cannot afford to alienate a sizable percentage of their customers by pulling the plug.:)

Cantona's Collars

You're one of the lucky MMDS customers,down my way it's based on the old Chorus service and is woeful.

Creasy_bear

zerks wrote: »

If you have it more than 12 months do the old cancel and sign up under another name trick,multiroom will only cost €15 for the 2 rooms instead of €15 each.

They also give you HD ready boxes for the extra rooms now.Plus if you take the HD pack then they give you the HD pack free on the other boxes.

no mate, sorry what I mean is.....I have it in the sitting room down stairs already. I want it in another two rooms upstairs. I'm nearly certain it's €15 for each bedroom then. UPC is €5 a room.

lucernarian

Kristopherus wrote: »

Good man Zerks, your powers of deduction are astounding:D:D:D. I'm only stating my experience. For your info I also have a Ferguson Ariva 120 Combo box serving another tv, and the difference in quality of picture is undectectable.

There's little or no chance of UPC dumping MMDS before 2020. There is no alternatve to cable being provided by UPC for non-city customers, and as the country is f**ked, UPC cannot afford to alienate a sizable percentage of their customers by pulling the plug.:)

Some of the MMDS franchises have a license expiry coming up in 2014... ComReg may be very well minded to flog MMDS spectrum to the mobile operators. Well the highest bidder strictly speaking but I'm sure the likes of Vodafone will stick a bid in.

joanofarse

UPC - No red button - If your a sports fan this is a game changer - Heineken Cup Leinster V Clermont was on the red button last season.

I agree with previous post - Sky for TV , UPC for BBand

Kristopherus

Creasy_bear wrote: »

no mate, sorry what I mean is.....I have it in the sitting room down stairs already. I want it in another two rooms upstairs. I'm nearly certain it's €15 for each bedroom then. UPC is €5 a room.

$ky is not €15 per room. Their current offer to eek out more shekels from you is €15.00 per house. Have a look at www.sky.co./Ireland

superleedsdub

joanofarse wrote: »

UPC - No red button - If your a sports fan this is a game changer - Heineken Cup Leinster V Clermont was on the red button last season.

I agree with previous post - Sky for TV , UPC for BBand

No sky player or sky go also.....
No Sky Sports or Movies in HD....
No 3d(personally not interested in it)

Had UPC cable for 3 years - was a great day when I moved and was able to get SKY:-)

dartbhoy

steveon wrote: »

Make sure you live in a cabled aread otherwise you wont be able to get broadband and only MMDS tv which is rubbish when compared to satellite. UPC realiability is generally very good but this depends on area to area.

Thanks for the info on the cabled area,that rules out UPC digital for me. Thanks for all the replies,I was offline for a few days.

nw2010

MMDS has the following advantages on Sky
Apart from multiroom being a lot cheaper than sky it is a simpler propisition, in the former NTL areas (Dublin, Galway, Waterford) DVR;s are available and only require a single drop cable unlike sky needing two. It is possible to have say 6 dvr;s in a house, A more obvious programme guide than the hundreds of pointless channels on sky, as well as free service calls unlike sky, obviously it would be better to not need service calls, but if the installation is carried out to specifications there will be no problem
Additionally it seems little known that sports/movies etc can be obtained in a similar manner to sky.. Unfortunately on the chorus side of UPC there is no dvr available, however the decoders are small and can be hidden easily and provide a good solution to tv's mounted on a wall where sky boxes are all large.
Of course there is no HD or 3D but horses for courses

jwmpayne2004

Lads, just wondering say if you want to cancel sky subscription permanently and still under 12 month contract at 40 euro/monthly are they gonna run after you and demand to let the customer pay for the remaining months until the contract expires? Assuming they will cut sky services for overdue account will they demand to let the customer pay 40 euro each month till the 12th month as part of penalty? Thanks in advance!

Kristopherus

Yep, if you cancel before your 12 months is up, they will charge you for the remaining months and will take back the box.

3rdDegree

zerks wrote: »

You're one of the lucky MMDS customers,down my way it's based on the old Chorus service and is woeful.

My parents down the country are the same. Picture quality is just terrible. Really unacceptable.

nw2010

they should ring upc for a service call...pic quality of mmds is exactely the same as an ordinary sky box (forget hdmi etc) just scart.. espically with an ordinary crt tv. maybe its passing through a video, or other factors. If there is signal problems due to line of sight then fair enough. resulting in freezing, not to mention faulty downconvertor or decoder. your paying UPC for service and you wont be charged anything for a call out although you may have to insist on a service call being booked