Anyone use 'National Broadband'??

Neesie

Hi there,
I came across a link to nbb.ie (national broadband) while looking at this board and wondered if anyone is a current customer and what they're like etc. They look kinda promising - 2 way satellite broadband, voip as part of a bundle - 512K download and I think 96K upload speed.
I've been warned against one way satellite broadband but would be interested to hear if anyone has any experience of dealing with them . . .
It seems to be the only option open to me at the moment but still don't want to get tied into something if its no good!
Thanks!

paulm17781

Your signal still has to go to space and back so there will be high latency. I doubt it would be great for games or web browsing but downloads would be good. I'd be skeptical of the phone service, I would expect a long delay.

robbie checker

I am currently bringing a small claims court against Cross Country Broadband Limited as they owe me nearly €500 and to date have not repaid me. I paid for an installation and one month in advance by credit card in January 2007. They also took another 7 months from my credit card last August. I had still received no installation as on two occassions, they were unable to receive a signal. I have been trying since last September to obtain a refund. Cross Country Broadband Limited is now strike off listed per the Companies Office and they are directing their business to National Broadband Limited per the Cross Country Broadband website. One of the directors of Cross Country Broadband Limited is also a director of National Broadband Limited and another director of Cross Country Broadband Limited is "involved" with National Broadband Limited as I have spoken to him there, although he is not a director per company office records. I would strongly advise anyone to have nothing to do with either company due to my experience with Cross Country Broadband Limited.

Neesie

Thanks for that Robbie - what a nightmare of a situation for you! I had already decided against them because I've heard too many bad stories about satellite broadband (may wait til the next century til we can get broadband in the sticks!).
I hope you get sorted soon - thanks again.

anon99

Hi Neesie,

I was just about to sign up to National Broadband but decided to do a quick search on reviews - I'm glad I saw this thread. I was searching for 'Broadband in Ballinamult' when one of your other threads came up! It's such a bummer not having broadband, and no hope of getting it any time soon.

I was just on my way to the bank to pay EUR500 to NBB, but I think I'll hold off for now. 200 of that is a deposit that they keep for 2 years - bit suss really. I would love to talk to someone who has it. Can it really be any worse than dial-up??!!

smellslikeshoes

anon99 wrote: »

Hi Neesie,

I was just about to sign up to National Broadband but decided to do a quick search on reviews - I'm glad I saw this thread. I was searching for 'Broadband in Ballinamult' when one of your other threads came up! It's such a bummer not having broadband, and no hope of getting it any time soon.

I was just on my way to the bank to pay EUR500 to NBB, but I think I'll hold off for now. 200 of that is a deposit that they keep for 2 years - bit suss really. I would love to talk to someone who has it. Can it really be any worse than dial-up??!!

Should look into O2 and Vodafone, even if you can't get 3G signal you would be able to escape the timed nature of dialup.

anon99

Hiya,

Thanks for that. Just contacted Vodafone, and no luck . I had tried the dongle from 3 before, but that didnt work either. Looks like I'm doomed to dialup...!

smellslikeshoes

anon99 wrote: »

Hiya,

Thanks for that. Just contacted Vodafone, and no luck . I had tried the dongle from 3 before, but that didnt work either. Looks like I'm doomed to dialup...!

You should try O2, even if you can't get their full speeds its possible to get edge which would be a vast improvement to dialup, and even if you can't get edge and only GPRS (dialup speed) you wouldn't have to worry about time spent online like you do with dialup. And if you don't like it they do a 30 day trial period.

anon99

Def worth a try, thanks. I just went on the 02 website. They have coverage practically over the whole of the republic. Tiny areas here and there not covered - can you believe, mine is one of them. I think I will still try it, as with the laptop, I could try moving around the house to see if I could pick it up.

Why oh why is it so difficult!!

anon99

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

You should try O2, even if you can't get their full speeds its possible to get edge which would be a vast improvement to dialup, and even if you can't get edge and only GPRS (dialup speed) you wouldn't have to worry about time spent online like you do with dialup. And if you don't like it they do a 30 day trial period.

Hiya,
I just bought the o2 usb on line:-) I think we are on the very border between the 'edge' service and no service at all. Fingers firmly crossed!
Thanks for your help and advice.

markmagennis

I just had NBB satellite broadband installed this morning at my house on the Sligo/Leitrim border, 5 miles north west of Sligo town.

I got the Home Office 1meg/128k package. Installation by NBB was a breeze. Plugged the network cable into my Mac and it worked first time. Speeds according to speedtest.net are around the 990k download and 190k upload mark. Ping is about 1sec.

So far, so good. With dialup I was getting 20k download so this is 50 times as fast (notwithstanding latency). It means I can once again look through the Apple Store and book Aer Arann flights online, two things which had become impossible.

It's early days yet so I'll see how it goes for a week or two and post an update for anyone who's interested.

Mark

anon99

That's interesting! I would be very interested in an update to see how it's going for you. I bought the O2 broadband on-line Wednesday, we are on the border of their 'edge' service, so we are hoping it will work, it's very borderline!

You must be thrilled with the broadband. We are getting speeds of 33.2, just crap. My husband is trying to do a course which involves lots of on-line work and discussion - meaning he spends hours doing things which should take minutes.

I'll watch this space for your update!

Marlow

markmagennis wrote: »

I just had NBB satellite broadband installed this morning

Is it satelite ? or wireless ? Those are entirely different things !!!!

/Martin

markmagennis

My NBB is satellite, not wireless.

Mark

anon99

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

You should try O2, even if you can't get their full speeds its possible to get edge which would be a vast improvement to dialup, and even if you can't get edge and only GPRS (dialup speed) you wouldn't have to worry about time spent online like you do with dialup. And if you don't like it they do a 30 day trial period.

I owe you one!! Our 02 broadband arrived on Friday. From their map it looked like we were on the very border of their edge service and no service at all. We plugged it in, and bingo - we have Broadband. Did a speed test on the internet - 1.1mb upload speed!!!!! Can't believe ourselves.

Thanks so much, would never have tried it .

smellslikeshoes

anon99 wrote: »

I owe you one!! Our 02 broadband arrived on Friday. From their map it looked like we were on the very border of their edge service and no service at all. We plugged it in, and bingo - we have Broadband. Did a speed test on the internet - 1.1mb upload speed!!!!! Can't believe ourselves.

Thanks so much, would never have tried it .

Thats great news. Just make sure you keep an eye on the usage limit, 10GB can be used up quite fast. And welcome to the 21st century

Ogham

Hi - just wodering how the NBB satellite is going for you MArkmcgennis ?
I was thinking of giving them a try - phone line here is crap and vodafone mobile not much better (sometimes worse).

markmagennis

Ogham wrote: »

Hi - just wodering how the NBB satellite is going for you MArkmcgennis ?

Very well. I posted a description of my experiences a couple of weeks ago. Then I posted about the effects of weather on the speeds I was getting.

Mark