Smart Telecom Rollout Update

virtualpir8

Hi,
I spoke to smart telecom today to find out how this LLU farce with ErrorCom would affect Smart telecoms broadband rollout.
When I first signed up I was told my broadband would be installed around may/june, I am on the cork central exchange (for any one thats interested).

They told me that the problem centers around Errorcom not allowing Smart telecom access to Errorcoms exchanges. Nothing new here.

But I was also told I could get broadband sooner from smart telecom if I changed my phone number.The need to change my phone number was that errorcom are also dragging their heels over porting your existing phone number to smart telecom.I told the guy I was prepared to change my phone number no problem(anything to get away from errorcom) and he said this would shorten the wait for Smart broadband, but if I didn't change the phone number I would have to wait for comreg and errorcom to battle it out in court. Even then errorcom could,but I hope not could come out on top.

I think errorcom are bloated and inefficient and are frightened of any newcomers to the market.This is why Ireland has the lowest uptake and highest price of broadband in the EU.
Sorry for the long post but this really peed me off.

CyberGhost

oh yeah, of course eircom is going to give them trouble, ST are their biggest rivals

I'm now interested if my number(given by eircom) is what not allows Smarts BB for me?

Mountjoy Mugger

virtualpir8 wrote:

Hi,
I told the guy I was prepared to change my phone number no problem(anything to get away from errorcom) and he said this would shorten the wait for Smart broadband, but if I didn't change the phone number

After applying back in February, I finally got to speak to someone in Smart yesterday. As I'm an eircom BB customer currently, I appreciate I need to give one months notice to terminate my contract, but what I wasn't expecting was that I'd have to wait at least 10 working days after my line was deactivated by eircom before Smart would then be in a position to hook me up. So they say anyway. This is with me willing to change my phone number.

I thought I'd read that there was going to be a smooth transition from one to the other? In other words, an hour or two or a day at most.

Cabaal

Mountjoy Mugger wrote:

After applying back in February, I finally got to speak to someone in Smart yesterday. As I'm an eircom BB customer currently, I appreciate I need to give one months notice to terminate my contract, but what I wasn't expecting was that I'd have to wait at least 10 working days after my line was deactivated by eircom before Smart would then be in a position to hook me up. So they say anyway. This is with me willing to change my phone number.

Certainly nothing strange about a 10 day delay for ceasing and re-enabling a line, similar restrictions apply to BT in the UK unless its a migration which takes about 7 days....it could be much worse, it could be 20* days

*In the UK it used to often take 25+ days to cease and renable a line for DSL (1 - 1.5 years back)

virtualpir8

Whats even more messed up is when ST(smart telecom not sanitary towels :eek: )do get into eircom exchanges, errorcom can dictate what services they will allow ST to provide to the end user. These are basic services like call waiting,voice mail etc. :mad:
nothing but pure obstruction goin on here me thinks!!

beller b

Why don EirCON do the decent thing & make an effort to compete like everyone else in the market.? They advertise 4 times faster blah blah blah! but they dont tell you its €85 incl line rental (€50 dearer that Smart)

WillieFlynn

It makes no sense that your current broadband has to be deactivated before moving to Samrt (other than to try to put you off moving), as the patch cable has to be physicaly moved. This will disconnect you from you current provider.

I have raised this issue with comreg, who can't do much untill the current court case is finished.

TimTim

From reading Garfields previous posts, its possible but according to the LLU framework thingy ISP's aren't allowed just disconnect each others users until the current contract is finished. Sure Smart isn't happy about it, but atleast there is a framework for it.

beller b

WillieFlynn wrote:

It makes no sense that your current broadband has to be deactivated before moving to Samrt (other than to try to put you off moving), as the patch cable has to be physicaly moved. This will disconnect you from you current provider.

I have raised this issue with comreg, who can't do much untill the current court case is finished.

