BT Ireland rolls out 8Mb broadband

murfo

hey, can someone tell me what BT's contention ratio is?

tripswitch

murfo wrote: »

hey, can someone tell me what BT's contention ratio is?

From BT's support page they appear to be 48:1 on 1Mb and 2Mb, and 24:1 on 3Mb. (Not sure if they're UK figures though.)

http://tinyurl.com/36qwx4

paddyk

murfo wrote: »

hey, can someone tell me what BT's contention ratio is?

I'm on the 3 mb package and the contention ratio is 24/1. on the 2 mb package it is 48/1

murfo

cheers tripswitch.

is it any use paddyk? have you been upgraded to 8mb yet?

paddyk

murfo wrote: »

cheers tripswitch.

is it any use paddyk? have you been upgraded to 8mb yet?

Thankfully I have had no problems with my BT package. I'm on the Tallaght exchange and get pretty close to the full 3 Mb's I pay for. Upload is 310 and download is 2500-2700 using speedtest .net. Pings range from 32 to 65 m/s. No complaints.


I enquired about the upgrade and was told I would be upgraded automatically "pretty soon". That was about 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping "pretty soon" is nearby:D

Bohrio

paddyk wrote: »

I enquired about the upgrade and was told I would be upgraded automatically "pretty soon". That was about 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping "pretty soon" is nearby:D

Yeap... sooner than you expect....

Splinter

Bohrio wrote: »

Yeap... sooner than you expect....

sounds like insider info there

care to ellaborate

paddyk

splinter wrote: »

sounds like insider info there

care to ellaborate

yeah, I thought the same thing. I check my routers stats every day waiting in hope. The lack of info from the various ISP's is a bit strange. If I was told it would be months till the upgrade I would just get the new package and live with some down time.

tripswitch

paddyk wrote: »

yeah, I thought the same thing. I check my routers stats every day waiting in hope. The lack of info from the various ISP's is a bit strange. If I was told it would be months till the upgrade I would just get the new package and live with some down time.

I thought the Eircom upgrades from 3mb to 7.6mb weren't due until June?

Auvers

tripswitch wrote: »

I thought the Eircom upgrades from 3mb to 7.6mb weren't due until June?

they are talking about unbundled BT exchanges that have there own equipment installed so they don't have to wait for eircon

tripswitch

Auvers wrote: »

they are talking about unbundled BT exchanges that have there own equipment installed so they don't have to wait for eircon

I'd have assumed that too, but paddyk's quote below indicates otherwise.

(Both the reference to "various ISP's" and the new package / downtime.)

paddyk wrote: »

yeah, I thought the same thing. I check my routers stats every day waiting in hope. The lack of info from the various ISP's is a bit strange. If I was told it would be months till the upgrade I would just get the new package and live with some down time.

paddyk

tripswitch wrote: »

I'd have assumed that too, but paddyk's quote below indicates otherwise.

(Both the reference to "various ISP's" and the new package / downtime.)

I am awaiting BT's upgrade which is different from Eircom's.

According to customer care in BT, I will be automatically upgraded to 8mb broadband from my current 3 mb package.

I was also told I could cancel my broadband, re-order the new 8 Mb package. BUT, I would have 2-3 weeks downtime.

I suppose I just worded my post wrong. This is from BT.

This is seperate from Eircom's. I was just commenting on the fact that isp's are not saying a lot about the various upgrades.

I was told my increase to 8 would be "pretty soon". Just wondering how long "pretty soon" is.:D

tripswitch

paddyk wrote: »

I am awaiting BT's upgrade which is different from Eircom's.

According to customer care in BT, I will be automatically upgraded to 8mb broadband from my current 3 mb package.

I was also told I could cancel my broadband, re-order the new 8 Mb package. BUT, I would have 2-3 weeks downtime.

I suppose I just worded my post wrong. This is from BT.

This is seperate from Eircom's. I was just commenting on the fact that isp's are not saying a lot about the various upgrades.

I was told my increase to 8 would be "pretty soon". Just wondering how long "pretty soon" is.:D

I think we're all getting confused here!

As far as I was aware, there were only two ways of getting 8mb on BT if your line is on Eircom's equipment. (Note this is totally independent of the fact that your phone/bb account is with BT. Your line may still be on Eircom's equipment in the exchange.)

