New Digiweb Offerings

DonegalMan

New packages launched by Digiweb today:

• DSL-1 E24.75 1Mbps 20Gb Cap
  (Edited - the original E29.95 posted was INCLUDING VAT)
  
• DSL-2 E34.99 2Mbps 40Gb Cap
• DSL-3 E79.99 3Mbps No Cap
• DSL-4 E149.99 4Mbps No Cap

All these prices plus VAT.

Great to see so many new offerings around!

Commenting on the new services, John Quinn, Head of Strategic Development commented

Digiweb are simply responding to Customer demand. There is mass confusion in the market at present with “time based” broadband products or products that have an increasing price scale after a few months. Watching the clock with broadband is a crazy concept and one which should have vanished with Dial-up narrowband. These new products are exactly what they say they are and what broadband should be, always on connectivity at a fixed month fee. Our research and more importantly, our customers, have told us they want a fixed price product with no connection fee, no time limits, very large download allowances and a short contract duration.

Not pimping for Digiweb but I like what Quinn has said there

DonegalMan

Forgot to add that I've just ordered DSL-1 for one of our shops where the line has just been enabled, will let you know how it goes

zuma

DSL-2 E34.99 2Mbps 40Gb Cap!!!!!!!!!!

Thats €43(incl.VAT) a month with a 40GB CAP!!!!

WHOW....thats an excellent package...only €3 a month more than BT's 2Mbit with 24GB CAP!!!

What are the chances eircom/UTV/BT will counterattack by raising their CAPS???
40GB is very nice!!!

Some of BT's shine will disappear with these offerings by Digiweb!!!
What are the chances that BT will increase their CAP's as well???

zuma

Had to talk more about this....
DSL-3 E79.99 3Mbps No Cap is looking more affordable especially given that it has no CAP...in the not too distant future I can see a lot more high download home users taking up this package.
Price is still too high...but it will lower as more people takeup BB.

dahamsta

Presumably this is bitstream and the upstream is still 128k for the 1mb and 2mb products? (Not knocking, just curious. Upstream would be a primary reason for me to move at this stage, 128k is a pain in the hole to work with; pardon my Klatchian.)

adam

DonegalMan

dahamsta wrote:

Presumably this is bitstream and the upstream is still 128k for the 1mb and 2mb products?

From their website:

With Digiweb you have a choice speeds from 1Mbps to 4Mbps in download, and 128kbps to 256kbps in upload. We have arranged these into four service packages which should meet most requirements.

Looks like you're right about the 1Mb product, dunno about the 2Mb one, whether 256k kicks in then or not.

vishal

according to their webpage it is still 128k up for 2mbit

DonegalMan

I gave the wrong price for the DSL-1 (1Mb) package in the original post - it's E24.75 plus VAT, i.e. E29.95 including VAT.

I've corrected the original post

Urban Weigl

The upload would be the same as Eircom, so only the 3 and 4 megabit plans will have 256kbps upload. It's pathetic is all I can say, no faster than ISDN for sending large files.

dahamsta

Thanks lads. Even 256k upstream is rubbish, and I dunno about anyone else but my downstream is affected if my upstream is at capacity. Is it just a handful of users like me that are pissed off about not just the fact that it's crap, but also the fact that Eircom have been allowed to get away with making a crap product like this the de facto standard? Allowed to get away with it by ISPs like Digiweb, UTV and BT, I might add.

adam

zuma

The only one who can change the download/upload speeds for bitstream providers is eircom.
BT have 40 LLU and Smart have 7 LLU exchanges all located in large towns/cities.

I cant see eircom making a move on upload speeds until BT UK increases theirs to 512k...even then eircom will only increase to 256k if someone like Smart leads the way.

At least their doubling of the CAP's is some progress in a market where competition with eircom only fattens the legal professions wallets and gives consumers nothing!!!

ceepee

thanks for the positive comments on our new services and pricing. We will continue to bring further customer advantage where we can.

as many on this forum have already noted, the DSL service is based on the underlying Bitstream wholesale platform. Digiweb, and I expect most of the other ISPs (though I can't speak on their behalf), is very keen to offer higher upstream bandwidths. At present these are defined within the Bitstream definition, and one can only assume the reason we have not seen further movement here might be due to what eircom might consider a four-letter word, VOIP. Looking at the services that we and most other ISPs have under the covers at present, just waiting to be revealed once the platforms will support same, one can appreciate why eircom might be quaking in their boots

IrelandOffline have a tremendous position to represent the demands and interests of Irish internet users in seeking higher upload speeds, and a mandate to make these representations frequently and strongly to ComReg and eircom, in line with similar ongoing demands from Bitstream/DSL operators. Digiweb is keen to push these boundaries and supports IOFFL in these initiatives.

