Broadband in Ireland. What do you want most?

Praetorian

What do you want most?

seamus

I took liberties with your poll Prae, and added in what I what most

Praetorian

Should be interesting to see the results. Hopefully Eircom, Esat, Netsource, Digiweb, NTL and the wireless providers will notice!

Gonzo

was hard to choose, all of the options in the poll are essential really, i went for cap first, if I had a choice I wouldve put the speed next then the linetest issue after.

Im taking a wild guess that we might see new offerings/cap increases from september this year as it would be 6 months since last increase and the end of the summer broadband promotion, eircom usually do spec increases when promotions are over like what happened last february when the free modem/install offer ended. So far since broadband came around Eircom have increased the caps every 6 to 8 months.

L5

Another option would be better contention rates, maybe 24:1 for residential users

watty

A real trigger program!

1) 15 Euro per month for 256k

2) VDSL with ISDN as standard. Actually costs less at exchange than adsl over analog. Gives HUGELY more flexibility for voice, fax and non-internet data. Alllows home or SOHO "pabx" feature with 8 extensions under €250! Also allows greater distance at 256K or more speed at shorter distance than adsl

3) No cap.

4) SDSL and reverse adsl (i.e. 256k/256k or 128k down and 512k up) suits a self hosted setup better. Costs nothing extra. But try explaining it to the sales rep! Needed if you hosting your own web pages and not really downloading stuff, just browsing. On VDSL etc.

5) 25 Euro a month for 256K no contention

6) 50 Euro for 128/512 or 512/128 options.

BigEejit

I think that more competition (lots more) will give all the other things .... this is another way of saying "where the fuck are those damn wisps, they are supposed to be taking customers away from eircom / giving broadband to people who cant get it because of eircoms shoddy network"

Gonzo

theres not enough difference between the starter packages (4gig) and the homeplus/business starter packages (8gig) given the sizeable price difference. The starter package of 4mb is fine becuase its for ppl who dont download much and want the cheapest solution but the homeplus package should be alot better as it shud be aimed at ppl who want to download alot more than the starter., around 30gig cap wud be right. There should also be a 3rd radsl offering for the home user, a 1024/256 radsl option with no cap at all and low interleving for around €65 a month. This wud keep most users on correctly capped services but for those who dont want a cap this uncapped option wud be offered with all the isps thus keeping the warez ppl spread evenly throughout all the isps rather than on one like what happened with netsource clogging its network up.

dub45

Broadband ties you to one access point (as far as I know anyways!)

This is restrictive.

When you have a dial up account you can access it much more freely.

Is there anyway around the bb restriction that we can look forward to in the future?

Urban Weigl

The biggest issue right now is availability -- I'd say at least half the population currently can not get broadband (only ~150 out of ~1000 exchanges upgraded), and many lines connected to DSL enabled exchanges fail.

That said, I think it is laughable how our consumer broadband plans are still only 512kbps. There should at least be the option for a 1024kbps package out there. In Germany, the only 3 consumer broadband packages still available are 1, 2 and 3mbps. Even 5 years ago, in 1999, the slowest package you could get was already 50% faster than what Eircom are offering today. And now it's 100%.

The other side of it are the business packages. A 4mbps product should be added, as is available in many other countries. There is also a lack of SDSL (symmetrical DSL) here.

Capt'n Midnight

On the lower end of the scale

How about option for Naked BB
(ie. not having to pay eircom phone line rental)

And/or Entry level option - always on SLOW connection as part of basic phone service

No blocking of VOIP services.

Blocking of NetBIOS ports

MarVeL

My vote went for competition. Once we have that (particularily over the last mile) then the rest should naturally follow.

Paddy20

Competition. Here in 'Ballygobackwards' i.e. Ballybofey, which comes under the main Letterkenny exchange as a sub station. We do not as yet even have the choice of opting to be 'ripped off' by Eircon Broadband While all around us even less significant backwaters in Donegal, are being activated every week.

Talk about salt in the wound :mad:

clearz

100 - 200 Mbps Connection would be nice. Im sick of 512K it sucks.

GoneShootin

5 miles to my left BB is available, yet 2.5 miles to my right it isnt. Im the middle of two exchanges. The one on the left (Mitchelstown) is up and running a few months, the one to my right, a village (Glanworth) is never going to see BB until they start making more freaking babies !

Im on the line that DOESNT have BB.

God dammit

Dustaz

It always comes down to competition. Most of the options on the poll would simply not be an issue if there was real competition here.

Broadband has come a LONG way since IOFFL was founded (from , um none to where we are now where most* people have access to it in some form or other). What has fuelled that drive is the fact that there is a little competition in the marketplace. We just need more.

Prices to be reduced!

This will happen even without competition over time as saturation is reached in target markets.

Caps to be increased!

