[Article]3 preferred over eircom for broadband plan

Cabaal

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I posted my discust on Eamon Ryans profile, its been removed and I have recieved an infraction :mad:

As I have advised already, Eamon is still a user on boards and personal abuse is against boards rules, you can express dissatisfaction but calling names doesn't help anyone!

This is my second warning to anybody else that feels personal abuse is needed

Cabaal,

Onikage

watty wrote: »

But if you accept it as broadband it makes our penetration figures look good and any real broadband is much more expensive. There isn't any NBS money for a real rollout.

HSDPA inherently can't deliver. It's not "3"s fault.

Ok, now we're getting somewhere. You can deliver HSDPA to 98% of the country for less money than any other technology. Hurray! Targets achieved! Nevermind the fact that's it's not a patch on 512k DSL! So even if I don't like it, I can understand HSPDA being selected.

But 3? 3? They've been deservedly dragged through the mud online, on the radio, in the papers... and they're not even the cheapest anymore? Why compound an unsuitable technology with an unsuitable provider?

Cabaal

Onikage wrote: »

But 3? 3? They've been deservedly dragged through the mud online, on the radio, in the papers... and they're not even the cheapest anymore? Why compound an unsuitable technology with an unsuitable provider?

Perhaps because they offered to do the job at the cheapest price (when compared to Eircom)

Onikage

Cabaal wrote: »

Perhaps because they offered to do the job at the cheapest price (when compared to Eircom)

Ah, the basis of all good government decisions.

Sam Vimes

i don't know where to begin with this one but let's try anyway.

I don't see how eamonn could have considered anything in his decision besides the broadband penetration figures and the cost.

A well run HSDPA network would be completely unsuitable as a national broadband provider and 3 compound the problems inherent in HSDPA with their own stupidity. One simple example would be the sharing of a few ip addresses. 3 customers often find they can't access major sites such as google because their ip has been blocked

And not only have they introduced many unnecessary technical problems due to incompetence and penny pinching, they have the worst customer care i have ever encountered, who will never acknowledge that there might be a problem on their end and will blame every single problem on the customer's modem or computer.

I could provide a better broadband service through the use of cups and string

Anti

No words needed for this retarded decission.

Falconire

:mad:I have just read about Minister Eammon Ryan's crazy decision to pick 3Ireland as the preferred provider for the National Broadband Scheme:mad:.

How could he make such a stupid decision especial as he is a user on Boards so he has no excuse for not having the facts about 3Ireland's very poor service.

I have to use 3 on my laptop for work but it is not a proper broadband replacement for use in an office or home as you can use Viop and other services. It is only usable for getting e-mails very slowly usually at dialup speeds I have just read about Minister Eammon Ryan crazy decision to pick 3Ireland as the preferred provider for the National Broadband Scheme.

How could he make such a stupid decision especial as he is a user on Boards, he has no excuse for not having the facts about 3Ireland's very poor service

watty

Onikage wrote: »

But 3? 3? They've been deservedly dragged through the mud online, on the radio, in the papers... and they're not even the cheapest anymore? Why compound an unsuitable technology with an unsuitable provider?

Because only "3" and eircom tendered.

They can't choose people that didn't enter or withdrew.

Sam Vimes

i just thought of a benefit of my cup and string plan over 3: it won't stop working in the rain :rolleyes:

Nick_oliveri

Yall seem to think that he could be arsed reading through the megathread when he originally only posted to get seats for an event and has two posts.

Last Activity: 10-11-2008 16:44

Lad probably doesnt even remember his logon details.

godskitchen

This is bad for everyone, not just the poor people that cant get Broadband right now.

It is bad because with Three, there will be no competition. HSDPA is not broadband and will never be able to compete with DSL/Cable/FWA. It is just going to be for the people that can get nothing at the moment and they will be told "Ah sure whats the problem, we have got ye broadband now havnt we, we did our best".

