To put things in perspective...

Cupart · 08-05-2010 03:05PM #1

I have now moved to Paris and once and for all waved good bye to the utter useless UPC. Never again.

So in Dublin I was paying EUR 34.00 pr months for the digital max pack including the recording functionality. I could not get BB, Phone or HD so the offering was very limited :mad:

Now I'm in Paris and for EUR 29.95 a month I get ADSL2+ running at 28MBps, 150 TV channes (including movie channels both in French and English) through the ADSL TV box including a good number of HD channels (can subscribe up to 600 other SD and HD channels if I so wish). It also includes a home phone with free calls to all over the world (other landlines) as well as mobiles in the US and Canada at any time I wish to make such. No black out times or this and that. I can even get fiber with speeds well over 100MBps but I'm happy with anything over 300KBps which was the last speed I got while in Dublin (Not with UPC though as I believe they do have ok speeds IF you can get it)...

Not only is Ireland stuck back in the stone age but companies like UPC are ripping people of, as the technology surely is there, but why should they bring this to the masses when they can squeeze the lemon to the max?

channelsurfer2 · 08-05-2010 03:54PM

I remeber when I was in wellington in new zealand in 2000 they had broadband, tv and phone all for 50nzdollars at the time.. that was 10years ago!!! and the whole of wellington was covered... so yes we are years behind in this country.

Cupart · 09-05-2010 07:50AM

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

... so yes we are years behind in this country.

I wonder why? A city like Dublin is small enough to get cables etc laid in no time at relative low costs and being an "IT nation" it should have been highly prioritized. In a country like Sweden where distances are much greater than in most other EU countries you can be sure to get enormous speeds (50MBps +) anywhere in the country at very low costs as the country has legislations in favour of the consumer. Why can't Dublin have a proper ADSL TV service provider? I mean there are enough channels to put the pipeline, and also why are you forced to pay line rental when you don't have to pay line rental in many other countries to get only internet / IPTV?

Come on Ireland you can do MUCH better than this!

An Tarbh · 09-05-2010 08:30AM

you've obviously not signed up with Orange then cause they're even worse than any of the Irish companies. If you've gone with Free or Numericable you should be fine but God help you if it is Orange and you have a problem.

BrianD · 09-05-2010 10:50AM

I think you have to look at the history of UPC for the answer to your question. For many years, Dublin had very high cable TV penetration when compared with other European cities. Although analogue it was obvious that broadband provision, telephony and digital TV were coming down the line. When it changed ownership to Eircom in the '90s, it would seem that their motivaion was to prevent a competitor telecoms service using the network in Dublin rather than running a cable service. There was an embargo on the development of Internet services and voice services.. So there some crucial years when nothing really happened on the Dublin cable network other than tests while everywhere else cable forged ahead. Plus it could be argued that the money that NTL payed for Cablelink in '99 probably meant that they had little money in the kitty for development.

As regards pricing, Ireland is always going to be more expensive as we don't have the economies of scale

rebeve · 09-05-2010 01:56PM

Am I missing something. Is this the same cupart who spent months slagging off UPC.Then around the end of last year he finally signed up with Murdo`s sky,and gave ous glowing reports of how good they are. Has now moved to France .

Kensington · 09-05-2010 04:47PM

Cupart wrote: »

Why can't Dublin have a proper ADSL TV service provider? I mean there are enough channels to put the pipeline, and also why are you forced to pay line rental when you don't have to pay line rental in many other countries to get only internet / IPTV?

Because, Dublin doesn't have a proper ADSL service. Simple.

I'm in the middle of SW Dublin and my line can barely handle a sustained 3Mbps with ADSL2+. The same is the situation for everyone else in the area. The lines are poor, swamped with noise and lossy as hell. 3Mbps won't run a pleasant internet experience and usable TV at the same time, and that's before you start to factor in PVRs, multiroom viewing and HD.

Freddie59 · 09-05-2010 06:46PM

rebeve wrote: »

Am I missing something. Is this the same cupart who spent months slagging off UPC.Then around the end of last year he finally signed up with Murdo`s sky,and gave ous glowing reports of how good they are. Has now moved to France .

As Billy Joel would say, You May Be Right.:D It's about numbers. Not distances. Our economy (and population) is Lilliputian in comparison to any of our European neighbours. Compared to what we were paying BEFORE Cable broadband, we're doing very well IMHO.