It doesn't have to make sense , it's EirCON we 're talking about. I rekon the court case is just going trough the motions. EirCON are going to lose , its purly a case of them hanging onto customers & getting in as much money as possible befor this happens.. When their slapped on the wrist & told to do it there will be another increase in speed & maybe even a price drop.. EirCON do nothing untill they have to,, If Smart had not launched when they did do you think EirCON would have increased thier speeds?????

RapierX

I have an Eircom phone line and currently availing of their 2 month free trial. I registered interest with SMART a few months ago and have heard absolutely nothing from them since (limerick exchange). I thought SMART would be available by the time the free trial with Eircom ended but alas no .

BTW anyone know if Smart broadband will feature the interleaving like Eircoms 19m/sec?

ando

beller b wrote:

Why don EirCON do the decent thing & make an effort to compete like everyone else in the market.?

why should they. They are a business afterall and want as much profit as possible, currently blocking ST is the best method

machalla

There was a post somewhere else that pointed out smart would turn off interleaving (or turn it on) as the user required.

TimTim

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2661556&postcount=44

beller b

ando wrote:

why should they. They are a business afterall and want as much profit as possible, currently blocking ST is the best method

Not best for them long term... Just pissin everyone off will lose them more custom eventually!!

Anarchist

I was one of the first to register with Smartcom etc and the person on the otehr end of teh phone was all nicities saying they would def contact me back and I would have BB from them in early April but fck me not one phonecall back from them, I am on the 2mb Eircom line niw that is really 1716 and it is decent but 128 upload is shyte, very tempted by Esat business' 1mb/256 no cap BB as interleaving is off and far better for gamers.

fisab

virtualpir8 wrote:

Hi,

<snip>

But I was also told I could get broadband sooner from smart telecom if I changed my phone number.<snip>.

If you agreed to change your phone number did they imply that you would be connected in the May-June timeframe thats specified for Cork Central.
I'm wondering since they are experiencing delays in Dublin, will those delays impact Cork.

virtualpir8

fisab, yes I was led to believe that if I changed my number ,it would make things a lot faster, starting to lose confidence in ST though.

CyberGhost

beller b wrote:

Not best for them long term... Just pissin everyone off will lose them more custom eventually!!

they are losing their customers anyway.

jesus_thats_gre

Can ye not just call them Eircom.. All these nicknames are getting a bit pathetic to be honest. Yes we know they are crap but come on...

CyberGhost

lol yea, eircom is a new swear word in my dictionary, no need to modity it

The Fool

Anyone know if you still have to change your phone number when you switch to Smart or has this been sorted?

beller b

The Fool wrote:

Anyone know if you still have to change your phone number when you switch to Smart or has this been sorted?

YES you have to change number. NO it hasn't been sorted!

damien

LIGHTNING wrote:

Not fully correct!

Says he who then says this total incorrect statement:

Smart Telecom are in some legal battle with Eircon at the moment so thats why we have to wait.

Way off the mark there.

opus

I sent an email to them yesterday just to ask if there were any updates on when it would be available in Cork, they said May/June when I signed up back in Feb. If I hear anything back (it will no doubt take a few days), I'll post it here.

JNive

Cork so far is still May/June (probably late june, going on current trends) for Wellington Road, Dennehys Cross, Churchfield, Quaker Road & Cork Central.

Ballincollig is July/August

the corpo

so, did Crown Alley come onstream today??

dahamsta

virtualpir8 wrote:

They told me that the problem centers around Errorcom not allowing Smart telecom access to Errorcoms exchanges. Nothing new here.

But I was also told I could get broadband sooner from smart telecom if I changed my phone number.

These two don't mesh. If they were using one to excuse the other, they were lying. The number change is "required" for a completely different reason (woeful unbundling procedures).

oh yeah, of course eircom is going to give them trouble, ST are their biggest rivals

No, they just like to think they are. British Telecom are their biggest rivals at the moment.

why should they. They are a business afterall and want as much profit as possible, currently blocking ST is the best method

If it can be proved that Eircom is in fact "blocking" Smart, their actions would be anti-competitive and thus illegal. You respect that?

