Sky digital in Smithfield market

ProudDUB

Steveraf wrote: »

Secondly UPC confirmed to me that they have approached the management company here on a few different occasions but are always refused, so they obviously want to get in here. I still dont think they would be put off by the wiring difficulties, these apartments are less than a decade old. I see what you are saying DjTaz about having to run a cable from the car park to each apartment, no doubt tricky but I'm sure they could 'piggy back' on the numerous other cables we having coming into our apartments from the car park,

I have a ton of sympathy for your plight. I really do. I work from home. If I didn't have blazing fast broadband speeds where I live, I'd have to leave and find some where else to live. That being said, I think that you may be missing the main point here. It is not about what UPC want to do to get more customers, or can do regarding "piggybacking" with existing cables. It is about what they have legal permission to do on the property. If the mgt company refuse to give it, UPC can't do a thing, despite the wishes of some of the tenants.

If you live in a house, you are the sole owner of your own four walls, your roof and your floor. You can have anyone you want come and install anything you want, or drill into anything they want. Even if you are share a common wall in a semi detached house, you don't have to ask permission from a next door neighbour. As you have direct frontage to the street, lines and cables can be run directly from it.

An apt owner shares common walls and floors and ceilings with the people above, below and either side of him. They are not his sole property to do with as he pleases. Hence the mgt company being the ones to have the say when it comes to work being done that compromises the structural integrity of the building as whole, such as drilling into the walls to redo the wiring.

Best way around this is get them involved, as for now they are the ones with all the decision making power. Or get the landlords involved who were responsible for hiring the mgt company in the first place. Find out why they are saying No to UPC. It really doesn't make sense seeing as UPC are widely recognized as the being the provider of the fastest broadband service in the country. Sooner or later the building not being wired for UPC broadband (or a decent alternative) will affect property values of the apts. If you approach them & the landlords from that angle, you may get somewhere in getting them to shake things up.

Steveraf

Thanks ProudDub and DjTaz, cant argue with anything you have said, you are 100% correct ProudDub regarding what rights an an owner has re services coming in to an apartment and if the structural integrity might be compromised as a result of UPC coming in then its hard to argue for UPC. As you both say its best to ask the management company why UPC are not allowed in, if there is a reasonable answer then fair enough, case closed. If on the other hand there is no good answer then I will check with UPC to see what exactly they would need to do to do in terms of rewiring etc and take it from there. ProudDub raises a very valid point - High speed broadband is a must in this day and age, I reckon within 5 years everybody will have those new TV's that basically double as a PC, with companies such as Netflix & Lovefilm.com etc replacing the DVD who would want to buy or move in here if you cant get good internet - its a very fair point. So you are with eircom DjTaz? Mind if I ask what speed you are getting? i.e. have you signed up to their 24MB? Does it come in at even half that i.e. 12MB? If so I would be happy enough with that, anything below 10 aint great. I signed up for magnets 24MB but it only comes in at like 1.5MB, I thought maybe it was the same story with Eircom?

Dandelion6

I'd also be interested in knowing if Eircom is worth switching to, this Smart service is just hopeless

Steveraf

Hi Dandelion 6 - I am currently using o2, they have a very good mobile broadband service, I have signed up for 6 months to the 'Hotspot' modem, its def quicker than the service i was getting from Magnet. I am usually gettting about 2.5 mbs and it only costs 21 euro pm! Much better value than the rest I think. Good luck!

MadsL

DjTaz wrote: »

Prouddub is correct. At the moment all wiring from ISPs comes into data rooms in the car park minus one and once terminated in switches there gets run to the ports you see in your walls. UPC use a different system so they would need to run a cable from the carpark to each apartment without using the outside of the building. It's very tricky.

Why is it tricky? The apartments have vertically running cable conduits and at that termination have a network Cat 5 switch built into the inside wall of the apartment. Every room has a cat5 port. I even had one installed along with a power point in one of the storage cupboards so I could run a server out of sight.

The dogs breakfast that is services in Smithfield Market is a joke; when i moved in there as one of the first residents, I had fibre to the basement and a 14Mb (near 20MB burst) connection with (I was told) a 2Gb pipe coming into the data room in the basement. Smart eventually capped it back to 2Mb (now 4Mb) to make the TV work and ripped out the fibre kit and installed ADSL2 DSLAMS in the basement. I actually called the Customer Service manager and pleaded with them NOT to do this (oddly he took the call in the meeting they were having to decide to do this) - I told them it was absurd to go backwards in technology - but they insisted it would 'save' the TV service. It didn't and after much howling by residents Sky got in there and decimated Smart for TV.

Someone (?) needs to get there and rather than just dump their tech on top of old tech, actually replace the Cat5 that is in place and get Fibre to each apartment and futureproof the damn thing.

Good luck with it - just to be a smug bast*rd I now have a 50MB connection

Steveraf

Couldn't agree more, the service here is a dogs dinner or breakfast - pathetic when you consider the service charge for a 2 bed apartment here is 2.3k pa. I take it you no longer live here hence why you are able to get 50mb?

MadsL

I'm in the US my friend.

Service charge of 2,300 year? Jesus, I was renting there. Didn't realise that. That means the 3 beds must be more than 3k. I'm paying $2880 a year here in a condo that includes a tennis court, a pool and sauna. You should get membership of 1escape included for that service charge. :eek:

Dandelion6

Steveraf wrote: »

Hi Dandelion 6 - I am currently using o2, they have a very good mobile broadband service, I have signed up for 6 months to the 'Hotspot' modem, its def quicker than the service i was getting from Magnet. I am usually gettting about 2.5 mbs and it only costs 21 euro pm! Much better value than the rest I think. Good luck!

It hardly seems worth changing from Smart for 2.5mb. Is there no one offering decent speeds in this place?

dublin34

OH GOD!.. i am depressed. Just went to view a room in an apartment in Block A...love the place, great room mate, good rate...and he tells me he cant get broadband. Pah...ridiculous I tell him....cant be true....this is right in the city centre.....and now I find its true!

WTF??? Seriously????? People in the centre of Dublin are still living with crap broadband????

Am depressed....will miss my super fast fibre with UPC :mad:

Lux23

I have Magnet and I get speeds of about 5mb which is ok for me but useless for gamers etc. Smithfield seems to be a bit of black hole when it comes to this kind of stuff, seems to really depend on what block you are in.

DjTaz

dublin34 wrote: »

and he tells me he cant get broadband.

He cant get broadband ? That has to be wrong.

dublin34

ok so really the two options I have come down to are Magnet or Eircom

If I can get 5mb on magnet i could live with that. I dont game, but I do watch a lot of TV online, do you stream TV with the magnet service?

That or I will see if I can persuade him to get an eircom line in, which is my preference.

MadsL

Sky have just announced an Irish broadband rollout. There is 'Sky in your Apartment' service at Smithfield.

DjTaz

MadsL wrote: »

Sky have just announced an Irish broadband rollout. There is 'Sky in your Apartment' service at Smithfield.

You would want to check if sky broadband is covered in Smithfield. The sky service is quite good in fairness to it and i have no complaints with Eircom Copper (my own broadband) and Sky TV. It seems to work well.

Dandelion6

Did anyone else get the new leaflet from Smart?

Steveraf

Has anyone in Smithfield market apartments tried sky broadband yet? if so is it any good? what are speeds like?