Fastcom as a Broadband Provider?

Western Pomise

Hi to all,

I am interested in getting Broadband and live on the Mayo Sligo border.

What kind of experiences have people had with 'Fastcom' as an internet provider?..........I am in quite a rural setting.Would probably go for a combined phone and Broadband package,I have Telephone line with Eircom at the moment and no Broadband as it won't work through Eircom.

Thanks for any replies,
W.P.

biko

You can find some older mentions like this, until you get answers in this thread
http://www.boards.ie/search/submit/?sort=newest&date_to=&date_from=&query=Fastcom

Western Pomise

Thanks Biko,sounds on that thread like 'Westconnect' might be a better option.

Hopefully some people who have dealt with 'Fastcom' reply to my original post.

Thanks again for any contributions.

curtisbrown

In my experience, Fastcom is awful.

Western Pomise

curtisbrown wrote: »

In my experience, Fastcom is awful.

Could you elaborate on why?.....please send me a pm if you don't want to say it on the open forum, thanks.

curtisbrown

I pay €50 a month for 10Mbps. The most I'd ever get would be about 7Mbps, at times it would be as low as 0.1Mbps which is effectively nothing. I've given up ringing them to see what the problem is and have closed my account with them.

Western Pomise

curtisbrown wrote: »

I pay €50 a month for 10Mbps. The most I'd ever get would be about 7Mbps, at times it would be as low as 0.1Mbps which is effectively nothing. I've given up ringing them to see what the problem is and have closed my account with them.

Am not a techie person but would you find that's it's evening times that reception or speed would be at its worst?....
Whoever I get Broadband with,I will be an evening and weekend user....hopefully watching Netflix,YouTube and TV etc and casual internet browsing.

sligojoek

It all depends on line of sight and distance from the mast. I'm lucky enough to be just 3km from the mast and can see it from my upstairs window. I've never had any problems but I know others who have. AFAIK they send someone out to do a test first.

L.Jenkins

Any of ye a customer of Vodafone and own a smartphone? If so, then download the speedtest.net app and see what you're getting, because earlier this evening, with a phone I was getting 60mb down and 20 mb up.

Blue_Dabadee

I have been with them for 9 years and I think they are pretty good.

mobil 222

My thoughts on Fastcom would be 60/ 40 against them.
As far as i know they are now doing a Broadband connection as well.
I was with them once and the evening issue was an everyday event
When i complained my connection would miraculously go back to what it was only to end up ringing them again after another few weeks.
This went on for a long time until i told them to stuff it.
There is a saying 'Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
I cannot comment on what they are like now but having them on board yrs back would not make me want to recommend them.

West connect are fairly new on the block and have had their teething problems.
I will say something about them and that is they have a very good customer care set-up.
When at first i contacted them they did a test and it only came to 6mgs out of the package of 8 mgs.
They at first would not offer it because they taught i would not be happy ..but after having yrs of a constant 1.5 mgs with Eir
i told them i would be quite happy with that.
Two months later they arrived at my house to change the direction of my Aerial to a new transmitter that they had set up.
They could have ignored me,i was a paying customer but as i said their customer support is second to none,,, they had remembered that they could up increase my connection .
I am now on 12 Mgs with a choice of upping that to 50.
They are not the cheapest out there and i think they may have to look at their price structure in the near future.
But i am willing to pay if the person selling a product is honest with his customers and that is where West Connect comes good.
They had a few issues which was totally out of their control but through social media they were up front.
I have had a 12MGS package since the beginning of June and i am a stickler for doing speedtests and never has it dropped below 12 ..if anything on a few occasions it measured close to 13.

So i have to be honest and if they can get you a signal i would have to recommend them.

mobil 222

L.Jenkins wrote: »

Any of ye a customer of Vodafone and own a smartphone? If so, then download the speedtest.net app and see what you're getting, because earlier this evening, with a phone I was getting 60mb down and 20 mb up.

'Beam me up scotty'
Where are you from because as the poster has said he is out the country
and if you know something that we dont know about Vodaphones mobile Internet then please share
On a Serious note i think you may be talking about FTTH

magnumlady

Just got it installed this week. So far, so good. Happy with the service.

L.Jenkins

mobil 222 wrote: »

'Beam me up scotty'
Where are you from because as the poster has said he is out the country
and if you know something that we dont know about Vodaphones mobile Internet then please share
On a Serious note i think you may be talking about FTTH

Well, in the next 2/3 years according to Denis Naughton TD, 5g will be rolled out. Vodafone and the ESB are working on a project to use existing ESB infrastructure to provide Broadband which will be of much greater benefit to rural communities.

I wasn't being snarky, but I did think to ask in case the OP received a better 4g signal.

