Eircom iStream Starter Launched

CitySickness

From Eircom's press release:

"eircom has, today, formally launched i-stream starter, a high speed, low
cost, broadband service that brings broadband to Ireland's mass consumer
audience. Available from Friday 11 April and retailing at a fixed cost of
just EUR 45 per month (ex VAT), the service is up to ten times faster than a
standard telephone line, is always-on and keeps the home telephone line free for incoming and outgoing voice calls.

i-stream starter halves the price of broadband for consumers and as part of
a EUR 125 million roll-out by eircom, the service is now available to over
700,000 telephone lines around Ireland. This figure will rise to one million
lines by December 2003. Commenting on the announcement, Cathal Magee,
managing director, eircom retail said: "eircom is very proud to be at the
forefront in making broadband accessible to consumers countrywide. The
benefits of broadband have to be seen to be believed and with the
introduction of our new high value, low cost product, customers will be in a
position to experience tremendously fast download speeds for accessing
music, film, sports' broadcasts and electronic communication. There is no
doubt that this new addition to our suite of broadband products will
transform Ireland's broadband agenda."

eircom i-stream starter will operate at speeds up to 512 kilobits per second
and will be available in a self install version at a connection cost of EUR
81.81 (ex VAT), or an eircom technician install version at a connection cost
of EUR 165.00 (ex VAT). "


Nothing new here, I guess. But at least it's off the starting blocks.

eth0_

Well my "line test" failed, I just rang them about the new i-stream product. They don't have the test for radsl till the 11th :-(
I'm sure i'm failing because i'm 2800 mtrs from the exchange...she said to call on the 11th for another test.

Dangger

From ENN

For its part, consumer and lobby group Ireland Offline welcomed the move, with chairman David Long saying "It's great to see the price come down by about 50 percent. We're really pleased on that front." But Long warned that the service needed to be extended to as many customers as possible and said that further price cuts of approximately EUR10 would cause demand to triple, citing ComReg and MRBI polls from last year. "We've got to get down to that magic figure," he said.

spongebob

But IS IT a Guaranteed 512k product? ENN appear to have misquoted the Press Release in the press release, hopefully they will correct it to say either:

1. 'UP TO 512k' as Eircom say

or

2. 'Guaranteed 256k' which is probably the reality for most of their customers given the state of Eircoms lines.

M

MagicBusDriver

In the UK the RADSL adjusts the upload not the download to increase range. Eircom would need to clarify which it is.

Cabaal

Its great to hear and all but in the end is there a dcownload limit?

Its half thye price but that mean your only allowed 1.5GB a month?

shinzon

Failed the online test for the i stream starter, might give them a bell on the 11th and cheer myself up with a bit of heckling


SHIN

ando

700,000 lines.... yeah

Cabaal

Originally posted by shinzon
Failed the online test for the i stream starter, might give them a bell on the 11th and cheer myself up with a bit of heckling

Mine better nopt fail, I'm 200/250Metres away from the exchange

dahamsta

Well, I phoned today to lodge my regular request for an upgrade in Hettyfield, and yerone told me she'd ring back in ten minutes. Imagine my surprise when she didn't.

adam

MarVeL

Originally posted by Cabaal
Its great to hear and all but in the end is there a dcownload limit?

Its half thye price but that mean your only allowed 1.5GB a month?

According to their site it they've actualy increased the cap for this product to an enormous 4Gb!!!!! :-)

Is it just me or does the 512k "business" pack look like an impossible sell against this. 33% more download, roughly half the price and longer range. Contention is unlikely to be an issue initially and if it does become a problem simply upgrade if needed, by that stage the "business" packages will have to have a more reasonable pricing structure

parasite

ummm ...what's the justification for the self-install fee, that makes absolutely no sense, not even for Ireland

Meh

Originally posted by parasite
ummm ...what's the justification for the self-install fee, that makes absolutely no sense, not even for Ireland

Even if you install all the stuff on your end of the line yourself, Eircom still have to do some stuff at the exchange end of the line.

andrew163

Is it possible to get ADSL over a split line? (I know the answer is probably obvious...but I just want to be sure)

---

has anyone else here noticed that the main eircom news server address is mmm.eircom.ie.......
mmm....wouldnt it be great if I could get DSL at home?

---

parasite

Originally posted by Meh
Even if you install all the stuff on your end of the line yourself, Eircom still have to do some stuff at the exchange end of the line.

oh ok, i thought there was a seperate connection charge aswell ...i see now ...oops

Psygnosis

Hi Lads
Im a newbie this is my first post here
n e way If its say 54.50 does this fee include your current line rental or is that on top of the 54.50.

Thanks
Mick

andrew163

it's on top of the 54.50

Jorinn

On top of it, god forbid eircom wouldn't try to to charge you at any possible opportunity.

spongebob

Originally posted by mickb00
Hi Lads
Im a newbie this is my first post here
n e way If its say 54.50 does this fee include your current line rental or is that on top of the 54.50.

Thanks
Mick

€54.50 + €21.15 rental = €76.65 a month for 256k guaranteed.

Grrrrrrrrrreeeeat deal.

Raskolnikov

Not that I had any intention of getting ADSL, I failed the line test too.

I'm in Carrigaline.

Jorinn

Originally posted by Muck
€54.50 + €21.15 rental = €76.65 a month for 256k guaranteed.

