IrishBroadband - Yay or Nay?

DSLinAbsentia

I've finally been released from the shackles of a 12 month €ircon ADSL contract and am moving house into an IBB hotspot area.

Has anyone any experience with them?
Do they wreck your chimney/roof? (i.e., is the installation insured)
What's the quality of service like - as compared to line based?
Is it a myth that quality of service is weather affected?
What model of Ethernet radio do they give?

Thanks in advance!

Blaster99

If you read what most people say about them here, there's plenty of downside. Looking at their service offerings, there's not a lot of upside unless caps is a big issue for you. Their 1Mbps Lite for €40pm was interesting for the half a day that it was up on their site and I was going to go for it, but I couldn't really be arsed taking the chance on a 512k service for about the same that I pay for a bulletproof ADSL service. Next time I change, it will be for 1Mbps.

Lemming

DSLinAbsentia wrote:

I've finally been released from the shackles of a 12 month €ircon ADSL contract and am moving house into an IBB hotspot area.

Has anyone any experience with them?
Do they wreck your chimney/roof? (i.e., is the installation insured)
What's the quality of service like - as compared to line based?
Is it a myth that quality of service is weather affected?
What model of Ethernet radio do they give?

Thanks in advance!

You'll find both negative and positive (as with any ISP). I've been with IBB since early March of last year and my experience for the most part has been a positive one, with the odd moment of hair-pulling. My only real gripe is their lack of phone support outside of business hours.

Installation-wise, they didn't destroy the chimney or roof. The cable from the transmitter was threaded in under the roofing tiles, with a small hole made in the sheet underneath and sealant applied around it once the cable was threaded through.

My only contention with the QoS is that any joe bloggs with his own 2.4ghz transmitter can ruin your day if he starts crossing your line of sight, as happened with a friend of mine (running off teh RTE transmitter, UCD had their own wireless kit on-campus which caused havoc during business hours), and I suspect with mine to a very limited extent for a brief period. This will be sorted once the 3.5ghz service gets rolled out. Bar all that, Im' guaruanteed minimum ISDN speed as I'm on an 8:1 contention ratio.

I've never had a problem in sh*tty weather to date with my connection speeds either.

Moonbeam

IBB support is open from 8am - 9pm Monday to Friday.

DSLinAbsentia

Lemming wrote:

Im' guaruanteed minimum ISDN speed as I'm on an 8:1 contention ratio.

Would I be correct in saying that minimum ISDN speed is 128K? On their 512/512 8:1 package, what kind of download speeds are you getting?

Mutant_Fruit

I believe all new customers are being given 3.5ghz gear, and old customers are being slowly phased off the 2.4stuff. I might be wrong though. I do know that some people are already on the 3.5 stuff, and therefore are interference free.

Lemming

DSLinAbsentia wrote:

Would I be correct in saying that minimum ISDN speed is 128K? On their 512/512 8:1 package, what kind of download speeds are you getting?

ISDN speed is actually 64kbps. What you are referring to is dual-channel ISDN. Using two phone lines simultaenously, ergo costing double the price.

Moonbeam

All new Ripwave customers are getting 3.5ghz Ripwaves and from what I gather other customers will get vl

carbsy

Whats the deal with VL? I'm contemplating moving from DSL to IBB 5.8Ghz VL but am afraid about the QoS.Is VL some new bulletproof Wireless Radio?

Mutant_Fruit

Vl is bullet proof. not a problem in over 8 months since i got it. Constant uber low pings.

Its bullet proof as no-one else can use the same frequencies IBB use, and because its licencesed, they can use higher powered signals, all of which improve performance.

Moriarty

5.8ghz is an unlicensed ISM band, like 2.4ghz. Afaik the only licensed spectrum IBB hold is c. 3.5ghz.

Mutant_Fruit

Moriarty wrote:

5.8ghz is an unlicensed ISM band, like 2.4ghz. Afaik the only licensed spectrum IBB hold is c. 3.5ghz.

Oops, you're right. But to use the 5.8ghz spectrum you have to send in some kind of application before you can use it like IBB use it (i.e. for WAN's etc).

Moonbeam

Irish Broadband hold a number of licences for licenced frequencies-

These frequencies are in the 3.5ghz and 10.5ghz range.

carbsy

Yup, they use microwave technology operating in the 2.4Ghz and the 5.8Ghz spectrums are a licensed operator in the 3.5Ghz and 10.5Ghz spectrums.

Ripwave

Moonbeam wrote:

IBB support is open from 8am - 9pm Monday to Friday.

