Had enough of paying eircom LR

johnny_adidas

Right time has come for me to quit paying eircom the line rental as the missus is about to start work so there will be no1 at home to use the landline. looking for some options really

right, to start with ive got eircom home phone and eircom broadband (had it for over a year so can cancel without fees). we have sky digital for tv. i have one of the usb skype router things for the home phone but havent used it in ages because the line quality wasnt always great.

Chorus is available in my area (clonmel town). if i cancel everything from eircom. can i just get chorus broadband and use that for voip instead. to be honest i dont even mind if this means getting chorus tv as ill put it through to the other tvs in the house. at the moment i am paying roughly €180 every 2 months to eircom (phone+broadband) so anything cheaper is open for discussion.

we are about medium broadband users and very light phone users

Sponge Bob

spot on there Johnny .

If you wish to KEEP your eircom number you must request eircom to PORT the number to a VoIp operator like blueface.ie (they explain the process better than eircom is that not funneh is it not ??? ) before you stop paying the Line Rental.

If the eircom number is unimportant simply cancel the line when the billing period is up, thats the last day of the 2 months you already paid for .

Blueface can give you a new Clonmel number _I Think_ , a Waterford one deffo.

johnny_adidas

just been looking into the broandband packages available to me

* Imagine - €20 (havent heard anything bout these???)

* BT - €20 (heard bad things so wont be going with bt, also had previous problems with esat)

* Digiweb - €23 (havent heard anything bout these???)

Chorus - €30

im guessing with all the ones ive marked as * they need a phone line from eircom as they are adsl?

Sponge Bob

1 2 and 3 do not include €24.20 LR on top

4 may require a TV package on top or come down if you bundle with TV package

Chorus also do multiroom TV unlike Sky who charge handsomely for it.

johnny_adidas

thanks for your replies sponge bob.

well ill be keeping sky anyway. thats for certain. have an X10 remote which deals with the different room prob but obviously same channel.

chorus seems the way to go so to avoid line rental. i dont mind payin a little extra for the channels which i could connect up to our other room as i reckon it would still all come in under the 180 im paying at the mo. off to check the chorus website to see what the prices are so.

Sponge Bob

Post your analysis back in here and including VoIp hosting (€5 a month including calls IIRC )

johnny_adidas

maybe if their sh!tty website would work i could but ill post back alright when i get more info.

revileandy

go for the chorus deal, I take it they use a simliar set up to NTL?

Cable broadband knocks the **** out of DSL/wireless/satellite

my only regret in life has been moving from an ntl covered area!

Irishdudedave

Chorus don't require you to take any of their tv packages...you can just have broadband.
I don't have the service myself but a friend does and he thinks its great...never had any complaints.

If you don't want any line rental then they are the way to go or you could risk wireless but i wouldnt.

bk

Chorus might not require you to take the TV package, they don't in Cork, but it depends on weither they operate scrambling of the TV service in your area or not.

My friend has Chorus BB in Cork, 3m/512k and it works really well, he doesn't have their TV service.

BTW Chorus have three different products with different prices and spec, also when my friend contacted them, they give an extra €5 off the advertised price per month

If you still need a phone you should get www.blueface.ie, €9.99 gets you 300 free minutes a month or €14.99 gets you unlimited free local and national calls at anytime.

You can use your existing phone with this service, you just need an ATA adaptor. Blueface have a great deal at the moment where you get the €14.99 product free for 6 months and the ATA adaptor for just €99, so basically you get the ATA adaptor for just €9 (they usually cost about €70).

BBTW if you do all this, you won't be able to get Sky+, Sky multiroom or Sky HD as Sky currently require you to have a standard telephone line to get any of these. Hopefully this requirement will change soon.

Sponge Bob

basic SKY packages like the €10 or €20 a month or family packs do not require a phoneline while you are in contract .

The sports and movies do so you can use sky box office ordering

kaizersoze

Sponge Bob wrote:

basic SKY packages like the €10 or €20 a month or family packs do not require a phoneline while you are in contract .

