Best option Phone and Broadband package???

Hellrazer

Another one of these threads that I keep asking the same questions but its getting closer to the house move so Im in need of a bit of help.

Seeing as those ba$tards in Eircon are planning to increase their line rental again Im looking for some info.

Moving house in the next 7 days to a house that has an eircom line but its been disconnected by the previous owners for a while now.

Whats the best (cheapest) option for a phone and broadband package from one of the other providers besides Eircom.

Few questions though.

1.If I go wireless (Metro 3mb appeals to me) will they assign me a phone number?And if so do I need and specialist equipment to use the phone service?
2.Any idea what type of pings Ill get on wireless from the Maynooth mast on Metro?
3.Anyone use Metro in the Maynooth area for gaming??Any problems??
4.Is wireless really the way to go?Kinda nervous signing up for 12 months only to find that I have a sh!t service and tied into a contract for that long.
5.Any decent dsl packages that include line rental for cheaper than Eircoms offerings?

Thanks
Richie.

chopperbyrne

BT probably have the best packages for value. You'll have to sign up with eircom for a few weeks before switching though as you'll need an eircom account number.

Eircom are the overall best provider though in my opinion.

fl4pj4ck

chopperbyrne wrote:

BT probably have the best packages for value. You'll have to sign up with eircom for a few weeks before switching though as you'll need an eircom account number.

Eircom are the overall best provider though in my opinion.

could you please tell me what in you mean by 'BEST' ?

dub45

fl4pj4ck wrote:

could you please tell me what in you mean by 'BEST' ?

I presume he means in terms of overall service. There is an irrational hatred on boards for Eircom which unfortunately precludes people from judging them as an isp. If you allow for the fact that Eircom are by far the biggest isp then the absence of complaints about them as an isp on boards is remarkable.

Anyone I know who has them, and I know quite a few people in that respect, rarely have any problems of any sort. Ok their prices are dearer than others but you get what you pay for.

For example they don't mistakenly hand over lists of paid up customers to debt collectors (Clearwire) they dont drive customers mad over erratic service or try to force them onto direct debits or implement late payment charges (NTL) they dont charge you when you leave even when you have completed your contract (UTV) they dont enforce the caps (as far as we know anyways) they dont throttle you when you exceed your cap (Digiweb and NTL?) they haven't required a new contract to avail of generally available price reductions or speed increases (utv again) they don't throttle various things (Clearwire),
they dont threaten to hold your line to ransom if you dont give back your modem (UTV again)

They didnt allow an appalling billing system which inflicted misery on customers for years to go without being corrected (BT and their various preceding incarnations) Oh I nearly forgot the BT deposit lark!

DemonOfTheFall

BT 3Meg + UK and IRL phone calls is a great deal, knocked huge amounts off our combined phone and broadband bill. I'd recommend it, solid service. The phone switchover was completely transparent aswell

jor el

Yeah eircom do probably offer the best service in terms of convenience, no hassle with changing over to other providers, if something goes wrong you can at least ring the people who own the line, etc. However, they do have quite a hit and miss customer service dept (but don't they all). You will pay for the convenience to the tune of about 25euro a month extra over say BT (300 a year, not peanuts by any means).

BT offer the "best" value for money with a very good broadband package too (reliability wise), €50 a month for 3Mbps including line rental (though this could increase if eircom increase the rental later in the year). BT do however often include the bonus cost of... your sanity. All the other resellers seem to have varying problems, often worse than BT, so I wouldn't even consider them.

Best wireless option seems to be Digiweb Metro, though if you plan on heavy downloading and breaking the cap then don't even consider it, they enforce strictly and will throttle your speed if you go over.

Wcool

Hellrazer wrote:

Another one of these threads that I keep asking the same questions but its getting closer to the house move so Im in need of a bit of help.

Seeing as those ba$tards in Eircon are planning to increase their line rental again Im looking for some info.

Moving house in the next 7 days to a house that has an eircom line but its been disconnected by the previous owners for a while now.

Whats the best (cheapest) option for a phone and broadband package from one of the other providers besides Eircom.

Few questions though.

1.If I go wireless (Metro 3mb appeals to me) will they assign me a phone number?And if so do I need and specialist equipment to use the phone service?
2.Any idea what type of pings Ill get on wireless from the Maynooth mast on Metro?
3.Anyone use Metro in the Maynooth area for gaming??Any problems??
4.Is wireless really the way to go?Kinda nervous signing up for 12 months only to find that I have a sh!t service and tied into a contract for that long.
5.Any decent dsl packages that include line rental for cheaper than Eircoms offerings?

Thanks
Richie.

Well I am on Digiweb and like it a lot, I have Metro 3Mb.
Pings are good but I live near Galway, service is good.
The phone does not require extra hardware, just plug it into the cable modem, it has the same connector as your usual incoming line from Eircom.

Digiweb is considerably cheaper than Eircom, depending on how much you call. But it will be at least 15 euro per month and can be even 35 euro per month if you order Metro light.