Which isn't much good when the service is down on Sunday afternoon (as it was for a couple of hours last Sunday).

Moriarty

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

But to use the 5.8ghz spectrum you have to send in some kind of application before you can use it like IBB use it (i.e. for WAN's etc).

That's just a formality, anyone can send in the form and it doesn't cost anything. Afaik it's so comreg can have an idea of the scale of 5.8 deployment around the country and it may even be used as part of a dispute resolution system for all I know.

Tazz T

Just got my Ripwave modem yesterday and got it working today after a little problem at their end. Incredibly simple to set-up. I'm getting a very weak signal but I believe I'm on the edge of the catchment area. Still to test speeds but certainly better than the dial up I was on before.

And I'm proud to say I've gotten rid of my landline (and eircom with it.)

DSLinAbsentia

Tazz T wrote:

And I'm proud to say I've gotten rid of my landline (and eircom with it.)

My goal is to rid myself of €ircon's land line extortion aswell - I'll look at land lines again when the bad boys are forced to unbundle the last link in the line.

So I got through to IBB sales and they're selling a 1MB/1MB antenna system. Didn't ask what freq. €149 and €48 a month. Looks like a good deal. Methinks I'll be giving it a go.

RicardoSmith

Tazz T wrote:

Just got my Ripwave modem yesterday and got it working today after a little problem at their end. Incredibly simple to set-up. I'm getting a very weak signal but I believe I'm on the edge of the catchment area. Still to test speeds but certainly better than the dial up I was on before.

And I'm proud to say I've gotten rid of my landline (and eircom with it.)

Let us know your experience. I'm on the edge of my catchment too.

Ripwave

Tazz T wrote:

I believe I'm on the edge of the catchment area.

Which catchment area? Which mast are you getting signal from?

michaelpwilson

From personal experience, IBB were punctual in installing their equipment. However, I don't have very much else good to say about them.

Prior to the installation crew beginning work, I asked whether they had insurance to carry it out. They claimed that they had.

About a week after installation, I noticed that part of the chimney was missing (they had bolted the dish to the chimney and had broken the chimney pot in the process). A visit to the roof confirmed that "someone" had left the broken pieces of the chimney pot on the flat part of my roof.

An inspection was then made (by a builder friend) of the main chimney whereupon it was discovered that in the process of drilling the holes to support the dish to the chimney stack, IBB (or their contractors) had caused severe structural damage. When I managed to get hold of someone in IBB, they denied that they had caused the damage (although there was no way it could have been caused by anything else).

Subsequent calls to IBB resulted in them sending out one of their representatives to investigate my claim. I showed him the broken chimney pot and told him of the builder's report. He suggested that the chimney had been broken before they had begun work (clearly implausible) and he also suggested that he "take the broken chimney pot away for examination" - no way, José.

IBB then sent out an independent roofing contractor to investigate the damage. IBB never furnished me with the details of this investigation, but I discovered from calling the roofing contractor myself that over €5,000 worth of damage was done to the chimney.

IBB's representative, after many attempts to get hold of him, then called round one day when I was absent. He told my mother a sob story about how they were a start-up company with little funds (yeah right, don't your backers own the toll bridges?) and again implied to my mother that the chimney was already damaged prior to installation. He then said that he would be willing to reimburse my mother to the tune of approximately €2,000 plus a year's subscription (woohoo) "in full and final settlement" of the matter. My mother, for reasons that I will never understand, accepted this. I was (and am) furious.

To add insult to injury, and despite frequent approaches to them, IBB proved utterly incompetent when it came to billing me. On two separate occasions, and for reasons known only to them, they deducted massive amounts of money from my bank account, leaving me in dire straits. On both occasions it took a visit to their HQ in Sandyford to sort it out, but they were very slow to reimburse me. Even cancelling the direct debit instruction in my bank didn't deter them, as funds were still removed by IBB (under an alternate name) after I cancelled it. Strange but true.

Finally, I was a trial user of i-stream before Eircom decided to fleece its users (again). I don't know what i-stream is like now, but when I used the trial 512/128 service, it was better than IBB's 512/512 service. That's not sour grapes, that's fact.

My advice? If you insist on going for IBB, don't leave the installation workers alone for a second. Take polaroids of everything they're likely to touch, before they arrive. Get it in writing what redress you have in the event of damage and under what conditions (this may be on the T&Cs you sign). Inspect the work immediately after installation and preferably before the crew leave. If anything's amiss, report it immediately, and don't let their Teflon representatives fob you off. If you don't get satisfaction from that, do what I didn't do, and seek legal advice.

