Any help on getting rid of a splitter?

quank

Does anybody have ANY advice on how to get rid of a splitter?

Here's the story:
My granny lives with us, and my dad wanted to get her, her own line. So he rang eircom and asked for a second line. They came over. Dug up my front garden, made a few holes here and there on my road. And then to top it all of, put a splitter in my hall. After that, I have had 28.8kbps/31.2kbps/26.4kbps speeds usually. Now I am seriously fúckin' fed up of it. I have had as low as 3 and 4 kbps. That's just feckin' ridiculous! Seriously! I am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with my modem or wires. I remember having a nice (yet, shít) connection of abouts 44kbps. I get disconnected on a regular basis. Average of probably four times a week. That's pathetic. Today, I have been disconnected SIX times!
I am really píssed with eircom. Oh, and another problem, because of a splitter I cannot get broadband. And that truely sucks. So... anybody got any advice that will work?
I would much appreciate it!

andrew163

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100154

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124432

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115619

I'd type out the usual eircom splitter-war pep talk but im too lazy :rolleyes:
You should get the idea of how to go about it from those threads.

enjoy! :P

De Rebel

Originally posted by quank
They came over. Dug up my front garden, made a few holes here and there on my road. And then to top it all of, put a splitter in my hall.

Precisely when did they do this work?

quank

prob around a year ago.... why? does it matter?

Urban Weigl

My understanding is that Eircom are no longer allowed to split new lines? Do not quote me on that please.

De Rebel

Originally posted by quank
prob around a year ago.... why? does it matter?

Like Urban Weigl, I'm also working from memory (somewhat impaired owing to it being late on a Friday night) AFAIK there were to be NO MORE NEWLY INSTALLED SPLITTERS after April 2002.

Do a search on "splitters" "pairgain" poster=muck and see what turns up.

BigEejit

Originally posted by quank
Dug up my front garden, made a few holes here and there on my road. And then to top it all of, put a splitter in my hall.

Heh, they just didnt like you I reckon , if they put a splitter on the line then there was no reason to touch anything other than the existing line and because they did it inside the house (I had thought that splitters were _only_ put outside ) they shouldnt have been at your garden ....... maybe they were paid a few bob extra to do some weeding??

spongebob

You know already that Pairgains aka Splitters play HAVOC with hearing aids such as your grannys <cough> <cough> as you have had a full year of problems with your lines now. Complain bitterly about both lines , especially as your granny has difficulty with both lines now where there was no probem a year ago....... the rules on no new splitters are in the CLFMP , search for posts about that. You will have to ring Biddy yourself because your poor granny cannot hear her clearly on the substandard lines.

Take no crap from Biddy, your granny often gets what she considers to be silent phone calls as she cannot hear the person at the other end. This is most distressing for the poor woman when she is alone in the house and is entirely Eircoms fault since they put the substandard line in. If your granny pops into the neighbours house and plugs her phone in there she can chat away no bother to her friends. Sme of her friends have hearing aids too.

This establishes beyond any doubt that the fault is not with her hearing aid or the (expensive Eircom model) phone or with the friends line . Nevertheless , plugging the same phone into any line in your house is useless.

Your lines are primarily voice lines, they cannot do the day job any more so Eircom must fix them.


M

bminish

Spitters (AKA pairgains) also cause considerable radio interface, something that Eircom MUST rectify

put a radio tuned to long wave, medium wave or shortwave near the splitter, see how noisy it is, bet you can hear that junk interfering with your radio reception in other parts of the house too

No Joy with eircom using this approach? Ring the radio Arm of Comreg and report the case of radio interface (follow up in writing) Comreg have already investigated interface from these devices and know how the problem can be solved, Eircom will be forced to remove it ;-)

spongebob

Indeed, on what part of the spectrum exactly and what would they interfere with around there?

(please say Heart Pacemakers or Defibrillators)

bminish

Muck,
They are wideband inference generators, I can hear them up to around 50 Mhz and they certainly interfere with reception of BBC 4 longwave on 198 Khz.
To us amateurs the biggest problems have been to the HF amateur bands, interference to 50 Mhz has been a problem too.

In the last few years pairgains have made mobile HF (shortwave) operation pretty unpleasant since you can be having a nice chat with Bill in Watford or Vlad in Omsk and suddenly you can,t hear them for a mile or two due to interference from pairgains.

Comreg were called in to investigate a case of interface from a pairgain to an amateur, since the amateur in question also happened to be a spectrum management consultant with extensive experience of European EMC law* Comreg sent out an engineer to measure the interference from the pairgains which was found to exceed the EMC limits for that category of telecommunications device. Comreg ruled that, where they are causing interference to a fixed radio user then the matter must be rectified.
Now this decision was a bit of a cop out for a couple of reasons

1/ Pairgains as installed by eircom do not meet the requirements for devices of their EMC category. Therefore most of them are in breach of EMC regulations however they may meet the EMC regs if fitted underground.

2/ nothing in EMC law says that a mobile user is not protected just like every other radio user from harmful radio interference.
Oh COMREG can we please have all pairgains nationwide fixed please

However we Amateur radio operators don't pay nearly enough in licence fees to make it worth comreg spending too much time on us and I wonder how this case would have progressed had the complaint not come from source it did.

*EMC = Electromagnetic Compatibility (which relates to interference issues)

spongebob

Thanks again B

Would anybody have a copy of the specific spectrum pollution complaint that was investigated by Comreg ?

Did Eircom remove the pairgain, replacing it with a compliant device or did they bury it or otherwise shield it ?

Or , heavens protect us, did they run enough copper to make it redundant?

In their consideration of the USO in the early summer, Comreg never acknowledged the fact that Pairgains were the cause of much interference in a valuable part of the spectrum between 0.2Mhz and 50Mhz and that They Themselves were aware of effects other than the degredation of telephone lines.