For ping times, I guess you should indeed try to find people in your neighbourhood that use it.

I see only one possible drawback: Eircom does not enforce download limits, Digiweb does. Although 30 Gb is sufficient for most it could be not enough for you.

And yes, I have a problem with Eircom, but not irrational.
They single-handed ensured that Ireland is way behind in broadband and charge ridiculous prices for line rental and phone calls even today.

Even if they would be 5 euro cheaper than any other provider, I would not go back to them.

Liam Byrne

If you can, get wireless, as you can get 1 or 2 meg speeds at a decent price without the line rental overhead.

If you need faster speeds or need DSL over a phone line, go with Smart - no contest on price, service or any other issue (faster 4 meg speed at the basic price, no contention, no download limits, not a reseller like most other DSL offerings, ADSL2+ network, etc) all at 39.99 per month including all calls to Irish phone lines.

dub45

Liam Byrne wrote:

If you can, get wireless, as you can get 1 or 2 meg speeds at a decent price without the line rental overhead.

If you need faster speeds or need DSL over a phone line, go with Smart - no contest on price, service or any other issue (faster 4 meg speed at the basic price, no contention, no download limits, not a reseller like most other DSL offerings, ADSL2+ network, etc) all at 39.99 per month including all calls to Irish phone lines.

Not so, sadly.

l Local €2.17

From my curren Smart bill.

dub45

Wcool wrote:

..........................................

And yes, I have a problem with Eircom, but not irrational.
They single-handed ensured that Ireland is way behind in broadband and charge ridiculous prices for line rental and phone calls even today.

Even if they would be 5 euro cheaper than any other provider, I would not go back to them.

Your point above has historical validity but it has absolutely nothing to do with their performance as an isp which is what is at issue in this thread - if you want to fight a 'political' batlle by your choice of isp that is fine - its rationality may be questionable though.

Sponge Bob

its not that irrational. eircom is only ever cheap in small doses ...designed to splatter the competition not because eircom care about their customers. once they splatter their competitors they are no longer cheap in my experience.

technically they run a reliable and good quality isp but price wise their voice bundles are not great and their line rental is the highest in the world and thats before it goes up again .

eircom line rental, despite being high, often gets you a substandard line and no engineer support to repair it . Thats not good enough.

stooge

I have had the eircom home starter package for about 2years. When I first got it my company were paying for it, then I moved and Im paying for it myself.

I've never really had too much bother with it. Once or twice it was unavailable for a few hours.

The only thing now is the price, I was going to move to BT as they had the same kinda package for cheaper. But, they wanted a deposit sent to them, and did not stipulate the conditions on which it would be returned. Put me off so Im still with Eircom. If the line rental goes up again though I may look into dropping the eircom and getting a bb only package

barrett1965

I'm with Smart Telecom for the last year or so, and apart from that hassle with Eircom a while back, I am happy enough.

I subscribe to their 6MB package (including phoneline) for €45 per month. Granted though, on my laptop it's reduced to about 4.45MB, but hey.

Liam Byrne

dub45 wrote:

1 local €2.17
From my curren Smart bill.

Interesting......I signed up for their calls option for an extra €10 per month, and all local & national calls are "free".

dub45

Liam Byrne wrote:

Interesting......I signed up for their calls option for an extra €10 per month, and all local & national calls are "free".

But that's not what your original post said:)

fl4pj4ck

dub45 wrote:

I presume he means in terms of overall service. There is an irrational hatred on boards for Eircom which unfortunately precludes people from judging them as an isp. If you allow for the fact that Eircom are by far the biggest isp then the absence of complaints about them as an isp on boards is remarkable.

Anyone I know who has them, and I know quite a few people in that respect, rarely have any problems of any sort. Ok their prices are dearer than others but you get what you pay for.

For example they don't mistakenly hand over lists of paid up customers to debt collectors (Clearwire) they dont drive customers mad over erratic service or try to force them onto direct debits or implement late payment charges (NTL) they dont charge you when you leave even when you have completed your contract (UTV) they dont enforce the caps (as far as we know anyways) they dont throttle you when you exceed your cap (Digiweb and NTL?) they haven't required a new contract to avail of generally available price reductions or speed increases (utv again) they don't throttle various things (Clearwire),
they dont threaten to hold your line to ransom if you dont give back your modem (UTV again)

They didnt allow an appalling billing system which inflicted misery on customers for years to go without being corrected (BT and their various preceding incarnations) Oh I nearly forgot the BT deposit lark!

is that any true? whats the catch then?

chopperbyrne

There is no catch. They're slightly more expensive, but provide the best service, including their billing and support departments.

Liam Byrne

dub45 wrote:

But that's not what your original post said:)

Apologies - should've clarified.

Line Rental + BB was €35 at the time, and I paid the extra to get the calls. eircom's line rental increase shoved that €35 up to almost €40.

For those of us who were on the calls option, Smart covered the increase for 3 months, giving me the whole lot for €39 but yeah, I'm guess I'm paying €45 or €49 now that the 3 months is up....must check.