upc to free tv

2012paddy2012

my folks have upc presently as part of a bundle. they want free tv. if they stop the upc subscription , will the upc boxes revert to free to air stations?For example , like the older sky boxes , when you remove the card you have the free to air stations?
basically they have 3 boxes/front room ,kitchen,bedroom.


i was going to recommend getting satelitte dish/saorview aerial , run the cable to the upc box at the side of the house , and then connect perhaps to a triax 114 set top box at these three locations ,(3 feeds from sat/3 feeds from digital aerial to each box) to provide the full irish /free to air stations , that can be watched independantly , with the facility to record/pause tv record for example rte and watch say bbc at the one box.

The only problem then is the landline number which is part of the bundle
which they want to keep as elderly friends have that number and use it as does my mother. any ideas/ suggestions appreciated

BuffyBot

No, they don't function like Sky boxes in that way, and you don't own them, only rent them. As such, they have to be returned to UPC when you cancel.

Phone can be switched to another provider such as eircom, Vodafone etc, etc.

ardmacha

The only problem then is the landline number which is part of the bundle

The problem is getting a decent broadband service. Once you have that you can get the phone service from a number of providers. You could stop TV and keep broadband, of course.

2012paddy2012

ardmacha wrote: »

The problem is getting a decent broadband service. Once you have that you can get the phone service from a number of providers. You could stop TV and keep broadband, of course.

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I see eircom doing a basic 25 a month deal..just for landline phone....the 02 or 3 mobile broadband 15gb will probably do as its really only basic Internet they use

I wondered is there any better just basic phone deal than the eircom one ?

Thks for all your help......much appreciated

L1011

25+15 = 40 for a phone line and a crap broadband service. Just keep UPC for that, 44 for their basic phone/BB package. Comes with some (small enough) amount of free calls too.

2012paddy2012

MYOB wrote: »

25+15 = 40 for a phone line and a crap broadband service. Just keep UPC for that, 44 for their basic phone/BB package. Comes with some (small enough) amount of free calls too.

Thks for this. So you reckon this 44 euro package will beat the basic 25 euro eircom basic phone deal which seems to have a reasonable amount of calls coupled with the say 02 or 3 mobile monthly broadband at 20 per month? ( I meant to say initially that that ideally the mobile broadband suits as they move about a bit and like to have BB nearby ) that would cost slightly more than your 44 ok .. 25 for phone 20 mobile BB ... 45 ... Bot only a euroðŸ˜႒

L1011

I'll thrash the mobile broadband in to the ground; I have no idea about the call packages as I don't even have a phone connected to my UPC ATA...

2012paddy2012

very helpful...cheers

Capt'n Midnight

double check that they aren't grandfathered into a lower priced broadband package


UPC completely wipes any eircom or mobile broadband offering.

if you are more than 1,000meters from the exchange as the cables run (not as the crow flies) expect a large drop in speed, if more than 4,000m then it won't matter if you have ADSL or ADSL+ . If you have old telephone cable or any line problems then it could be worse, if you have a pairgain then you ain't getting broadband until the laws of physics change.

mobile broadband only works in some areas for some people at some times, check siteviewer on comreg.ie web site for local masts , check your phone to see if you get 4 or 5 bars 3G or better signal with the likely provider - or borrow a dongle / smartphone

With the UPC cable activated for Broadband then unless you are in Cork you'll pick up ~14 analog channels (RTE/TV3/3e/TG4/ BBC1,2,UTV,C4 etc.) to keep you going till you sort out the rest.


Depending on your budget you can get a satellite dish with a HD Freesat recorder which gives most of the functionality of SKY or UPC recorders for the UK channels,
at the cheap end a second hand SKY box (OLD models only!) or a argos.co.uk freesat box will pick up the UK channels with a 7 day guide, get a cheap dish off adverts.ie

colm_mcm

Worth noting that the €25 eircom thing only gives you weekend landline calls.

2012paddy2012

colm_mcm wrote: »

Worth noting that the €25 eircom thing only gives you weekend landline calls.

Thks for that actually just noticed that yesterday ... I think the 30 allows some evening calls ... They would need done of they I think ... Thks for your help