Confirmed: EsatBt to offer 256K ADSL for E50 before Christmas

Mr.M

does anyone have any news on IDSL or DLL as i will never be able to get DSL as i am to far away from my local exchange.

PiE

So basically, people will be buying this product for its flatrate nature.

Paying €60 per month for flat rate.

Swell.

rymus

Originally posted by DannyD
Dude, two exchanges are live in Cork, Quakers road and Churchfield.

Dude, I like totally know that!

The facts are though that I am not living anywhere near either of them and I'm not quite at the stage of moving house for the sole purpose of getting ADSL quite yet

ando

Originally posted by Mr.M
does anyone have any news on IDSL or DLL as i will never be able to get DSL as i am to far away from my local exchange.

ditto

sceptre

Originally posted by PiE
So basically, people will be buying this product for its flatrate nature.

Paying €60 per month for flat rate.

Swell.

Yeah, silly.

However I'd possibly even take it (under protest - genuinely - I'm far more interested in 56k flatrate at a reasonable price). The adage "if it's cheaper than your current internet bill..." is fairly applicable if anyone's considering it. The extra download speed would come as a bonus.

And I'm a student who literally has no money.

pork99

hmm what to do....

esat bt or irishbroadband...?

go with Irish Broadband; 512k for app 50 eur pm and as far as I can see not a cent goes to Eircom

Dustaz

I really am surprised at the lack of concern about this lowerering of the bar of access speeds.

I absolutley agree that this makes sense if you pay a fortune in 56k connection costs at the moment. I feel the same way about 512 dsl. However, we have been reactive in this country for far too long.
Just last week people were pointing at korea and mentioning home connections of 2 and 3 mb/s. Now we think that 256k is acceptable?

Maybe if i knew for a fact that a huge signup would encourage speeds to be raised in the future i would be more confident. However, from long bitter experience in this country, im not.


As to wether the product is vaporware , i really dont think it is. This statement was made very much in the public eye and the last thing esat need is a vaporware tag. Thier media image is on the up at the moment and i really dont think they want to jeapordise this.

Stonemason

I like this bit

Philip Nolan, chief executive of Eircom, who also spoke at the IBEC event, somewhat echoed these remarks by calling for a more collaborative approach between the government, the telecoms industry and the regulator to deliver a more transparent regulatory policy that would enable a greater take-up of broadband.

Eircon hands out for goverment grants to make the irish broadband dream come true.No mention of the fact that Eircon with its rediculus wholesale pricing and stuborn determation to stop anyone getting in to its exchanges has held that dream at bay for the last few years

De Rebel

wtf...

from Esat BT pushes for low-cost broadband final paragraph

Philip Nolan, chief executive of Eircom, who also spoke at the IBEC event, somewhat echoed these remarks by calling for a more collaborative approach between the government, the telecoms industry and the regulator to deliver a more transparent regulatory policy that would enable a greater take-up of broadband.

ahmmm, hello ? lights on, nobody home, philly?

jd

Originally posted by LFCFan
I wouldn't expect the muppets in the call centre to know anything bar their own name.

tut tut..
I don't work in a call centre, but I hate this attitude towards people who do..
if they don't know what is going on, I blame the b'commed management (I could be ignorant, and say a qualification rather than an education... )

kamobe

ESAT BT is to launch a new Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service, charging €49.50 per month including VAT the first of its kind in the Irish market.

Interesting, so who's telling the truth?

Article here.

longword

Originally posted by Dustaz
Now we think that 256k is acceptable?

Maybe if i knew for a fact that a huge signup would encourage speeds to be raised in the future i would be more confident. However, from long bitter experience in this country, im not.

I say let's get the count of DSLAM lines up first, then complain about the speed. Sure we're getting ripped off, but we're getting ripped off for less than before (comparing price per kilobit/sec with dialup rather than the high speed DSL offerings priced so high no sane person will buy) and that's A Good Thing. A trend to be encouraged.

Every line plugged into a DSLAM is capable of anything up to 8Mbit/sec at the flick of a switch. Way easier than the fight to get the DSLAM installed and the line connected in the first place.

ESAT have already shown a willingness to blow full-page broadsheet ads on internet access and there's sure to be some spillover from BT's eyecatching TV campaigns. I think there's reason for optimism here.