This is a total red herring and i wonder why its even in the poll

Broadband availability in my area!

This is down to competition. The more competition the more depserate telcos become for your money and broadband becomes availble to areas it was not before.

A broadband speed increase, 1024x256 residential would be nice.

Time and competition. As saturation is reached, niche markets become important. Also with increased competition special offers become mroe prevalent.

More competition!

Bingo!

Better pings; interleaving to be turned completely off for residential packages.

While this would be lovely, its a niche demand and will only occur if competition opens up a market for it.

A better line test, so perfectly good lines don't fail anymore

See above (broadband in my area). Telcos will be falling over themselvs to pass lines.

spongebob

Originally posted by Paddy20
While all around us even less significant backwaters in Donegal, are being activated every week.

Talk about salt in the wound :mad:

Kilcar will have ADSL by Christmas Paddy20 , is that what you are on about ?

M

Paddy20

Yep Muck.

What I really do not understand is my home town is in reality 'Two towns' i.e. Ballybofey & Stranorlar devided only by a bridge over the river Finn.

In Ballybofey we have a very modern busy Eircom depot which apparently is part of the Letterkenny exchange that is Broadband activated (074). We are (074).

Even Buncrana is now also (074) and it recently had broadband activated.

I live in a small 24 house cul-de-sac where all cables are new and underground, as the houses are less than 5 years old, and all of the Twin-Towns had all Eircom & ESB cables put underground over the past 7 years. So they are all new.

There is no excuse, as far as I am concerned. It has to be Political shenanigans ?..

OfflerCrocGod

Jesus Paddy What's The Hurry?*......Calm down.


*see his .sig:rolleyes:

Paddy20

I'm cool as a cucumber :cool: Just mad at Eircon for about 15 years. If you are happy with them ?.. what medication are you taking , and leave my sig out of it :rolleyes:

jbkenn

Paddy20

Ballybofey will be enabled on 26/06/04

jbkenn

dub45

Speedwise - what is the maximum thats currently possible for Eircom to offer in the present set up? (Without them having to claim major investment and so on)

And does it actually cost the ISP a lot more to provide additonal speed?

Gonzo

I was wondering about that too, im sure eircoms radsl could go alot faster than 512bps and if so what are the chances of me getting 1024bps if it were to become available, i live 2.3km from the exchange. My m8 in england is on radsl also and is able to get 2mb radsl and he lives 2km from exchange so distance shouldnt be a problem?

Paddy20

jbkenn ,

Quote; " Ballybofey will be enabled on 26/06/04 " end quote.

Many thanks, thats the best news I have heard in about 20 years Brilliant, thats only 7 Days away.

Now, I will hopefully be able to upgrade to UTV Clicksilver

Hey, I'm groovin.

Paddy.

jbkenn

Speedwise - what is the maximum thats currently possible for Eircom to offer in the present set up

When I queried the speed of an Eircom Ehanced DSL line, 2Mbit, the Tech told me the line was fine, and was capable of 6Mbit

And does it actually cost the ISP a lot more to provide additonal speed

No but in Eircoms case, probably Yes

jbkenn

Jorinn

Originally posted by L5
Another option would be better contention rates, maybe 24:1 for residential users

I've been moved from 48:1 to 24:1 contention when eircom changed the packages, there is NO difference as far as I am concerned.

Jorinn

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
On the lower end of the scale

How about option for Naked BB
(ie. not having to pay eircom phone line rental)

And/or Entry level option - always on SLOW connection as part of basic phone service

No blocking of VOIP services.

Blocking of NetBIOS ports

Yup, naked BB would be great. In Germany I think if you just use it for DSL all you pay is €7 in line rental as opposed to the full rate.

Jorinn

Originally posted by dub45
Speedwise - what is the maximum thats currently possible for Eircom to offer in the present set up? (Without them having to claim major investment and so on)

And does it actually cost the ISP a lot more to provide additonal speed?

Um, without major investment, just moderate, though eircom would probably term it major I think it's 27Mbit or so, with new tech coming soon it's up to 200Mbit if i read some articles correctly.

byte

Broadband availability in my area would be a start! :mad:

shinzon

Originally posted by Paddy20
jbkenn ,

Quote; " Ballybofey will be enabled on 26/06/04 " end quote.

Many thanks, thats the best news I have heard in about 20 years Brilliant, thats only 7 Days away.

Now, I will hopefully be able to upgrade to UTV Clicksilver

Hey, I'm groovin.

Paddy.

Hold the horses there PADDY, your exchange maybe enabled on that date, but that doesnt give any guarantee that your line will pass

So dont get 2 excited yet

Shin

Paddy20

Shinzon,

Yeah, I am trying not too. Looks as though I will have to literally 'Live my Sig' for awhile as EirCoN are still holding the last mile and God only knows what else they have up their snots :dunno: