BB in Caherconlish

wingnut

Anyone got a decent broadband service near Caherconlish in Limerick? I'd like to avoid the eircom landline if possible. Anyone know what 3G is like out there.

dellsmore

wingnut wrote:

Anyone got a decent broadband service near Caherconlish in Limerick? I'd like to avoid the eircom landline if possible. Anyone know what 3G is like out there.

I've had no landline since getting wireless about 18 months ago from a local company (*not* ICE or the other chancers) - the service is very good (not 100% perfect, but wireless never is due to the nature of the beast). Has saved me a fortune in line rental.

PM me if you want the company name and phone number (don't want to post a phone number in a public forum!).

Not tried 3G - no need for it really as I already have a good service (with no cap on data volume - I think most 3G have a 10 Gig cap).

lucernarian

broadband.gov.ie might mention a couple of wireless providers.

Those small wireless companies are generally good for service quality, as they're often about providing something to the local community.

If mobile broadband interests you, check out the coverage maps on three.ie, vodafone.ie or o2online.ie.

dellsmore

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Those small wireless companies are generally good for service quality, as they're often about providing something to the local community.

I'll agree with you there - link went down at 18:30 on Friday. Was back up again a reasonable time afterwards (a local fellah had to go up Woodcock hill and do some jiggery-pokery on the equipment up there). Hmmmm, duh, if link was still broke I wouldn't be able to post this......

If I was with ICE etc., I would have been lucky to have my service restored by Monday morning. The local touch makes the difference - in my experience the guys in Dublin couldn't care less about us "down the country".

yayamark

i think, i say i think Bt do a package there.

dellsmore

yayamark wrote:

i think, i say i think Bt do a package there.

Errrm....no. He's trying to avoid using phone lines.

B.T. will not be a solution (at the mo) - still locked in to the P & T guys.

Welcome to 21st century Ireland????

watty

My phone coverage is always terrible in Caherconlish, but they do have DSL in the village, my friend there has it and he couldn't get any wireless service. It's a bit a far for any Woodcock Hill based service.

fonepatch

Hi wingnut., and everyone on this space.

I am also very much in need of Broadband. I am just outside Caherconlish (4km) and am at present useing BT anytime 180. Yep unfortunately they are tied into Eircom and BB (via BT.ie) is not available in this area.

My Dial up connection varies from 25-37kbps which is a real pain.

Tried Eircom via net to see if they provide this service out here but page is always unavailable.

Would be very interested to hear of any other providers in this area.
Looked up ICE and Maints and prices were just unreal.

Looking forward to any info available.

Best Regards,

Billy.

Tan Power

Hi Dellsmore,
I'm living in Caherconlish and would love to try out the service you speak of. I've tried other options (like O2) but the speed was worse than dial up! Please PM the details...

Thanks.

MickLimk

I don't know why Dellsmore isn't publishing the name of the BB provider he is recommending? My guess is WTS Broadband unless his circumstances have changed.

If it is WTS, then I'd recommend that you avoid them. If not then apologies for a completely off-topic post!

I went from a very happy WTS customer to a very unhappy ex-customer a few months ago.

Started with intermittent loss of signal, replaced antenna that didn't fix the problem followed by many, many promised call backs and visits that never happened despite lots of calls to the owner. After more than a month of no service and a huge number of calls and no-shows, I cancelled the direct debit. Very shortly after that, they accessed my property without calling or permission and removed their equipment from the side of my house.

Just my experience. Search for 'WTS' and you'll find an interesting thread that Dellsmore, the owner of WTS (jbkenn) and myself were posters. Note that I was a happy customer then and draw your own conclusions from there...

Tan Power

Thanks MickLimk,

I will read those other posts. What provider are you using now, and are you happy with them? I appreciate any advice you may have, especially if you are from around Caherconlish which seems to be just out of range of most of the more reputable providers.

Regards,

T.

MickLimk

I'm further out the Tipperary road and am currently using O2's 3G service. I had to spend some time convincing them to sell it to me as they were adamant that where I'm living I didn't have 3G reception. I've never had to argue to be allowed buy a product before but their counter-argument was that as a company they were having too many returns and were instructed not to sell it if the map on their computers wasn't showing coverage.

I convinced her that I had reception on my 3G O2 phone so she eventually gave in. I know you said that you've tried O2 and it was terrible but they seem to have recently upgraded the mast on the hill overlooking Pallasgreen (Nicker?) as my reception went from 1-2 bars (HSDPA) to a constant 5 bars around Christmas. I know this upgrade was planned (told me in the O2 shop) but last time I looked, this still wasn't showing up as upgraded on their online maps.

Before this upgrade, I was getting my 3G signal from Oola which I think is further from me than Pallasgreen is from you. With the O2 modem the most important thing to do is set your connection preference to 3G only as otherwise it will fall back to crappier speeds if the signal is weak. A USB extension lead also helped reception for me. I can probably check if it works in Caherconlish towards the end of the week as I have to be over that way before Sunday.

As I signed a contract and kept it after the trial period, I'm locked into the O2 solution for 12 months but it's working well so far. They have a 10Gig cap but that doesn't bother me. Ping times and upload speeds are probably unsuitable for gaming and VOIP but for downloading medium amounts of stuff and general browsing, it's fine. Can't give you a speedtest report at the minute as I'm not at home but generally downloads run reliably at about 2Mb/s.

To be honest other than the fact that I signed a 12 month contract, I'd be moving to Eircom/BT/UTV as my exchange was recently enabled. IBB (Breeze) & Digiweb seem to be the only wireless providers with reasonable reputations right now and aren't available in C'conlish. UPC (Chorus/NTL) aren't available either (probably lucky there) so you're really limited to the phone line option (most reliable), 3G (worth trying again?) or someone like WTS.

Just as a total 12 month cost comparison of the cheapest options from each (feel free to correct my pricing anyone!):
02: €89 (modem) +€15x3 (offer) + €30x9 = €404 (assuming you're already a customer)
WTS: €200 install + €35x12 = €620
Eircom: €30 connection + €25x12(broadband) +€25.36x12(line rental) = €634 (assuming free connection as on offer at the moment and no bundle. Call bundle could save €120)

I've given you my opinion but it's just that!