2MB BB from either of these providers...UTV or Eircom

livEwirE

UTV or Eircom? Who has the more reliable service/tech support/customer service? Have heard UTV have dns issues and hidden charges but unlimited usage! Read here that they do NOT pass on wholesale BB price reductions to customers, is this true? I currently have UTV for my phone and NEVER had any problems with them. Eircom seem to have a record for reliablity though.

Any feedback appreciated as I'm sooooooooo confused

~livEwirE~

mcaul

Both are the same.

UTV have introductory 9.99 for 2 months + 20.99 after. Let them bill you for the line rental and you'll get free UK + Irl landline calls at weekends & evenings.

Tech support much improved on couple of years ago.

Speed increasing to 3mb from June (both eircom & utv)

Usage capped at 12gb, but unlimited usage can be had for extra 5.99 / month

ardmacha

I find UTV reliable and helpful when I had a fault.
Their billing is straightforward and if you don't choose the unlimited cap they email you when you are approaching the cap.

They do however charge you a disconnection fee. Also when price reductions come about they ask you to sign up for a new 6 month contract. A small price reduction may be forthcoming soon, but this 6 months period would largely overlap with the introductory period, so this wouldn't really affect you very much.

Cabaal

Both UTV and Eircom sell the same product which is belong to Eircom wholesale, both eircom and UTV have capped products but UTV give you the option of availing of a "unlimited" option for a 5.99e monthly charge which is a pretty good offer in my view as Eircom offer nothing of the sort and you can only get a unlimited option from Eircom if you pay big money

If the DNS issue with UTV is still ongoing its easy resolve by using DNS belong to the like of opendns.com etc so thats not a biggy, UTV have also won several best support awards over the past 3 years which is also a good sign.

My personal view between eircom and UTV is UTV has the best offering and when I move in May and can't get NTL anymore I plan on going with UTV as they appear to have the best plan suitable for what I need (option of no cap at a low enough price)

Packages are (normal prices only and excluding any intro offers and bundled Talk packages)
Eircom Just Broadband:
1MB - 10 GB download / 1 GB upload = 24.99e
2MB - 20 GB download / unlimited upload = 29.99e
3MB - 30 GB download / unlimited upload = 48.40e

UTV Just Broadband:
1MB - 6GB Cap = 15.99e
2MB - 12GB Cap = 20.99e
3MB - 20GB Cap = 32.99e

Now as I said UTV offer unlimited for 5.99e per month (free for first 3 months), so if you don't want any cap on UTV and add the 5.99 per month its:

1MB - 6GB Cap = 21.98e
2MB - 12GB Cap = 26.98e
3MB - 20GB Cap = 38.98e

So overall UTV offer a much cheaper package and give you better value for money, you can also save more money by including there "Talk" package and they also offer reduced pricing for the first 1-3 months depending on package chosen.

Even if you pay the extra for unlimited its still cheaper then Eircom

livEwirE

Fantastic feedback guys and very informative, thank you VERY much. This will give me something to think about over the weekend.

mcaul, great feedback and thanks for the info on the speed increase

ardmacha, thanks for the tip about the contract extension when the speed upgrade kicks in


Cabaal, brilliant post, plenty of detail, good tip on the DNS issues:)

Cabaal

Glad I could help

livEwirE

Sorry guys, me again...

Am I correct in saying that UTV have a contention ration of 48:1 compared to Eircom's 24:1 for 2MB broadband?

Would this make a huge difference to speed/performance etc.?

FredH3as

livEwirE wrote: »

Sorry guys, me again...

Am I correct in saying that UTV have a contention ration of 48:1 compared to Eircom's 24:1 for 2MB broadband?

Would this make a huge difference to speed/performance etc.?

Think of a 8 lane motorway vs a 4 lane motorway with the some volume of traffic trying to use them. Yes it can have an affect on performance, especially during internet rush hour .

Really depends on the other users you will be sharing with....

Cabaal

If UTV are using the same resold Eircom Wholesale product as Eircom then I don't see how the contention ratio would be different for UTV v Eircom...but then I could be wrong

watty

The contention is Four parts:
1) Artifical contention on the actuall DSL line from Exchange to house. This unlike wireless, cable or fibre is not shared.

2) Backhaul capacity. Even Smart does not have enough backhaul for everyone to be online same time full speed.

3) INEX connection speed.

4) Rest of Internet.

1) Eircom can make their own product be different contention as the DSL contention is artificial.

2) I have no idea how backhaul on ericom exchange works commercially. I suspect that unless you have LLU, the other ISP shares backhaul with eircom on eircom circuit.

3) UTV do use their own INEX etc. You typically use a UTV proxy.

So UTV could be worse contention than eircom. But I have no idea if it is.

I'd also be really really surprised if you saw much real contention worse than 3:1 on either. It's really only Ripwave and Mobile 3G Internet where you see really bad contention (down to less than 1/50th of sector speed with 24 users connected.). With DSL the contention is not among 20 or 48 users sharing one connection, but maybe 500 users sharing a maximum bandwidth. So if only one 2Mbps user is connected on DSL, maybe 98Mbps of bandwith is going spare.

Straight Flush

I'm on UTV's 2Mbps service and I have the unlimited download package. It works grand and is very reliable. However, if the connection is left on continuously for 48 hours, it will disconnect. This is for UTV to get your download usage stats.

Cabaal

Straight Flush wrote: »

I'm on UTV's 2Mbps service and I have the unlimited download package. It works grand and is very reliable. However, if the connection is left on continuously for 48 hours, it will disconnect. This is for UTV to get your download usage stats.

with a router that wouldn't bother me as it'll just re-connect again....curious what kind of usage are you doing in a month that you have the unlimited option?

ardmacha

UTV seem to have posted new tariffs on their website, approximately reflecting the reduction in wholesale rates.

UTV .................. Old --- New
1Mb - 6GB Cap = 15.99 - 13.99
2Mb - 12GB Cap = 20.99 - 16.99
3Mb - 20GB Cap = 32.99 - 23.99

As the 2Mb will go to 3Mb in June, the 1Mb is not a great deal, you'd get 3 times the speed for an extra 10c per day, or what you pay for 1Mb now.

Skyuser

ardmacha wrote: »

UTV seem to have posted new tariffs on their website, approximately reflecting the reduction in wholesale rates.

UTV .................. Old --- New
1Mb - 6GB Cap = 15.99 - 13.99
2Mb - 12GB Cap = 20.99 - 16.99
3Mb - 20GB Cap = 32.99 - 23.99

As the 2Mb will go to 3Mb in June, the 1Mb is not a great deal, you'd get 3 times the speed for an extra 10c per day, or what you pay for 1Mb now.

This is true, time for me to sign up for a new 6 month contract again. Eircom's website still has old prices. Currently you can get the 3Mb package with UTV for €1 cheaper than Eircom's 1Mb package.

livEwirE

does this mean if I sign up for UTV's 3mb package it will be upgraded to around 8mb in June at no extra cost? I see that their contention ration for 3mb is 24:1 while 2mb is 48:1.

If the 2mb increases to 3mb in June would the contention ration stay at 48:1?

ardmacha

UTV are reselling the Eircom product, so will get 7.6Mb in June or so. Contention rates will probably still be the same as other Eircom resellers.

livEwirE

Cheers for all your advice guys, I signed up for 3mb with UTV so hopefully I won't be disappointed:D

ronan.michael@g

Cabaal wrote: »

Both UTV and Eircom sell the same product which is belong to Eircom wholesale, both eircom and UTV have capped products but UTV give you the option of availing of a "unlimited" option for a 5.99e monthly charge which is a pretty good offer in my view as Eircom offer nothing of the sort and you can only get a unlimited option from Eircom if you pay big money

If the DNS issue with UTV is still ongoing its easy resolve by using DNS belong to the like of opendns.com etc so thats not a biggy, UTV have also won several best support awards over the past 3 years which is also a good sign.

My personal view between eircom and UTV is UTV has the best offering and when I move in May and can't get NTL anymore I plan on going with UTV as they appear to have the best plan suitable for what I need (option of no cap at a low enough price)

Packages are (normal prices only and excluding any intro offers and bundled Talk packages)
Eircom Just Broadband:
1MB - 10 GB download / 1 GB upload = 24.99e
2MB - 20 GB download / unlimited upload = 29.99e
3MB - 30 GB download / unlimited upload = 48.40e

UTV Just Broadband:
1MB - 6GB Cap = 15.99e
2MB - 12GB Cap = 20.99e
3MB - 20GB Cap = 32.99e

Now as I said UTV offer unlimited for 5.99e per month (free for first 3 months), so if you don't want any cap on UTV and add the 5.99 per month its:

1MB - 6GB Cap = 21.98e
2MB - 12GB Cap = 26.98e
3MB - 20GB Cap = 38.98e

So overall UTV offer a much cheaper package and give you better value for money, you can also save more money by including there "Talk" package and they also offer reduced pricing for the first 1-3 months depending on package chosen.

Even if you pay the extra for unlimited its still cheaper then Eircom

Excellent info - and all in one place! I'd like to go the UTV road but their tests show my line as PERHAPS good ONLY up to 512kpbs. Should I go ahead even if their contention ratio on this package - Clicksilver I meg - is 48:1. Does'nt sound good to me but maybe I'm wrong. Would appreciate your comment. Cheers Michael r. ps Am running a webcam daily - 10gigbytes down each month - maybe more.

ronan.michael@g

Cabaal wrote: »

Both UTV and Eircom sell the same product which is belong to Eircom wholesale, both eircom and UTV have capped products but UTV give you the option of availing of a "unlimited" option for a 5.99e monthly charge which is a pretty good offer in my view as Eircom offer nothing of the sort and you can only get a unlimited option from Eircom if you pay big money

If the DNS issue with UTV is still ongoing its easy resolve by using DNS belong to the like of opendns.com etc so thats not a biggy, UTV have also won several best support awards over the past 3 years which is also a good sign.

My personal view between eircom and UTV is UTV has the best offering and when I move in May and can't get NTL anymore I plan on going with UTV as they appear to have the best plan suitable for what I need (option of no cap at a low enough price)

Packages are (normal prices only and excluding any intro offers and bundled Talk packages)
Eircom Just Broadband:
1MB - 10 GB download / 1 GB upload = 24.99e
2MB - 20 GB download / unlimited upload = 29.99e
3MB - 30 GB download / unlimited upload = 48.40e

UTV Just Broadband:
1MB - 6GB Cap = 15.99e
2MB - 12GB Cap = 20.99e
3MB - 20GB Cap = 32.99e

Now as I said UTV offer unlimited for 5.99e per month (free for first 3 months), so if you don't want any cap on UTV and add the 5.99 per month its:

1MB - 6GB Cap = 21.98e
2MB - 12GB Cap = 26.98e
3MB - 20GB Cap = 38.98e

So overall UTV offer a much cheaper package and give you better value for money, you can also save more money by including there "Talk" package and they also offer reduced pricing for the first 1-3 months depending on package chosen.

Even if you pay the extra for unlimited its still cheaper then Eircom

Excellent info - and all in one place! I'd like to go the UTV road but their tests show my line as PERHAPS good ONLY up to 512kpbs. Should I go ahead as their contention ratio on this package clicksilver I meg - is 48:1? Does'nt sound good to me but maybe, hopefully!, I'm wrong. Would appreciate your comment. Cheers Michael r. ps Am running a webcam daily - 10gb download each month - maybe more.