Cupart · 09-05-2010 07:01PM

rebeve wrote: »

Am I missing something. Is this the same cupart who spent months slagging off UPC.Then around the end of last year he finally signed up with Murdo`s sky,and gave ous glowing reports of how good they are. Has now moved to France .

Yes you are so right, but I have been with SKY since the analogue days on Astra 19E and the on to digital on 28.2E. I signed up for HD in December and still using the unbeatable TV service the platform has to offer

I have always taken Sky with me when being relocated abroad in Europe over the last many years and would not be with out it... Anyway, unfortunately I had no other choice than to sign up with UPC as I could NOT have a mini-dish on the apartment block in which I was living in at the time (I think mini dishes on sides of apartment blocks should be banned, but that's a different story).

Btw, is there a problem with this my friend rebeve

?

PS. Yes I'm on Free

At least I have number of choices now (actually quite a few) and at half the price of what UPC could ever offer...

com7 · 09-05-2010 07:34PM

hope it all works out for you !!!

rebeve · 10-05-2010 10:58AM

Cupart wrote: »

Yes you are so right, but I have been with SKY since the analogue days on Astra 19E and the on to digital on 28.2E. I signed up for HD in December and still using the unbeatable TV service the platform has to offer I have always taken Sky with me when being relocated abroad in Europe over the last many years and would not be with out it... Anyway, unfortunately I had no other choice than to sign up with UPC as I could NOT have a mini-dish on the apartment block in which I was living in at the time (I think mini dishes on sides of apartment blocks should be banned, but that's a different story).

Btw, is there a problem with this my friend rebeve ?

PS. Yes I'm on Free At least I have number of choices now (actually quite a few) and at half the price of what UPC could ever offer...

But if UPC were so bad ,could you just have
setup an online account with sky , and watched online .That way you could have saved yourself all that stress.

rebeve · 10-05-2010 11:04AM

Cupart wrote: »

I have now moved to Paris and once and for all waved good bye to the utter useless UPC. Never again.

So in Dublin I was paying EUR 34.00 pr months for the digital max pack including the recording functionality. I could not get BB, Phone or HD so the offering was very limited :mad:

Now I'm in Paris and for EUR 29.95 a month I get ADSL2+ running at 28MBps, 150 TV channes (including movie channels both in French and English) through the ADSL TV box including a good number of HD channels (can subscribe up to 600 other SD and HD channels if I so wish). It also includes a home phone with free calls to all over the world (other landlines) as well as mobiles in the US and Canada at any time I wish to make such. No black out times or this and that. I can even get fiber with speeds well over 100MBps but I'm happy with anything over 300KBps which was the last speed I got while in Dublin (Not with UPC though as I believe they do have ok speeds IF you can get it)...

Not only is Ireland stuck back in the stone age but companies like UPC are ripping people of, as the technology surely is there, but why should they bring this to the masses when they can squeeze the lemon to the max?

I`m more confused now,in your last post u said that you take your sky sub with u on your travels.Why then would you sign up with someone else. Is sky not available in Paris,France .Bye now cupart my friend .

lensman · 10-05-2010 08:31PM

Cupart wrote: »

I have now moved to Paris and once and for all waved good bye to the utter useless UPC. Never again.

So in Dublin I was paying EUR 34.00 pr months for the digital max pack including the recording functionality. I could not get BB, Phone or HD so the offering was very limited :mad:

Now I'm in Paris and for EUR 29.95 a month I get ADSL2+ running at 28MBps, 150 TV channes (including movie channels both in French and English) through the ADSL TV box including a good number of HD channels (can subscribe up to 600 other SD and HD channels if I so wish). It also includes a home phone with free calls to all over the world (other landlines) as well as mobiles in the US and Canada at any time I wish to make such. No black out times or this and that. I can even get fiber with speeds well over 100MBps but I'm happy with anything over 300KBps which was the last speed I got while in Dublin (Not with UPC though as I believe they do have ok speeds IF you can get it)...

Not only is Ireland stuck back in the stone age but companies like UPC are ripping people of, as the technology surely is there, but why should they bring this to the masses when they can squeeze the lemon to the max?

good luck to you Cupart I say & fcuk the begrudgers, Vive la France

rebeve · 10-05-2010 11:56PM

lensman wrote: »

good luck to you Cupart I say & fcuk the begrudgers, Vive la France

Suppose its best to to get the old backup in case sky is affected by the ash cloud.Youghal carpets was a great spot for the yarns ha ha

lensman · 11-05-2010 08:59AM

rebeve wrote: »

Suppose its best to to get the old backup in case sky is affected by the ash cloud.Youghal carpets was a great spot for the yarns ha ha

& killybegs is a better spot for trawlers
,... bring a rain coat.:cool:

rebeve · 11-05-2010 09:07AM

lensman wrote: »

& killybegs is a better spot for trawlers
,... bring a rain coat.:cool:

Dont worry sur next year you`ll be in 5th class with the big boys .