Grrrrrrrrrreeeeat deal.

With the cap on top of it of course.

damnyanks

Any news on other ISP's (UTV really ) offering ADSL soon ?

oneweb

Called the ADSL line today and asked for a line test. Nice sounding guy on the other end told me to hold on a sec.... ....yep, that's fine. I was taken aback somewhat as I'd called a few months ago and was told that it was inconclusive. (I think being on a speakerphone might have had something to do with the line noise first time).

Anyways, I'm gonna look into it more in June after exams and hopefully I'll have a job to pay for it. Never know, maybe ESATBT or UTV will have something to offer in D15 by then. Or IrishBroadband (maybe not, they've been in discussions forever and a day at this stage), or even some other company. I think I'd prefer a fixed line connection for security and reliability though (?).

So the €55 odd is on top of line rental, but I'll still have the phone available while I'm online right?

Something to look forward to anyway



*yay!* 200th post

Regnak

Just rang Eircom, here are some details I got from them :

To get your line checked or Order - 1800 512 128
April 11th is the earliest date you can order this new "cheaper" adsl product.
It's €54.50 a month incl VAT
To get a Technician to install it is €199
To get the self install pack is €99
In both cases you will need Eircom's approved ADSL modem , either the USB one for €145 or the Ethernet one for €242.
If the self install goes ars*ways and you need to call an Engineer in they will charge you €130, not the full whack.
The speed is 512K download and 128K upload. They guarantee 256K download and 64K upload at busy times. There is a contention ratio of 48:1
I guess we'll see after the 11th if other companies can beat this !!
I know much of the above is probably already well known, just thought it might add to what's been said on this thread already.

Mike

LFCFan

Originally posted by Regnak
In both cases you will need Eircom's approved ADSL modem , either the USB one for €145 or the Ethernet one for €242.

I thought €ircon weren't allowed to force their modem on you anymore?

They guarantee 256K download and 64K upload at busy times. There is a contention ratio of 48:1

If there's a contention of 48:1 there's no way they can 'Guarantee' 256kb/s at busy times.

shinzon

What are Eircoms Approved modem for ADSL anyways, im sure you can get them cheaper than what eircon is offering

SHIN

why am i getting caught up in this me lines failed LOL

MarVeL

Originally posted by Regnak
Just rang Eircom, here are some details I got from them :
<snip>
In both cases you will need Eircom's approved ADSL modem , either the USB one for €145 or the Ethernet one for €242.
<snip>

I believe ComReg have told them that they can't require you to buy a specific modem from them. The mark up on these must be enormous.

eth0_

48:1 on radsl? MY A-R-S-E! At least knowing it'll slow to a crawl when people come aboard, and knowing you'll never get a guaranteed speed, you can rest easy knowing it'll be hard work to hit that generous 4GB cap!

What an AWFUL deal.
If I ever manage to get dsl i'm sure as hell not getting a residential version if that's all they can offer.

spongebob

Originally posted by Regnak
In both cases you will need Eircom's approved ADSL modem , either the USB one for €145 or the Ethernet one for €242.

Mike

All Correct and well covered except for the bit above.

Eircom may not force you to buy their overpriced crap.

If you are going to self install you may buy an internal ADSL modems as low as €50 incl VAT. If you have the name of the Biddy who told you that lie, you should ring 1800512128 again , ask for Emily the supervisor and eat her about it. It is Emilys fault that her staff are telling people they must buy the Eircom ADSL modem when Eircom ...meaning Emily.... know since last september that this is not the case....Comreg told them so.

If you are going with the Eircom install/Own Modem, you may still do it, have the modem preconfigured yourself by ringing 1800503303 which is the DSL Tech line. They will give you the settings. The tech can see the configuration screen if necessary but if its installled and ready to plug in the wall then its no bother.

M

LFCFan

Originally posted by Muck
All Correct and well covered except for the bit above.

they can't possibly guarantee 256kb/s at busy times with a 48:1 contention can they? I know the chances of everyone using the full pipe at the same time are low but if there's any chance then they can't guarantee anything like 256kb/s.

spongebob

256k as far as the DSLAM in your local exchange, contended from there to the rest of the world.

They guarantee it ONLY in the sense that the Line Test will not pass you if it senses that your line will be unable to sustain at least 256k .

As there will be up to 48 users on the DSLAM, all sharing the single 512k out the back, you could say that you are guaranteed 1/48th of the lowest possible connect speed.

I call it the Down To accounting method....the opposite of the Eircom method. Here Goes.

512k / 48Users = 10.66 KiloBITPerSecond each (the port out the back of the DSLAM is not variable unlike the inbound connection to your premises)

Guarantees 1.3k KiloBYTE that is , per second, arithmetically of course, you are not actually guaranteed 1.3k but should get it in fairness. This is the speed your your Browser Reports during long downloads for example.

Normally my dial up modem gives me 4k a second by way of comparison, thats is because The Terminal Servers your modem dials into are not horribly congested. The contention rate is arnd 48 for a 2Mb line . Some terminal servers are hooked straight into LANs in the ISP so its 56k/48:1 on a 100Mbit NIC at the back.

This fabulous Eircom service is yours only €75.65 a month including Line Rental and Vat.

Yummy , I'll have loads of that until Ardmore shows up armed with trusty Calculator and seeking to Carpet Bomb me.

M