Ice Broadband

theawfultruth

AARRRRGH wrote: »

In fairness any IT worker who put up with those conditions without being able to find another job

Extremely intelligent observation with 430,000 people on the dole.

AARRRRGH wrote: »

IT is not the wost hit sector so they should have moved on if they were any good.

Tell that to the 1200 ex-Dell employees. Are you sure you're not Mary Coughlan in disguise?

AARRRRGH wrote: »

I can only assume the staff that stayed were only there because noone else would employ them.

Baseless assumptions seem to be your forte.

Irish Steve

AARRRRGH wrote: »

Yes it would be nice if someone made a business out of it instead of a shambles. Id like to see all new staff in there before I would go near them too. It might be the management that were the problem, but their engineers were useless because they couldnt provide ANY SORT OF DECENT service, sale staff were just liars and support was probably just the liars from sales answering another line.

Ive been out in my parents house when Ices engineers called to fix a problem. I didnt let on I knew what I was talking about to them. I met at least 3 of their engineers on 3 different occasions and they definitely didnt know their arse from their elbows.

I got a CV in from an ex Ice employee a while ago for a position I was interviewing for. The second I saw Ice Broadband on it I threw it in the bin.

I am not ex Ice, and have no involvement other than as a user of the Ice service, albeit that they did mess me about big time a while back when I wanted a non standard link configuration, some key staff left at the wrong time, and I never did get what was supposed to be installed. To dismiss CV's on the basis of their previous involvement with Ice, is more than a bit harsh, some of them did know what they were doing, and worked hard at trying to make it happen, despite the management. That said, some did not, and it was usually pretty easy to distinguish the difference.

The underlying problem that I saw on a regular basis was that the management were not prepared to make the commitments needed to get it right, so too often, sales didn't have the hardware they needed to support the customers, and things like the VOIP bill didn't get paid on time, which meant that the users then were unable to use the service they were paying for. Some of the backhauls were massively overloaded, and a lot of the tech staff didn't know how to deal with (stop) torrent downloaders that were not using the system in accordance with fair use terms , and killed the performance for other users.

In some areas, the Ice concept is not just a useful method of connecting broadband, especially in the rural areas, it's the only way. In theory, between Swords and Ashbourne is not one of those areas, but before Ice, even dial up to the EircoN Swords exchange was unreliable, and even out of the ark technology like fax is unreliable, so Ice was the only way to get a working and usable broadband service, and as I mentioned the other day, most of the time during the day, we were able to get 3 down and 1 up, and it didn't go wrong very often. As I said, when it did, getting it back wasn't always easy, and I knew from early on that some of the basics were not in place, like when the entire area went out because of a planned power outage at a mast, and a generator at the mast would have been very easy and cheap to arrange.

I have to admit, I'd like to hope that maybe someone like Imagine will grab the entire operation, and put in a management that will support the people that are there. The radio hardware is good quality, I suspect that the server end won't need much to sort out some of the performance issues, and a better backhaul on some areas will sort the rest. There is a place for a well run replacement for Ice, and in parts of the country, they could easily expand the size of the operation and make it successful.

There is also a place for a specialist service for business users that don't need huge bandwidth, but need speed, as it's impossible to run a web server outside of the Dublin area, as there's not the speed to provide an adequate service, and many companies would be only too happy to have in house servers if they could get good speeds to provide an acceptable service to their users. That's not there at the moment, and with the present shambles that is Government policy, it's not likely to happen for a long time to come.

Time will tell. Hopefully, someone will pick the pieces up before it all falls apart and can't be recovered.

Steve

AARRRRGH

theawfultruth wrote: »

Extremely intelligent observation with 430,000 people on the dole.




Tell that to the 1200 ex-Dell employees. Are you sure you're not Mary Coughlan in disguise?




Baseless assumptions seem to be your forte.

IT != manufacturing.

bigpaddy2004

2 of Ice's biggest problems is firstly they over subscribe every base station they have and secondly they allow backhaul channels to over lap base station channels and not allowing for any guardbands.

Sponge Bob

Do they only use unlicenced spectrum for their backhaul BigP??

Irish Steve

Supposedly, they were using a mixture of licensed and unlicensed channels, but I would need to qualify that with the comment that the licensed channels were supposedly happening a while back, and may well have been dropped subsequently when the middle managers that introduced them left Ice. At one point, they were for sure only using unlicensed channels, and it was causing huge problems with performance.

At that time, they then got an order for one specific customer that wanted 15Mb down and 15Mb up, based in top end of the Blanchardstown area, (may even have been their own offices, who knows) and that was being run from the Ashbourne mast for some reason, but supposedly was delivering what was required. I was supposed to get a 5 down 3 up link around that time in Ashbourne, less than a kilometer from the head end, but it never happened, when the aerials were installed, the best the engineers could get that day was 256 K down, so it never went live, and despite giving them time to sort it, they didn't, I never did get an explanation or apology from them in respect of their screw up, and since then, while some of my existing users have still had an acceptable level of service, I've not put any new business their way.

Hopefully, if Revenue get their application, they will then report accordingly and the director of corporate enforcement will look VERY closely at the directors performance, and will take appropriate action to ensure that the relevant people can't try and do the same again under a different name.

Steve

bigpaddy2004

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Do they only use unlicenced spectrum for their backhaul BigP??

All their backhauls are motorola 5.xGhz orthoton boxs. They only have 1 licensed link which is up in Wicklow, Hollywood I believe.

PeopleAndLiars

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

All their backhauls are motorola 5.xGhz orthoton boxs. They only have 1 licensed link which is up in Wicklow, Hollywood I believe.

Hi there,
not so precise the description of ex-ice infrastructure ! You have a lot of info but quite incomplete. There were Ceragon,Motorola and SIAE Elettronica as backhauls technology and definetely more than 1 main trunk were licensed. You are right about wicklow

Take care

Ex ICE Staff

bigpaddy2004

PeopleAndLiars wrote: »

Hi there,
not so precise the description of ex-ice infrastructure ! You have a lot of info but quite incomplete. There were Ceragon,Motorola and SIAE Elettronica as backhauls technology and definetely more than 1 main trunk were licensed. You are right about wicklow

Take care

Ex ICE Staff

I can only go by what equipment they use at sites on which we co-locate at also. BTW it was Mr Rooney himself that told me they only have 1 licensed link.

PeopleAndLiars

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

I can only go by what equipment they use at sites on which we co-locate at also. BTW it was Mr Rooney himself that told me they only have 1 licensed link.

Thanks BigPaddy2004!!!!
With this email you let me prove how the Rooney didn't know their ex-own company..... :):) Just imagine that Mr Rooney, on Christmas was telling his friends we had fantastic VoIP packages when the management wasn't providing us conditions to sell VoIP....
And Now People, do you understand our job-conditions?
Regards

Ex-ICE staff member

PS: By the way,at the 30th of March,more than 1 licensed link were installed and working:)

PeopleAndLiars

AARRRRGH wrote: »

IT != manufacturing.

Dear AARRRRGH,
i have no idea about your knowledge in the IT field but it cannot be so wide if you are able to define DELL manifacturing. Before answering to anything else you should realize what DELL are, and what they produce. To be DELL, your IT infrastructure must be among the best and the widest in the World and i can ensure you that their technology is over your imagination. Nevertheless, 1200+ DELL's people are now on dole.. :(:(

Take care

Ex Ice Staff

Bazza085

I'm with ICE and how damn awful they have been I really, really hope they are finished for good. I hope Digiweb takes over their sites and give those worthy employees jobs with better conditions.

zambo

Hi
To ex ice staff all I want to say is get real.The majority of Dell's operation in Ireland was not manufacturing it was assembly as with Gateway and others before them.I was at one location where a forty foot truck was been unloaded of vdu's which were being unwrapped and placed on planks laid on concrete blocks in a shed they were then powered up for a while and if they passed this rigorous test were repacked and marked as made in Ireland.
We can do great things in Ireland but dont believe all our own bull**** like when B Ahern told us at the time of the e-voting Debacle that Ireland was the biggest software exporter in the world.
yours Zambo.
p.s. ICE service especially the voip was always crap.

PeopleAndLiars

Bazza085 wrote: »

I'm with ICE and how damn awful they have been I really, really hope they are finished for good. I hope Digiweb takes over their sites and give those worthy employees jobs with better conditions.