What I cant understand is how they came to this decision, echoing the thoughts of other users on this forum, how is Mr Ryan not aware of the problems with Three.........

I wonder if this can be challenged on the grounds that HSDPA is not classed as broadband by the EU? Unless you have a fixed antenna if I recall correctly?

Broadband is a major utility, and it needs to be seen that way. I can not believe we are in 2008 and some of us still have to explain why Broadband is so important to future growth and prosperity of this country.

Can you imagine when rural electrification happened in this country, if they let someone who had once wired a plug take the contract.......thats what has happened here with Three. True broadband coverage is just as important, in the context of the 21st century.

If there were no other tenders for the contract Mr Ryan, then have the balls to come out and say you are not happy to go ahead, tell the public why you have stalled and that you will not be going ahead until it is the best possible use of Irish tax payers money.

What you have done here is reward a company that have, without exaggerating, lied to its Irish customers over and over again. Provided a service that would not be acceptable in a third world country. Given customer service so bad it has taken years of peoples lives.

I expect we will be in buzz word city over the coming weeks, as people pat each other on the back for a job well done. I for one will be telling everyone I know of what a bad job is being done, as I am sure the rest of boards.ie will.

Our man in Havana

I am currently not in coverage according to the big map. I used to have 3 and had to get rid of it as it was totally unusable. I am currently on a EDGE 256kb/s connection. I do not want 3 under any circumstances.

The future is bleak tbh.

97i9y3941

i sympatise with alot of you there,live in rural ireland myself,was with eircom for years,but could never get broadband off them cause,well in their eyes there woundnt be a return in what they invest in,even do the village down the road had eircom bb,in the end,i was one of the lucky people,i could get digiweb bb,in end got rid of eircom so digiweb is my phone and bb provider now

adm

I was using three this past 2 weeks in dublin and frankly it is useless.
BUT ... I brought it down to my parents in Mayo and it worked inside. This is the first "Broadband" (not really of course) that they have ever been able to get down there and I have tried everything short of a satellite dish. I even tried three last xmas and it didn't work then.
Frankly they were delighted so i gave it to them and got a landline in my house.
My two weeks with three was hell but now at least my folks have something. I know this is not good enough but, honestly, something is better than nothing (thats a very Irish attitude I suppose!)

p.s. eircom are pure liquid evil.

97i9y3941

adm wrote: »

p.s. eircom are pure liquid evil.

so true,i often suggest to eircom,could they not give a flat rate to customers who can only get dial up,i know there are already packages that are offered by eircom but there is too much ifs and buts in the contract,i tried it before at time when was with them and the bill actually went up instead of down,but then its maybe the dial up people that are paying for the laying of the optic cables anyway

Onikage

watty wrote: »

Because only "3" and eircom tendered.

They can't choose people that didn't enter or withdrew.

From Basis:

Contracting Authorities

Contracting Authorities, in deciding which bid to accept, may do so on the basis of either

• the lowest price only

or

• the most economically advantageous tender (using various criteria such as price, period for completion, running costs, profitability, technical merit).

I'm no eircom lover but even I acknowledge the vast gulf in the quality of services the two companies can provide. At twice the cost of "3"s offering it would be a bargain.

On a side note, aren't the government obliged to get a minimum of three quotes for any purchase over €1500? :rolleyes: Guess it doesn't apply when you are flushing away huge chunks of money.

godskitchen

adm wrote: »

something is better than nothing (thats a very Irish attitude I suppose!)

p.s. eircom are pure liquid evil.

Yes something is better than nothing, the problem is there are other options available to the government that they have ignored......

Iago

Onikage wrote: »

On a side note, aren't the government obliged to get a minimum of three quotes for any purchase over €1500? :rolleyes: Guess it doesn't apply when you are flushing away huge chunks of money.

they did get 3 quotes, but BT subsequently pulled out of the process.

Praetorian

This is the best news ever. 3 are great. 3G is great & fast and super!

