Broadband? Who will I choose?

wolfman

After waiting for a long long time and abusing several Eircom broadband call centre employees, who kept promising the sun, moon and stars, I went to my local Eircom offices yesterday.

Met a guy in the car park. Explained my situation to him....... "My line keeps failing and I am waiting almost 7 weeks for a "physical" test to be carried out at the exchange. Who do I speak to"????

He smiled at me and said "Leave it with me, that's not exactly the real situation". So I went home and 15 minutes later he called me and told me to get my line tested today as he had done a "little job" for me.

Hey Presto! Tested the line this morning and suddenly I can get it!

Now my problem is, WHO do I choose? I swore I wouldn't use Eircom because of all their messing, but I'd like to hear views from all of you please?

ranDom_tAsk

Well that's great news, you won't know yourself when you get the BB in .





ps - You spelled Eircon wrong !

Stark

In the DSL category, I think IOL are the best with UTV a close second.

I think NTL cable is a good option as it gives you a nice big cap (around 30GB). Also www.irishbroadband.ie do great wireless internet access.

And there's also Smart Telecom which might be a good one to check out. I haven't heard from anyone's who tried them, but they're offering 2Mb/s download speed instead of 512kb/s.

wolfman

Thanks for the quick reply
Already, NTL are ruled out for me as its not available here and also, irishbroadband are not available in the area as I was going to use them when I was getting no luck from Eircon! Smart are not starting in the area until July/August and I want this in "yesterday"....

Kristok

Stark wrote:

I haven't heard from anyone's who tried them, but they're offering 2Mb/s download speed instead of 512kb/s.

Well the 512 is gone replaced by 1 and 2mb. Go for smart if your in one of their areas they are cheaper and no cap and the 2mb might get raised soon enough. Otherwise go for esat as utv apparently charge for going over the cap.

Stark

UTV can either charge you for going over the cap or they can cut you off (the latter option is recommended as you can run up a serious bill if you go over). IOL are more flexible, they only come down on you if you consistently go over your cap.

wolfman

Ok.... Looking like IOL so far. Does anybody recommend Eircom over any of them? Would like to hear also.

halkar

Check out IOL BB and phone packages, I changed everything to IOL and save few yoyos on plus package which I beleive will be upgraded to 2MB soon Also cheaper calls too.

2MB? mmmmmmmmm sweeeeeeeet

Khannie

I use IOL. They give the better packages than eircom, for less. Haven't had a moments trouble.

wolfman

Going to book it today, so the general answer seems to IOL then? I'm surprised! Thought there would be more people arguing cases for different providers, but seems IOL do it right!


Thanks for all of your input

Blaster99

I've used Eircom for about two years and have had exactly 0 downtime. Over time you would have seen quite a few IOL complaints here, but apart from the usual whining virtually nobody has ever complained about Eircom's ADSL. I know some people with IOL who say that the speeds vary a bit. With Eircom, at least to date, it's been rock solid. Maybe with the 2Mbps upgrade it will change, but I doubt it. Neither Eircom or IOL seem to enforce the caps even though there's been people here claiming about every week for the last year that they have a friend in Eircom who says they will start charging for it. I wouldn't worry about it.

Irish Broadband, I can't see how anyone can recommend their service. Not only is it unreliable as hell they're also not offering reasonably priced 2Mbps which is norm in ADSL-land now. Unless you need upload speeds, IBB is to be avoided.

PowerHouseDan

To be fair Ibb Breeze package is very good, i've had no problems, 125k download/upload.The reason they are not doing the same, is the upload speed and cap.The Ripwave is ment to be very bad, but the breeze service is great.

lomb

powerhousedan wrote:

To be fair Ibb Breeze package is very good, i've had no problems, 125k download/upload.The reason they are not doing the same, is the upload speed and cap.The Ripwave is ment to be very bad, but the breeze service is great.

the breeze 1meg package is very very good and is better than 2 MB ADSL definately. the pings are low, its uncapped and it has vital upstream speed. most complaints seem to stem from a single dodgy overloaded mast.

next i would choose smart as pricing is very very low but is untested.

after this iol,combine ur phone package with them and its pretty resonable, also they dont have the dreadful reputation of utv charging crazy money for exceeding low caps.

wolfman

Blaster99 wrote:

I've used Eircom for about two years and have had exactly 0 downtime. Over time you would have seen quite a few IOL complaints here, but apart from the usual whining virtually nobody has ever complained about Eircom's ADSL. I know some people with IOL who say that the speeds vary a bit. With Eircom, at least to date, it's been rock solid. Maybe with the 2Mbps upgrade it will change, but I doubt it. Neither Eircom or IOL seem to enforce the caps even though there's been people here claiming about every week for the last year that they have a friend in Eircom who says they will start charging for it. I wouldn't worry about it.

Irish Broadband, I can't see how anyone can recommend their service. Not only is it unreliable as hell they're also not offering reasonably priced 2Mbps which is norm in ADSL-land now. Unless you need upload speeds, IBB is to be avoided.

Interesting to see the first Eircom user posting here.
Besides my threat of not using Eircom because of all their messing with this broadband, I also see another problem with them and thats the cap sizes. I know these "might" change, but as a very heavy internet user, I think I'm going to have to rule them out.

Thanks for the info though and I'll certainly keep it in mind while I am on my trial with any other company.