Thanks!
We all hoped this ... I just hope that a good solution will be found to provide the good service that ex-ice infrastructure can provide...

Take care

Ex ICE Staff

AARRRRGH

PeopleAndLiars wrote: »

Dear AARRRRGH,
i have no idea about your knowledge in the IT field but it cannot be so wide if you are able to define DELL manifacturing. Before answering to anything else you should realize what DELL are, and what they produce. To be DELL, your IT infrastructure must be among the best and the widest in the World and i can ensure you that their technology is over your imagination. Nevertheless, 1200+ DELL's people are now on dole.. :(:(

Take care

Ex Ice Staff

I used to work in Dell. 1200+ people who used to work in dell are NOT on the dole. I guarantee you you will not find one ex-dell IT worker on the dole. You may find the ones who worked in the manufacturing end on the dole.
You are not doing yourself any favours here. You should stop now before you make the reputation of ex-Ice employees any worse, if thats even possible.

Bazza085

AARRRRGH wrote: »

You are not doing yourself any favours here. You should stop now before you make the reputation of ex-Ice employees any worse, if thats even possible.

To be honest I think you are being a bit harsh here. In any dealings I have had with Ice, their engineers and technicians have been very helpful and answered any questions I had. There phone centre staff are another story but they were being strangled by management.

They weren't all hopeless dimwits. :rolleyes:

AARRRRGH

Bazza085 wrote: »

To be honest I think you are being a bit harsh here. In any dealings I have had with Ice, their engineers and technicians have been very helpful and answered any questions I had. There phone centre staff are another story but they were being strangled by management.

They weren't all hopeless dimwits. :rolleyes:

There is a whole thread with thousands of posts here. Plenty is said about the engineers in it.

joey2thec

My BB is still working although its down to 1/5 of the speed.

I run a business between ashbourne and swords and will now be completely screwed if no one else covers my area (Kilsallaghan) I have no idea what I'll do.

If anyone in this area is reading these posts and finds someone else to provide Broadband, please let me know !

Joey

theawfultruth

AARRRRGH wrote: »

I used to work in Dell. 1200+ people who used to work in dell are NOT on the dole. I guarantee you you will not find one ex-dell IT worker on the dole. You may find the ones who worked in the manufacturing end on the dole.
You are not doing yourself any favours here. You should stop now before you make the reputation of ex-Ice employees any worse, if thats even possible.

So as well as being an ex-Dell employee, you now have access to the names of everyone on the live register, hence your ability to produce the above statement?

Surely this is not another one of your baseless assumptions.

You seem to hold a grudge against the staff despite what we've been told by ex-staff members here. Why the vitriol in their direction as as opposed to the CEO and MD?

ShiverinEskimo

AARRRRGH wrote: »

In fairness any IT worker who put up with those conditions without being able to find another job, must have have been bad. IT is not the wost hit sector so they should have moved on if they were any good. I can only assume the staff that stayed were only there because noone else would employ them. Most capable people would have found another job instead.

Ridiculous statement to make. I almost expected your post to end with "let them eat cake".

There's not a sector in Ireland that isn't affected by what's happening and for every small to medium enterprise that goes under there's IT or Tech Support staff being laid off too.

Add to that the fact that many companies which did survive the downturn have likely imposed a recruitment freeze or even used the opportunity/excuse the recession brings to trim down on staff/wages.

Congratulations, you're one of the many who are completely ignorant to what's really going on in this country.

AARRRRGH

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

Ridiculous statement to make. I almost expected your post to end with "let them eat cake".

There's not a sector in Ireland that isn't affected by what's happening and for every small to medium enterprise that goes under there's IT or Tech Support staff being laid off too.

Add to that the fact that many companies which did survive the downturn have likely imposed a recruitment freeze or even used the opportunity/excuse the recession brings to trim down on staff/wages.

Congratulations, you're one of the many who are completely ignorant to what's really going on in this country.

Count the IT workers you know who havent got a job. I bet you get less than 10. And I bet those 10 are support/helpdesk (not real IT workers).
Its amazing how everyone thinks that every sector has been hit by the recession, when they havent.

