Eircom apparently upgrading to 8mb?

bk

justatechy and/or rabitec can you tell us:

1) Will caps be enforced on the existing 1,3,7mb/s products?

2) How much will be charged for going over the caps on the existing 1,3,7mb/s products?

3) Can customers opt to stay on the existing 1,3,7mb/s rather then been forced to upgrade to these new products?

4) Will the 12 months term apply to existing customers?

5) I assume as Eircom are breaking the contract, people can opt to leave Eircom even if their initial 6/12 month contract isn't up?

bealtine

FINGAL FAN wrote: »

Reading this thread with interest . One thing I have to say to any posts in support of Eircom is - the Boards.ie Broadband forum is largely populated by a large crew of anti-Eircom types and your arguments ,however merited,will fall on deaf ears . Boards could just change this forum to the anti-Eircom forum to make its title more accurate .

being anti the most expensive line rental on the planet and ridiculously expensive broadband I suppose makes most people automatically against the company that promotes themselves as "the best value".

Owwmykneecap

Well I am paying them for a service I'm not recieving; apparently because eircom decided to take the route of budget airlines and bad hotels and over subscribe their network.

If i don't get the NGB thing till august, That will be a year of unreasonable internet.
What would happen if I paid 10% of my bill for a year?

Maybe rather than Ireland being a nation of begrudgers, we can just see when a company is doing the bare minimum to "fufill" it's end of the contract?

Nearly ever post I've seen about UPC has been positive, not all but most, rather than football team alike allegiances maybe people are just happier with the service?
Maybe it's possible people are sick and tired of the nonsense of reporting to eircom and being fobbed off as I just was about the wireless signal in my home.

It's not eddie the engineer or carol the call centre girl who people lay blame with, it's the managment.

bk

FINGAL FAN wrote: »

Reading this thread with interest . One thing I have to say to any posts in support of Eircom is - the Boards.ie Broadband forum is largely populated by a large crew of anti-Eircom types and your arguments ,however merited,will fall on deaf ears . Boards could just change this forum to the anti-Eircom forum to make its title more accurate .

Hmm, it seems there is a flood of Eircom employees onto boards today :rolleyes:

What you say above is total BS. If people are anti Eircom it is because of the dreadful service Eircom have been delivering for years and the reality that Eircom is the reason why Ireland is years behind the rest of the world in terms of broadband technology.

Eircom is the reason why we have the most expensive line rental in the world.

A reminder, in France you can get 100mb BB + unlimited phone calls + digital TV for just €30 per month.

That just goes to show how badly Eircom have held us back, what an expensive rip off Eircom is and how ridiculous the claim that 8mb/s ADSL (not even ADSL2+) with a 10GB cap is supposed to be Next Generation Broadband.

I welcome Eircom employees here, but don't think for a moment that people here are just going to leave a BS marketing exercise in effectively raising prices by Eircom go unchallenged.

bealtine

bk wrote: »

Hmm, it seems there is a flood of Eircom employees onto boards today :rolleyes:

An attempt to "change" people's perception ?

bk wrote: »

A reminder, in France you can get 100mb BB + unlimited phone calls + digital TV for just €30 per month.

Indeed in Ireland you can get 5MB for about €25 one half of the price of eircoms dreadfully expensive service.
Although it's not available to everybody but is available in the major urban centres where eircom *should* be making their
income from. They simply cannot compete while they persist in the most expensive line rental nonsense

hightower1

FINGAL FAN wrote: »

Reading this thread with interest . One thing I have to say to any posts in support of Eircom is - the Boards.ie Broadband forum is largely populated by a large crew of anti-Eircom types and your arguments ,however merited,will fall on deaf ears . Boards could just change this forum to the anti-Eircom forum to make its title more accurate .

I think you'll find its not just Eircom who get bashed here but all ISP's tbh, broadband forum is mainly a whinge fest you'd be mistaken to believe most people in IRL are peeved off with their supply no matter whom their with.

