Problems switching broadband provider

Thoie

My parents currently have an eircom broadband account, and their phone bill comes from someone else. They're trying to move both broadband and phone to a 3rd supplier (since early December).

Both the 3rd provider and my parents are having difficulties getting the UAC UAN from eircom to switch over the broadband.

ericom state that the account has already been handed over and they have no account details or UAC UAN . As I'm currently at home and logged on through eircom that seems a bit suss.

I'm confused by the whole thing. Do you need a UAC UAN to change broadband provider -I thought UAC UAN was just for the phone line? My understanding is that the current phone provider should provide the UAC UAN and new supplier should use that to switch the line over. Once the phone line is switched over, it should then just be a case of the new provider switching on the broadband account and cancelling the eircom broadband a/c. Does that sound right? Anyone know why eircom would need to be involved at all, other than being told to cancel the broadband?

colm_mcm

UAN should be the eircom account number?

What company is the phone part on, is it VoIP?

Mr. G

Thoie wrote: »

My parents currently have an eircom broadband account, and their phone bill comes from someone else. They're trying to move both broadband and phone to a 3rd supplier (since early December).

Both the 3rd provider and my parents are having difficulties getting the UAC from eircom to switch over the broadband.

ericom state that the account has already been handed over and they have no account details or UAC. As I'm currently at home and logged on through eircom that seems a bit suss.

I'm confused by the whole thing. Do you need a UAC to change broadband provider -I thought UAC was just for the phone line? My understanding is that the current phone provider should provide the UAC and new supplier should use that to switch the line over. Once the phone line is switched over, it should then just be a case of the new provider switching on the broadband account and cancelling the eircom broadband a/c. Does that sound right? Anyone know why eircom would need to be involved at all, other than being told to cancel the broadband?

That sounds right.

The UAN is assigned to the line, ao if you wish to change the phone and broadband you will need the UAN (Universal Account Number). This is the Eircom Account Number on the bill, and is usually needed for the provider to process a port order.

Just ask the new provider to port the line over for broadband and phone. Voice services should be ported within 24-48 hours (Eircom must release the line to the new provider, than a port request is put in for the broadband in which case it will than port over in 7-10 days). These are working days because Eircom don't do weekends.

It takes about two weeks for the whole line to be ported over.

Mr. G

colm_mcm wrote: »

UAN should be the eircom account number?

What company is the phone part on, is it VoIP?

Each landline has a number, so if you wanted to port the VoIP number to the new provider that would be different to the above. I second this question.

Re the UAN, this is the eircom account number on the bill you pay line rental on. If they are not paying line rental through eircom, than the UAN can be gotten from the provider whom you pay line rental. This is not necessarily the account number for that provider. It is usually on the bill also.

Sorry I misread the OP. If they have broadband through Eircom and do not pay them directly for the line rental, eircom wont be able to release the UAN.

Thoie

Mr. G wrote: »

Each landline has a number, so if you wanted to port the VoIP number to the new provider that would be different to the above. I second this question.

Re the UAN, this is the eircom account number on the bill you pay line rental on. If they are not paying line rental through eircom, than the UAN can be gotten from the provider whom you pay line rental. This is not necessarily the account number for that provider. It is usually on the bill also.

Sorry I misread the OP. If they have broadband through Eircom and do not pay them directly for the line rental, eircom wont be able to release the UAN.

I think this is where the confusion is coming in. New supplier (who I won't name, because I don't like them) should surely have known all this, and should, to my mind, be doing the running around. Instead my poor mother is spending hours on the phone to bunches of different people.

So basically:
1. Current phone provider needs to provide the UAN
2. New supplier can use that to get the line transferred.
3. The broadband is essentially a whole separate issue that doesn't need a UAN, and new provider should get off their a** and arrange that (they've now had a month to sort it out).

Mr. G

Get the UAN from the provider to whom you pay line rental to at the minute, then use this UAN to port over the broadband.

I can see where the confusion is because usually people have both their phone services and broadband with the same provider.

Thoie

Thanks. I'm still on holidays, so think I might just do the phoning tomorrow morning and get everything lined up, this has been helpful to figure out what's needed.

I have to admit, after 15+ working days (since December 2nd) if it was me I'd tell the new guys to stuff their "offer", but the parents are determined.

Mr. G

Shout if you have any other questions. Enjoy your holiday

Thoie

Talked to them this morning, and I *think* it's all sorted. Parents are convinced this will improve their broadband speed. I doubt it, but I'll be gone before we find out

Thanks for your help!

Thoie

Follow up to this:

New provider finally up and running, and to my surprise, the broadband speed has more than tripled (to a whopping 2.8 Mb!), so I wronged them.

I'm now wondering how that works - on eircom broadband they were told that the 3Mb package (as it was) wouldn't give the full 3Mb, and to get their speeds up from an average of 0.2-0.3 they'd need to take the 5Mb package (or similar). On the 5Mb package, their average d/l speeds were in the region of 0.7Mb, and were repeatedly told that was all the line could handle, and it was all due to distance from the exchange, old lines, etc.

The new crowd have hardly gone out and replaced all the lines, nor have they moved the house closer to the exchange (we'd have noticed). So does this mean eircom were deliberately throttling the speed for years?

ED E

Sounds like it was possibly a dud port in the exchange. If the were on a 3Mb package the minimum profile is 2Mb. There is no 5Mb package.

Thoie

ED E wrote: »

Sounds like it was possibly a dud port in the exchange. If the were on a 3Mb package the minimum profile is 2Mb. There is no 5Mb package.

I can't remember what the final package was, but it was more expensive than the 3Mb they had been on. Not ginormously, but still, "more".

I'm a bit annoyed that in years of reporting the low speeds to eircom, and having engineers call out from time to time, they never checked the exchange if it was as simple as that Water under the bridge now.