IOL/Ericom Adsl/RADSL?

Peace

Hello,

So i was ordering Broadband today and was chatting to the very loud sales rep in Eircom about their product. She mentioned that it was RADSL that she was selling. I enquired into the QOS that they would prvide and she said that it would operate at a minimum of 256kbs at all times, but then threw in the comment "it depends on the contention ratio"....i can only assume she meant that at low contention tario it would be closer to 512k than to 256k. To get standard ADSL i wold have to pay nearly 107E per month to get a guaranteed service of 512k constantly.

I'm not psyched on RADSL as when i have broadband i wants my 512k...

Then i decided to ring IOL and check them out. Asked specifically if it was RADSL they were selling and was assured that it was ADSL they would be providing. Now considering that IOL are simply reselling a product of Eircoms (correct me if i'm wrong there) is it possible i am being misinformed here or is it correct that the IOL rep is telling me that they are offering ADSL, not RADSL.

I get the feeling that the IOL sales reps have undergone some training which drilled them to never say "no" to the customer. I caught her out on the yes approach when i asked was it an ADSL router they were sending me with the self install package and not a ADSL modem and got a straight "Yes sir is a router"....so after a little bit of back tracking she indicated that i could have a router but i would need an engineer installation which couwld cost me 190E...said no thanks to that but ordered the BB anyway....

So - will i get RADSL or ADSL...should i just flip a coin and hope for the best or are IOL on the ball on this one?

daveyjoe

IOL home broadband is a resold version of eircom's RADSL product, so yes IOL is RADSL.

The stuff about needing an engineer to install a router is crap (?!?!), AFAIK IOL are now shipping routers as opposed to USB modems with all new sign-ups, the people on the phones at IOL are pretty incompetent in my limited experience.

edit: With regards to your question about expected speeds, I would be surprised if it goes below 300Kbps, but it does depend on how busy your local exchange is.

tomk

Originally posted by Peace
.......and she said that it would operate at a minimum of 256kbs at all times, but then threw in the comment "it depends on the contention ratio"....

The contention ratio is 48:1, so there is no way that any supplier can guarantee a minimum of 256kbps.

daveyjoe

Originally posted by tomk
The contention ratio is 48:1, so there is no way that any supplier can guarantee a minimum of 256kbps.

True, but I think that almost everyone on Broadband does at least get 256kbps and if they don't then they would have a very good reason to opt-out of their contract, on grounds of poor quality of service.

Ripwave

Originally posted by Peace
i can only assume she meant that at low contention tario it would be closer to 512k than to 256k. To get standard ADSL i wold have to pay nearly 107E per month to get a guaranteed service of 512k constantly.

Contention ration means that the 512K is potentially shared with others. Eircom have a nominal contention ration of 48:1 for the RADSL services, which means that, for each 2MB (yes, MB) connection to an exchange, they'll service up to 192 customers. When customer 193 comes along, they'll upgrade the connection. (Do the maths yourself!).

In practice, contention ratios never hit you as hard as they sound like they might.

The 256K thing is due to the fact that RADSL will "degrade gracefully", much like a 56K modem, so that even if your line isn't good enough for a 512k signal, you can still get broadband. If your line won't even support 256k, they won't take your money off you. (Nice of them, isn't it )

I get the feeling that the IOL sales reps have undergone some training which drilled them to never say "no" to the customer. I caught her out on the yes approach when i asked was it an ADSL router they were sending me with the self install package and not a ADSL modem and got a straight "Yes sir is a router".

The "modem" that IOL are currently supplying is a router, not simply a modem (even for self-install).

Ripwave

Originally posted by daveyjoe
True, but I think that almost everyone on Broadband does at least get 256kbps and if they don't then they would have a very good reason to opt-out of their contract, on grounds of poor quality of service.

If they read their contracts before they sign them, they won't have any grounds for opting out.

Peace

Originally posted by Ripwave


The "modem" that IOL are currently supplying is a router, not simply a modem (even for self-install).

Well thats good, saves me a bit of money as i'm sharing the connection at home.

So it turns out that its RADSL that IOL are selling after all. Thought i smelled something fishy there.