Thinking of switching broadband providers, but...

TychoCaine

I'm currently with Eircom for voice and data (3Mb ADSL) and am paying through the nose. BT have just announced their "Broadband & Total Talk" package that will run to 63 euro for 3Mb ADSL, and unlimited local, national & UK voice calls.

The problem is this: I work from home a lot and I'm in the IT trade, so I can't be without my internet connection. What's the typical down time between Eircom cutting the line and BT getting me switched on?

Gary

probe

TychoCaine wrote:

I'm currently with Eircom for voice and data (3Mb ADSL) and am paying through the nose. BT have just announced their "Broadband & Total Talk" package that will run to 63 euro for 3Mb ADSL, and unlimited local, national & UK voice calls.

The problem is this: I work from home a lot and I'm in the IT trade, so I can't be without my internet connection. What's the typical down time between Eircom cutting the line and BT getting me switched on?

Gary

Don't attempt to move from eircom under these circumstances. You have no choice. They will likely hang you out to dry for a month or two during the hiatus period. And BT don't do themselves any favours when it comes to setting up new customers in a seamless manner at the other end.

Mess with the eircom mafia at your peril.... If your business interests are at stake - you'd be better off paying up and keeping your mouth shut.

probe

kaizersoze

probe wrote:

Don't attempt to move from eircom under these circumstances. You have no choice. They will likely hang you out to dry for a month or two during the hiatus period. And BT don't do themselves any favours when it comes to setting up new customers in a seamless manner at the other end.

Mess with the eircom mafia at your peril.... If your business interests are at stake - you'd be better off paying up and keeping your mouth shut.

probe

Rubbish. I, many others I know and here on boards have changed from Eircom and other bitstream providers to BT without problem.

TychoCaine, go ahead and make the change. The most important thing to remember is DO NOT cancel Eircom until you are live with BT. Most of the problems people encounter with the change over is cancelling their current provider first.
Ring BT and they will send you a DSL Transfer Authorisation Form (DTAF)
Send it back and they take care of the rest. I also work from home and the transfer was seamless and no downtime.

Sponge Bob

eircom to BT should be fine BUT transfer BB on its own first and then transfer the line rental by upgrading from BB to the bundle.


downtime is a few minutes.

transferring eircom > any reseller

or

any reseller > eircom

is OK

but

any reseller > any reseller

is a nightmare.

rash0001

I recently transferred my eircom line and broadband to BT and had no problems so far... All they wanted was my Credit Card number and a Cheque for 125 as deposit. The rest I left to them, I never even came to know when the line transfer was made! even the broadband settings were more or less like eircom only I had to change the user name and password! They were pretty quick as well! I'd say it took about 2 weeks to do all this. I never even told eircom anything! But as I did direct debit with them I just informed the bank to stop payments. So eircom sent the bill for any outstanding calls I had to pay for and that was all! Things are getting easier...

probe

rash0001 wrote:

I recently transferred my eircom line and broadband to BT and had no problems so far... All they wanted was my Credit Card number and a Cheque for 125 as deposit. The rest I left to them, I never even came to know when the line transfer was made! even the broadband settings were more or less like eircom only I had to change the user name and password! They were pretty quick as well! I'd say it took about 2 weeks to do all this. I never even told eircom anything! But as I did direct debit with them I just informed the bank to stop payments. So eircom sent the bill for any outstanding calls I had to pay for and that was all! Things are getting easier...

From what you say I suspect that you are only on a bitstream connection and you haven’t really moved to BT at all. No reason for eircom to make life difficult here – they are still getting your money via BT. The change of user ID and password is cosmetic to give you the illusion that BT has “taken over” your line!

You too could go into the phone business and “compete” with eircom on this basis using eircomwholesale.ie to do the work for you. To make life easy for their “competitors” eircom give them secure web access into their system so manage the changeover process.

This is not competition. Eircom controls the minimum price (unless BT wants to sell below cost and make a gross loss on the transaction) and eircom controls the services offered (eg your connection speed). If eircom’s broadband “goes down” in your area, your broadband will be down too.