NOT

Iago

3 are a fantastic network, HSDPA will work smoothly and without issues for all customers lucky enough to have it. I myself have gamed online extensively with 3, while talking to my brother on VoIP and downloading movies with a premier league match streaming in the background.

We will soon be at the top of the European broadband charts with this incredible new service!

Mlo

For some strange reason I decided to listen to the radio instead of my ipod on the way to work this morning and heard this on the morning news.

Frankly I'm stunned. Eircom may be bad (and they are; back when I lived in Dublin I switched to another provider because of this; now that I've moved to Wexford I can't even get a phone line from them (but i do live in hope))

But Three are unbelievably awful. I've had their alleged broadband for nearly a year now, and it and they are just terrible.

Notwithstanding the limits of 3G technology (which they surely aren't proposing to roll out as the technical solution for the NBS; can they?) their network here is the worst of those out there and there customer service is just abysmal (but still better than Eircom's as I've recently found out)

It strikes me that someone should be getting the press to look at the megathread and report on the contract result in the light of it.

Is there any possability btw that Threes proposal doesn't depend on HSPDA for provision of services??

As for Eamon Ryan, he clearly doesn't have any intention of bringing broadband to rural ireland if this horrible bandaid is his solution.

thebman

This is just done for costs and so the government can say they delivered the NBS when election time rolls around which is a crap reason to use this technology.

godskitchen

Can anyone confirm if they are talking about using HSDPA? If so it does not meet the original criteria.....

PogMoThoin

godskitchen wrote: »

Can anyone confirm if they are talking about using HSDPA? If so it does not meet the original criteria.....

What else can they use?

watty

I can't see how they can beat eircom on Price and Fail on everything else unless it is HSDPA.

Up to 8% of NBS customers are allowed to have 2 way Satellite. HSDPA can be better or worse than VSAT.

Walkman

godskitchen wrote: »

Can anyone confirm if they are talking about using HSDPA? If so it does not meet the original criteria.....

Do they not already have a hsdpa network

Our man in Havana

A very poor one.

foggy_lad

bealtine wrote: »

And there you have it..."doesn't work". I wonder will they enforce minimum requirements and what penalties will follow for non performance?

The DCENR says :
"The final product that consumers will receive from the NBS will be an always on service of at least 1Mbit/s down and 128kbits/s up. The minimum download capacity per connection will be 10 gigabits per month and the service must support Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for businesses and VoIP applications and devices for home business purposes. Latency must be sufficient in order to allow standard applications such as VoIP and online gaming to be run"

Will this be guaranteed for every single consumer that tries to connect?

I wonder if 3 can possibly deliver anything remotely like this based on the current capabilities of HSDPA, only time will tell.

it will be interesting to hear how three are going to basically guarantee 1mbps download speeds when they were hard pressed to give me 10kbps when i had their service. and i assume this will have to be similar to my sisters 1mbps perlico connection where she gets at least 850kbps download speed at the busiest time?

also my email to minister ryan went like this

Dear minister ryan,
it is a disgrace that this company has been awarded such an important contract and i hope that when they fail to provide even a fraction of their promised service all those involved in handing them so much public money will do the honorable thing and resign from the positions they hold!

also i and many others have serious concerns about three's ability to provide customer service from their call centres in India, please also be aware that i have had the three broadband product in the past in the centre of Carlow town and at peak times had speeds less than dial-up(5kbps), not just on and off but all peak times as in every evening after 6pm speeds were desperate! and i only got out of the contract with them after threatening them with legal action and after the intervention of ComReg.

so to sum up three as a company are more like those awful here today gone tomorrow "cowboy builders" and their customer care is a nightmare to understand and deal with, and the people that gave them this contract are obviously ill-informed and blind to the reality of broadband in Ireland today!

Regards

mike76

anyone know whether the bids will be available under FOI and if so when?

watty

Walkman wrote: »

Do they not already have a hsdpa network

A small one. They Roam to Vodaphone. They have been planning to increase it. They need about x6 mast sites anyway.