Eircom V UPC V SKY

Pink11

Am I right in saying that overall these three are the big boys of broadband?

I'm eligable for efibre with eircom. Was going to go for the unlimited offer... am I making the right choice?

I had SKY broadband in my last house and wasn't impressed, three was dire to say the least and I hear so many bad things about UPC that I won't even go there!

Im living in rented accommodation at the moment so with Eircom though can you transfer the account to new tenant's name when you move out easily?

If house doesn't have phone connection or even a port, do Eircom put that in as part of the 'free' installation?

Larsheen

Firstly,SKY use Eircom lines for their broadband.If it was dire with SKY it will most likely be dire with Eircom and whilst I cannot be sure of this,if you go over to Eircom's forum and look under broadband, you will pages and pages of people who can't get decent broadband and won't be getting it because Eircom are currently and for no apparent reason, offering a terrible service.I say this as someone who has been with them for ever.Lines are being checked,exchanges are checked or so people are being told and they will invariably come back and say "nothing wrong" and then your broadband speeds of "up to" won't happen and if you complain they will say that you are getting "up to" even if it is only 1mb or less.As for efibre, there are also countless people complaining of being ripped off there as well and in some cases it is worse than the 'old' broadband.The reason being is that the efibre works off the nearest cabinet to you and if that is further than the exchange,tough.I too have heard bad things about UPC and am dubious but I have had no trouble with their telly service and when I upgraded recently the service was excellent.Am most likely going to change broadband to them.

bk

The big three ISPs by customer numbers are Eircom, UPC, Vodafone.

Sky tried entering the market with a big advertising campaign, but for the most part it has been a failure.

UPC offer the best quality broadband, with the highest speeds available (up to 200mb/s). If you can get it, you should go for it.

Vodafone resell Eircoms Broadband, but do so at about €10 cheaper then Eircom for the same and seemingly with the same quality.

Sky resell Eircom (and BT LLU) 24mb/s BB, but not Eircoms 70mb/s VDSL BB (unlike Vodafone who do). While Sky resell Eircoms BB, they do use much of their own and BT Irelands network, so it isn't exactly the same as having Eircom. Many people who previously had decent performance from Eircom/Vodafone are having dire performance from Sky.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Pink11 wrote: »

Am I right in saying that overall these three are the big boys of broadband?

I'm eligable for efibre with eircom. Was going to go for the unlimited offer... am I making the right choice?

I had SKY broadband in my last house and wasn't impressed, three was dire to say the least and I hear so many bad things about UPC that I won't even go there!

Im living in rented accommodation at the moment so with Eircom though can you transfer the account to new tenant's name when you move out easily?

If house doesn't have phone connection or even a port, do Eircom put that in as part of the 'free' installation?

With UPC over 5 years, have had one outage lasting an hour in that time, nearly everytime I do a speedtest I get slightly above what I'm paying for.

I'm moving house in the summer (like you care:)) but I will not move into a house if I can't get UPC. Maybe they're a terrible company to deal with when something goes wrong with your service or bill but I can't fault any dealings I've had with them.

They're also cheaper than Eircom btw. Don't like Sky. So you know who my vote goes to.

BionicRasher

+1 for Vodafone.
Getting 68mbps consistent speed fibre and we are approximately 500 meters as the crow flies from the cabinet.
Never had any issues with the connection really.

bk

BionicRasher wrote: »

+1 for Vodafone.
Getting 68mbps consistent speed fibre and we are approximately 500 meters as the crow flies from the cabinet.
Never had any issues with the connection really.

But not valid in this case. The OP is with Vodafone, but seems to be stuck on ADSL getting just 3mb/s. It seems Vodafone VDSL isn't available to him.

Thus UPC would be the vastly better option for him.

BionicRasher

bk wrote: »

But not valid in this case. The OP is with Vodafone, but seems to be stuck on ADSL getting just 3mb/s. It seems Vodafone VDSL isn't available to him.

Thus UPC would be the vastly better option for him.

Where do they say they are with Vodafone? I don't see it in the OP
If they can get efibre with eircom then I would think its available through Vodafone as well

Pink11

Sorry for confusion guys!

I currently have Eircom and I have found it to be the best so far.
SKY (in my previous house) was terrible. (I understand this is more to do with location though!)
I have heard bad things about UPC but now I'm reconsidering! Maybe I should go with UPC now hmmm...

