Who here has iStream?

LFCFan

Just wondering how many people in here are actually paying the extortion money to €ircon? How can that kind of price be justified? I can understand people who need broadband for work and are making money from it but what about the people who just want it for surfing and playing games. At that kind of price you have more money then sense. Why couldn't there be a complete boycott of iStream until the prices came down to a reasonable level? Do €ircon not realise that if they brought the price down to say €40 a month, the demand would mean they would make more money then if they sell it at €107 a month and get feck all people taking it up? Those of you who do have iStream! What sort of download speeds do you get?

Meh

Originally posted by LFCFan
Why couldn't there be a complete boycott of iStream until the prices came down to a reasonable level?

Eircom would use the low signup figures as "evidence" that there is no demand for broadband in Ireland.

Do €ircon not realise that if they brought the price down to say €40 a month, the demand would mean they would make more money then if they sell it at €107 a month and get feck all people taking it up?

But then all the people paying Eircom €100+ a month in 56k bills would switch over to ADSL, so Eircom would get less money overall.

You see, Eircom isn't a normal business that has to deal with things like "competition" and "free markets". Eircom aren't interested in offering a better service, or more consumer choice. They have just one aim -- to protect their monopoly so that they can gouge even more money out of you and me.

PiE

Eircom dont want people to have DSL, if their high prices force people not to buy it they can use that as proof of there being "No Demand" for it.

dathi1

Yes I'm using it...shared between 6 of us. Phone bill under 56k: €525 DSL: €200 savings over 60% and more when you get others to pitch in

LFCFan

were you using your dial up as an always on service? I would love to use the internet excessivly at home but I don't because of the cost and €107 a month is WAY TOO much to pay for something like ADSL. In your case though it does make more sense when split 6 ways. Lucky you!

ando

I'm on it now, 1meg lines are great for downloading service packs

ah, tis ok for work, but cant get it for home.. line failed

Dustaz

Originally posted by LFCFan
I can understand people who need broadband for work and are making money from it but what about the people who just want it for surfing and playing games.

Im one of the latter group, and maybe i do have more money than sense, who knows. It was the first chance at broadband i got and its my money, sue me :P If you spend more per month on 56k than you would pay via i-stream, then there really isnt a choice to make (if you are eligible for the service)
I may move to a wireless solution if things dont change by the end of my contract though.

Boycotting the service will achieve nothing as has been mentioned.

Those of you who do have iStream! What sort of download speeds do you get? [/B]

50kpbs on average with the 512 connection, 105 on average with the 1meg.

LFCFan

50KBs is pretty poor for a 500KB connection. Are you far from the exchange? My mate in Virginia in the States is on ADSL and gets over 300KB/s download speeds. As an ADSL service, are €ircon providing a substandard ADSL service?

lynchie

Originally posted by LFCFan
50KBs is pretty poor for a 500KB connection. Are you far from the exchange? My mate in Virginia in the States is on ADSL and gets over 300KB/s download speeds. As an ADSL service, are €ircon providing a substandard ADSL service?

Remember KB/s != kbps

50KB/s is not poor for a 512kbps service. Thats roughly 400kbps. You are never going to get the full 100% of the bandwidth.

Your mate in the US probably gets 300KB/s because he is on cable as is a mate of mine, ive downloaded stuff at over 500KB/s on his machine.

Hannibal_12

He said his mate is on DSL but as you say I sincerely doubt he's getting 300KB/s on a 512kbps dsl connection, 50 would seem about right. For 300 KB/S you'd probably need a hefty DSL connection or fast cable.

Redshift

I have the enhanced package but it's shared over a lan by 3 people and the cost is spit 3 ways so it's no too bad. I still think it's a rip off but in my case it works out cheaper than dial up.

Regards

bricks

I only started using the internet at home when I got on the ADSL trial. Now I've got it I might as well keep it.
The pricing is ridiculous tho.
Should be about 40Euros a month.
As for unbundling ESAT and UTVIP should be allowed to use the local loop for free for ADSL.
The Wholesale DSL rate is a joke 50Euros a month and you still have to hook this up to your own Internet Pipe!, sukz!

Bard

we have i-stream solo (512K) in work. it's lovely.

fastest download speed I've gotten thus far was about 72 Kilobytes per second... which was nice.