Just about to order Breeze Home from Irish Broadband

Samson

I have (90%) decided to order the Breeze Home package from Irish Broadband (512K, €35.00 per month).
According to the coverage maps, I am within range of two of their access points, Clondalkin (SIAC) and D8 Digital Hub (Guinness).

I had been considering going with Esat or UTV for their lowest cost DSL package, but decided against both for the following reasons:

1. I have ISDN, which I need to keep as I work from home a bit and I use the second channel for my fax machine number. A lot of my customers have my fax number which I would obviously lose.
2. It would kill me to pay the ISDN disconnection fee to Eircom, especially after the last line rental hike, which has prompted me to switch my calls business to EsatBT.
3. I really need two 'phone lines and line rental is that bit cheaper for ISDN versus two standard lines (want to give as little money as possible to Eircom).

I have done a bit of searching on Boards for IBB threads and it appears that generally, most folks are happy with the service (excluding the 3 Rock and RTE access point problems).
However, I'm just looking for a little bit of extra feedback/reassurance/opinion before I take the plunge.

Also, if anyone has any other suggestions I would be grateful.

Link to product I'm (more than likely) going with:
http://www.irishbroadband.ie/htmdocs/our_products/breeze.htm

Mutant_Fruit

Before you order, make sure you get at least a 1 week "trial" period. In that if you do suffer from interference, you can return it. I'm 90% certaion they'll allow this (as they really should chek for that before installation, but even if they do, it may not always show up). Just double check that first, then order away.

When i first got my connection t was grand, but since then some b*****ds have set up some new equipment are aer emitting buckets of interference killing my connetcion. IBB are in the middle of fixing it...

luckat

They came along to me and tested; they weren't sure if the line was clear enough, but said they'd keep an eye on it.

It's been absolutely fine - fast and great.

Everyone I've dealt with in the company was nice. The guys who came to set up the service gave me their mobile numbers to make sure we'd be able to contact each other if they were delayed.

There are some slow moments, but I would guess that these are because some of the other 19 with whom I'm sharing this connection are doing big downloads or something.

For me, once I've paid the connection fee it will be cheaper than my ISP payment plus cheap-rate internet phone charges used to be.

EvilDoctorK

I'll second that ... I've had it in place for around 2 months now .. never a problem at all... I know some dedicated gamers don't like it .. but for general decent connectivity I've never had a speed problem at all. (I'm on the Guiness access point)

I've infact gotten rid of my eircom line altogether - so with the recent line rental hike I reckon broadband is now effectively free :cool:

Samson

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
Before you order, make sure you get at least a 1 week "trial" period. In that if you do suffer from interference, you can return it. I'm 90% certaion they'll allow this (as they really should chek for that before installation, but even if they do, it may not always show up). Just double check that first, then order away.

I've had a read through the contract/terms & conditions, and there is a 7 day cooling off period.

I also rang them yesterday, the guy I spoke to said they would come out and do a LOS (line of site) test first, to see how good a signal I can get, he said that if I didn't "pass", it would not cost me anything.
Although I am within range of the two access points mentioned, I am near the outside edge of both circles, so fingers crossed.

Mutant_Fruit

When i was getting my LOS test done, i was out of range of the three rock tower, but amazingly enough, i was within rage of the tallaght tower (which they previously thought there was no way i could get). So, if they say you don't have los, ask them to put up an aerial to test it, just in case. Thats exactly what my install guys did, they thought i didn't have a good signal, but when they threw up an antenne, i got a near perfect signal from tallaght.

But, since then i have gotten a lot of interference, since about november

Samson

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
When i was getting my LOS test done, i was out of range of the three rock tower, but amazingly enough, i was within rage of the tallaght tower (which they previously thought there was no way i could get). So, if they say you don't have los, ask them to put up an aerial to test it, just in case. Thats exactly what my install guys did, they thought i didn't have a good signal, but when they threw up an antenne, i got a near perfect signal from tallaght.

I must remember that, thanks.

