Eircom NGB

Hank Scorpio · 28-01-2014 10:00PM #1

Hi lads,

I'd appreciate if this wasn't moved to the Eircom forum.

Alot of customers, myself included have been having huge slowdown at night on Eircom NGB and high latency, however is it advertised as uncongested.

From their website

"We say "up to" because the broadband speeds your line can receive may vary - this can depend on factors such as how far you are from your local exchange. With our uncongested Broadband you will not share your broadband connection with other internet users in your area - even at peak hours of the day! This ensures you will always receive the fastest speed your line can support and delivers a consistent online experience for you"

My local exchange is just down the road and during the day I get around 16Mb down I'm fine with that, I get good pings around 12ms to Irish servers as fastpath is enabled on my line. At night the speeds drop to 3 and under sometimes and the latency to Germany or anywhere centrally in Europe is 200+, and close to 100 for Irish servers.

I'm just looking for feedback from other NGB customers and maybe they could post their speedtests/pings during peak hours, around 8 or 9 O'clock.

Just looking for some advice, I'm at my wits end trying to get Eircom to sort this and I don't know what else to do.

_John C · 28-01-2014 10:49PM

Not from the times you asked for but they still show the problem.

Hank Scorpio · 28-01-2014 10:51PM

Have you tried getting them to sort it John? It seems like a nationwide problem but I can't say that for absolute sure. I'm based just outside Kilkenny

_John C · 28-01-2014 10:58PM

No. Waste of time Id imagine.:(

PauloMN · 29-01-2014 11:12AM

Lads I have the same issue here on Vodafone. Definite pattern to it, after 6pm weekdays and pretty much all weekend. Speed drop to 1/2Mb down, pings up. I'm on 24Mb package. The speeds are so bad in the evenings that I can't use YouTube or Sky Go etc..

I work from home during the day so I'm just glad this is not affecting my daytime speed or I'd be in trouble.

VF have just fobbed me off with excuses about my line, and they've reduced my max speed which hasn't done anything to improve the poor evening speeds, and has just reduced my daytime speeds.

Quite honestly it is a joke in 2014. We've more and more devices in the house connected to the net, yet our speeds are dropping. And before anyone asks, I've switched off Wifi and just used one cable connection to my PC for speed tests in the evening, they are still slow.

Seems to be affecting a lot of people on DSL, regardless of provider - hence I don't think switching would make any difference. No UPC here unfortunately.

When NGB first came out it was great. I was on 7Mb package and used to get slow evening speeds, NGB gave me solid speeds at all times - was a big difference when it came out. I'd say for the past 3 or 4 months though, the speeds have been crap in the evening. I've heard people talking about "backhaul", or rather not enough of it, which does makes sense I suppose as more areas become fibre enabled, more pressure is being put on the system and we're all suffering.

Are people on fibre also seeing these slow evening speeds, and to the same extent?

Mightycraic · 29-01-2014 04:27PM

This has been ongoing for months. Their website claims are blatantly dishonest and misleading. I have, today, contacted Comreg who, in turn, have suggested the Advertising Standards Agency. Comreg will be contacting Eircom on our behalf with the complaint. It will quite probably fall on deaf ears again.

It is clear that the Eircom NGB (marketing spin) is grossly oversubscribed. We are on an 'up to 24Mbps' copper connection and, due to the exchange distance, should be getting, and are configured for, 12Mbps. I cannot remember the last time we enjoyed that speed. Typically, during the day, we get between 5 and 10Mbps and from 5pm onwards, it can drop down below 1Mbps (last night - 550kbps). Traceroutes to both Irish and UK nodes frequently suffer packet loss.

Notwithstanding the technical performance issues, their customer communication ranks as the worst ever in my experience. Despite numerous promises with updates, I have received ONE call with no subsequent follow-up. They even closed my case without acknowledgement as to whether it had been resolved.

Hank Scorpio · 29-01-2014 04:38PM

Thanks for the replies, my problems started around September. Before efiber rolled out I couldn't fault the connection. It is a horrible way to run a business by signing up as many customers as possible without investing in their network to handle the traffic.