Let me close by saying that none of the above is fictional. I had nothing but goodwill for IBB in the beginning. I was desperate for a company to come along and show the thieves at Eircom how to run a business. I know there must be lots of people out there who have had wonderful experiences with IBB. However, I would never choose IBB again. They have caused nothing but expensive problems, and left me to foot the bill.

Sztraik

That is quite scary... I'll think twice before going with them now!

gsand

IBB have good points and bad...

Support is ridiculous at times but when you do finally get someone out to you they do a good enough job...

Speeds on the 8:1 512k which I myself am on vary but are generally quite good-I expect quite a lot for 50euro a month and it just about manages it for me, bad experiences aside.

CONMIKE12

Quote: " I had nothing but goodwill for IBB in the beginning. I was desperate for a company to come along and show the thieves at Eircom how to run a business."

My experience as an ibb customer would suggest that they are defo not the company to show anyone how to run a business.
I was treated very badly,with e mails and phone calls completely ignored.Promises by both tech support and admin staff to phone me back were never kept.Even one of their directors told me i should be happy with the minimum
d/load speed specified in the T&C's.
I had very inconsistent d/load speeds that were never fixed.I broke my contract and have adsl now.At last i am experiencing true BB.
IMO,the true measure of a company is how they handle things when there is a problem.IBB showed themselves to be incompetent and unprofessional in any dealings i had with them.
Nay,nay and nay.

G|N|T

I've been with IBB for nearly 2 years now and at the start of the contract i was getting a crap connection,for a while it was as bad as dial up. When i got in contact with technical support it took a while but they really looked after me, they came and replaced my equipment to VL, which as the rest said, is bullet proof! I'm happy with my connection, havent had any problems since.

Tazz T

RicardoSmith wrote:

Let us know your experience. I'm on the edge of my catchment too.

I'm having no problems with it. It's not lightning fast but it's a helluva a lot better than dial-up. It wouldn't work the first night because they'd had it set to the wrong base station. Don't know what one they shifted it to but I'm only lighting 1-2 bars on signal strength on the connection monitor. Signal quality is much better at 7-8 bars. Downloading at about 40kb so I haven't any complaints. Wouldn't recommend it for gamers though. Best pings I could manage was about 140 on Quake.

I'm happy enough though. I was paying UTV 25 for a really bad dial up conn. This is just 5 more and I managed to get it install free (it's 99 now). And I'm saving by not paying line rental. Never used the phone for calls.

Sorry I can't give you anymore technical information than that but I'm not only using it for surfing, downloading music and the odd game - nothing too techy.

DSLinAbsentia

michaelpwilson has scared the bejaysus out of me. The building work is one thing, at least I can camcorder the before and after and MPEG it for this site.

It's the erroneous billing and direct debits that would freak me out.

Thanks all for the insights!

Moojuice

hey you guys using the ripwave service, what catchment area are you in? I am having no luck at all with mine. I get a signal and then as soon as I plug it in to the usb port it starts flashing red again. It is as if plugging it in to the port resets it. Someone on the boards PM'd me and said he got it to work by leaving it on all night and it eventually got connected. Tried that and no luck. I think ill have to send the USB modem back and get an ethernet modem and try that. It is really pissing me off. The only other option is to get my phoneline reconnected (expensive) and then pay stupid prices to eircon or eshat.

Moo

Ps I am on the rte mast

carbsy

Hmmm, after reading the thread I'm seriously thinking about sticking with my DSL now.

fullmoon

I have moved from Eircom 512K ADSL in Oct. to IBB 1MB business, worked a wonder for the first 3 weeks 1.01MB download and 800k up it was great, the service went down early Dec. one day in Blanchardstown and came back the next day never the same, 5 times onto tech support waste of time, and i want my 512K back- this is a business connection I need for work and it is a disaster, the fact it worked for the first 3 weeks was good but now dialup would be quicker and they seen to have no interest, anyone else have the same problem?

Blaster99

The performance at my end is all over the shop, mainly bad recently. Probably getting about 20Kb/s on average. Not exactly acceptable. It was fairly good until the service went down a few weekends ago and it's been poor ever since. I'm in Bray by the way. I still have a 512/128 Eircom ADSL line that I use for backup (paid for by somebody else so I don't care) and it blows the socks off the IBB service. It's gotten to a point where I'll have to waste my time with IBB support, but I suspect I won't get anywhere.