SMART v Eircom

zeusnero

I've looked around and can't find a thread about this, but if there is one please feel free to correct me.

Anyway, as those of us out there that want v cheap, v fast broadband will know, SMART are the best value for money in the Irish market
(€35 per month with free line rental, 3mb down, no cap)

But until now there were some restrictions on their service, namely that you have to change your phone number. Not any more (from August)...

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/biznews/8166496?view=Eircomnet

On Wednesday COMREG stated that by August Eircom will have to allow users to transfer ISP's and keep the same phone number. Do people think this ruling will start a huge shift of previously Eircom locked in phone owners moving over to SMART?

schnupi

i personally would order smart telecom broadband but it isnt available here in wicklow.. it would be so much better i think but what can u do when its not available

Sponge Bob

This is Comreg you are talking about so unfortunately for Smart it simply will not happen.

Comreg are the most dreadful waste of space and should be abolished ......merely the flea ridden moth eaten tail of the eircom dog and not a regulator at all.

You can keep your number by porting it to Blueface, a VoIp provider , and ordering smart once the port instruction has gone in.

You will know I am right on the 8th of August I am sorry to say , Comreg will do nothing

Blaster99

It seems that the whole change-over process is too cumbersome and slow. It takes about a month usually to move from eircom to Smart and in that time you can't have broadband on the line.

zeusnero

granted COMREG aren't the greatest but this is the first time a concrete date has been set. Like has been said, I won't be holding my breath, but I am hopeful nonetheless...

cgarvey

zeusnero wrote:

granted COMREG aren't the greatest but this is the first time a concrete date has been set. Like has been said, I won't be holding my breath, but I am hopeful nonetheless...

Yes, but Comreg have never fined any telco (they do have the power to do so, lest you read otherwise in the media), and have a piss-poor record of enforcing licensing (national FWA license, 3G licenses, etc.), so even if a date is set (and they've let many dates lapse), it's no indication that anything will be done aboute it.

On the more optimistic side, with a new CEO designate with vast BB/LLU experience, & a modern thinking, and the fact that eircom originally proposed many of the said milestones, there might actually be some will to deliver.

.cg

themonk

is it just me or is keeping faith in comreg is almost like believing in some sort of a god at this point ... although they provide the umbrella for all providers to act with eircom i think people should lay more responsibility on the providers themselves.

An example of this would be my experience in order broadband ... i called smart at the beginning of May and was told there was no info about when i could get broadband ...

However some diggin here at boards made me thinks again and call again. This time an agent took my order on the 18th may ... i received my modem on the 29th and broadband was working with a new number assigned to me ... granted this maybe exceptional case as so many people have found out the hard way when ordering broadband but i think theres much more providers could do to encourage and keep faith in their customers

ps imagine my shock when i received a letter from eircom on 4th june advising me that they were issuing credit for my line rental for the month june as i was no longer there customer ... amazing or what

Alun

Just as an aside, for those of you thinking this is a uniquely Irish problem. I have a subscription to a German computer magazine, c't, in which there was an article recently highlighting the problems subscribers there were having transferring from Telekom to other broadband providers, including several cases where people were without any broadband connection at all for 4 months, with both sides blaming the other. There's a tendency to think we're unique in this aspect, and that everything is rosy in other countries, especially those like Germany where technologically at least things are much more advanced, but it simply isn't the case. That's no excuse, mind you.

themonk

exactly alun ... is there an excuse for an irish provider to blame eircom in every case .... for instance i had order broadband from magnet entertainment before smart who after many phone calls admitted they never sent the order thru to eircom ... which leaves me thinking is eircom mess in changeover an excuse for bad service with some providers as it is with others ... although eircom must be to blame for most cock ups ...

cgarvey

Good point themonk, we're hearing lots more stories from bitstream providers blaming eircom for the delay when it transpires, later on, that eircom never even knew about the order.

Alun, yeah most EU incumbents have those sort of issues, I think. The difference is that they have an LLU process where blame can be clearly apportioned. We're way behind on that. We're not all that disimilar to the EU incumbents at all (as you rightly point out), just years behind.

.cg

themonk

Just read article here about btwholesale in the uk ...

Apparently a name change these days is good enough to make regulators happy that competition can prosper without monopoly ...

somehow could we never see this happen in ireland so the truth about eircom could be bearable when nightmares develop