Dial up - what can be done?

12bore

Hi,

I've just moved in to an old house in the county in Kilkenny. My internt dial up connections are atrocious 14.4 normally, 16.8 if I am "lucky". Eircom have just told me that I am on a carrier system (split lines) and there is sod all they can do. Is this true? Surely I am not condemned to life without internet - in my opinion, surfing is more trouble than it is worth at this speed. Even checking emails is a pain.

I enquired about getting a new line put in, and the possiblility of a ISDN connection, but was told the costs would be prohibitilvely expensive (their words) - I live about a mile from the road.

I cannot believe that in this day and age, with everyone getting so excited about (limited) broadband, that effectively I cannot use the internet.

Anyone know if and how I can make Eircom do anything about this?

Thanks, 12 bore

MDR

I cannot believe that in this day and age, with everyone getting so excited about (limited) broadband, that effectively I cannot use the internet.

Without being too rude, anyone from the rebel county jumping down my throat, it is your choice to live in the middle of nowhere. Those urban dewellers amoung us, are entitled to get on bitching and musing about the broadband.

1. Did they out right refuse to upgrade the line to ISDN for you ?,
'cos it may be expensive for them to lay more copper but they can't pass the costs onto you installation/line rental is set by the regulator.

2. You could ask for a second line to be installed and stipulate the line will be used for data access. They will probabily a new copper pair up to you house. Then when you get the new line, discontinue the original line, it will set you back the cost of line installation.

3. Move over to another carrier, Eircom is oblidged to un-incumber (un-split) the line when requested to by another carrier. So move to Esat/UTVIP, complain to them about the dailup access, they will complain to eircom, who might do something about it.

4. Get a one way satillette based net connection, making requests over dialup and downloading via a satillete dish (www.netsystem.com).

spongebob

Originally posted by 12bore

I enquired about getting a new line put in, and the possiblility of a ISDN connection, but was told the costs would be prohibitilvely expensive (their words) - I live about a mile from the road.

Anyone know if and how I can make Eircom do anything about this?

This is interesting.

1st you should search Boards (above right) for the phrases

CLFMP, Pairgain, Carrier Line , DACS which are all the same thing. Inform Yourself.

Eircom may NOT refuse you a new line for ANY reason as long as you ask for an Analogue line and not an ISDN line. The existing line in your house was provisioned pre April 2002. If they put a new (additional line) in they may not 'Carrier Line' it if you ask for a full line.

Ensure that you record the entire conversation and that you get the full name and full office location and section of the Eircom staff member with whom you speak when ordering the completely NEW ANALOGUE LINE because the existing one is already in use.

A full (unsplit) line may be upgraded to ISDN but Eircom are not obliged to install ISDN ab initio. THis is because of their basic obligations to all customers, known as a USO

At some point Eircom have made you share your line with someone else (possibly as many as 15 other lines) , for which you still pay the highest line rental in the whole of the EU at €21.15 a month. Nor are you entitled to any discount on this inferior piece of crap. 16.8k max indicates that you may be around 3-4 miles from the exchange and that there are other houses further out along your road.....maybe up to 6 miles .

This is a Net/Comms discussion really, its probably on its way there already

SkepticOne

Originally posted by 12bore
I've just moved in to an old house in the county in Kilkenny. My internt dial up connections are atrocious 14.4 normally, 16.8 if I am "lucky". Eircom have just told me that I am on a carrier system (split lines) and there is sod all they can do. Is this true? Surely I am not condemned to life without internet - in my opinion, surfing is more trouble than it is worth at this speed. Even checking emails is a pain.

What you have is a line that is 'broken' for the purposes of the internet. 14.4 k is unusable by any standard today.

Eircom have said that there is nothing that they can do. This is incorrect. What they mean is that there is nothing they will do.

The reason they won't bother doing anything is that they are not obliged to under the current USO (Universal Service Obligation). They are fully aware that they have no competition for this sort of access so they have no fear of losing your custom. You are paying them the same money both in line rental and in call charges over the degraded line so there is no incentive for them to do anything about it.

This is why some sort of minimum data rate needs to be defined into the USO (we can ignore the current joke 1,2000 bps for the moment).

Your hopes lie with ComReg who are reviewing Eircom's USO.

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by 12bore
My internt dial up connections are atrocious 14.4 normally, 16.8 if I am "lucky".

welcome to my world. like your situation Eircom will do nothing to fix this. i was d/l a file today and i reached 1.4 kb/s which is actually quite fast for what i'm used to. applications like Kazaa are a no no because the speeds are shockingly bad and i would be wasting my internet time so i get a friend to d/l them with his cable and burn them onto cd

vac

Isn't having a split line your choice? By requesting two different phone numbers in the one house. Otherwise i thought eircom have to give you a standard line, not a split one.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by vac
Isn't having a split line your choice? By requesting two different phone numbers in the one house. Otherwise i thought eircom have to give you a standard line, not a split one.

No, Eircom are free to split a line among a number of separate houses.

Mossy Monk

how many houses can be realistically put on a single line?

spongebob

Originally posted by Mossy Monk
how many houses can be realistically put on a single line?

up to 16