Is it worth it?

RobertFoster

Seeing all the topics with complaints about IOLBB downtime, UTV's poor pings and Eircoms low caps and general evilness - is BB worth all the trouble and expense?

I thought IOLBB was the lesser of the 3 evils as up until reacently their only problem seemed to be bad customer support. Are their connections still bad? I don't think I could handle the pings on UTV, and Eircoms caps are too small.

I'm currently on ISDN with UTVipXL. The initial setup/connection fees for BB would be €190 with IOL or €224 with Eircom - and you know the monthly charges for both of them. I wouldn't go with UTV again. While XL has been a good service, the high pings and the fact they don't downgrade ISDN (I'd have to get eircom in) has turned me off them.

Since I switched to UTV back in 2002 the phone bill did go down a fair bit. Over the last 5 months I've had a bill of, on average, €70, plus the line connection charges from eircom. Moving away from UTV to get BB would result in losing the telephone package. I don't want to go back to eircom where phone calls are concerned.

IOL/Esat have 2 packages...but they are both €25/month according to the website...I can't see any great difference Have you a set amount of calls you can make, or how do they work?

My main problem with getting BB was the connection price, but now that the top threads each day are "What is WRONG with Broadband in Ireland???????" "Serious speeds problems Utv" "IOL BB - Slow as a snail today???" "Ha Iolbb Gone Tits Up - I'm In Clare??" etc. I have my doubts...

BTW: Sorry about the loooooong post...I'm a bit fuzzy on the BB situation, oh learned ones... :P

Adrian

I would say that for the most part it is definetly worth it. Look at this way, ppl only complain when something doesn't work. If it works they don't say how good it is, or how reliable its is, no, but when it is broken they complain about everything even adding on little details that might not be true. So if your lucky enough to be near an exchange then get it fool .

Gonzo

get broadband by all accounts its worth it, anythings better than 56k dialup and isdn is just a glorified dialup which is massively expensive. Go with Eircom if you really want low pings and gaming is your thing but if your going to be downloading alot of game and movie related stuff on a daily/weekly basis then go for esat. Sure esat have gone bad in past month but I feel it's a temporary hicup in wots normally a good service. Netsource doesnt give any trouble anymore and has good cap thats another option.

RobertFoster

I thought Netsource was more of a business/expensive package?

sceptre

Originally posted by RobertFoster
Moving away from UTV to get BB would result in losing the telephone package. I don't want to go back to eircom where phone calls are concerned.

UTV will happily keep you as a telephony customer regardless of where and how you get your net package from. if you don't make all that many calls (see Esat below), why move?

The €25 per month package (Esat Advantage Plus) from Esat gives you free landline calls all month to all landlines in the country (including Norn Iron) for up to an hour for each call (keep in mind that when the clock hits 60 minutes you're on a metered rate). The older EsatAdvantage package (still available) commits you to a minimum €25 monthly spend regardless of whether you actually made a call or not. I was with Esat (telephony and NoLimits) till I switched to UTV BB and had to take telephony with it. I was on the older package where there was no minimum spend - I don't make many non-internet calls (none in the last month as a matter of fact) so I wasn't that pushed (apart from switching from Eircom, initially merely because Esat were cheaper and because I was getting my net package from them anyway).

As for whether BB is worth it, in my opinion certainly yes. As a NoLimits customer I was used to dialling up at off-peak whenever I wanted but the ability to dial up at any time (or even all the time) for a few quid extra a month and the extra speed with it makes it worth it. I waited until the prices hit 30 euros a month though.

ando

Originally posted by Adrian
Look at this way, ppl only complain when something doesn't work.

Ok Ok, I cant stress enough how reliable and fast my eircom radsl connection has been since last october . (been down three times since I got it, once was planned work on exchange, the other times local engineers mistook my line for someone elses)

so there

Tazzle

I've found Netsource to be, **GASP**, better than eircom this week. But in general over time Eircom has been perfect, and alot more solid, though Netsource is regaining favour with me

dub45

Originally posted by Tazzle
I've found Netsource to be, **GASP**, better than eircom this week. But in general over time Eircom has been perfect, and alot more solid, though Netsource is regaining favour with me

How do you manage to compare them?

ando

yeah I've noticed how rare it is to see complaints about netsource on these boards. Maybe thats because they dont have any customers left :rolleyes: or they've improved their network drastically. I had Netsource from march last year till october and found it auwful

Gonzo

yeah the eircom network is fantastic and eircom seem to be underestimateing it with these tiny caps, but there are 3 things that eircom could do to make it even better:), 1 = higher caps of 16gig to 30gig. 2 = lower interleving even further and have it the same on eircom business dsl and 3 = change upload speed to 256bps. Unfortunately I cant see this happen particularly the interleving issue but the caps rising would be our best chance of the three imo.

RobertFoster

Thanks for all the replies.

Thanks for explaining the EsatBT phone package sceptre.

[edit] Making calls to mobiles would incure charges wouldn't they? [/edit]

Ripwave

Originally posted by RobertFoster
[edit] Making calls to mobiles would incure charges wouldn't they? [/edit]

There are 2 ESAT packages - one gives you "all you can eat" calls to landlines - local and national, but you pay for mobile and international calls. The other commits you to a minimum spend of €25 on all telephone calls, including international and mobile calls. If you make less than €25 worth of calls in a particular month, then you still pay the €25. (The main reason for "running this risk" is that you save €7/month on your broadband. So even if you make €20 worth of calls, but are charged €25, you're still saving over all).

Both packages cost €25, and if you take either one of them with your broadband package, you only pay a combined price of €58.15.