Questions about Upc phoneline

sunnyman2

ive got an eircom phone line at the moment, im looking to get upc,i would like to keep the current location of have my phones,is this possible? it says they need to install a unit to connect to the network,

also i want to keep the same number, so am i not supposed to cancel my current package if i want to keep the number?

what should be the next thing i do?

im looking to get their broadband aswell

so im going to be changing all my eircom packages and getting upc

do i make eircom aware i want to change or do i contact upc?

its a bit confusing

guil

order upc and say nothin to eircom, when they come to install it they will put the phone wherever ya want but there will prob be a wire runnin down the wall and to keep ur number ya have to keep eircom for 1 month after upc is installed and they can transfer the number

sunnyman2

thanks:D

guil

no problemo

ellobee

you didn't say if you had eircom broadband, but if you have, as soon as you get ntl in ring eircom and cancel your broadband only also when the engineer is installing your phone ask him if he has a porting form, this is the form used to transfer your existing number onto the NTL line if he hasn't got one just ring ntl and get them to send you one fill this in and send it back to ntl with your last eircom bill and they will do the rest I did it and it took less than 2 weeks, so you don't have to contact eircom at all (unless you have eircom broadband)ntl will cancel your eircom account and transfer your number. also about the location of your phone they give you a cordless one so it doesn't really matter where it's located.

paulm17781

Further to what Guil07 said you can do this. If you are getting UPC broadband anyway, there are other probably cheaper phone options you can look at. I use http://www.blueface.ie which works over my UPC broadband. I've had it for over 3 years now and it great for what I need it for. I got to keep my phone number too.

sunnyman2

ellobee wrote: »

you didn't say if you had eircom broadband, but if you have, as soon as you get ntl in ring eircom and cancel your broadband only also when the engineer is installing your phone ask him if he has a porting form, this is the form used to transfer your existing number onto the NTL line if he hasn't got one just ring ntl and get them to send you one fill this in and send it back to ntl with your last eircom bill and they will do the rest I did it and it took less than 2 weeks, so you don't have to contact eircom at all (unless you have eircom broadband)ntl will cancel your eircom account and transfer your number. also about the location of your phone they give you a cordless one so it doesn't really matter where it's located.

i have eircom broadband aswell,

just a couple more quick questions,

i have 1 maybe 2 months left on the 12 month eircom contract, would it make any difference when changing, would eircom left you switch without paying the remaining month or two or are they reluctant,

also i have a cordless phone in my kitchen and id like to keep a phone in the kitchen, (my kitchen is the central point of the house so it would be alot easier to have a phone there)

one last thing, are you having trouble with upc throttling, alot of people seem to be saying they are,

guil

ya could just get a phone with multiple bases, the main one has to be connected to a phone line, ie the modem and the rest just have to be plugged into a socket for power
with eircom i just rang and said i couldnt afford it anymore but they said nothin bout a cancellation fee- time will tell
afaik upc dont throttle, the only problem i have is the phone is a bit tempermental and i only get 10mb download

ellobee

sunnyman2 wrote: »

i have eircom broadband aswell,

just a couple more quick questions,

i have 1 maybe 2 months left on the 12 month eircom contract, would it make any difference when changing, would eircom left you switch without paying the remaining month or two or are they reluctant,

also i have a cordless phone in my kitchen and id like to keep a phone in the kitchen, (my kitchen is the central point of the house so it would be alot easier to have a phone there)

one last thing, are you having trouble with upc throttling, alot of people seem to be saying they are,

If you have 2 months left on your contract I'm nearly sure you will have to see it out, anyway I think you pay for line rental and broadband in advance so check your last bill and see what the billing period is for and you could start the ball rolling with eircom, if you have already paid for the next month or two just keep using eircom, but make sure you cancel with them before they issue your next bill. Re throttling I don't use torrents so I haven't come across any problems there, I use rapidshare for files and I am currently downloading 700mb files in approx 5-6 mins

peterk19

Also have a question regarding the NTL phone service, will a standard fax machine work over this?

Soundman

guil07 wrote: »

ya could just get a phone with multiple bases, the main one has to be connected to a phone line, ie the modem and the rest just have to be plugged into a socket for power

Can you point me in the direction of the type you are referring to? Would be handy having at least one other phone in the house...

Samba

i'm also considering changing over i'm currently with BT and I was not too impressed with the new sync speed or the peformance im getting.

Just this really worries me.

Section 3: Data Transfer Allowances, Excessive Use and Other Limitations

UPC broadband services are intended for normal recreational or educational use by individuals and families and our pricing and network architecture have been designed accordingly. The Services are strictly for residential use only - commercial use of any kind is prohibited. Customers who use the services more heavily than a normal home user will reduce the performance of the network for other customers.

Your monthly data transfer allowance depends upon which broadband package you have selected. The data transfer allowances for the various packages can be found at www.upc.ie . All monthly data transfer allowances refer to the cumulative amount of data uploaded and downloaded per month, unless otherwise specified in your particular package. For purposes of illustration only, 1 gigabyte downstream of data transfer equates to approximately 200 music tracks, 650 short videos, 10,000 pictures or around 100 large software programmes downloaded.

“Excessive use” of the Service is defined as usage exceeding your monthly data transfer allowance.

If you exceed your monthly data transfer allowance as determined by UPC, in our sole judgment, UPC may take any of the following actions, or any combination thereof:

· Impose a charge of 3 cent per megabyte or part thereof for exceeding your data transfer limit; and/or

· Upgrade your package to a package with a higher data transfer limit with the corresponding higher monthly fee; and/or

· Downgrade your upload and download speed for a period of one month to dial-up speed, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or

· Suspend your access to the services for one month, with your monthly fee remaining the same; and/or

· Terminate your account as per the terms of the User Policy and UPC Terms and Conditions.

So Im considering the 10/20mb package whch does not have a cap but what exactly does fair usage entail could some heavy downloaders shed some light on what exactly is deemed as fair usage and what actions did they take?

Another quick Q I had, I presume this service is cable based yes? If it's DSL then Im probably going to sync up at the same speeds anyway but I would be saving money....


Reliability - This is ultimately the biggest factor, how stable are their lines currently, im based in the Stillorgan Area can anyone share their experiences on reliablility in this area?

Since getting my BT package 2-3 years back I've very rarely had any down time.

I play a fair bit of poker online as a source of income so constant downtime/disconnects/poor service would not really suit my needs.

Thanks.

Samba

danIrl

To peterk19: Fax machines seem to work with the UPC digital phone system. At least mine does. Customer support also confirmed that a fax service will work normally.

Question: Does anyone know how to enable the voicemail with the phone service? Any why is there no documentation? I have setup voicemail, but incoming calls are never diverted to the voicemail!

bk

I'm not sure why everyone is so worried about UPC and it's caps. Despite having caps, UPC has never thrown off, charged or throttled any customers who went over their cap.

Once they sent some letters out to people who were going way over the cap, asking them to download less as they were effecting others on the same segment. Which is fair enough and they didn't do anything further.

So don't worry about the fair usage policy unless you are downloading 100's of GB per month.

Yes, this comes in over the TV cable, it has nothing to do with DSL.

MrVestek

peterk19 wrote: »

Also have a question regarding the NTL phone service, will a standard fax machine work over this?

No, the call quality of VOIP coupled with the slight latency over standard phone lines will make fax calls unreliable at best. They are however to the best of my knowledge working on a Fax Over IP protocol at the moment...

jimmycrackcorm

the upc terms and conditions have not been updated on the web site and still refer to the previous capped packages.

danIrl

Yes but I am sure that they give priority to telephony packets (voice/data) over internet traffic by assigning them a higher QoS.

Maybe they use another technology?

I know I have used a fax for sending/receiving a few times without any problems. Perhaps if you use a fax machine more often than this or for a business, then perhaps caution is advised.

sunnyman2

i just found out i the phone service isnt available in my area :eek:

any other cheap phone options besides blueface,

Onikage

freespeech.ie is the other big one.

MrVestek

danIrl wrote: »

I know I have used a fax for sending/receiving a few times without any problems. Perhaps if you use a fax machine more often than this or for a business, then perhaps caution is advised.

http://www.3cx.com/PBX/FAX-VOIP.html

danIrl

Good to know. Thanks.

RJGMovie

Is it true that the UPC is not compatible with existing internal phone lines? My house was pre wired for phones for upstairs and the kitchen. Would I need to get all the lines replaced to suit the UPC (VOIP) phone system?

ellobee

RJGMovie wrote: »

Is it true that the UPC is not compatible with existing internal phone lines? My house was pre wired for phones for upstairs and the kitchen. Would I need to get all the lines replaced to suit the UPC (VOIP) phone system?

I wouldn't think it should be a problem, but you will have to connect you internal wiring to the upc modem

RJGMovie

Thanks but I understand that the UPC phone system is incompatible with existing Eircom phone lines/wiring. Is there an adaptor available?