Best broadband option???

ianuss

I'm living in Clontarf and have all options available to me, dsl, wireless etc.

I am currently with BT/Vodafone and at the moment my internet is being throttled due to over-usage. My family all download/stream tv shows, and as a result, speed and download limits will obviously be a major factor in my choice, as well as cost obviously. I was just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction? And I have read the existing threads by the way - not a total ignoramous

Magnet: Rory

ianuss wrote: »

I'm living in Clontarf and have all options available to me, dsl, wireless etc.

I am currently with BT/Vodafone and at the moment my internet is being throttled due to over-usage. My family all download/stream tv shows, and as a result, speed and download limits will obviously be a major factor in my choice, as well as cost obviously. I was just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction? And I have read the existing threads by the way - not a total ignoramous

Magnet are available in Clontarf`(up to 24Mb unlimited usage FUP). Other providers also have solid fixed line service in Clontarf.

In short theres a lot of options in the area

Do you know who else is available? Whats your budget?

the_law

ianuss wrote: »

I'm living in Clontarf

How close to the exchange? I can't speak for the exact location of the Clontarf exchange, but this has been accurate for every other exchange I know...

I find Google maps doing a vehicle route between the exchange and your house is useful, as that's probably where the wires go. As a rough estimate, my last ADSL2+ connection was about 1.4km by road from the exchange, but my actual loop length was around 2.1km meaning a maximum speed around 13Mbits. See this for performance versus line length.

For 24Mbit sync (works out around 22Mbit useful bandwidth) you want to be within 500m of your telephone exchange.

If you are a serious downloader then there are only really two options worth looking at: ADSL2+ and Cable.

ADSL2+ as provided by Smart and Magnet on their LLU products, once you are close to the exchange, is in technical terms the best option. There is no contention on the local loop, pings are most consistent and generally Smart and Magnet have plenty of backhaul. So you should see your full speed all the time.

Smart have now introduced a 170Gb cap since I was with them... it'd be too small for me, but your usage may vary. Magnet is more generous, not sure where they tell you to get off, perhaps Rory can clarify.

Cable offers higher maximum bandwidth (in all areas, even if you're beside the exchange), but contention can reduce this severely at peak times. My personal experience is of a kind of 6pm-midnight slowdown of about 30-40%, so during that time I'm still getting around 20 megabit which is just fine. It doesn't affect most bulk downloading that I do overnight. However, it all depends how many subscribers are on your local node, so some people get lucky and some get unlucky. UPC have a major upgrade planned for this year as they go onto DOCSIS 3 offering up to 100Mbits... which I think will also, due to channel bonding, sort out some of the contention issues.

Now it's entirely possible to get unlucky with a phoneline too... Eircom can give you a piece of string to the exchange that's totally unsuitable for broadband and there's nowt you can do if the voice quality is acceptable. And there's no way of knowing how good it'll be, even if it 'passes' Eircom's broadband prequalifier thing it might only be good for 1 megabit.

Then there's price. I live beside the Rathmines exchange, and was all set to get DSL until the day I was going to place the unbundling order UPC enabled my street. 50 euro a month for 30megabit (42 if you have TV too) versus 65 euro for 24meg on Magnet or 72 on Smart.

I figured with the 7 day trial period that UPC was worth trying first, and it hasn't gone to ****... yet...

Magnet: Rory

the_law wrote: »

How close to the exchange? I can't speak for the exact location of the Clontarf exchange, but this has been accurate for every other exchange I know...

Nice map, missing a lot of exchanges tho, shame its just the larger ones. Its on the money for the Clontarf exchange (well, its really on the other side of the street, but its close enough).

On our FUP, we have never invoked it nor have we ever throttled or traffic shaped. We reserve the right to do it, but so far it has not come up.

ianuss

Just a few questions

Rory you say Magnet use a fair usage policy, at the moment I am with Vodafone and they claim a fair usage policy too but twice has my internet been throttled. There are 3 people in my house nearly downloading or uploading something at some stage of the day. I think about 2-5 Gigs a day or something silly like that, I cant get them to stop downloading.

The_law you were saying UPC are upgrading, do you know anyhing more about that? You say that Smart have a cap of 170Gbs, over how long? A week, a month, etc?

At the moment we are spending about 65 euro but not 100% since the take over havent got a proper bill yet

the_law

Rory, it's a really useful map isn't it? If you click through to the user (Bohrio) who Google-mapped it all, there are two other sets of small exchanges, but not a complete set as far as I can remember.

ianuss, yeah, Magnet's fair use won't have a word to say about 5 gig per day... thats 150 per month, even Smart would be fine with that (170 per month). Vodafone's is below 100, perhaps as little as 40? However, if you are doing the amount of heavy downloading you say you are I'd say your usage could hit 200/250 at least with a faster line.

Regarding the UPC upgrades, they have been quoted in the press as planning 100 megabit speeds in late 2010. However, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, and you need to know how bloody infuriating their customer service can be at times. For example, it took me 3 months to get them to record the correct name, bank account number and the fact that I'm not married(!) on my account. I use them only because they're cheaper and that I was confident that the service in my area is stable.

Have you any way of concretely measuring your download usage? It may be more than you think... And don't forget to add uploaded data into the figure.

ianuss

the_law wrote: »

Regarding the UPC upgrades, they have been quoted in the press as planning 100 megabit speeds in late 2010. However, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, and you need to know how bloody infuriating their customer service can be at times. For example, it took me 3 months to get them to record the correct name, bank account number and the fact that I'm not married(!) on my account. I use them only because they're cheaper and that I was confident that the service in my area is stable.

Have you any way of concretely measuring your download usage? It may be more than you think... And don't forget to add uploaded data into the figure.

Ye I've heard that UPC aren't so great when it comes to customer service so I may swerve them to be honest. As it stands, I'm leaning towards Magnet as their 24MB package seems like it will suit just fine.

Thanks very much for taking the time to answer my questions - it's greatly appreciated