Broadband without widespread LLU is an anti-competitive fraud on the consumer, which keeps prices and contention ratios artificially high and connection speeds low!

Has anyone managed to get real broadband from another DSL supplier (ie LLU) and retain their number (ie numbering portability) without a break in service?

probe


http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/products/subproduct_details.asp?id=71

rash0001

So how do I know that it's really been changed!? They sent me some letters in the post as well! "Your line has been transferred... Protocol...etc..." Do I have to be concerned about this!? I'm thinking that as long as I don't have to pay eircom I'm not much bothered as long as my Broadband and Phone isn't affected! Why should we bother if BT pays them or keeps the money to themselves as long as we get the service we pay for!
So should I bother about this or let it be!?

probe

rash0001 wrote:

So how do I know that it's really been changed!? They sent me some letters in the post as well! "Your line has been transferred... Protocol...etc..." Do I have to be concerned about this!? I'm thinking that as long as I don't have to pay eircom I'm not much bothered as long as my Broadband and Phone isn't affected! Why should we bother if BT pays them or keeps the money to themselves as long as we get the service we pay for!
So should I bother about this or let it be!?

If you are paying much more than €30 per month for a fully unbundled service, and you are getting materially less than a 28 Mbits/sec broadband connection, and they aren’t throwing in 100 + TV channels in a cable TV replacement product, and free unlimited phone calls within Europe and to other open telecommunications market countries such as China, North America, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia etc in the package, it seems to me that you are being screwed by a monopoly. Given that there were only 9,300 unbundled lines on the eircom network as at 2006.06.30, (out of 239,000 DSL subscriptions) chances are you are still connected via eircom bitstream.

Whether you “bother” about it or let it be is surely up to yourself.

http://adsl.free.fr/

probe

Foxwood

rash0001 wrote:

Do I have to be concerned about this!?

No. Probe is being deliberately disengenous.

Eircom still own the copper line going into your house. And the DSL signal that you get is processed by eircom equipment in your local exchange. But the DSL signal is passed to BT, and your IP traffic routes through BTs internet gateways, not eircoms. Your phonecalls are similarly routed to BTs network, and you are subject to BTs tarrifs, not eircoms.

eircom are still making a bundle from you, because they're selling access to you as a customer at a wholesale rate to BT - BT are paying almost as much to eircom for line rental and basic DSL connectivity as you were (probably as much as 80% of what you pay BT before VAT goes straight to eircom).

This is an intermediate stage to the next level of competition, where BT could rent the bare copper from eircom, at a somewhat lower price, and handle much of the services that they're currently paying eircom for. But the price for this Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) in Ireland is still far higher than in other european markets, and it is still wrapped up in a stranglehold of eircom procedures that have prevented it having the impact that the regulator si supposed to want.

That's one of the main reasons that Tony O'Reilly was able to get a 60% return in 18 months.

probe

Foxwood wrote:

No. Probe is being deliberately disengenous.

Eircom still own the copper line going into your house. And the DSL signal that you get is processed by eircom equipment in your local exchange. But the DSL signal is passed to BT, and your IP traffic routes through BTs internet gateways, not eircoms. Your phonecalls are similarly routed to BTs network, and you are subject to BTs tarrifs, not eircoms.

eircom are still making a bundle from you, because they're selling access to you as a customer at a wholesale rate to BT - BT are paying almost as much to eircom for line rental and basic DSL connectivity as you were (probably as much as 80% of what you pay BT before VAT goes straight to eircom).

This is an intermediate stage to the next level of competition, where BT could rent the bare copper from eircom, at a somewhat lower price, and handle much of the services that they're currently paying eircom for. But the price for this Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) in Ireland is still far higher than in other european markets, and it is still wrapped up in a stranglehold of eircom procedures that have prevented it having the impact that the regulator si supposed to want.

That's one of the main reasons that Tony O'Reilly was able to get a 60% return in 18 months.

Presumably Foxwood means disingenuous? The postings in question are anything but.

One can’t help but wonder who's Foxwood's suggar daddy! Let me guess. BT?


probe