our own licensed wireless network throughout the country (which by policy runs completely and totally independent of eircoms copper/fibre/policies/faults) will be upgraded by Sep/Oct to deliver our new vision of broadband in Ireland. If you like our new DSL services - just wait 'til our next generation Wireless Broadband service bundles hit the streets!

thanks,

CP

PS: Take the DSL for now. Aside from the massive download speed increase, you just can't get 24/7 ISDN for less than 30 quid a month!

dahamsta

(It's unfortunate that when representatives of Irish OLO's and ISP's come online to talk to consumers, difficult questions have to be asked, but, well, difficult questions have to be asked.)

ceepee wrote:

IrelandOffline have a tremendous position to represent the demands and interests of Irish internet users in seeking higher upload speeds

So does Digiweb. If you can, please outline your efforts and progress.

Digiweb is keen to push these boundaries and supports IOFFL in these initiatives.

By all means support, but IO is a busy organisation, feel free to jump ahead and lead the way.

adam

damien

eircom will be releasing sdsl products soon which I suppose will address the upload speed issue. Of course you are going to pay through the nose for such a service and I do wonder whether the copper will be able to sustain it.

(Oh I hope I didn't leave the cat out of the bag. We have such a bad habit of pre-announcing eircom products. Seems they knew we knew about the broadband Time product and so beat us to the punch, barely. )

eircomtribunal

ceepee wrote:

At present these are defined within the Bitstream definition, and one can only assume the reason we have not seen further movement here might be due to what eircom might consider a four-letter word, VOIP. Looking at the services that we and most other ISPs have under the covers at present, just waiting to be revealed once the platforms will support same, one can appreciate why eircom might be quaking in their boots

You make a fair point about the limits within which bitstream resellers and their customers are forced to live.
The VOIP issue will make Eircom foot-drag on the upstream speed for as long as they can. And who's going to stop them? Not SMART – they operate the same slow upstream speed (and they are not bound by Eircom's Bitstream offer), probably for the same reasons as Eircom, as they really need the telephony profits to pay for their loss-making dsl offer.
The wireless providers could attract customers with tasty VOIP offers. The question is, are they convincing enough with the size of their customer base yet to disturb the foot-dragging of Eircom?
P.

zuma

Has anyone got the balls to start legal proceedings against eircom for anti-competitive behavior by only giving their bitstream products an utterly laughable 128K MAX upload for Home customers and 256K MAX for business customers???

Oh, I hope the VOIP offerings,when introduced, by BT/UTV/Digiweb and others...utterly cripples eircoms current business model and forces them to act proactively in the future developement of broadband.

crawler

dahamsta wrote:

(It's unfortunate that when representatives of Irish OLO's and ISP's come online to talk to consumers, difficult questions have to be asked, but, well, difficult questions have to be asked.)

So does Digiweb. If you can, please outline your efforts and progress.

By all means support, but IO is a busy organisation, feel free to jump ahead and lead the way.

adam

Two fair comments and questions.

To be honest, Digiweb are more into just getting on with building our own infrastructure, long battles in Court are not Digiweb's thing. That said Digiweb do constanly talk with Comreg and all concerned groups.

Digiweb are a business and to be blunt, exist to make money, to do that you must have happy customers. IO are the best champions for the cause. Digiweb would not pretend or claim to be half as vocal as IO or indeed in any way claim to be leaders. Digiweb know what they are, and more importantly, what they are not You also know Adam that it's sometimes best to be very quiet about what you do in the backround

So...getting on with it....No more Digipimping (Credits for Last Banner ad now used up!) and Digiweb will make a difference - proof of pudding and all that.

Edit note - to clarify on Adam's point in later post!

Blaster99

What QoS does Digiweb apply to these DSL products? Not that I care much about the warez folks, but there's been a lot of complaints about throttling on Digiweb's services.

And if we were to look at Digiweb's wireless packages, they also have low upload speeds. To complain about Eircom's speeds is hypocritical. And the wireless packages are way overpriced in the current market. If it's taking you another three months to get in line with Eircom's ADSL pricing, I wouldn't really come here and congratulate myself.

You can of course use VoIP over the existing products, as many people do. Not that VoIP is even much of an issue if you already have a phone line as you can use something like Telestunt to achieve the same rates.

NTL isn't part of the great Eircom upload speed conspiracy and they offer pretty pathetic upload speeds too. The only ISP I can think of that offers good upload speeds is IBB. For all their faults, that's at least a nice touch.

crawler

Blaster99 wrote:

What QoS does Digiweb apply to these DSL products? Not that I care much about the warez folks, but there's been a lot of complaints about throttling on Digiweb's services.

