landline for broadband

arctictree

Our local exchange recently was enabled for broadband.

Is it possible to order a landline from eircom and insist that it is broadband capable? ie I dont want to pay for a line into my house if it is not capable of broadband.

Scenario I want to avoid is ordering a landline, getting it in and then eircom telling me that I cant get BB. I use my mobile for calls so wont be using the telephone on the line.

Stench Blossoms

It's a chance you'll have to take. They can't guarantee you broadband on your line as it needs to be checked after it's activated unless it's been deactivated less then a year then sometimes they can check it there and then.

arctictree

Only in Ireland.....

Sponge Bob

arctictree wrote:

Our local exchange recently was enabled for broadband.

Is it possible to order a landline from eircom and insist that it is broadband capable? ie I dont want to pay for a line into my house if it is not capable of broadband.

It is indeed.

1. go to eircom web site
2. find the eircom bundles
3. order a new line bubdle and TICK that you want BB with it
4. stick to 1mbit package until its installed, an upgrade later is usually free ( it does cost more per month obviously)

Therefore they know that the line is FOR BB before they supply the line and if they cannot do BB they normally contact you so you can cancel the whole thing .

It can mean an engineer checks things more thoroughly which often helps on the margins.

arctictree

Thanks for that! Makes sense.

BTW - There is an old phone line connected to the house (which I cancelled years ago). Should I rip it down so they have to install a newer one?!!

A

Sponge Bob

BB can work fine on 30 year old lines. I would disconnect all the internal wiring instead and leave one socket where the line enters the house.

You should get 1mb BB up to 4 miles from the exchange nowadays on a perfect line . Shorter as the quality of the line disimproves . Thats unless they split it with a pairgain in which case no BB will work

Del2005

BTW - There is an old phone line connected to the house (which I cancelled years ago). Should I rip it down so they have to install a newer one?!!

I wouldn't pull any wires out of anywhere. I ordered a line and had to pay E130 for an engineer to come out, and then the stupid thing couldn't get BB in the end. It was a newish apartment and the builder haddn't wired it correctly. Just see if it works when you order and if not call someone out. One thing they don't make clear, is that once an engineer has to do any work at your house it's E130.
As stated it works on old lines, my old house had 20+ year old lines and it worked fine

watty

Buy your own phone. (CE marked). Don't be buying or especially renting one from eircom.

arctictree

I am the last house on the phone line. What if I used the eircom site to check the phone number of the secondlast house for BB availability? If that doesn't work then there is no point in me even ordering it - or is there?

A

Sponge Bob

it could be bad news , especially if there has been lots of building on your road in the past 10 years. eircom could have split the lot of ye on a communal pairgain.

if the neighbours all have 16k or 12k dialup speeds it would indeed seem grim but if the second last house has 40k ish dialup speeds i would be very hopeful

thefinalstage

Older phonelines are better. They have a higher percentage of copper.

watty

arctictree wrote:

I am the last house on the phone line. What if I used the eircom site to check the phone number of the secondlast house for BB availability? If that doesn't work then there is no point in me even ordering it - or is there?

A

A neighbour passing or failing has no relevance, unless they fail because the exchange is not enabled.

lucernarian

Watty, that first part is wrong. If a neighbour passes, then your own chances of passing are enhanced greatly and the reason why you are failing is a rectifiable one. If the neighbour "may pass" ala amber programme, then it's almost certain that the problem is rectifiable, unless the line is literally on the 78 or 80 dB border. Like my line.

From what I can tell, if the neighbour's line fails, then it's looking pretty bad for you, but you could be very lucky.

And, while it's fairly uncommon, a neighbour's line can be on another exchange, especially in rural areas. Where a neighbour could live 400 metres away.

And yes, from what I've seen, older phonelines are usually better as the copper is often thicker. But then the junctions could be older and more worn out, negating the gain. It depends on a lot of variables.

Do as Spongebob said and make sure that box is ticked:)

watty

I perhaps should have said, MAY have no significance. At the end of the day it is your own line that passes or fails and the state of a neighbour's line (pass or fail or amber) is no guarantee of the state of your own.

DVDMAN

Its possible to order a line through another proviser, eircom still do the work, but its cheaper