(Not that Smart deserve any respect, the entire company is a lie.)

adam

Infini

CyberGhost wrote:

they are losing their customers anyway.

It's a slow death. They're just getting dragged there kicking and screaming!

CyberGhost

Infini wrote:

It's a slow death. They're just getting dragged there kicking and screaming!

LOL, so true!

Cuauhtemoc

What's with all the Smart bashing?

From the people who are connected it seems to be a good service.

Yes i know the rollout is going slowly and about keeping(or not) your old number.

Is it a good service or not?

I might like to get it myself when it arrives in my area.

dahamsta

Cuauhtemoc wrote:

From the people who are connected it seems to be a good service.

Not hard to provide good service to that few customers...

Sarsfield

Adam, why the venom?

sleur

the corpo wrote:

so, did Crown Alley come onstream today??

www.smarttelecom.ie wrote:

Congratulations, Broadband is available to you! It will be available in May.*
Would you like to avail of this amazing offer?

* this date is indicative only and Smart Telecom will be in contact with you when your exchange is live.

They'd better get their groove on because i've been stuck back on dial-up for far too long.

CyberGhost

Cuauhtemoc wrote:

What's with all the Smart bashing?

From the people who are connected it seems to be a good service.

Yes i know the rollout is going slowly and about keeping(or not) your old number.

Is it a good service or not?

I might like to get it myself when it arrives in my area.

I think most of the people are angry(more like dissapointed that transformes into anger) because, ST is not available to them yet, it would have been better if they FIRST upgraded their lines, sorted out problems with eircom and then started offering BB to everyone, now only like 10 people have it and everyone else has to drool over it.

zenith

dahamsta wrote:

Not hard to provide good service to that few customers...

They've knocked 30% off the leased line market by their mere presence, so I think they're great.

dahamsta

Sarsfield wrote:

Adam, why the venom?

I wouldn't call it venom tbh, I just have a natural dislike of people and companies that have trouble with the truth, and so far Smart have been caught rotten in that regard on at least three occasions that I'm aware of. Not little fibs either, but whoppers.

As well as that, and I've said this before, I simply don't believe the product is viable. If I'm proved wrong, well and good, the competition can only be a good thing. I guess we'll see in a year or so.

But don't take my word for it, ask anyone that's been involved in Irish telecommunications for more than a couple years what they think of this product. I did. Most of them laughed.

zenith wrote:

They've knocked 30% off the leased line market by their mere presence, so I think they're great.

I can't argue with that, but I wasn't really talking about the leased line market. Although many of my colleagues find certain aspects of that side of their business laughable too. Not all, just some.

adam

opus

JNive wrote:

Cork so far is still May/June (probably late june, going on current trends) for Wellington Road, Dennehys Cross, Churchfield, Quaker Road & Cork Central.

Good to hear that, I'm on Quaker Road Not really too pushed if I have to change my number or not so guess they shouldn't be any delays.

Thanks for the update.....

steve-hosting36

Smart are doing wonders for competition. Even those on eircom bb have smart competition to thank for a doubling in speeds, not to mention the impact on business / leased line services.

SeaSide

dahamsta wrote:

But don't take my word for it, ask anyone that's been involved in Irish telecommunications for more than a couple years what they think of this product. I did. Most of them laughed.

adam

If they thought it was so funny why did they respond in the market place??? Perhaps youve been listening to David Mc Redmond for too long

dahamsta

SeaSide wrote:

Perhaps youve been listening to David Mc Redmond for too long

I never thought I'd see the day, but I'd prefer to listen to David McRedmond than Oisin Fanning. McRedmond stretches the truth to it's limits, but Fanning passes it through previously undiscovered dimensions.

adam

beller b

damien.m wrote:

Says he who then says this total incorrect statement:

Way off the mark there.