LFCFan

Originally posted by jd
tut tut..
I don't work in a call centre, but I hate this attitude towards people who do..
if they don't know what is going on, I blame the b'commed management (I could be ignorant, and say a qualification rather than an education... )

Listen, I'd say 80% of the calls I've ever had to make to Esat, €ircon or NTL have ended up in me wanting to beat the living ****e out of whoever is on the other end. Not just because they haven't got a clue what they're on about but because they are usually rude, uncaring and couldn't give a toss about the customer. Seeing as it is usually Customer Care you'd be talking to it, it really stinks!

spongebob

Dustaz correctly raised concern about the

I really am surprised at the lack of concern about this lowerering of the bar of access speeds.

The real concern IMO is to get a clean local loop with no linesharing with others off that shower in €ircon, many people have no idea how shoddy €ircons wiring is. In the LLU document they were forced to concede that they would clean up lines WHERE A REQUEST CAME IN FROM ANOTHER CARRIER.

It is indeed ironic that a customer of €ircon has no right to the euqal line quality they pay dearly for but when another carrier request unbundling then €ircon have to fix the line properly. Even if you are happy with 56k you should still apply to ESAT for DSL if you think your line is in any way iffy.

Once the line can handle 256 the port can easily be widened to 512 and higher if the line quality/distance considerations allow.

Once you have clean local loops then the dslams can be configured to offer a mixed bad of DSL flavours also known as xDSL. BT have said they will offer us SDSL soon, VDSL RADSL and IDSL are hopefully on the horizon as the only extra requirement for BT is to software upgrade the DSLAM units they use to offer ADSL at present.

Remember that many Irish lines are wheezing along at 25k and that customers are paying full whack per minute rates for this crud with no discounts any more ....€ircon having comprehensively removed Internet access from all of their discount schemes for domestic and business users.

ESAT are making all the right noises now. Given a choice between giving my money to BT or giving it to New York vulture capitalists I come down for BT any time. At least BT cares slightly.

The great news is that ESAT are singing tunefully off the IoffL hymnsheet. Credit where credit is due.....the IoffL committee and their associates.

M

koneko

I have to admit EsatBT are pretty useless though. I asked someone from Esat when they will be launching Broadband in Dublin. She didn't know, and asked someone else. She then told me "I'm sorry, we don't do broadband, we only do DSL"


LFCFan, I get your point, but calm down...?! You can't expect them to have the most technically competent people on the customer service lines, what with the high turnover on support lines.

LFCFan

Originally posted by koneko
LFCFan, I get your point, but calm down...?! You can't expect them to have the most technically competent people on the customer service lines, what with the high turnover on support lines.

Sorry, I had just gotten off a call with €ircon about my latest bill(as they had screwed up yet again) and yer one on the other end made my blood boil. You know, the usual,

Me: But you've made a mistake on my bill
€ircon: What do you mean, I'VE made a mistake. I didn't send you the bill.
Me: You know what I mean. You're supposed to be Customer Care. You don't sound very caring. What's your name?
€ircon: Beeeeeeeeeeeeep......................

It's calls like that, that give these people a bad name.

Serbian

I see Dustaz's point about the lowering of the standard access speed, and it is a valid point. We should be concerned, but we can't be expected to sit here and not sign up for a product that really isn't all that bad. It has taken us long enough to get any product that's flatrate / faster than a 56k modem, and also somewhat affordable. If no-one signed up on the grounds that the connection simple isn't fast enough for them, its more likely to damage the situation as some companies might interpret that as lack of interest in broadband as a whole if an affordable bb product is greeted by a tumbleweed.

I say welcome the ESAT product, sign up for it if you can, but make sure you register your interest in a 512k bit line while doing so.

Slutmonkey57b

You've got to love unionisation all right.

spongebob

It does not come with a 1 year lock in like that crap €ircon product.

€ircon not only peddle an inferior product.....for which there is very little demand......they also make you sign a 1 year contract.

ESAT don't. With the current state of the market and with ongoing improvements to the product offerings all the time it means that getting locked in for a year could rightly screw you.

M

LFCFan

now that's what I wanted to hear. There is no way I would commit to a year long contract when other products could come available, like Irish Braodband who tell me they are hoping to have a Mast for the Dublin 15 area in the new year. I'll believe it when I see it though.

spongebob

....from the 512k offering and not from any specific knowledge of the 256k product t&c's

€ircon apply the 1 year lock-in to all DSL products.

ESAT can easily murder €ircon with a no minimum contract offering
because they can then say ....TRUTHFULLY....that the minimum cost of switching to €ircon is

1 x Install €165
1 x DSL Modem €100 (ish , there are a number of suppliers)
12 x Rental 12 x€89 = €1068

Thats €1330 or so and then add 21% giving you roughly €1600 and I rounded down in all cases.

