Eircom Istream

dathi1

I was one of the first people to sign up to eircoms dsl packagages last June for euro 85 + vat per month. I had 1mb down and 512 up for 12 months......guess what...I've been throttled back to 512 down and 128 up this month. Rang the help line and they said that I shouldn't have had 1mb down in the first place! Its very slow...dslreports.com showing 256 down and 83 up
what are my rights?

GerardKeating

Originally posted by dathi1
what are my rights?

you have two basically,

You have the right to recieve the service you paid for

Also, you have the right NOT to be charged for the extra service supplied over the past 12 months

sceptre

If you signed up for the 85+VAt package it was supposed to be 512 down. You should probably just regard yourself as lucky to have had the 1meg package by mistake.

(I've some sympathy for you even though you've just been lucky - it's never nice sliding back down)

Legal recompense? None, I'm afraid.

edit: As Gerard says they can't charge you for the better package that you've hitherto had by their mistake.

dathi1

ok....I also asked what speeds are available if I go down to 50euor a month...she said: 256 down and 64 up????
I see UTV.ie are doing a package for under 50euro 512 down 128 up...what's the catch??? If its right I might as well get eircom to disconnect are sign up with UTV.
cheers daithi.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by dathi1
ok....I also asked what speeds are available if I go down to 50euor a month...she said: 256 down and 64 up????
I see UTV.ie are doing a package for under 50euro 512 down 128 up...what's the catch??? If its right I might as well get eircom to disconnect are sign up with UTV.
cheers daithi.

As far as connection speeds are concerned, both UTV and Eircom's RADSL services give a maximum of 512k down, 128k up though this can drop lower under poor line conditions. What you were given were the minumum connection speeds. Any lower and you do not qualify.

If, however, you were on the 1Mbit service, then you won't have any problem getting 512k on either Eircom or UTV.

The other thing to remember on these 50 euro DSL services is that the contention ratio is 50:1 as opposed to 24:1 on Eircom's business priced services. This may mean lower throughput at busy times.

Urban Weigl

The price difference is quite substantial though... Eircom 54.50, UTV 47.50: you save 7 euros, plus with UTV you have the option to later purchase a static IP address for 5 euros, whereas with Eircom you can't do that.

Another ISP to take a look at is Netsource. They offer the only ADSL plan with no cap (yes I know Esat and Eircom also have uncapped plans, but those are really, REALLY pricey!)

dathi1

ok...thanks, Right now it looks for me like UTV is the best deal...considering that I'm only getting real speeds of 244 down and 83 up (dslreports.com) for which I'm paying eircom 85euros a month + VAT.... I might as well sign up to UTV.

BKtje

i got i-stream 1mb line here in work.
dslreports says i only got a 768kb/s downstream...im still getting 1mb/s downstream speeds. How accurate is that site?

Urban Weigl

Are you sure you are getting downloads at 1mbps? I ask as generally dslreports is very accurate, and remember that you ned to divide by 8 to get the download speed in kilobytes. For example, a 1Mbps connection will provide 128k/sec downloads... a 768kbps connection offers 96k/sec downloads, and a 512kbps connection should provide download speeds of 64k/sec.

BKtje

Yer i downloaded something yesterday at 121kB/s (which is a little below 1mb/s) I didnt check the site yesterday...maybe when i checked it i wouldnt have gotten that speed (121).
Must check this out tomorrow

Urban Weigl

Another thing... The speed test servers used by dslreports are all based in California (I think). As such, there may be a bottleneck somewhere between your connection and their servers. Generally inside the united states, they are accurate up to 5mbps or around that. This could be less if you are coming from Europe, because there is a bigger chance of problem along the way.