LOL

beller b

LIGHTNING wrote:

Not fully correct! IF you want smart broadband NOW you will have to switch numbers HOWEVER if you wait until June/July as most people are you keep your existing number.Smart Telecom are in some legal battle with Eircon at the moment so thats why we have to wait.

With no gaurentee of June/ July.. It might be like the March/April re certain exchanges on Smarts site..... !!!!!!!

beller b

sleur wrote:

They'd better get their groove on because i've been stuck back on dial-up for far too long.

Too True !!! Well May 9th has arrived.. Has anyone On These exchanges heard any more from Smart!!!... All I seem to hear is we will contact you in the next few days... It never happens... I have made a least 10 calls to Smart since March .. Smart have made 0 (ZERO) calls to me... Perhaps that is where the venom is coming from!!!!

The Recliner

beller b wrote:

Too True !!! Well May 9th has arrived.. Has anyone On These exchanges heard any more from Smart!!!... All I seem to hear is we will contact you in the next few days... It never happens... I have made a least 10 calls to Smart since March .. Smart have made 0 (ZERO) calls to me... Perhaps that is where the venom is coming from!!!!

I got a call from Smart last week after sending them an email the week before enquiring about the Phibsborough exchange. The guy on the phone was quite helpful, apologetic and honest about there being a delay on the Phibsborough exchange. He said he would forward on an email when he knew more details, haven't had a chance to check that mail account yet so I don't have any info for anyone about it.

sleur

beller b wrote:

Too True !!! Well May 9th has arrived.. Has anyone On These exchanges heard any more from Smart!!!... All I seem to hear is we will contact you in the next few days... It never happens... I have made a least 10 calls to Smart since March .. Smart have made 0 (ZERO) calls to me... Perhaps that is where the venom is coming from!!!!

Nope, called their Broadband number yesterday. Almost instantaneously got through to a real life person who then told me all the CSR's were busy!!!!!! took my number and told me they'd ring back. Smart, please get a proper automated system if you're not gonna ring people back.

sleur

just rang smart, they said the crown alley exchange is gonna be onstream mid-may (i.e. next week) & they'll call before processing my order. Apparently it's due to eircom.

beller b

They gave an exact date 2 weeks ago of May 9th & nothing happened. I wouldn't hold out much hope of next week when you get something as vauge as mid-may. I have also noticed Smarts people don't seem to talk to each other, so dont believe anyone & you won't be dissappointed.. Sorry for being so negetive but its hard to be any other way when you get nothing but lies. Right upto the end of April, even on the 28th when I spoke to Smart they insisted my exchange would be live by end of April. I spoke to them a week later & then again insisted the exchange will be live on May 9th.. Now here we are May 11 tomorrow & still my phone doesn't ring..Again I ask Gaefield for a response if he is about.. he was the one person I tought was truthful with us..

MorningStar

I was told the 9th too but strangely nothing happened. Eircom called to my door yesterday to try and sell me something. Any chance Eircom are delaying them. I actually complained about Eircom trying to get me back to them a week after the last time I changed. They are meant to leave you a month or 2 according to the regs.
It could be just a conspiracy theory.

beller b

Eircom are supposed to leave you alone FOR GOOD if you request them to.! If the delays are still down to Eircom then Smart would take great pleasure in telling you so. The delay is eircoms fault only if you wish to keep your number.. I quote from Smart "If you are happy to change your number we CAN process your order from NOW. Somebody WILL contact you IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS to arrange delivery of your modem" (The capitals are the lies btw)

robo

I am on the Crown Alley exchange and got a call this morning from one of their representatives, she said that they are sending out some modems and I should get mine in the next day or two, but that they didn't mean to send it out so soon as they won't be live now til around 23rd of May - pending legalities!! So at least it is something! She said that she will call me again when it is live!

the corpo

after you sent in your direct debit form did you get any kind of notification from smart?
sent mine in last week and haven't heard a thing