Eircom Phone Watch - Am i FU**ed for broadband?

Sandals

Ok so sorry for asking this as i am sure it had been dealt with before but due to the search been down I cant find it,
Basically I need broadband but,
Have eircom phone watch so what options are available to me if any?
I am living in Waterford

Dfitzer

I have BB and am getting fitted for phonewatch on Monday. I rang yesterday and asked this very question. I was told it would NOT be affected and that they fit some sort of splitter thingy (I am Not very Technical). If you want I will post you on Monday night to let you know whether it has been affected

Sandals

that would be greath thanks,
does anyone know if i can get metro then
the problem is i have just started a new contract with eircom for the phone, will they have tied me down to a 12 month contract?

Dazz

sorry, just to be a bit more clear, it costs €199 to have BB installed when you have eircom phone watch, requires a tech to call out and install it

Dfitzer

On the contract thingy if you have signed a contract for 12 months and then they install another product which reduces the effectiveness of your BB. Then surely they are in breach of contract and you can look for another BB provider

Dazz

There is no contract for eircom's phone line, however, there is a 6 month contract on their BB if you're getting it through them.

Sandals

no i dont want bb through them, but because of the phonewatch i cant get metro, ntl isnt available for several months utv wont work, I am in the wrong exchange for Smart I dont know what to do.

RicardoSmith

Sandals wrote:

Ok so sorry for asking this as i am sure it had been dealt with before but due to the search been down I cant find it,
Basically I need broadband but,
Have eircom phone watch so what options are available to me if any?
I am living in Waterford

Father in law has both. Both seem to work. Well mechanically at least. Last time it activated they rang the contact numbers got no answer and did nothing. Yes nothing. He found out about it 4 hours later. He said he bawled them out but..c'mon on. Personally I think its a overpriced, badly run system.

That said. his eircom BB is more reliable than my NTL one though, and cheaper.

jor el

Sandals wrote:

no i dont want bb through them, but because of the phonewatch i cant get metro

Isn't Metro wireless? The Phonewatch shouldn't be effected by it, or Metro by Phonewatch.

Anyway, if I were you I'd get rid of the Phonewatch, it's only another con. Why won't UTV work? If you're looking for BB on the phone line from Eircom, or any of it's resellers, then if it doesn't work for one it won't work for any. Or is it the Phonewatch interfering with UTV that's the problem?

bk

RicardoSmith wrote:

That said. his eircom BB is more reliable than my NTL one though, and cheaper.

Really? That is strange, I have found the complete opposite. NTL is rock solid, hasn't been done once since I got it installed and has better latency then Eircom.

bk

Sandals wrote:

no i dont want bb through them, but because of the phonewatch i cant get metro, ntl isnt available for several months utv wont work, I am in the wrong exchange for Smart I dont know what to do.

You can still get Metro, however you will need to keep your phone line (and therefore line rental) for Phonewatch.

BTW Digiweb will have a phonewatch type product over Metro next year.

If you can get Eircom BB, then you can also get UTV, BTIreland BB, etc. However the install will be more expensive as an engineer needs to do it.

SkepticOne

Aren't there also phonewatch type services that operate over the GSM mobile system?

kaizersoze

Sandals wrote:

no i dont want bb through them, but because of the phonewatch i cant get metro, ntl isnt available for several months utv wont work, I am in the wrong exchange for Smart I dont know what to do.

Did you actually signup and receive a modem from UTV, tried it and sent it back?
or
Did you just tell them about Phonewatch when you were ordering and they told you it wouldn't work?
If it's the latter, thats their standard response when they hear you have Phonewatch. They just don't want the hassle of additional support calls or sending out engineers.
If it's the former then none of the Eircom resellers will work.
There is a fairly detailed post about modifying a monitored alarm HERE that may help you.

RicardoSmith

bk wrote:

Really? That is strange, I have found the complete opposite. NTL is rock solid, hasn't been done once since I got it installed and has better latency then Eircom.

Not strange if you are in D.15...

watty

Phone watch is just a modem doing Internet dialup. A high percentatage don't even work as the users line is not good enough for "functional Internet Access". But Eircom doesn't like that talked about, see "ireland Off Line" & Comwreck!

Just like anything else on a phone line (aDSL) broadband it needs an ADSL phone filter.

It won't directly work on Wireless broadband unless you have a wireless service that has a phone socket that works with a Fax or modem. If you can plug in a regular modem someplace and access dialup, then "phone watch" will work on same connection.

bk

SkepticOne wrote:

Aren't there also phonewatch type services that operate over the GSM mobile system?

You are right, there are GSM systems now, however they are very expensive from Eircom.

Redshift

watty wrote:

Phone watch is just a modem doing Internet dialup. A high percentatage don't even work as the users line is not good enough for "functional Internet Access". But Eircom doesn't like that talked about, see "ireland Off Line" & Comwreck!