Plazaman

I had the same problems with Fastcom as Mobil. Connection speed was atrocious but if I rang them I'd be brought back up to speed for a few weeks then repeat the process. I eventually had to buy myself out of the contract as it was unusable. I have Vodafone now which I didn't have the option for at the time. I have 10mbps consistently with an option to join the eFibre network for 50mbps+. Depending on your location, Fastcom maybe the only option if hard wired broadband is not in your area.

ned14

We dropped Fastcom in favour of Vodafone 4G. Had Wimax type internet with Fastcom, which on several occasions would drop connection particularly in poor weather conditions. Can't complain about them from a customer service point of view, but I feel their technology has not moved on in line with other providers (Imagine etc. comes to mind). 

Vodafone, although limited to 15GB/month, often has a speed of 50-60Mb down, 20 up. For half the cost, a dramatic improvement on 4-6Mb with Fastcom.

Western Pomise

ned14 wrote: »

We dropped Fastcom in favour of Vodafone 4G. Had Wimax type internet with Fastcom, which on several occasions would drop connection particularly in poor weather conditions. Can't complain about them from a customer service point of view, but I feel their technology has not moved on in line with other providers (Imagine etc. comes to mind). 

Vodafone, although limited to 15GB/month, often has a speed of 50-60Mb down, 20 up. For half the cost, a dramatic improvement on 4-6Mb with Fastcom.

So has Imagines technology moved on the most relatively speaking of all the providers?

Will be the New Year at this stage when I am choosing a Provider.

sligojoek

KN Networks were here during the week installing fibre optic. My contract with Fastcom is up in April so unless they up their game I might be changing. I'm getting a consistant 10MB but the upload is very slow.

tubawaski

Does anyone have any recent updates from Fastcom? I have been offered 20mb internet from them as they said they have upgraded their network etc. I have been with them a few years back as in about 4 years ago and the internet was god awful....However I am on DSL and tbh all I'm getting is 2mb in the evenings even though I'm only 1km away from the cabinet and according to eir should be able to get 12mb easily. Since fibre is gonna be here god knows when(I live in Coolaney and the fibre was supposed to go live about 2 years ago, still not here), I was considering getting Fastcom for now as they can upgrade me to fibre when it is finally live. Any thoughts?

Cheers

T-Bird

tubawaski wrote: »

Does anyone have any recent updates from Fastcom? I have been offered 20mb internet from them as they said they have upgraded their network etc. I have been with them a few years back as in about 4 years ago and the internet was god awful....However I am on DSL and tbh all I'm getting is 2mb in the evenings even though I'm only 1km away from the cabinet and according to eir should be able to get 12mb easily. Since fibre is gonna be here god knows when(I live in Coolaney and the fibre was supposed to go live about 2 years ago, still not here), I was considering getting Fastcom for now as they can upgrade me to fibre when it is finally live. Any thoughts?

Cheers

Its anyone's guess I suppose. I was with them for a year and like you it was quite bad. Saying that, it was a good few years ago now and probably not fair on them to compare past technologies to today's.

I'm in Grange and we were "meant" to get upgraded last November. KN were doing some work here in the town a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully it was prep work.

It might be worth taking a look around the houses in your area to see how many of them have the little receivers on the roofs. I think the new ones have red lights on them (making it easier to notice them in the evening). Might be worthwhile asking them directly. I think that's what I will be doing when my current contract is up in July.

tubawaski

T-Bird wrote:

Its anyone's guess I suppose. I was with them for a year and like you it was quite bad. Saying that, it was a good few years ago now and probably not fair on them to compare past technologies to today's.

I'm in Grange and we were "meant" to get upgraded last November. KN were doing some work here in the town a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully it was prep work.

It might be worth taking a look around the houses in your area to see how many of them have the little receivers on the roofs. I think the new ones have red lights on them (making it easier to notice them in the evening). Might be worthwhile asking them directly. I think that's what I will be doing when my current contract is up in July.

Yeah I see a few houses with the antennas around, not much but a few. I'm gonna ask a neighbor who has the antenna is it for broadband and if so whats he getting. I was looking at west connect also, they seem to have a good opinion around here, they look quite appealing as there is no contract and prices aren't too bad, the only thing is the high installation fee

sligojoek

Hi Tubaski. It all depends on line of sight. As I said above I'm only a few KM from the mast and the dish is on the chimney of a 2 story house. I cant fault Fastcom at all. As T-Bird said, have a look where there are dishes and ask how they are getting on. If you can find out where your local mast is, have a look on google earth/maps and see is there anything between you and it.

sligojoek

tubawaski wrote: »

Yeah I see a few houses with the antennas around, not much but a few. I'm gonna ask a neighbor who has the antenna is it for broadband and if so whats he getting. I was looking at west connect also, they seem to have a good opinion around here, they look quite appealing as there is no contract and prices aren't too bad, the only thing is the high installation fee

If you're on DSL you'll need a network router instead of the one you have.

Clogherevagh

Are there any 2021 Reviews for Fastcom Broadband provider in Sligo ?