1) wait for Eircom's upgrade - which for 3mb isn't scheduled to be done until June. (At least that's what they say publicly.)

2) move your line to BTs equipment (i.e. LLU), which can give you 8mb straight away, but this takes up to two weeks to do / requires a disconnection

Is there a third way?

Bohrio

Wont say much more

Just dont check you line speed this week... it will be a waste of time.

Remember only customers on a 3mb package will be upgraded and there will only be a downtime of a few minutes.

Be patient.. it will happen soon

exiztone

Bohrio wrote: »

Wont say much more

Just dont check you line speed this week... it will be a waste of time.

Remember only customers on a 3mb package will be upgraded and there will only be a downtime of a few minutes.

Be patient.. it will happen soon

Should we check it every 5 minutes next week so? :eek:

paddyk

tripswitch wrote: »

I think we're all getting confused here!

As far as I was aware, there were only two ways of getting 8mb on BT if your line is on Eircom's equipment. (Note this is totally independent of the fact that your phone/bb account is with BT. Your line may still be on Eircom's equipment in the exchange.)

1) wait for Eircom's upgrade - which for 3mb isn't scheduled to be done until June. (At least that's what they say publicly.)

2) move your line to BTs equipment (i.e. LLU), which can give you 8mb straight away, but this takes up to two weeks to do / requires a disconnection

Is there a third way?

I don't really know the answer to that. The only thing I know is what BT told me. "pretty soon" I will be on the 8 Mb package from them. My line will be LLU enabled without any real downtime. OR, I can cancel my current package and get my line enabled now, but there will be weeks of downtime.

I may be confusing the issue by my wording. To me I just want faster speeds for gaming.

To the best of my knowledge, which isn't much, some exchanges wil be LLU enabled shortly. Mine, Tallaght, just happens to be one.

Most of my info comes from BT customer care/sales so lets see if they got it right.

Now I'm confusing myself.

L31mr0d

Praetor wrote: »

I wouldn't like someone taking 70% of my bandwidth 24/7, remember that we are "sharing" a line, so be warned!

what exactly are you warning me of? People have been warning me about extra charges on DSL lines since I first started using it. I remember when I first got DSL with eircom, myself and a few friends that lived close together set up a wireless network to share the cost of the DSL. Back then the cap was something like 2GB's per month. We must of at least gone over it by 10 times that much every month and not an extra penny was added to the bill.

I've been using DSL for over 8 years now, always going over the cap, and always not getting charged. Of all my friends also, none of them have got charged. In fact not even online have I ever heard of someone getting charged. If anything I think its a great tactic, as the ISP's know that by merely saying theres a cap people will be too scared to go over it and that the people breaking the cap will be kept to a minimum. I mean I work as a sysadmin and most of my collegues admit that they watch there downloading and try to keep it under the limit each month.

Also in regard to my current 8Mb/s line, i've been having intermittent drop offs in the middle of the day which is annoying as I usually will remote desktop into my home pc. I don't know if this is because BT is still working on the line or if I have incorrect DSL filters (my modem is compatible with ADSL+) The few other guys in work that also have the 8Mb BT line in Swords are also experiencing this issue. Hopefully it will just iron itself out.

bat77

Bohrio wrote: »

Wont say much more

Just dont check you line speed this week... it will be a waste of time.

Remember only customers on a 3mb package will be upgraded and there will only be a downtime of a few minutes.

Be patient.. it will happen soon

If your not going to say when can you at least tell us what areas are going to be upgraded first ?

paddyk

bat77 wrote: »

If your not going to say when can you at least tell us what areas are going to be upgraded first ?

I just hope I am not reading more into this E-mail then is actually there, but heres hoping the upgrade is on the way from BT. Heres a copy of what I just rteceived from BT.


Please note that during the week commencing 10/03/08, BT will be carrying out network upgrade work at your local Broadband exchange. You may experience a short interruption to your BT telephone & broadband service of no more than 30 minutes. During this time your telephone line will have no dial tone and the DSL light on your modem will flash.

There is no need for you to do anything, once the work has been completed your services will resume as normal. Should you require any technical assistance you can call our support team on 1890 923 111 or email us at residentialsupport@btireland.ie

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Yours sincerely,

BT Ireland Service Team.

notahappycamper

I received an email today from BT saying that Broadband upgrade work is being carried out at my local exchange (which is Swords) next week (commencing 10/3/2008). I will have no dial tone and the DSL light on my router will flash for 30 mins.

