Magnet debuts 24MB broadband (For €240 a month!!)

damien

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5691

Challenged on the €240 a month charge for the 24MB service, Magnet’s marketing and sales director Charlie Ardagh told siliconrepublic.com: “I understand that the price is not what we’d be used to but if we could get more people involved in broadband and iron out the creases in the local loop unbundling (LLU) process then we would see more economies of scale.”

ro2

Are Clontarf, Dolphins Barn and Ship Street the only exchanges they've unbundled?

seamus

At this point in time, even big corporate customers don't need a 24MB pipe to the net, so they won't justify spending that kind of money. And Magnet won't lower the price until more people take it up. Catch-22 really.

damien

Full product list:

24MB service - €240.00 incl VAT (250GB download cap)

10MB service - €149.00 incl VAT (150GB download cap)

4MB service - €63.99 incl VAT (100GB download cap)

2MB service - €39.99 incl VAT (25GB download cap)


The 4mb business product from eircom is €169 ex vat

So Magnet are at least 1/3 of the eircom price for their business package.

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Sponge Bob

Dont forget that they also do free Magnet to Magnet calls so if you had 2 or 3 offices you get a free PABX linkup ...in effect...between all of them using the Magnet telephony package as well as your BB where you could also use VoIP .

That 24Mb service is an 'up to' service, IIRC it was recently calculated in the UK that only 5% of 24mbit ADSL2+ customers could get it (close enough to the exchange), the majority would only get around 18mbits

crawler

Sponge Bob wrote:

Dont forget that they also do free Magnet to Magnet calls so if you had 2 or 3 offices you get a free PABX linkup ...in effect...between all of them using the Magnet telephony package as well as your BB where you could also use VoIP .

That 24Mb service is an 'up to' service, IIRC it was recently calculated in the UK that only 5% of 24mbit ADSL2+ customers could get it (close enough to the exchange), the majority would only get around 18mbits

Did the laws of physics (and the Analysis group) not say 8Mbps....?**goes and fiddles with calculator** Probably wrong....must check...

ro2

It's 8Mb. Does the 24Mb package include their TV service?

Redrocket

no the laws of adsl1 said up to 8Mbps,
adsl2 is up to 24
http://www.dslprime.com/a/adsl21.pdf

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

parasite

smiaras wrote:

This post has been deleted.

any idea as to which cork exchanges they'll be unbundling ?

Praetorian

Well I'm not impressed at all with the prices of the high end products. They intend to rape the first adopters with high charges. Some people will of course pay, but lots of people won't make the switch. Do they really want to sell their llu products or do they want to remain a bitstream bítch along with the rest of them?

I hope smart now react with more sensible prices.

We should be getting 4m/bit at the 2 m/bit prices and 8 m/bit at 60. 12 at about 85. and the 24 m/bit business product at 160.

Sponge Bob

Sponge Bob wrote:

It was recently calculated in the UK that only 5% of 24mbit ADSL2+ customers could get it (close enough to the exchange)

Actually it is only 5% will get over 18Mbits, those within 0.5km of the exchange only .

see http://blog.itproportal.com/?p=15

8Mbits for the normal (say 1km or 1.5km away) sort of user sounds right then Crawler. I stand corrected .

eircomtribunal

Praetorian wrote:

Well I'm not impressed at all with the prices

Magnum had a look at the French products and added a zero at the back.

P.

eircomtribunal

Praetorian wrote:

Well I'm not impressed at all with the prices

Magnet had a look at the French products and added a zero at the back.

P.

IrishMike

What the hell are they putting caps on a 25mb connection for

cgarvey

No press release/info on their website .. that's pathetic.

No mention of upload speeds either.. what good is 24Mb down if you only get 128K up .. I presume it's at least 512K? You wouldn't be long burning your cap with 24Mb.. it doesn't seem proportionate.

Still, though, it's a welcome addition to the market, with a bit of innovation thrown in. Will Smart be moving (or indeed Digiweb)?

.cg

cgarvey

Also, smiaras has pointed out in the BB forum (though not here, I note) that he works for a company that do PR for Magnet.

smiaras, where can I get a list of exchanges officially, so that we can update our exchange list?

.cg

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

cgarvey

ta

Cryos

seamus wrote:

At this point in time, even big corporate customers don't need a 24MB pipe to the net, so they won't justify spending that kind of money. And Magnet won't lower the price until more people take it up. Catch-22 really.

Well i can tell you this much the way the industry is going at the moment (VPN and logical network) they are investing heavely in conectivity solutions because they are using demanding connection applications like Citrix and TSM backup solutions to central storage areas; One company who shal remain nameless baught a simular connectivity solution for a hell of a lot more than that.

It certainly is a warm welcome to speeds like that in ireland in my opinion.

ro2

The website has been updated, upload is 1Mb/s and you can get the TV service as an add on.

http://www.magnet.ie/

Praetorian

ro2 wrote:

The website has been updated, upload is 1Mb/s and you can get the TV service as an add on.

http://www.magnet.ie/

Their 10m/bit (surprisingly) only has 512 up

Their 4m/bit and 2 m/bit products only has 512 up as well.