Sorry Watty but that is absolutely not true, while many modern alarm systems do have a modem they are mainly used for dial in purposes usually by the alarm company to fix minor problems ect. Most alarm systems which are monitored transmit a form of DTMF tones (in the voice band) to the central station reciever. If you ever hear an alarm transmitting it will sound what happens if you push the redial button while on a call you hear a rapid series of dtmf tones.

neonitrix

I have Utv broadband (hopefully not for much longer) and got eircom phonewatch installed day b4 yesterday. Once you get a splitter installed at the same time as getting the phonewatch installed you should have any problems using your broadband connection.

Neonitrix

brettmirl

I've had UTV BB and Phonewatch for ages now and never had a problem - and that's without a splitter on the phonewatch side of things or paying stupid money to get an engineer out.

If the alarm activates, it still alerts the monitoring centre - broadband on or not.

gkelly

Hi...I have Eircom Phonewatch and Eircom Broadband. It's true you have to get a technician from Eircom to fit a splitter on your phoneline. This costs €99. (Broadband interferes in some way with your phone line). Actually if you have a 2nd phone line in your house you have to put a splitter on the line...this should be supplied by your ISP...it's very simple just a matter of plugging it in.
Anyway the simple solution...when I turn on the house alarm I always unplug the phoneline for broadband. Some people may find this a pain but you get used to it.
Hope this helps.

The Security ma

Oh here we go again......:mad:
Broadband and Phonewatch..... People will never learn (present company on thread excluded).

First of all; if it has the word EIRCOM before it, it means its a rip-off.
If it has the word PHONEWATCH after it, its a double-whammy rip-off.
I've said (and provided evidence before) that all Phonewatch want is your money - tell them you DON'T want alarm monitoring when you ring up to buy, and see how quick they'll change their attitude towards you... (I know, used to be an employee).

***ANY ALARM IS COMPATIBLE WITH ANY BROADBAND*** provided you fit the correct filter or splitter (filter will do, but splitter is better).
I'm quite sure Redshift (Moderator) will confirm this too.

It would appear to me from the thread, that they're charging €99 for something that cost them €2.00 . Now correct me if I'm wrong, but is that not just about 5000% mark-up?? Nice one! I guess theres still a few suckers out there - and they're the ones who complain about 'Rip-off' Ireland!

I told Eircom to get stuffed with my phone line as well, I got Esat BT INCLUDING LINE RENTAL for €35 per month! (and no connection fee)- now that was a steal.

SO:
You can either pay EIRCON Phonewatch €99 for a €2 splitter, €199 connection for EIRCON Broadband and a years monitoring to EIRCON Phonewatch for €320, which gives a whopping total of €618.00

OR:
You can pay BT €35 (with no connection fee), €2 in the local shop for a splitter, and pay a years monitoring to a more reputable company for a reasonable €160. Which comes to a grand total of €197.00

Did people not learn from the shares fiasco??

RuggieBear

i had utv broadband with an eircom phonewatch alarm. no engineer required or splitters fitted on the alarm

all that happens is that if the alarm goes off your bb connection is dropped....big woo:)

the alarm also calls "home" every evening aaround midnight, which knocks off the BB

120_Minutes

mick_irl wrote:

I've had UTV BB and Phonewatch for ages now and never had a problem - and that's without a splitter on the phonewatch side of things or paying stupid money to get an engineer out.

If the alarm activates, it still alerts the monitoring centre - broadband on or not.

same here, i've had broadband since april 04, and phone watch since 2000

pred racer

The Security ma wrote:

Oh here we go again......:mad:
Broadband and Phonewatch..... People will never learn (present company on thread excluded).

First of all; if it has the word EIRCOM before it, it means its a rip-off.
If it has the word PHONEWATCH after it, its a double-whammy rip-off.
I've said (and provided evidence before) that all Phonewatch want is your money - tell them you DON'T want alarm monitoring when you ring up to buy, and see how quick they'll change their attitude towards you... (I know, used to be an employee).

I dont understand! whay would you be ringing them if you didnt want their service??

Not trying to be pedantic just puzzled

The Security ma

pred racer wrote:

I dont understand! whay would you be ringing them if you didnt want their service??

Not trying to be pedantic just puzzled

A lot of people think that PHONEWATCH is the only good wirefree alarm in Ireland (- it's not! There are hundreds, even some much better).
So they ring Phonewatch for a wirefree alarm, but may not necessarily be prepared to fork out €320 per year thereafter so they opt not to get the monitoring, even though they want the 'alarm'.

Phonewatch don't like people who are not constantly giving them money - if you don't have monitoring and you call an engineer out, it costs you €110:eek: , which is them saying to you: "It serves you right, mister!"