BionicRasher

Yes UPC is probably best if you can get it. If not Vodafone fibre would be my recommendation (cheaper than Eircom and you should get the same speeds as Eircom efibre)

Larsheen

If it ain't broke,don't fix it.I was happy with Eircom until a few months ago and then the bb service disintegrated at night,dropping from just under 7mb during the day to between 1-3mb at night.I pleaded,begged,was understanding and in truth didn't want to leave, but to no avail.At one stage I found myself trying to make a very very unhelpful tech support guy understand that I was trying to help him to help me to help him keep me as a customer.In the end,no use.If your service works for you at whatever level you need it to,then stay.For me,the dishonesty and blatant poor customer service where you are told there is nothing wrong with your line etc and yet it is rubbish at night compared to during the day,and you are expected to accept that in the knowledge that seeing you are tied in to a contract you can't leave,became too much.In reality, if one breaks the contract what can they do? There is no longer monopoly and if the service can be proved to be faulty,then they will hardly go legal.I will soon find out

Chris The Hacker

Go with Vodafone or UPC.

Eircom are too expensive and Sky don't have eFiber yet.

Pink11

Ok UPC isn't available in my area

Eircom will work and Vodafone will let me know in the morning (presume they will be fine as they use the same lines as Eircom)

Vodafone is cheaper alright so will go with that if it comes down it. Kinda ridiculous the waiting time to get it up and running. I'm a new customer so it'll take almost a month to set up!?

They must check if the line is 'live' - what does that even mean...

bk

BionicRasher wrote: »

Where do they say they are with Vodafone? I don't see it in the OP
If they can get efibre with eircom then I would think its available through Vodafone as well

Sorry, yes I most have mixed it up with another thread.

Generally speaking, depending on availability I would go with the following in order of preference:

1) UPC
2) Vodafone VDSL
3) Vodafone ADSL2+

Pink11

I've ordered with Vodafone. Purely because it's cheaper but they took FOREVER on the phone. I had to spell out my address over 10 times!! Really frustrating and having to wait over 24 hours just to see if you're in the right area is annoying too!

The guy who answered in Eircom was way faster and didn't drag out the process as much.

Larsheen

Maybe Eircom might have been faster on that part but from what I and others have experienced, they mightn't be too speedy when it comes to the rest of it.Best wishes with it.

Pink11

Larsheen wrote: »

Maybe Eircom might have been faster on that part but from what I and others have experienced, they mightn't be too speedy when it comes to the rest of it.Best wishes with it.

Oh agreed 100% - I'm sure it'll all be worth it.

Thanks

wampyrus77

no phone bills with upc, and 50mbps wifi plus its double to 100mbps when you signup online, plus i go tv and wifi plus free phone call service for all €56 a month

ioc

hi all..bump this thread! ...im quite sick of upc and the rise of there prices right now!...can you guys recommended me any better broadband/tv providers...do i dare to take a chance at sky..some of the deals look fairly okay?

Larsheen

All the providers have bumped up their prices with Vodafone only announcing this morning that they are going up by €60 per annum.I think it is a case of working out the best for you and stomaching all the downsides.For example the fact that UPC got rid of the 'real' UTV annoys me but whilst I would get it back by moving to Sky, I would lose more of what's important to me such as great download speeds and being far away as possible from Eircom which you have to have to get landline from Sky.I am working on her good self to get rid of landlinesbut whilst her elderly parents are understandably far removed from mobiles we need it .

bk

UPC for broadband are by far the best at the moment.

€45 for 240Mb/s Broadband + unlimited anytime national + mobile calls.

Sky, Vodafone and Eircom have also all increased their prices and are significantly more expensive while offering much less.

Also if you call UPC and threaten to leave, they will normally offer you a deal for half price for a few months to sign up to a new 12 months contract. Well worth doing.

ioc

hmmm okay cheers thanks alot for the advice guys ps any of you hear of this iptv service??? ive been hearing from friends abroad that this box is very good

bk

ioc wrote: »

hmmm okay cheers thanks alot for the advice guys ps any of you hear of this iptv service??? ive been hearing from friends abroad that this box is very good

MOD: If you are talking about some sort of illegal, pirate service, that it strictly not allowed here on boards.

Eircoms eVision TV service use IPTV technology. Though that isn't a good thing, it has many disadvantages over UPC or Sky TV services. Really only suitable if you can't get either of these.

joe123

I had Vodafone - "up to 24 mb".

Was getting around 10mb which was fine BUT the service was absolutely shocking. If I was on the xbox and someone else was merely loading a web page, the thing would be unplayable.

If someone entered the house, their phone connecting to the wifi would cause it to grind to a halt and often disconnect straight away.

Moving up stairs and I could barely stream a song from spotify. Its led me to believe that their router is a pile of garbage. Their support is also terrible and all they ever suggest is sending out a new router.

I've just switched over to sky so will see what that's like. It can't be any worse than Vodafone.

ioc

bk wrote: »

MOD: If you are talking about some sort of illegal, pirate service, that it strictly not allowed here on boards.

Eircoms eVision TV service use IPTV technology. Though that isn't a good thing, it has many disadvantages over UPC or Sky TV services. Really only suitable if you can't get either of these.