Dilemma...do I sign up or not ? (Leap)

shabbyroad

I know I'm probably answering my own question here but if anyone can point out something I'm sure I've forgotten I'd appreciate it . . .

Just got off the 'phone with Leap

Apparently where I'm located (Castleknock) is within Leap's coverage area from 3 Rock.
Right now I'm paying monthly
€39 ISDN line rental & €30 UTVip (150 hours offpeak net access)

If I go with Leap I'll have a one-off install cost of €169 (plus VAT) plus a monthly €119 (incl. VAT) for up to 512 with a 20:1 contention. My Eircom line rental will fall to €19 a month.

{ yeah, I got the numbers wrong when I first posted }

Basically I will get always on broadband for an additional €69 a month more than I'm paying now. Plus Eircon's line rentals are about to go up . . .

My concern is that I have to lock myself into a 12-month contract with Leap. Right now that's the only down-side I can see. They will have to be competitive next year or I move to someone else.
(Irish Broadband if they ever get their Ballycoolin mast up and running)

The always-on will definitely be used - my wife works from our home office and I often work from home using VPN to my office.

If I pass the LOS test I can have this setup by the end of the month.

........ or should I wait for DSL ? .........or should I wait for IBB to get a mast in D15 ?

spongebob

worth considering for a year as against the Eircom offering which is imminent. The Eircom offering will be pretty scabby once the hogs come home in the evenings and bang at the contention . With LEAP you may find that it is quiet in the evening, many of their customers are businesses.

These would cost you ( I assume installation is roughly the same for this)

Eircom

Analog Line rental €21.15 (18/03 onwards)
256/128 50:1 contention €54.00 (no fixed IP,check VPN is happy)
CAP 4GB

Total (apart from calls) €75.15

Leap
Analog Line rental €21.15 (18/03 onwards)
512/512 20:1 contention €120.00 (fixed IP, VPN happy)
CAP NONE

Total (apart from calls) €141.15

If your company will pay the connection/rental on an expenses claim offset of some sort you could get the VAT back that way. If you must pay the VAT then you must ask yourself.

Is the extra quality of service, which will be used extensively, worth €66 a month to the household in terms of time and aggro saved.

The one area where Leap cannot technically compete with ISDN is if you are an avid online gamer with a penchant for FPS games like Quake. ISDN or ESAT DSL or IBB are the recommended solution for the FPS addict.

M

(ta Boston for the correction)

Coyote

what way do you want to use broadband ?
do you know when your local telphone exe will be up graded ? (if ever)
if your just looking for low ping(50-70 ping)and 27/7 online then the new eircom rdsl with up to 512K for about €55 (not on sale yet) might be worth waiting for.
but it will come with a 3-4gb cap (no one charged yet for going over)
ring eircom and see if you can find out when your exchange might be upgraded and check out IrelandOFFline

if your a gamer are the pings good enuf from Leap and stable
any other Leap users know about this ? (DeVore has Leap I think)

will Leap come with a download cap ?
i'm guessing you will still have to keep one of the phone lines
so your have to pay for both(ISDN) or down-grade to one (Analog) line

Coyote

jow

Hi All,

for me the decision was very very easy!

I'am from germany and there I had a true flatrate DSL connection for about two years.

Once you are used to have this technology you will use it _very_ often. I ordered even my pizza online (save me the phone call ;-)

When I came to Ireland last october I was very unhappy with your situation on internet possiblilities.
Not to mention how expensive all the solutions are.

Eircom was not able to provide DSL for my house (in my street it is available but eircom was not able to make a check why my house does not work).
so I searched a solution very hard.
Finally Leap was now able to connect me.

I would suggest that you make a very simple calculation:
just divide the 119.79 Euro per month in online minutes with normal solutions:
when you use a dial up account the result is: (5 cent /m): apprx. 40 hours per month and you are up to it.

I tell you: you will reach 40 hours very fast.

the most important difference between dial-up and flatrate is:
You simply do not care about the time spend in the web. And this makes surfing very relaxing.... at last for me.

jochen

Boston

Any reason your not looking into irishbroadband.ie? should be able to get their service as well where you are.

Muck the contention ratio is 20:1 not 50:1 and just out of interest they have increased their price by 20 euro a month since a year ago. That or the sales woman was tryinbg to screw me.

Personaly i think it's still a good price for what you get 512k up and down and 20:1, no dsl service is going to offer you that in ireland.

shabbyroad

lots of good replies.

I can't find out if I can get DSL because Eircon are not able to test my line 'cos it's ISDN plus I really don't want a Cap - that's just too limiting. I'd go through 3GB in a 2 week period with no problem - especially if I work from home.

The point about contention issues in "off peak" hours for DSL is well made and the fact that most of Leap's customers are businesses with low off-peak usage is appealing.

Don't need a fixed IP for the VPN.

IBB have been telling me for 6 months now that they're trying to get up and running in D15 and with the current news I see on the boards it'll be another 2-3 months before it becomes a reality in the area.

At first glance IBB is better value because they're €49/month
( in the first year it would save me about €840 ( Leap @ €119 - IBB @ €49 x 12)
but the IBB install fee is €381 (as opposed to the €205)

I will probably be able to charge the cost of install and monthly fee against my/our business since it's being installed and used in our home office.

Think I'll be giving Leap a call monday morning.

Now let's see if their installers turn up as promised . . .

phoenix2181

does anyone know what the ping times are like when using uk game servers like gamespy using leap

BArra

if i were you id jump at leap



baz

Boston

If its for work then i would get leap, meant to have a much better qos then IBB. I only mention IBB because if cheap and nasty with out a cap is your type of think then go for that. IBB actually have up on there website that they cover that d15 area so you still might want to give them a call. Thinking back now that 100 euro a month might have been a special offer if i paid a year in advance

shabbyroad

where on the IBB does it say D15 ?
I've looked and all I see are the 3 coverage maps- the 'red line' from 3 Rock seems to stop short of D15

I'll give them a call to see if 3 Rock can service me - if it works for Leap then it should work for IBB....

milltown

Either somebody doesn't know where D.15 is or IBB's website is not loading properly for me.

Boston

I thought churchtown was dublin 15, it appears not to be. Is dublin 15 not palces like clonee? anyway as said if it wourks for leap it should work for ibb

TinCool

Churchtown is beside Dundrum and is Southside, Dublin 14.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Boston
I thought churchtown was dublin 15, it appears not to be. Is dublin 15 not palces like clonee? anyway as said if it wourks for leap it should work for ibb

D.15 is a huge area. Basically it everywhere from the end of the phoenix park all the way out to the meath border. Which is just before Clonee village. Therefore Clonee Village is actually in Meath. D.15 is also everywhere north of the river liffey as far as but not including Finglas.

I seriously doubt that Leap or IBB cover any part of D.15. Though I would be delighted to be proven wrong. Perhaps some of the higher parts of Castleknock which have LOS to the Dublin MTS might see the mast but I reckon its too far to get a decent signal regardless.

accensi0n

tincool: you from churchtown?

TinCool

Nope Rathfarnham, right next door.

I can see 3 rock from the top of my estate, hope I can see it from my roof. Sent in my service agreement form to Leap today, so hope to get a phone call in the next day or two.