Uncapped down-the-phoneline, best option?

wrafter

Folks,

(I had already hijacked a thread to ask about non-down-the-phoneline access already, but with IBBs bad reputation and NTLs inability to provide access at my address in Beaumont I'm moving towards a down-the-phoneline option.)

Can someone recommend the best, UNCAPPED, down-the-phoneline access in Dublin (Ivy Court, Beaumount Woods) please? There's no phone at the address currently so I'd be getting it in, and am curious about package deals also, if such a thing exists.

Would be much appreciated.

(I'm outside the country right now, thus in need of assistance from my fellow Irishers back home! :-) )

Ta,

Wrafter

wrafter

Hump!

Cabaal

I'd personally have to suggest Esat Business 512K or 1MB connections

512k - €45 pm, 2 year contract
1MB - €110 pm, 2 year contract

OK the contract sucks ass but the service is uncapped
also static IP, 20/1 contention ratio, no throttling

I've had no issues with the 1MB service so far, took about a month to get it installed and since June I've had about 20min downtime.

Might be worth phoning them to see if they *might* sort something with a contract less then 2 years, I doubt they will
but no harm in trying

Esatbt.com

Creamy Goodness

i presume they are ex vat prices?

Cabaal

Cremo wrote:

i presume they are ex vat prices?

€110 for 1MB is including VAT, not 100% sure if €45/512K is or not
Esat site has changed and can't seem to find alot there atm

Payment is quarterly not monthly as well

Creamy Goodness

do they offer this service in bray?

do you have to have a registered company number or whatever else to stop a residental customer getting it?

Cabaal

Cremo wrote:

do they offer this service in bray?

do you have to have a registered company number or whatever else to stop a residental customer getting it?

I had to pay them a deposit since I don't have a registered business
After a credit check things should be fine, but in saying that I know two people that did'ent have to pay Esat a deposit at all and they had no businesses,

So suppose it may depend on the agents your dealing with.

Esats site used to have a map of Ireland showing business BB enabled exchanges, but sadly this seems to have disappeared since they remodeled the place.
Best to ring them on 1800 924 924

wrafter

Cabaal, thank you for that lead. Two year is a pain, for sure. Wonder what they'd do if I tried splitting after 12 months? I guess if it's direct debit I can just stop payments, and leave the country, which is what I'd be doing anyway! :-)

Cabaal

I'd say they could cause some problems if you just split and break the contract, luckily I managed to get 1MB with a 1 year contract.
I phoned up the first week they had the offer and they hadn't decided contract lenght at that stage.
Hope you have luck finding out if the exchange is enabled etc

wrafter

Lucky lucky guy.

(Exhange enabled... that's another problem, eh?! Sigh! Ireland in the year 2004!)

Thanks again!

Blaster99

I think I've already told you about Digiweb's 1Mbps service, which is a good bit cheaper than Esat's service. Esat's service is also only available in a very select few exchanges, Bray is not one. They basically got some money from the Government or the EU to install ADSL in a bunch of exchanges, mainly in the sticks. I personally can't see any reason to go with Esat's business ADSL. They have traditionally lagged behind Eircom (and clones) when it comes to lowering their prices and upping the spec. Esat is also generally speaking a complete bunch of clowns.

wrafter

Digiweb

1024 up and 256 down for €89

or

512 up and 256 down for €45

Plus VAT.

Details here: http://www.digiweb.ie/broadband_dsl.asp

Blaster, are you a subscriber? Service quality good?

doh.ie

Also, it's worth pointing out that from a discussion I had with Digiweb recently, all their services up to 2MB are capped. As are Pure Telecom's (up to 2MB). Seems Esat Business really is the only truly uncapped provider.

I know the Digiweb site says 'No download limits', but they'll throttle, monitor and finger-wag if you are over their 'Acceptable Usage Policy'. They'll avoid words like 'limits', but they also won't believe anyone will approach numbers like 30GB in a month and so will get away with saying 'No limits' even where there are some in reality.

Such is the state of broadband in Ireland - I doubt it will ever change... And if you start comparing prices and service to abroad (particularly Spain and Italy - caps are unheard of), you'll start crying...

Blaster99

Sorry, no experience with Digiweb. I did consider them for their 1Mbps service, but went with IBB instead primarily because I do quite a lot of uploading so the 1024:1024 service appealed to me. The experience has been mixed.

wrafter

doh.ie wrote:

And if you start comparing prices and service to abroad (particularly Spain and Italy - caps are unheard of), you'll start crying...

Therefore, cry I must, for I am typing this right now from Barcelona, on a Telefonica DSL set-up, which hasn't gone down for last 18 months, which has no download limits, and which costs me a mere EUR39 per month 512 down and 128 up. Sigh.

doh.ie

wrafter wrote:

Therefore, cry I must, for I am typing this right now from Barcelona, on a Telefonica DSL set-up, which hasn't gone down for last 18 months, which has no download limits, and which costs me a mere EUR39 per month 512 down and 128 up. Sigh.

There you go. That's exactly what I mean.

For those of us with serious download intentions - from wherever the source -I'd suggest Esat Business @ €110 is actually good value considering you get what you pay for. Esat may be responsible (though IOL BB) for the whole fuss of 'No limits' ("Actually, we mean quite severe limits...") some time back, but at least with this corporate package, it's the real deal.

Will we ever see the situation improve here to where it's at in Europe? Considering the time I've invested in checking out the reality of the caps and untrue 'no limits' claims, don't hold your breath...

Cabaal

Agreed, thats the reason why I went and got Esat Business
I've heard of no issues with it, little downtime
No issues regarding caps, although somebody I know was contact by Esat about what they were downloading...super.....nova...apparenty Universal had contact Esat about it, nothing since that and it was over a year ago.

But other then that I've heard of no issues
imho its worth every penny I pay

Blaster99

Not that I care much about caps or not, but Eircom's 2Mbps is uncapped. A fair whack of money to pay for that, though.

As it is beyond EsatBT to create a web site where it's possible to find anything, are there any EsatBT ADSL exchanges in Dublin?

Cabaal

They used to have a very helpfull map that showed everry exchange thats enabled and exchanges that will be enabled in the future, but since they re-designed the site they seemed to have removed that
As for Dublin I'm sure they have a few but it would seem the only way of finding out is to phone them or hope someone here knows the names of the exchanges.