It would be great if people made a thread in the eircom talk to forum called Eircom Ngb and voiced their problems. We really need to make noise for this to be resolved.

jambofc · 29-01-2014 09:17PM

same for me,nightmare its that bad

http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057043309/1

Hank Scorpio · 29-01-2014 09:37PM

What bugs me the most is they won't acknowledge the problem, It's like they're trained to fob people off. I sent an email to Michael Byrne head of their communication department earlier.

O'Prez · 29-01-2014 09:43PM

nuxxx wrote: »

What bugs me the most is they won't acknowledge the problem, It's like they're trained to fob people off. I sent an email to Michael Byrne head of their communication department earlier.

Yeah this constant "ring technical support" response is grating. It's going on with me since November. It's obvious there's a widespread problem so even acknowledgement of the fact would help at this stage. People on other ISPs are complaining too but don't realise it's not with their ISP the fault lays. It's with Eircom.

Hank Scorpio · 29-01-2014 09:59PM

The chap I spoke to yesterday told me to try googling ways to reduce my ping. I'm not trying be a smart arse but when that's the response I'm getting at the highest technical level I can phone it just irritates me even more.

O'Prez · 29-01-2014 10:10PM

nuxxx wrote: »

The chap I spoke to yesterday told me to try googling ways to reduce my ping. I'm not trying be a smart arse but when that's the response I'm getting at the highest technical level I can phone it just irritates me even more.

My response to reading that was a look of disbelief and a shake of me head. There are no words!

babybuilder · 29-01-2014 10:44PM

hi
Was on a 3 Mbps package and was regularly getting 2.44 Mbps actual speeds with low pings. Recently these speeds have been dropping with intermittant drops so I opted for a 7 Mbps deal instead (despite the line having a max speed of 5 Mbps). Since been connected to this "faster" broadband I am struggling to get 0.9 Mbps with frequent DSL drops. This morning at 8am did a speed test and got a steady 4.3 Mbps. dont use broadband during the day unfortunately.

Contacted an agent who went through the usual "make sure all devices are disconnected and lan cable connected to router" etc. No change and tearing my hair out.

Hank Scorpio · 29-01-2014 10:51PM

You on NGB babybuilder? It's advertised as uncongested but standard DSL from Eircom isn't. Sorry to hear about your problems

babybuilder · 29-01-2014 10:57PM

Is is advertised as "up to 24 Mbps" in my area. Im about 4 km from the local sub exchange. Is there any map or way of checking if its NGB? It is linsfort outside Buncrana up here in donegal. Lovely area but one of the down sides of building in the sticks.

Barry5714 · 29-01-2014 11:17PM

With Sky myself had the same problem early 2013 promised 6MB 2km from exchange but everyday 6pm - 12am it slowed to a crawl 1MB really high ping as well..

This went on for probably 4 or 5 months now getting what i was promised 24/7

Hank Scorpio · 30-01-2014 12:46AM

Barry5714 wrote: »

With Sky myself had the same problem early 2013 promised 6MB 2km from exchange but everyday 6pm - 12am it slowed to a crawl 1MB really high ping as well..

This went on for probably 4 or 5 months now getting what i was promised 24/7

Really tempted to change but afraid I`ll be locked into another contract with unusable broadband

Barry5714 · 30-01-2014 02:00AM

If your having slow evening speeds at the moment i don't think changing provider will help id say its an exchange problem and the volume of traffic its able to handle so eircom slow everyone down (Vodafone, Sky, even there own customers)

Not sure what fixed my connection maybe if they get enough complaints from a certain area they'll be forced to locate and fix the problem..

Hank Scorpio · 30-01-2014 02:37AM

It isn't an exchange problem, for me at least and others I've spoke to. Up to 24 is NGB babybuilder

Commander Shepard · 30-01-2014 04:32PM

We had the same kinda problem ie the speeds in the evening being a lot slower than during the day we switched to sky because we heard it was uncontested since the switch we have seen a great improvement now the sky is the same speed throughout the day

Mightycraic · 30-01-2014 04:50PM

Despite the promise of a 'return call within 24 hours' by the Eircom text service, needless to say, no call came.