The sports and movies do so you can use sky box office ordering

They do if you want the free equipment and free install, otherwise you have to pay for both and pay to have the card activated. At least that was the situation last March.

johnny_adidas

thanks for the help guys. only reason i was gona take the tv channels as well is cos im gona be reducing the outlay so much i could afford to get the chorus digital installed in another room in the house but keep the sky in the living room. anyways...

chorus

"Sign up today and get:
• free connection

Cablenet Broadband Easy Cablenet Broadband Cablenet Broadband Plus
Speed 512k 1536k 3076k
Price €25 €35 €45

€19.95 €29.95* €39.95*
Special Offer
for first 10 months

Take with another Chorus service and recieve even further discounts! "

Chorus Digital
At only €9.99* a month, now is the perfect time to switch to Digital TV! This offer is available for a limited time only, so sign up right away, this is what you'll walk away with:

Over 45 basic channels
Including Channel 4, MGM Movies and the Chorus Sports Channel – not available on Sky
Dedicated technical support locally
Picture perfect digital viewing
Option to add additional premium channels of Sky Sports or Movies

If you take Chorus Digital with another Chorus service, like Cablenet Broadband or Chorus Phone, we will install Chorus Digital for free (worth €50)

*€9.99 for first 3 months, then the standard monthly rate will apply. Offer available to new Chorus TV customers only


so looks like im gona go for the middle broadband option and leave it at that for the minute, which will basically be dropping my bimonthly outlay from 180 to eircom to a measly 60 to chorus. not even bothered about having a home phone at this stage. use my mobile most of the time anyhow and although it was handy for ordering matches etc on sky, i can always ring if i need to in future. does anyone know if you used skype or blueface to make your calls will a sky box dial out if you connect the line out to a usb interface or does it need to detect the dial tone?

as far as the sky goes, they wont even bother talking to you about any kind of installation unless you have a home phone. dont know if private installers are different but this was the case when sky were installing mine.

bk

johnny_adidas wrote:

so looks like im gona go for the middle broadband option and leave it at that for the minute, which will basically be dropping my bimonthly outlay from 180 to eircom to a measly 60 to chorus. not even bothered about having a home phone at this stage. use my mobile most of the time anyhow and although it was handy for ordering matches etc on sky, i can always ring if i need to in future. does anyone know if you used skype or blueface to make your calls will a sky box dial out if you connect the line out to a usb interface or does it need to detect the dial tone?

No, VoIP won't work with Sky and you won't be able to order special movies or matches any more, even over the mobile. The land line must be connected for these to work.

johnny_adidas wrote:

as far as the sky goes, they wont even bother talking to you about any kind of installation unless you have a home phone. dont know if private installers are different but this was the case when sky were installing mine.

They will now for the first box, but they charge extra for such installs.

johnny_adidas

my friend who has no home phone has just rang up and ordered matches in the past without any problems.

johnny_adidas

while im at it does anyone know what the procedure for canceling eircom is?

this month coming, my bill is due, is case that makes any difference

Sponge Bob

rin 1901, tell em cancel before the line rental is up ...dates per last bill.

lafors

revileandy wrote:

go for the chorus deal, I take it they use a simliar set up to NTL?

Cable broadband knocks the **** out of DSL/wireless/satellite

my only regret in life has been moving from an ntl covered area!

Well hopefully both NTL & chorus will be the exact same soon, seeing as they are now part of the same company. Will be good for everyone, Get rid of Eircon and get a better service at the same time

amby666

Sponge Bob wrote:

rin 1901, tell em cancel before the line rental is up ...dates per last bill.

If you want to keep your existing phone number to port to voip, you must do this before you cancel the line.

Solair

Try using your sky box with G.711A modulation on your VoIP router. It'll have more of a chance of working.

Other options is to use the setup for a fax machine, it can help.

johnny_adidas

sorry but i dont think ill have the time to port the number as ill be cancellin it in the next few days. not too pushed anyway. if people want to talk to me that badly they can ring me on my mobile.

Sponge Bob

blueface can give you a new clonmel number

johnny_adidas

but how long would you be waiting for that to come around? i checked my bill this morning and ive paid line rental until the 12th july. so prob enough time if i want to get it ported. (and what happens if u ever wanted to get it unported or is there such a thing)

missus gone down to eircom store to find out will they return the amount ive paid on the bb and lr if i cancel it today. i remember they did on the broadband for my parents anyway.

Sponge Bob

Contact blueface today if you want to keep the number as I told you yestersay. They are a nice bunch to deal with , and yes you can 'unport' to eircom in future , if you wished to port from blueface to BT it must go 'via' eircom as it happens .

if you DO NOT WANT to keep your number it will die on the 11th of July or so when you disconnect.

Blueface can alternatively give you a completely new/different Clonmel number which will work over any BB including Chorus , see

https://www.blueface.ie/shop/getAreaCode.aspx?device=&payg=&extras=&page=plans&plan=SPECIALDSL&x=58&y=10

johnny_adidas

got cha. cheers, thanks for all the info.