Bazzy · 11-05-2010 09:17AM

France also has a metro system so over to the commuting forum with ya cupart to give out about the luas

lensman · 11-05-2010 09:18AM

5th class ehh,... I'm happy with that,.. two away from your upc in 2nd.:p

rebeve · 11-05-2010 12:04PM

Watched a great film on UPC last night cupart me owl buddy "Tales of Ancient Ireland " very good ,but not as good as fishermans tales 2 .

lensman · 11-05-2010 01:01PM

rebeve wrote: »

Watched a great film on UPC last night cupart me owl buddy "Tales of Ancient Ireland " very good ,but not as good as fishermans tales 2 .

seen the latter myself,..great program,..picked up a lovely fish recipe,..french of course,...Coquilles Saint-Jacques,...for the superior pallet :pac:

Solair · 11-05-2010 01:40PM

Our broadband market is about 4 or 5 years behind France because of a lack of competition. It's pretty much as simple as that.

Cable companies here had relied on the fact that they had a monopoly on British terrestrial television. People subscribed to them to get a full range of channels. It was quite a simple business model.

Sky came in with BBC and Channel 4 in the EPG and smashed that model of business.

The cable platform was then providing a product that couldn't compete with Sky as it was basically just television.

Before UPC arrived on the scene, neither NTL nor Chorus had invested very much in their networks and only had tiny areas which were enabled with quite basic cable broadband.

Sky took a huge foothold in this market as there was nothing keeping them on cable. Triple-play (TV, Broadband & phone) is now driving the market.

In other markets, like France, the cable companies were fighting tooth-and-nail with the telephone companies and broadband, rather than television, was key to that.

Irish cable networks have only really started to catch-up with their European and US counterparts in the last couple of years.

Cable has been the main driving force behind speed increases in broadband technology in most of the world. DSL tends to have always played catch-up.

In Ireland, because cable was not driving the market forward until quite recently, eircom didn't have to compete. Their DSL was rock solid, but slow and pricy and the wireless services don't really hold a candle to it in most cases.

It's not at all surprising that once UPC put their foot to the floor and started to upgrade the network and really roll out broadband that eircom responded and increased speeds.

So, fingers crossed that it continues and the speeds increase and the prices drop!

Competition is good.

rebeve · 11-05-2010 03:49PM

lensman wrote: »

seen the latter myself,..great program,..picked up a lovely fish recipe,..french of course,...Coquilles Saint-Jacques,...for the superior pallet :pac:

Obviously ! served with a pinch of salt .:)

rebeve · 11-05-2010 04:19PM

Solair wrote: »

Our broadband market is about 4 or 5 years behind France because of a lack of competition. It's pretty much as simple as that.

Cable companies here had relied on the fact that they had a monopoly on British terrestrial television. People subscribed to them to get a full range of channels. It was quite a simple business model.

Sky came in with BBC and Channel 4 in the EPG and smashed that model of business.

The cable platform was then providing a product that couldn't compete with Sky as it was basically just television.

Before UPC arrived on the scene, neither NTL nor Chorus had invested very much in their networks and only had tiny areas which were enabled with quite basic cable broadband.

Sky took a huge foothold in this market as there was nothing keeping them on cable. Triple-play (TV, Broadband & phone) is now driving the market.

In other markets, like France, the cable companies were fighting tooth-and-nail with the telephone companies and broadband, rather than television, was key to that.

Irish cable networks have only really started to catch-up with their European and US counterparts in the last couple of years.

Cable has been the main driving force behind speed increases in broadband technology in most of the world. DSL tends to have always played catch-up.

In Ireland, because cable was not driving the market forward until quite recently, eircom didn't have to compete. Their DSL was rock solid, but slow and pricy and the wireless services don't really hold a candle to it in most cases.

It's not at all surprising that once UPC put their foot to the floor and started to upgrade the network and really roll out broadband that eircom responded and increased speeds.

So, fingers crossed that it continues and the speeds increase and the prices drop!

Competition is good.

+1

bk · 11-05-2010 04:29PM

Lads, keep it on topic please, you have been warned.

To put things in perspective...

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