Reyman

Just a couple of points you've probably checked already:

1. The contention ratio on Breeze home is 20:1. Have you checked with them if the 512k symmetrical speeds are max speeds or guaranteed speeds? There's very few using this service at the moment and the quality could fall off rapidly.
2. On some of their offerings they only allow one PC connection. Does this apply on Breeze ?
3. What exact type of equipment are they providing? Will you need a separate router if sharing the connection?

Mutant_Fruit

The contention ratio on adsl is 48-1, when that fills up it will be more than twice as slow as IBB.

Have you checked with them if the 512k symmetrical speeds are max speeds or guaranteed speeds

As with all broadband offerings, they are max speeds, not guarenteed speeds.

and finally, this is taken straigt from their faq (but from Home Breeze plus faq...)

A superior home product suitable for families with high usage and Home Networks.

Samson

Originally posted by Reyman
Just a couple of points you've probably checked already:

1. The contention ratio on Breeze home is 20:1. Have you checked with them if the 512k symmetrical speeds are max speeds or guaranteed speeds? There's very few using this service at the moment and the quality could fall off rapidly.
2. On some of their offerings they only allow one PC connection. Does this apply on Breeze ?
3. What exact type of equipment are they providing? Will you need a separate router if sharing the connection?

There's only me in the house so it won't be a problem. I sometimes use my laptop at home, but just for email, so EsatBT Anytime over ISDN (which I'm keeping, as work pays for it) will be sufficient.

Deacon Blues

I've had a read through the contract/terms & conditions, and there is a 7 day cooling off period.

I THINK that this cooling off period refers to the contract ... you sign, and can cancel within 7 days with no penalty.

What you want to sort out is that if you have the equipment installed, and then the service is crap, that they will refund you your money and remove the equipment.

CONMIKE12

i HAVE THE BREEZE HOME 20:1 PACKAGE AND THE D LOAD SPEEDS ARE REALLY TERRIBLE.i HAVE HAD IT FOR ONE MONTH AND THE BEST I HAVE GOTTEN IS 230KbPS,BUT MOST OF THE TIME IT IS BETWEEN 100 AND 180 KbPS!!THIS IS A FAR CRY FROM 512K.IBB'S TECH SUPPORT HAD THE NERVE TO TELL ME THAT BECAUSE OF CONTENTION RATIO I SHOULD BE HAPPY WITH THESE SPEEDS.I AM NOT.I WOULDN'T EXPECT TO GET THE FULL 512K ALL THE TIME BUT I WOULD EXPECT TO FLUCTUATE AT AROUND 350-450KbPS.I DO THINK THAT I'VE CAUSE TO COMPLAIN WHEN I ONLY GET 150KbPS AT 4:00 AM ON A WEDS MORNING.UNFORTUNATELY THIS IS THE ONLY AFFORDABLE BB PACKAGE AVAILABLE TO ME AT THE MOMENT,BUT IF YOU HAVE CHOICE I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO STAY WELL CLEAR OF IBB.....THEY SUCK BIG STYLE!!!:mad:

Ronaldo7

not a fan of this wireless internet. Its dodgy and well below par of normal eircom or iol broadband or utv for that matter...

Mutant_Fruit

If i was ordering, i'd wait until i could get the 3.5ghz stuff. That way i'd get the equipment as soon as it came out, rather than waiting at tehe end of a queue for existing customers to get upgraded to 3.5ghz stuff.

However, that could take a few months.

Samson

I posted off the application form on Friday last.
However, bearing in mind the recent negative comments I decided to email a couple of questions with regard to guaranteed performance (which as far as I can see is not mentioned in the terms and conditions) and the "cooling off" period.

Depending on the answers I get, I may decide to hold off for a while.

Samson

This is the response I got to my email query, just what I was hoping to hear:

Hi Gavin,

Thank you for your interest in internet connections from Irish Broadband. The 7 day cooling off period applies from the date of installation, so if you find that you are not satisfied with the service within that time, we will uninstall for you without any charges going through.

If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail or on *** ****.

Kind Regards,

Elaine Carroll
Residential Broadband Sales