I have one other question also and that concerns equipment. Whats best option here? Go for whatever your provider offers or get your own???

Lex_Diamonds

Go for Eircom/Smart. Just dont go with IOL whatever you do. Alot of users have regular problems and the tech support will not help you.

wolfman

Just curious?
Nobody mentioned Digiweb?
Whats the story with them?

koneko

I'm not Eircom's biggest fan. I think they've held back Broadband in this country for far too long.

Having said that, I could only go with them initially because of some problems with my line, and "creativity" needed to resolve it
Still with them. Excellent pings, no downtime at all, no slowdowns, no problems AT ALL, and they don't seem to charge for going over the cap. I don't think I'll change for the moment either. Smart don't have a very good upload (in fact, dare I say, a crap one), and Eircom are upgrading my connection to 3MB soon (w00t). I'm happy

WizZard

Hey koneko, how is your connection going to 3mb? Is it not 2mb or 4mb?

Back OT, I use IOL, and once you don't have to call Tech Support they're great. Although getting your line enabled can be a bit hit and miss. If you want immediate broadband then I would go for eircom, IOL can delay things for a couple of weeks by "losing" certain broadband applications

Jammer

i ordered IOLBB on a friday, and the following friday i plugged in my modem/router and the ADSL light was on, just had to ring them for settings. Didnt get the iolbb modem till 2 weeks later though, good job i had my own.

koneko

WizZard wrote:

Hey koneko, how is your connection going to 3mb? Is it not 2mb or 4mb?

Nope, we're on Business Plus (which is 1MB at the moment):

http://mmm.eircom.ie/press/PressRelease_Target.asp?id=400&y=2005

(Unless Eircom's website is a dirty dirty liar)

wolfman

OK

Thanks to all for the input.
Have to try and make my mind up now

BloodBath

Go for Eircom/Smart. Just dont go with IOL whatever you do. Alot of users have regular problems and the tech support will not help you.

Having a lot of experience of both I have to say iol's tech support is far superior to eircon's. At least you have the option of joining the queueing system so they call you back rather than having to wait a decade like you do on the eircon line. I recently had to have a modem replaced and iol's tech support was very helpful and I received my modem 2 days after it was proven the modem was the problem. The prices are cheaper, the caps are bigger and I have had no down time or speed fluctuations in the last year.

Just my 2 cent. Avoid eircon like the plague.


BloodBath

shinzon

The following charges apply after the Broadband free trial period:

IOL Broadband IOL Broadband PLUS
Engineer install charge €190 (if engineer install option is selected)

Self Install Charge €90

Engineer install

charge €190 (if engineer install option is selected)

Self Install Charge €80

€39 per month OR €33.15 per month with a home phone package - eircom's rate is €39.99 €47 per month OR €39.95 per month with a home phone package - eircom's rate is €54.45



Ok this is whats on iols site as to what you pay to get up and running on there Broadband service after the 3 months trial, they want to charge you 80 euro and 90 euro for installing the modem yourself, if i was getting broadband this is what would dissuade me from going IOL, its a rip off plain and simple

Shin

diarmo

I think you are paying for the modem!!!

Jammer

shinzon wrote:

The following charges apply after the Broadband free trial period:

IOL Broadband IOL Broadband PLUS
Engineer install charge €190 (if engineer install option is selected)

Self Install Charge €90

Engineer install

charge €190 (if engineer install option is selected)

Self Install Charge €80

€39 per month OR €33.15 per month with a home phone package - eircom's rate is €39.99 €47 per month OR €39.95 per month with a home phone package - eircom's rate is €54.45



Ok this is whats on iols site as to what you pay to get up and running on there Broadband service after the 3 months trial, they want to charge you 80 euro and 90 euro for installing the modem yourself, if i was getting broadband this is what would dissuade me from going IOL, its a rip off plain and simple

Shin

If u read the letter that u get when you start the trial, it says if you do stay on passed the 3 months you get your fourth month and install free. So you only pay for 8 months broadband for the first year. No install charges.

diarmo

Jammer wrote:

If u read the letter that u get when you start the trial, it says if you do stay on passed the 3 months you get your fourth month and install free. So you only pay for 8 months broadband for the first year. No install charges.

Are you sure???
That €80/€90 install fee is annoying me at the moment.

Can a third part back this up please???
BTW
What Letter???
I think the 12month contract begins after the 4th month.

diarmo

Much appreciated.

Gonzo

im on eircom broadband and despite the companys awfull reputation their broadband service is actually good, ive never had a problem, good pings always, downloads nearly always 54k/sec, being upgraded to 2mb soon so hope my line can take that.

diarmo

Gonzo wrote:

im on eircom broadband and despite the companys awfull reputation their broadband service is actually good, ive never had a problem, good pings always, downloads nearly always 54k/sec, being upgraded to 2mb soon so hope my line can take that.

Im on EsatBT and I get 53-55kBytes/s with low latency ans such.
In my honest opinion iolBB is a superior product based on the fact thats its cheaper...plain and simple!!!

Choose iol as the only difference between the two services is price and iolBB is cheaper if you are more download hungry

Raskolnikov

I use IOL, I've never had any speed problems in the year that I've had it. Also, in all that time, I've had maybe an hours down time maybe once every 3-4 months or so. I found technical support to be fairly decent too. My only gripe with IOL is billing. It's intermittent at best. I've got a €120 bill to pay off at this minute