AARRRRGH

theawfultruth wrote: »

So as well as being an ex-Dell employee, you now have access to the names of everyone on the live register, hence your ability to produce the above statement?

Surely this is not another one of your baseless assumptions.

You seem to hold a grudge against the staff despite what we've been told by ex-staff members here. Why the vitriol in their direction as as opposed to the CEO and MD?

Find me an ex-dell IT employee who is unemployed then. I bet you cant.

I dont hold a grudge at all. I just o not believe anyone who had to stay at a company like Ice Broadband did so of their own choice. There are plenty of IT jobs but yet some people couldnt get out of Ice. This says a lot about them.
And since when has an Ice staff member ever told the truth. The company was built on lies.

Cabaal

AARRRRGH, please stop your pointless statements that have no basis in reality or fact, if you want to make statements then back them up with facts and figures.

However since you've not done this that I request that you reframe from such outlandish comments, if you continue then you will be infracted and may be banned

Also any further comments in respect of a company being build on lies will get you a automatic 3 month ban unless you want to produce factual evidence to support your statements (your hear'say does not count).

AARRRRGH wrote: »

Count the IT workers you know who havent got a job. I bet you get less than 10. And I bet those 10 are support/helpdesk (not real IT workers).
Its amazing how everyone thinks that every sector has been hit by the recession, when they havent.

Frankly you sir are talking out your arse, its clear you don't live in the real world.
:rolleyes:

ShiverinEskimo

AARRRRGH wrote: »

Count the IT workers you know who havent got a job. I bet you get less than 10. And I bet those 10 are support/helpdesk (not real IT workers).
Its amazing how everyone thinks that every sector has been hit by the recession, when they havent.

May I ask exactly what position you hold? And when did you have to last change jobs recently that allowed you to have such insightful and first hand knowledge of the IT sector and it's current fruitful employment opportunities?

Or are you one of the people who still have the job they started with, haven't had to move, and as a result assume everything is rosie elsewhere because you haven't noticed the difference?

Could you be more full of shít?

AARRRRGH

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

May I ask exactly what position you hold? And when did you have to last change jobs recently that allowed you to have such insightful and first hand knowledge of the IT sector and it's current fruitful employment opportunities?

Or are you one of the people who still have the job they started with, haven't had to move, and as a result assume everything is rosie elsewhere because you haven't noticed the difference?

Could you be more full of shít?

I am a project manager of a medium sized company.
I make a point of changing company myself every 2 - 3 years anyway. As everyone knows, you get better salary increases when you move company than by taking the increments offered by HR.
At the moment I put together teams for large IT projects. I have to hire large numbers of people every couple of months, mostly both here, in the UK.

So I know how the IT job market is.
Actually, I've hired one person from boards who PMd me only last week and another who I'll be talking to next week.
If anyone else in IT wants to PM me their CV, who is any good, I'll get back to them when something comes up too.

AARRRRGH

Cabaal wrote: »

AARRRRGH, please stop your pointless statements that have no basis in reality or fact, if you want to make statements then back them up with facts and figures.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20551144971193 facts and figures in here for you

Cabaal wrote: »

Also any further comments in respect of a company being build on lies will get you a automatic 3 month ban unless you want to produce factual evidence to support your statements (your hear'say does not count).

Again, read the opinions of Ice STAFF and CUSTOMERS in the link above.

Cabaal wrote: »

Frankly you sir are talking out your arse, its clear you don't live in the real world.
:rolleyes:

Says the mighty moderator who wields his internet power. How sad for you.
:rolleyes:

Mantel

AARRRRGH wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20551144971193 facts and figures in here for you

Broken link

No Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

Cabaal

AARRRRGH wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20551144971193 facts and figures in here for you

Nice a broken link, could have made one of those myself

Again, read the opinions of Ice STAFF and CUSTOMERS in the link above.

What figures, you've not posted any?

Says the mighty moderator who wields his internet power. How sad for you.
:rolleyes:

Yeah nice, can't be arsed with this type of attitude, infraction given next one is a ban

theawfultruth

The Joe Duffy show will be talking about ICE Broadband on this afternoon's show.

Bazza085

theawfultruth wrote: »

The Joe Duffy show will be talking about ICE Broadband on this afternoon's show.

Anybody listen to it? Any more news??