Broadband in Rural Tipp North

Real Psycrow

Hi Folks. Just wondered can anyone recommend a broadband connection, or more specifically, tell me why I should avoid any of the potential suppliers.

Story so far: I was with Imagine for 10 years on their Breeze network. For the last 7 months or so there were terrible problems with it. They eventually switched off the tower in July leaving us without an internet connection since then.

I got a line installed by Eir (Worst company I've ever dealt with) and was almost happy when the broadband was **** (slow and intermittent) as it meant I could cancel within my cooling off period and not have to deal with them long term. I eventually ordered Imagine's LTE service in August.

That was to go live on Oct 1st however we were told at the end of September that there would be a delay to the end of October, we were then told at the end of October that there would be a delay to the end of November and I've been told today that the delay is now to the end of December. So I'm ready to cancel that order and find a company who can actually supply broadband.

My options seem to be Ripplecom, Arra or one of the Satellite Broadband companies, although they're download limits seem quite restrictive. Does any one have experience with either of those companies? I'm reading some dodgy things about Ripplecom and the contention is 40-1! However the speeds Arra are offering are quite slow. The choice is terrible.

Any advice greatly appreciated. We're between Nenagh and Limerick City if that helps.

Thanks.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Don't bother with satellite. It's the worst of all solutions.

According to this, you might also get service from Echo IT, Celtic Broadband or Munster Broadband.

I've met the guy who runs Arra in the past. He seems like a good guy, genuinely wanting to provide a good service. I haven't seen any complaints on here about them in recent years. Same seems true of Echo IT.

Can't talk about Celtic, but I'm with Munster Broadband. Speeds are low too (3d/1u), but I've had a rock steady service now for the last 18 months. Had a rough patch for a while before that (very variable speeds). It turned out they had a flaky sector on the mast. Before that incident it was stable for many years. Actually just remembered there was one other incident where my connection dropped to 1d/0.25u at 5:00pm on Christmas eve. Didn't notice until I got home from the pub that night and they were closed through to the new year. Somebody boobied my profile accidentally. They sorted it out straight away in the new year.

Their CS can be tough to get in touch with, but once you speak with them, they're really helpful.

I'm down Rearcross way.

Real Psycrow

Thanks a lot. Love the username by the way!

I'm just outside Ballina, not too far away from you. I've checked with Munster Broadband though and it seems they don't cover my location unfortunately. Echo's coverage doesn't seem to quite stretch to me according to the map on their site and I'm just put off of Celtic Broadband because of their website. It looks awful. Normally I wouldn't let something like that bother me, but in this industry if you can't put together a proper website, I'd be worried as to what else you can't deliver.

I think I'll go with Arra. 3d/1u isn't great, and we may have to cut down a tree to get line of site, but at this stage as long as I get a stable connection I'll be happy.

And Arra are also based in Ballina, so if I can't get their customer service on the phone, I can drive down to the office!

seaniefr

Real Psycrow wrote: »

Thanks a lot. Love the username by the way!

I'm just outside Ballina, not too far away from you. I've checked with Munster Broadband though and it seems they don't cover my location unfortunately. Echo's coverage doesn't seem to quite stretch to me according to the map on their site and I'm just put off of Celtic Broadband because of their website. It looks awful. Normally I wouldn't let something like that bother me, but in this industry if you can't put together a proper website, I'd be worried as to what else you can't deliver.

I think I'll go with Arra. 3d/1u isn't great, and we may have to cut down a tree to get line of site, but at this stage as long as I get a stable connection I'll be happy.

And Arra are also based in Ballina, so if I can't get their customer service on the phone, I can drive down to the office!

Celtic worked for me when i had them. I had Munster beforehand and to be honest i had no complaints with either. The very odd call sure but both companies CS were grand to deal with. If you had a phone line with broadband on it what exchange were you on or how far were you to the exchange?

Real Psycrow

seaniefr wrote: »

Celtic worked for me when i had them. I had Munster beforehand and to be honest i had no complaints with either. The very odd call sure but both companies CS were grand to deal with. If you had a phone line with broadband on it what exchange were you on or how far were you to the exchange?

I don't know what exchange it was to be honest, but the engineer who installed the line said we were about 3.5km from it I think, so it shouldn't have been a problem. On top of that, all my neighbours have a good connection, so I don't see why we wouldn't.

But to be honest, dealing with Eir was so dreadful, I'm glad we got shot of them. I don't think I could put up with them even for a great connection.

seaniefr

Phone lines don't always take the route you would think either. You could always try to get the connection thru Vodafone. The only problem is they have to deal with Eir for any network issues.
You would probably be better off going the phone line route to be honest as the download is unlimited. Can you check with your nearest neighbour and see what download you are getting?

Also the type of modem that they have in use

ADSL2 type link for speed vs. distance
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance


VDSL2 type link for speed vs. distance (Fibre to the exchange)
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance

or you could stick with one of the previously mentioned

zoe 3619

With arra myself.(between ballina and portroe).Been with them for a while and all good.Had a couple of problems with the connection during the summer.called into them,and they sorted it quick enough.switched us to another provider/mast/don't know really.Good service anyway.