They are being slightly conservative on the upload rates. They should have thrown in upto 1.5 m/bit (upload) on the 24m/bit package. 1m/bit (upload) on the 10m/bit package. 768 (upload) on the 4m/bit package.

They got the 2m/bit package just right :v:

Sponge Bob

2 Down and 512 Up is a very interesting package !

skywalker

Sponge Bob wrote:

2 Down and 512 Up is a very interesting package !

Its 256 up for the 2mb package.

thorfield

I contacted Magnet with a view to getting regular BB. I was initially offered the "Step-up from Dial Up" package for €29 per month, 24GB per month Cap and no connection fee. As part of the offer, they expect you to take one of their voice packages when the get you exchange enabled.

All good so far. After a second call, I was sent the sign-up pack. The terms of this was that I had to change my number. This is a show stopper and I had to stop this sales enquiry.

So like Smart, these operators will find it hard to get critical mass unless there is number portability. I wrote an email to David McRedmond to seek his views on this subject. I will post the outcome if David has some spare some time for us consumers.

I dont see the requirement for 24Mb right now unless you a business customer with lots of users all requiring web access. And I imagine you will have to be living withing touching distance of an Eircom exchange.

So for now, I will wait until Jan to see what these new trials reveal and then review the BB market again.

OfflerCrocGod

skywalker wrote:

Its 256 up for the 2mb package.

Must confess that after January's upgrades Magnet will not look so amazing unless you are lucky enough to be on one of their fibre estates (/cleans drool) the 2mb/256kbps package is worse then BT's equivalent! Bt's is 3Mb/384kbps with 30Gb cap (I'm sure it will go up but even if it doesn't they don't charge) with phone rental that comes out at €50 magnet's is 2Mb/256kbps with a 25Gb cap (and they do charge it seems) their phone service is included and that's at €40. So that's slower up and down and smaller cap for €10 cheaper BUT I must change my number to get their service. Ummm magnet better upgrade their offerings because they are nowhere as attractive as they were before. Same applies for Smart. Lovely

bk

For those complaining about the cost of Magnets, 24mb and 10mb services, I'd just like to point out that Verizon in the US is now rellong out a 7m/76bk DSL service aimed at business users that costs $235 per month.

http://news.com.com/Verizon+testing+7mbps+DSL/2100-1034_3-5969304.html?tag=nefd.top

Magnet 24m/1m = €250 10m/512k = €150

So for business packages Magnet isn't bad compared to the US and in some ways we are actually starting to surpass the US (which I always expected would happen).

However I agree, Magnets 2 and 4mb products are bad value for money when compared to NTL/Eircom/BT.

Sponge Bob

bk wrote:

For those complaining about the cost of Magnets, 24mb and 10mb services

I am not complaining about the cost if its a low contention package, one of their techs got very sniffy about the discussions on boards and wrote a big long blog somewhere attacking the questions on boards . It had some useful stuff but he bristled when he tried to explain that there was no contention and then instead of addressing it as Garfield from Smart did very well 6 months ago he started to bang on about international pipes and having ships on standby at all times and yadda yadda. .

If its 24Mbit , uncontended , then its a great package for €250 a month, same at 4:1 or even out to 8:1 contention IMO , this being Ireland .

Assuming the bulk of people get 15-20Mbit connections (not 24Mbit) , as they will, it would be a very good package at 4:1 contention and good at 8:1

A 15Mbit connection 'can' download 100 Megabytes a Minute . You could therfore hit your monthly cap after less than 2 days at that speed . If you connect faster than that you could possibly hit your cap in less than 1 day .

I personally do not believe that high end Business Class Products should be capable of maxing themselves out in a day when there are 30 days in a month .

skywalker

thorfield wrote:

I contacted Magnet with a view to getting regular BB. I was initially offered the "Step-up from Dial Up" package for €29 per month, 24GB per month Cap and no connection fee. As part of the offer, they expect you to take one of their voice packages when the get you exchange enabled.

All good so far. After a second call, I was sent the sign-up pack. The terms of this was that I had to change my number. This is a show stopper and I had to stop this sales enquiry.

So like Smart, these operators will find it hard to get critical mass unless there is number portability. I wrote an email to David McRedmond to seek his views on this subject. I will post the outcome if David has some spare some time for us consumers.

I dont see the requirement for 24Mb right now unless you a business customer with lots of users all requiring web access. And I imagine you will have to be living withing touching distance of an Eircom exchange.

So for now, I will wait until Jan to see what these new trials reveal and then review the BB market again.

Thats strange, when I rang up they said you could keep your number.

ro2

Some more Magnet news:

Magnet in fibre deal with ESB Telecoms:
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5728

Magnet to invest €50m in ADSL2+ network:
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5720