eircom to enable another 100 exchanges - Broadband available to 120k more ppl

Sligo
Castlegarran
Cliffoney

Both are areas that are supplied by Fastcom Broadband

a load of bollocks

why arent they upgrading the phone lines of those who keep failing

Sponge Bob wrote:

counties Wexford and Mayo, both with good wireless provision, did very well in this round of announcements on a per capita basis or so I thought. West and South Sligo with no wireless provision did much worse for example along with Leitrim for the same reason.

Presumably the lack of wireless implies lack of demand? eircom isn't a charity.

Blaster99 wrote:

Presumably the lack of wireless implies lack of demand? eircom isn't a charity.

"If you build it, they will come...."

Some people still perceive broadband as irrelevant because they only view emails or browse bog-standard web pages; if it's gonna cost them €60-odd quid a month, they put up with the fact that they waste at least half an hour a day doing this, between dialling up, waiting for connection, downloading the emails (if there are any) and the 5-6 seconds wasted while waiting for each web page that they view.

If the price was right (as per Smart's package - €11 per month added to your line rental) people would start to view the time gained and the avoidance of "checking for emails" - if they're there, they arrive - as worthwhile.

Unfortunately, IMHO, broadband coverage and VOIP is too much of a threat to eircom; until they have "value-added":rolleyes: services, they won't do anything more than they have to, and only when forced to by ComReg or by competition.

Aren't BT merely a reseller ? Meaning that Smart's faster 7km coverage with -no contention - enables an awful lot more people can get it from each enabled exchange.

True, the BT non-LLU system allows more exchanges, but in the context of the thread, where eircom are interested in the headline of potential customers rather than people who will actually be able to get it, Smart's setup is far more appealing.

Like I said, I know this well, having waited for 18 month for Smart to rescue me from the "line of sight is different to how long the eircom cable is" fiasco.

I agree with what you say about rural areas - it's completely unfair that rural areas are benig ignored.

I do, however get really annoyed when ComReg, eircon, and the government talk as if urban areas are covered - they're not.

Despite being inside Limerick's misplaced city boundary, Smart was the only option available here; since I'm hardly unique, that would put a couple of thousand people in the "an awful lot more people" category, and since Limerick is hardly unique, that figure increases exponentially....

Chorus are finally upgrading their network and may be worth a look over the coming months, but as it stands Smart is the only option available that's reasonably priced and does what it says on the tin.

I know I probably seem like a Smart rep at times, but the fact is that if they didn't exist, my company probably wouldn't, as the dial-up speeds and regular lack of connection from Irish Broadband's Ripwave was laughable. It's annoying that Smart are pretty much a monopoly in my locality, but given that their price is reasonable and the offering is vastly superior, that's less of an issue that it would be if eircon's overpriced offering or the limited reseller capacity and speeds were the only offerings.

If eircon upgraded to ADSL2+, offering the extra coverage, and if they improved their pathetic contention ratio and speeds, offering that improvement to the resellers, that would be a start; true, there would still be a huge issue there in terms of rural-based companies and residents (including a client of mine in Glin, whose MD no longer wants to hear the word "broadband" mentioned, as she's so pissed off with the problem) but with press releases claiming the "completion of broadband rollout", the current situation makes my blood boil!

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Is that 120,000 figure the amount of people connected to the exchanges in question or are they honest claims?

That's depend on how you define "honest"!!!

Charlie Honest?
Bertie Honest?

Are there any dates for when these exchanges will be made available?