Real Psycrow

seaniefr wrote: »

Phone lines don't always take the route you would think either. You could always try to get the connection thru Vodafone. The only problem is they have to deal with Eir for any network issues.
You would probably be better off going the phone line route to be honest as the download is unlimited. Can you check with your nearest neighbour and see what download you are getting?

Also the type of modem that they have in use

ADSL2 type link for speed vs. distance
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance


VDSL2 type link for speed vs. distance (Fibre to the exchange)
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance

or you could stick with one of the previously mentioned

We had broadband in from Eir. It was dropping packets and wasn't quite reaching 2MBs when it was up. That's why I cancelled it. Vodafone are saying there's up to 3MBs available on my line, so I'd imagine it will be the same. Neighbours are getting around 8MBs.

The connection from Arra is unlimited as well, so no fear there. After a year of being with them I'll look at Imagine again who should have their **** together and the LTE in working order. I'm just not going to keep waiting for month after month of delays.

Real Psycrow

zoe 3619 wrote: »

With arra myself.(between ballina and portroe).Been with them for a while and all good.Had a couple of problems with the connection during the summer.called into them,and they sorted it quick enough.switched us to another provider/mast/don't know really.Good service anyway.

That's good to hear. Thanks Zoe. They seem like a decent company from what I can gather. Anyone I've talked to has been very friendly on the phone.

seaniefr

Real Psycrow wrote: »

seaniefr wrote: »

Phone lines don't always take the route you would think either. You could always try to get the connection thru Vodafone. The only problem is they have to deal with Eir for any network issues.
You would probably be better off going the phone line route to be honest as the download is unlimited. Can you check with your nearest neighbour and see what download you are getting?

Also the type of modem that they have in use

ADSL2 type link for speed vs. distance
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance


VDSL2 type link for speed vs. distance (Fibre to the exchange)
http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance

or you could stick with one of the previously mentioned

We had broadband in from Eir. It was dropping packets and wasn't quite reaching 2MBs when it was up. That's why I cancelled it. Vodafone are saying there's up to 3MBs available on my line, so I'd imagine it will be the same. Neighbours are getting around 8MBs.

The connection from Arra is unlimited as well, so no fear there. After a year of being with them I'll look at Imagine again who should have their **** together and the LTE in working order. I'm just not going to keep waiting for month after month of delays.

I would presume that the 'unlimited' is actually subject to a fair usage policy as long as you are not a heavy user you will be fine but streaming would probably be out

Real Psycrow

seaniefr wrote: »

I would presume that the 'unlimited' is actually subject to a fair usage policy as long as you are not a heavy user you will be fine but streaming would probably be out

I'm sure it would be subject to fair use. But the same type of connection with Imagine was "unlimited" as well and we never breached their fair usage policy.

As for streaming being out, I can't imaging that any broadband company could can limit you because of that these days, especially if offering a so called unlimited service. Every company would have a fair use clause. With the proliferation of services like Netflix, it just wouldn't make business sense to restrict it.

Muhammed_1

I use Three mobile in a cheap chinese phone. The phone (THL t6c I think) can be set up as a wifi hotspot and then several computers or laptops can connect to the internet through the phone wifi.


So, android phone from Amazon for less than 60 euro.
SIM card from Three, for 20 euro, includes 30 days all you can eat internet.

I have 3G coverage at home, which averages about .8Mbps, or 100Kb per second, download, which isn't too bad. It can go much higher, up to 8 Mbps but that's very rare.

Total download of over 600Gb some months, but I do tend to leave it on overnight downloading at times.


It can be quite slow at peak times, between 5pm and 10pm.

I know it's not as good as a proper service with a home router but mobile broadband can work in a pinch.

They also have an adult filter which is silly. It blocks religious sites, politicial sites, commercial sales sites, and adult sites.

seaniefr

Real Psycrow wrote: »

seaniefr wrote: »

I would presume that the 'unlimited' is actually subject to a fair usage policy as long as you are not a heavy user you will be fine but streaming would probably be out

I'm sure it would be subject to fair use. But the same type of connection with Imagine was "unlimited" as well and we never breached their fair usage policy.

As for streaming being out, I can't imaging that any broadband company could can limit you because of that these days, especially if offering a so called unlimited service. Every company would have a fair use clause. With the proliferation of services like Netflix, it just wouldn't make business sense to restrict it.

Another option for you might be Rural Wifi?

Real Psycrow

seaniefr wrote: »

Another option for you might be Rural Wifi?

Yeah, tried calling them a few days ago. The phone number that they have on their website seems to have been disconnected, or at least that's what it sounded like. Which didn't bode well!

AlexMer

I'm with Arra myself, great customer service and no problem with the staff themselves, always great to deal with and quick to address any issues, but their speeds are just way too slow for their prices, even for a basic web surfer like myself. Imagine are now available in my area and i think I might make the switch.

Kristopherus

I see Imagine have a mast between Ballina an Portroe. Is there any chance they would cover your area?