As many of these damn things tend to be in remote coastal areas, would I right in saying that pairgains can be a hazard to

1. Marine communications especially emergency bands
2. Navigation systems which are critical to marine safety, buoys and the like?

I know its all in that 2001 spectrum PDF but you could read it much faster than I could

What band is to be used for those RFID stock control tags tags by the way?

M

bminish

Would anybody have a copy of the specific spectrum pollution complaint that was investigated by Comreg ?

I'll see what I can do, I know the individual who filed the complaint well but He's working abroad for another couple of weeks and because of the nature of his job (does IRL GOV consultantcy work on occasion) He may not want to get drawn directly into the middle of something like this but I am sure He will tell me which bits of EMC law are being broken ;-)
Joe public is entitled to interference radio reception therefore comreg are going to have to act on complaints received.

They fixed His case by finding some copper, interestingly the pairgain was fitted to his neighbors house, not His since he already had ADSL

n their consideration of the USO in the early summer, Comreg never acknowledged the fact that Pairgains were the cause of much interference in a valuable part of the spectrum between 0.2Mhz and 50Mhz and that They Themselves were aware of effects other than the degredation of telephone lines.

Probably just a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, for example due to the way comreg is set up the radio arm of comreg cannot get formally involved in the powerline internet trials until an interference report has been filed by someone.

As many of these damn things tend to be in remote coastal areas, would I right in saying that pairgains can be a hazard to
1. Marine communications especially emergency bands 2. Navigation systems which are critical to marine safety, buoys and the like?

I think we are on thin ice here, the interference from these things is radiated by the line but levels are nothing like as high as the proposed NB30 limits for PLC and usually only fairy short sections of line are involved (it seems much worse downstream of the pairgain)
Most costal Marine radio these days is on VHF around 156 Mhz and is unlikely to be affected

Radio Markers on Bouys, lighthouses etc are almost always radar transponders at around 9.5 Ghz.

It's really only a problem when you are close to the lines and in areas with underground lines it is most likely only audible inside or close to the subscribers house.

I know its all in that 2001 spectrum PDF but you could read it much faster than I could What band is to be used for those RFID stock control tags tags by the way?

try Here most of the common ones are around 13.53 Mhz

.Brendan

Urban Weigl

It would have been cheaper to get ISDN instead. ISDN gives you 2 lines, and costs slightly less than 2 analog lines.

Not to mention 64kbps up/down Internet access, and incoming voice calls will be routed to both lines via the free channel.

This means you will be able to receive calls on both your phone numbers, on different telephones, even when you are online. About twice as fast as a 56k modem as well, with much lower latency of ~40ms.

Mr_Man

Installing ISDN will limit your choice of ISP unless you are willing to use only one channel. UTV for example only support single channel on their FRIACO product.

M.

spongebob

The department of Social Welfare will not pay for ISDN lines for pensioners under their free rental scheme.

M

spongebob

Originally posted by bminish
I think we are on thin ice here, the interference from these things is radiated by the line but levels are nothing like as high as the proposed NB30 limits for PLC and usually only fairy short sections of line are involved (it seems much worse downstream of the pairgain) .

I know of runs of up to 3Km on the customer side of a pairgain, generally in very isolated rural areas.

How have things been since the ESB Tuam scheme went live BTW ?

Do you have before and after data ?

M

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by Mr_Man
Installing ISDN will limit your choice of ISP unless you are willing to use only one channel. UTV for example only support single channel on their FRIACO product.

M.

Using two channels is too expensive in Ireland anyway, even if you are with an ISP that supports it. Anyway, at 64kbps real speed, it is an improvement upon dialup (56k modems are limited to about 32k upload, and your actual download speeds will probably not be much better than 32k anyway).

theciscokid

http://www.eircomtribunal.com/pops/splitter_pop.html

BigEejit

Originally posted by theciscokid
http://www.eircomtribunal.com/pops/splitter_pop.html

Dunno what I was expecting clicking on that link but it sure as hell wasnt Queen:eek:

Ripwave

Originally posted by Muck
The department of Social Welfare will not pay for ISDN lines for pensioners under their free rental scheme.

I recently contacted the Department with some general questions about how the Household Benefits package. The reply suggests that the benefit will now be applicable to an ISDN line too (though at the same rate as an ordinary line).

Up to 2 October 2003, the Department of Social & Family Affairs
paid {eircom} the standard retail rate plus VAT for the Telephone
Allowance provided to eligible social welfare customers. The
allowance covered basic line rental/equipment charges (if
applicable) and up to EUR 2.42 (plus VAT) worth of calls in each
two-monthly billing period.

To facilitate liberalisation of the telecommunications market
and other licensed operators as well as {eircom} to participate in
the Telephone Allowance Scheme, the Department decided to roll
up the allowance into a single cash credit on the customer's
bill not attributable to any particular component of the bill.

From 3 October, 2003 the Department and {eircom} have agreed a new
scheme for {eircom} customers in receipt of the social welfare
Telephone Allowance. This scheme is known as the {eircom} social
benefit scheme.

Under the scheme the customer is charged the equivalent of EUR
20.41 per month (EUR 24.70 including Vat) for a package which
gives them the full benefit of the existing social welfare
Telephone Allowance (EUR 21.85 monthly excluding VAT, equivalent
to EUR 26.44 including VAT), and an extra call allowance of up
to EUR 1.00 per month (excluding Vat) (EUR 1.21 including Vat).
The Department in turn is charged EUR 20.41 per customer per
month, (EUR 24.70 including Vat).

The Department is willing to provide the same allowance
(EUR20.41 per month plus VAT) through other licensed land-line
service operators of the customers' choice, using the Wholesale
Line Rental agreement structure.