And if we were to look at Digiweb's wireless packages, they also have low upload speeds. To complain about Eircom's speeds is hypocritical. And the wireless packages are way overpriced in the current market. If it's taking you another three months to get in line with Eircom's ADSL pricing, I wouldn't really come here and congratulate myself.

You can of course use VoIP over the existing products, as many people do. Not that VoIP is even much of an issue if you already have a phone line as you can use something like Telestunt to achieve the same rates.

NTL isn't part of the great Eircom upload speed conspiracy and they offer pretty pathetic upload speeds too. The only ISP I can think of that offers good upload speeds is IBB. For all their faults, that's at least a nice touch.

Well Blaster, Thread now balanced

Right - in the interests of "no pimping" and that I still feel for poor Garfield - last post on this!

Digiweb certianly didnt mean to be patting on their own back, apologies if this came about. No throttling on DSL unless people seriously abuse the limits (only fair for all), Cant comment for other ISPs prices, Wireless and DSL are different services. No ISP is perfect, including Digiweb but Digiweb are listening and genuinely trying ( and your comments are noted, honeslty)

Sponge Bob

Seems to me that Digiweb are balancing their offerings towards a good enhanced package and leaving BT to battle in the entry section .

DSL 2 is NOTABLY good while DSL 1 is up against that BT offering .

I believe that the spirit of the rules on 'pimping' allow Boards supporters such as Digiweb (that flash ad was a nuisance in Firefox ) to engage in discussions of their own products/packages on occasion . Not every ISP is parasitic

DonegalMan

Sponge Bob wrote:

I believe that the spirit of the rules on 'pimping' allow Boards supporters such as Digiweb to engage in discussions of their own products/packages on occasion . Not every ISP is parasitic

Agree totally, but I think it would help if employees discussing their own products added something like "ABC Ltd. Employee" to their sig when discussing their own products.

In fairness to ceepee and crawler, it is very obvious that they are from Digiweb, but something in their sig would make it really clear.

dahamsta

I appreciate the response, although I have to admit that I'm not 100% happy with the content of it.

I think it should be obvious that any sensible consumer* will have more respect for a company that will actively act on their behalf, rather than one that says it exists to make money. You're being honest, and I respect that, but I don't respect businesses like that. I run a business to make money, but that's not what it's all about. In a situation like this, I would be lobbying hard on their behalf, not only because I want to deliver better products to my customers, but also because the products Eircom are foisting on them via ISPs are simply wrong.

On your well-preempted responses to this, I'd say that no-one is or was asking Digiweb to get into a big court battle about it - although I'd hope they'll be supporting Smart in their efforts with at the very least an affadavit - and no-one is asking Digiweb for blow-by-blow accounts of their efforts in this field, just an outline. I realise there's a need for some secrecy in the OLO/ISP business, but sometimes it's just taken to ridiculous levels.

adam

*Probably a rarity these days, it has to be admitted.

Blaster99

I have no real issue with Digiweb services as such, but it's not great for the consumer that Digiweb can offer more competitive packages by reselling Eircom's bitstream than you can on your own wireless offerings. We the consumer need competitively priced broadband that is independent of Eircom or we're gonna be stuck in the dark ages for a long time. I'm guessing there's a bit of marketing at play here also, where you're probably aiming your wireless services at areas poorly served by Eircom so you can set whatever price you like. I notice most rural commercial wireless operators do much the same. That strategy isn't going to work very well as Eircom will come to town sooner rather than later, and I'm sure there will be a price realignment to reflect this.

zuma

There is a wireless operator about 20minutes drive from where I live and they want €300 for installation/equipment and €50 a month for 512/128!!!

When your potential customers are farmers...charging such large amounts is insane as your customer base is going to be very sceptical in the first place.

Cryos

zuma wrote:

There is a wireless operator about 20minutes drive from where I live and they want €300 for installation/equipment and €50 a month for 512/128!!!

When your potential customers are farmers...charging such large amounts is insane as your customer base is going to be very sceptical in the first place.

When your only other option maybe VSAT (99euro per month, 900 ish euro for equipment and 512/128) i think thats a pretty good deal if you cant get anything else!!!!! Like Moi

zuma

A Farmers choice will be:

A:
€300 for equipment and what.........€50 a month..........well the kids will need it so I better cough up.

or

B:
What the hell....get out of here boy, I dont need no damn internet...out I say out....I've done fine so far without Broadband!!!

Which do you think will be the reply from the average farmer???

Cryos

that they will continue on their 260 hour a month package from IFA telecom