10 day downtime for transfer to Smart ?

DeFive

Folks,

Just thought this'd be of interest - I'm currently using Eircom's DSL service and am looking at moving to Smart. Given that I use my line for working from home obviously downtime is a big issue for me, so I emailed Smart asking for a timescale on how much downtime would be involved - this is the response I got

"We will contact you closer to the time when your exchange is due to be
unbundled and we will give you advance notice so you can terminate any
existing contracts. Unfortunately, it is not possible to run Broadband from
two different sources at one time therefore you will need to have terminated
your existing contract before Smart Telecom can install our Broadband
service. There will be a downtime of approximately 10 days in order for
Smart to process and install your Broadband service."

So assuming thats 10 working days it looks like the 'official' downtime is going to be approx two weeks for moving, assuming you've already cancelled your existing service.

Two weeks without BB is a big deal for me, and it may be for others as well.

Oh, and by the way I'm on the NORTHMAIN exchange and I can't get a clear answer either as to whether or not it's live now or not - all I get is 'March/April etc etc etc' - any chance Garfield of pinning this down for me ?

iano

DeFive wrote:

"There will be a downtime of approximately 10 days in order for Smart to process and install your Broadband service."

So assuming thats 10 working days it looks like the 'official' downtime is going to be approx two weeks for moving, assuming you've already cancelled your existing service.

If downtime is an issue for you, then it would probably not be a good idea to be one of the "guinea pigs" who gets to discover exactly how much downtime will actually happen in practice.

In another thread, not a single live SMART customer has been identified (apart from an employee who is part of a trial) so the service is still not fully operational.

Posts on here over the next 4-8 weeks should reveal the real facts and allow potential SMART customers to make an educated choice.

dub45

There seems to be a very big difference between the Smart reply above and the reply posted here.

Dear Stephen,
Thank you for your Smart Broadband enquiry.

1) As we draw closer to the time when your exchange is unbundled we will be able to give you more precise time-scales. Once a line test is carried out to ensure that it is of a suitable quality and contracts have been signed, it will take approximately 10 days to go live. There will be an approximate downtime of 1 hour , but we will contact you to give you the exact time this will occur.

jimmycrackcorm

Perhaps it might be wise to have the switch take place during ones anual leave.

The downtime is not Smarts issue no more than you can insist on something being delivered to your house at a specific time during rush hour.