As it stands today, I have submitted complaints to both Comreg and the Advertising Standards Agency in a bid to stop Eircom conning potential customers into believing that there is no severe evening latency on their NGB network.

A call to their broadband support staff last night (the IVR suggests less than a two minute wait....35 minutes later I get through) and it's still 'with the engineers'.

Next stop, Small Claims Court to get a refund for the past 4 months broadband fees.

KIERAN1 · 30-01-2014 05:24PM

I went through this about two years ago and its amazing it raring its ugly head again. It lasted about six months for me. Eircom had so many complaints about it, they eventually fixed something in the main exchange and not my local one, but it got fixed. Can't say i have had any problems since.

I have 7 meg profile (local exchange ASDL1) get around 6.2 to 6.3 download 324kb upload which is the set upload can't go anymore.

Eircom has to be more careful and not annoy customers nowadays. ESB broadband is on its way and last thing Eircom should be doing is annoying customers.

You pay for a service it should be 90 to 99% perfect, with allowances though given for faults that are out of their control.

Mightycraic · 30-01-2014 05:33PM

I agree, however, this isn't a fault...it's a capacity/oversubscription issue. Having polled other users of non-Eircom customers on the Eircom infrastructure i.e. UTV Internet, Vodafone etc that are having exactly the same issues.

It wouldn't be nearly so bad if they honoured their promises regarding callbacks. I have been promised callbacks from their text service 'within 24 hours' on 4 or 5 occasions but it never comes.

Hank Scorpio · 30-01-2014 05:37PM

I got in contact Michael Byrne, waiting for a call back from one of the heads in the broadband technical department

Mightycraic · 30-01-2014 05:40PM

Congratulations. Please provide an update here.

Thanks.

Hank Scorpio · 30-01-2014 05:41PM

Mightycraic wrote: »

Congratulations. Please provide an update here.

Thanks.

Will do, hes going to call in 20 minutes

O'Prez · 30-01-2014 05:41PM

nuxxx wrote: »

Will do, hes going to call in 20 minutes

Good man yerself nuxxx.

Hank Scorpio · 30-01-2014 06:13PM

He called, I highlighted it wasn't only me, but many NGB customers around the country experiencing problems during peak hours on NGB broadband. He said a fault was showing on my line ( there was an engineer here on Tuesday already ) but he also said hes going to talk to the guys who work on the main network and get back to me tomorrow. He clarified there should be zero congestion/contention on NGB. I told him what's wrote on the Eircom website regarding NGB and uncongested. I got his name + number too.

Waiting for a call back tomorrow with baited breath.

vishal · 30-01-2014 07:35PM

Mightycraic wrote: »

Despite the promise of a 'return call within 24 hours' by the Eircom text service, needless to say, no call came.

As it stands today, I have submitted complaints to both Comreg and the Advertising Standards Agency in a bid to stop Eircom conning potential customers into believing that there is no severe evening latency on their NGB network.

A call to their broadband support staff last night (the IVR suggests less than a two minute wait....35 minutes later I get through) and it's still 'with the engineers'.

Next stop, Small Claims Court to get a refund for the past 4 months broadband fees.

Could you give me details of who to send complaints to also?

Mightycraic · 31-01-2014 02:09PM

vishal wrote: »

Could you give me details of who to send complaints to also?

Email consumerline@comreg.ie for Comreg

http://www.asai.ie/complain.asp?regular=true for the Advertising Standards Agency regarding their service level promises.

You should also lodge a formal complaint via Eircom's internal system.

Mightycraic · 31-01-2014 04:34PM

This is what an 'uncongested' next generation broadband connection (supposedly 12Mbps) looked like between 15:00hrs and 23:00hrs on Tuesday 28th January 2014. Minimum figure of 553kbps.

Eircom NGB

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