Did anyone else receive this email?

It didn't say anything about me being upgraded to 8MB afterwards but it looks like things are moving in the right direction. I might have 8Mb automatically the week after next!

Edit: Looks like PaddyK beat me to it!!

Auvers

notahappycamper wrote: »

I received an email today from BT saying that Broadband upgrade work is being carried out at my local exchange (which is Swords) next week (commencing 10/3/2008). I will have no dial tone and the DSL light on my router will flash for 30 mins.

Did anyone else receive this email?

Yeah I got the same email and I am also on the Swords exchange

johnnyboy4711

any idea for roll-out for say, Galway???
john

bat77

also, any ideas for roll-out in Louth ?

notahappycamper

Auvers wrote: »

Yeah I got the same email and I am also on the Swords exchange

Are you on the 3MB package?

Auvers

notahappycamper wrote: »

Are you on the 3MB package?

yeah

boardsdotie

notahappycamper wrote: »

I received an email today from BT saying that Broadband upgrade work is being carried out at my local exchange (which is Swords) next week (commencing 10/3/2008). I will have no dial tone and the DSL light on my router will flash for 30 mins.

Did anyone else receive this email?

It didn't say anything about me being upgraded to 8MB afterwards but it looks like things are moving in the right direction. I might have 8Mb automatically the week after next!

Edit: Looks like PaddyK beat me to it!!

I got the same email , I'm on the Dooradoyle Exchange in Limerick

FiachraYeah

paddyk wrote: »

I just hope I am not reading more into this E-mail then is actually there, but heres hoping the upgrade is on the way from BT. Heres a copy of what I just rteceived from BT.


Please note that during the week commencing 10/03/08, BT will be carrying out network upgrade work at your local Broadband exchange. You may experience a short interruption to your BT telephone & broadband service of no more than 30 minutes. During this time your telephone line will have no dial tone and the DSL light on your modem will flash.

I have had the 3Mb->8Mb BT upgrade for about 3-4 weeks. And I got that email a week before it happened. So, yeah, read everything you want into it. I just hope that you don't have a shítty modem like mine - it could cause you problems.

F

paddyk

FiachraYeah wrote: »

I have had the 3Mb->8Mb BT upgrade for about 3-4 weeks. And I got that email a week before it happened. So, yeah, read everything you want into it. I just hope that you don't have a shítty modem like mine - it could cause you problems.

F

I have the Prestige wireless modem/gateway supplied by BT. I did enquire from customer service and they told me it would be fine. Now why does that not make me feel better. Just curious, what router is giving you problems?

How much of the 8Mb are you actually getting and just one more question , What is the upload speed?

FiachraYeah

paddyk wrote: »

I have the Prestige wireless modem/gateway supplied by BT. I did enquire from customer service and they told me it would be fine. Now why does that not make me feel better. Just curious, what router is giving you problems?

How much of the 8Mb are you actually getting and just one more question , What is the upload speed?

I have the ZyXEL Prestige 623R T1 and it's working just fine.

A Netopia 3347NWG wi-fi router (from eircom) is giving me problems.

Tonight I'm getting:
www.speedtest.net: 6216kbps/372kbps
www.irishisptest.com: 5.66Mbps/386kbps

I've had as high as ~7000kbps/430kbps

F

paddyk

FiachraYeah wrote: »

I have the ZyXEL Prestige 623R T1 and it's working just fine.

A Netopia 3347NWG wi-fi router (from eircom) is giving me problems.

Tonight I'm getting:
www.speedtest.net: 6216kbps/372kbps
www.irishisptest.com: 5.66Mbps/386kbps

I've had as high as ~7000kbps/430kbps

F

Thats the modem I have the Prestige so happy enough that will work. Not bad speeds, I was hoping the upload would be higher for gaming. Two of us use the Xbox 360 on the same connection, lag can be a killer. Looking forward to getting faster downloads anyway.

At the minute my upload is averaging about 300kbps and downloads around 2.5 Mbps to 2.7 on a 3 Mb connection I'm probably about 21/2 to 3 Klms from exchange so I'm hoping I can get similar speeds to you.