Is anybody else in Kildare getting terrible speeds from Ripplecom?

LoudMouth

I'm in Kildare and I use Ripplecom for my broadband. In the past six or seven months the speeds have been terrible in the evenings, download speeds of only 0.5-0.8mb, which is useless for anything except casual browsing. I'm paying €45 a month for the 8 megs package, which is now capped at only 70GB. It's very expensive, but I would be happy paying it if I got my 8megs, or even 3 or 4 Megs at night. Last night it was only 0.3Mbps download. Most nights my wife and I end up using our mobile phones to give us a fast enough connection for watching Netflix or for Xbox live.
Ripplecom have promised so many times to fix it, but have done nothing. They say there is a fault in the mast up the mountain, but haven't done a thing in six months to fix it. I feel like I'm just banging my head against the wall when I try to talk to them. They ignore my emails, only occasionally replying and over the phone they keep promising to fix it, but don't.

I wonder am I the only one in Kildare with this woeful connection, or are other people having similar experiences. If you are then please let me know.
I hate being ripped off, but I have little choice at the moment. Eircom are rolling out eFibre in a good few rural towns in Kildare, hopefully my cabinet will be enabled soon, although I think I may be too far away to take advantage of it.

Azhrei

You will get terrible speeds from Ripplecom no matter where you are. I know they're better than dial-up if you can't get anything else, but really they are awful, and they're not interested in hearing about your issues.

Sorry for not being helpful, but I'm just so glad I'm not with them anymore.

LoudMouth

Thanks for the input Azhrei.

Did you have a bad experience with them?

BeerWolf

Checked if there's 4G in your area?

THREE's 60GB offering, for €35, beats Ripplecom in terms of value and service easily hands down.

Currently in work, but this was it 2 months ago, still is:

LoudMouth

very nice Beerwolf. I didn't realise that three had that package. I don't have 4G anywhere near Here. I have a 3G/4G directional antenna on the roof and I can't pick up any 4G whatsoever. I get 12Megs on my eMobile phone, which is handy. I picked up a Meteor SIM only pack today, 20GB for a tenner a month. There's no contract, I can cancel it when I want, I'll try that for a while. Tesco have a 50GB package on Meteor for €25 a month, but that's a one year contract.
Premier Broadband are now in my area, I wonder are they any better. 10Megs for €50 with 100GB, or 200GB for €65.

Still, Eircom is the ideal option with unlimited allowance.

NakQuada

Ripplecom, if I'm not mistaken, used to be Ice Broadband.
They are, single-handedly, the worst company I have ever dealt with. I had them for two years and it was a nightmare.

I have just moved house to the countryside outside Athy myself. No broadband available from eircom, and Digiweb is out of question do you line of sight issues.

I have contacted Premier Broadband and they are coming to do an install next week.
A family member has been with them for almost 2 years and swears by them - he says his pings are always low (~30ms) and on the 10mb package he drops down to maybe 4/5mb under heavy congestion.

Hopefully Premier BB will be my saviours, and yours too!

LoudMouth

Very useful NakQuada, thanks!

I am waiting for Premier Broadband to install here and will post a comparison when I get a chance to properly test their offering.

debarra156

Was with Ripplecom until about 2 months ago. I had a similar experience. Download speeds almost non existent. I complained continuously with little response from them. Eventually they advised that they had a persistent fault relating to their Grange transmitter. They suggested that because they could not sort it, it would be best to terminate my contract. I did so. I had still been charged 83 euro per month for a service worse than dialup.
I'm now with Premier. Same problems for first few weeks. Still connected to Grange which seems to be the common denominator. Service improved in last 2 weeks following my complaints. It is now just about OK. I can live with it but because of my Ripplecom experience am not that confident. Unfortunately we are a captive audience, desperate for any sort of service and prepared to pay through the nose for it. I would recommend Premier for the moment. Service OK but better than Ripplecom who I regret to say are as bad as they get.

LoudMouth

Premier Broadband are coming out to install today, it will be interesting to see if there is a difference. The salesman insisted that the signal would be coming form Dunmurry Hill, not Grange. This surprised me quite a bit as it's very difficult to get onto the mast there.
I was given the same spiel from Ripplecom, about the fault on the sector up there. Which is pretty sad when you consider that a new unit costs less than €200. I suspect that they lost access to a sector somewhere else, or that another sector is down and all the traffic if now being routed through Grange, which creates a huge over-contention.
The 70GB cap is a pain too, This week I downloaded one game on my Xbox one and it used up more than 70% of my allowance. The 100GB from Premier is not much better.

NakQuada

Loudmouth,

Please let me know what kind of pings and speeds you get with Premier after they get you set up today.
Also, ask them about there 5:5mb Business package. Apparently you can switch to that and it has unlimited bandwidth.