Once an ESAT DSL customer it will cost you at LEAST €1600 to change off the system, and then there's the cap....lest anyone be sanguine enough about the Rat to forget the Cap.

€ircon are deliberately holding off billing people for the cap, remember you will be with them until at least June next year so there is PLENTY of time to sort out that billing for maximum impact at the end of a Reporting Quarter. The billing system was not ready in time to start billing when i-SCream was launched but it is ready now but hasn't been, ahem, 'switched on' yet.

You have been warned, the Rat has the data and an enforceable contract. The day of reckoning is almost nigh.

M

vinnyfitz

Maybe IOFFL should be issuing a "consumer advisory statement" warning punters not to get locked into 12 month very expensive contracts at this time of rapid change.

Or else - we should call on the ODTR to issue that sort of advice. I bet organisations like the Consumer Association, SFA, Chambers of Commerce etc would be interested in passing on that sort of advice too.

spongebob

Section 3(d) of the Consumer Credit Act 1995 EXPLICITLY exclude Post Paid Telephony products from the working ambit of the ODCA

---

section 3 (d)

This Act shall not apply to the following ,

An agreement for the provision on a continuing basis of a service or a
utility where the consumer has the right to pay for it, by means of
instalments or deferred payments.

---

It is yet another responsibility of the ODTR and of Regtel under certain circumstances.

The irony is that the ESAT DSL product, being PREPAID, may be the reponsibility of the ODCA. You cleanly buy 3 months rental in advance, that is not an installment and certainly not a deferral.

€ircon make sure they always bill in arrears so they only have to deal with the widdly dithery ODTR, the one who allowed €ircon to start milking the porn dialler bizniss in the last few weeks.

M

vinnyfitz

http://www.consumerassociation.ie/

I was more thinkking of the advocates than the regulators in this case.

ando

Originally posted by Muirthile
would it be too much to ask for €30 a month 128k up/down stream?

lol, or €15 for 64k

OHP

I really hope UTVip brings out DSL / ADSL fast! So far they have saved me a lot of €'s and long may it continue!. And as far as Esat BT Etc. are concerned Im staying with UTVip. I will beleive what they are saying / offering when I see it. As the old saying goes 'First up best dressed'. UTVip don't let me down on this ok



OHP

PiE

Yep, I'll be sticking with UTV. Too much trouble going back to Eircon then onto Esat, so c'mon UTV! ;]

patrickmooney

.....and just how are UTV going to offer a DSL offering? I havn't heard anything about navadatel.com placing DSLAMS into local exchanges. From what I can see the best they will be able to do is the same as they offer up north, a reselling of BTs service, in our case a reselling of either eircoms i-stream or EsatBTs one. Chances are this won't be for months/years to come.

dahamsta

I havn't heard anything about navadatel.com placing DSLAMS into local exchanges. From what I can see the best they will be able to do is the same as they offer up north, a reselling of BTs service, in our case a reselling of either eircoms i-stream or EsatBTs one. Chances are this won't be for months/years to come.

It's my understanding that this is the way UTV/Nevadatele wants to proceed, i.e. Nevadatele does not wish to unbundle local loops or place DSLAMS in exchanges. Considering the relative success of bitstream unbundling in the UK, one can understand why. However, the pricing of Eircom's bitstream product does not provide for profitable retail products.

I've heard that several companies have looked at bitstream, but I haven't heard of one signing up for it. If no-one has, it should serve as a wee bit of a hint for Etain Doyle.

adam

Samba

Originally posted by LFCFan
Listen, I'd say 80% of the calls I've ever had to make to Esat, €ircon or NTL have ended up in me wanting to beat the living ****e out of whoever is on the other end. Not just because they haven't got a clue what they're on about but because they are usually rude, uncaring and couldn't give a toss about the customer. Seeing as it is usually Customer Care you'd be talking to it, it really stinks!

I would have to agree on this one, just last week two of my lines were left dead on a Friday afternoon, eircon Van pulls off at 5.30.

I then ring Eircom for help, and all i got was a very rude person on the other end of the phone, who then said that i would also have to pay for the callout!

I could have killed her, i got a bit annoyed at this as it was their error she then proceeded to hang up in my face, i was not abusive or using bad language.

Customer Care eh?

256k is too small and is just sniff of what we should be offered for that price.

Personally i'm going with Irishbroadband