Someone put it beautifully here once..... "the vocal minority"..... just bear in mind that there are only a couple of thousand posters in the broadband forum but a couple million actual subscribers to broadband in IRL from all the ISP's. Not saying everyone else is happy but the vast majority are.

bealtine

hightower1 wrote: »

but a couple million actual subscribers to broadband in IRL from all the ISP's. Not saying everyone else is happy but the vast majority are.

Only in your dreams are there a "couple of million" subscribers and how do you know they are happy? Who elected you as their spokesman?

cherryghost

hightower1 wrote: »

Someone put it beautifully here once..... "the vocal minority"..... just bear in mind that there are only a couple of thousand posters in the broadband forum but a couple million actual subscribers to broadband in IRL from all the ISP's. Not saying everyone else is happy but the vast majority are.

Vocal minority my hole. I know plenty of people who scream their heads off at the rubbish that we're served. Just because they're not on the forums, doesn't mean theres nobody else complaining :rolleyes:

hightower1

bealtine wrote: »

Only in your dreams are there a "couple of million" subscribers and how do you know they are happy? Who elected you as their spokesman?

Sorry there are approx 1.3 million broadband subscribers in IRL ...... http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/media/housesoftheoireachtas/libraryresearch/spotlights/Broadband.pdf

So in ans to your negative response so very typical of the broadband section I think if 1.3 million Irish people (1/4 of the entire country not including those olde enough to even own broadband) were not happy with something it'd be national news every single day of the week. So like I said this is the very vocal minority

yomamasflavour

hightower1 wrote: »

I think you'll find its not just Eircom who get bashed here but all ISP's tbh, broadband forum is mainly a whinge fest you'd be mistaken to believe most people in IRL are peeved off with their supply no matter whom their with.

Someone put it beautifully here once..... "the vocal minority"..... just bear in mind that there are only a couple of thousand posters in the broadband forum but a couple million actual subscribers to broadband in IRL from all the ISP's. Not saying everyone else is happy but the vast majority are.

In fairness, most people in IRL are ignorant with regard to the quality of service, and the service itself provided by their isp.

Proven by the litany of eircom 1111 2222 ssid wireless networks still in existance.

Most are probably unaware of how poor the network is in this country compared to our European neighbours.

hightower1

yomamasflavour wrote: »

In fairness, most people in IRL are ignorant with regard to the quality of service, and the service itself provided by their isp.

Proven by the litany of eircom 1111 2222 ssid wireless networks still in existance.

Most are probably unaware of how poor the network is in this country compared to our European neighbours.

Thats irrelevant, the point I'm making is are they happy with their service? Not are they aware the Irish network infrastructure could be better compared to general EU standards........ and if they were not happy, one quarter of the country all wanting better all at once would have change brought in immediately, as I dont see any one million man march outside the dail I will stand by the fact that yes this here is the vocal minority.

oisin

Thanks for the info justatechy, it's good to get correct information from an informed source, but I think this partial introduction of NGB to some is going to annoy all the other, unlucky BB customers, me included.

Up to now I've had a consistantly good 7Mb package but since the announcement of the 24Mb and NGB my broadband has deteriorated considerably (0.5 Mb/s last night) and not much better most other nights. I've been logging my speeds every night for the past month, consistant 25% packet loss on the Eircom b-ras2.

I live in Lucan which has two exchanges. I live about 500 metres from the Lucan Ballydowd exchange but I'm on the Lucan (Village) exchange (1.5 Kilometres). Ballydowd is in the blue area, Lucan Village in a small white pocket. The blue area border is along the N3, about 50 metres from my house.

I'm left with a hopeless connection and no foreseeable improvement in the near (or far) future despite numerous complaints. In my case these so called improvements and updates have had a seriously detrimental effect.

I'll give it two weeks for things to settle down and see if I get back what I'm paying for or after 35 years as an An Post/Telecom Eireann/Eircom customer I'll be moving phone/BB to UPC (reluctantly as I've had problems with them too).

bealtine

hightower1 wrote: »

Thats irrelevant, the point I'm making is are they happy with their service? Not are they aware the Irish network infrastructure could be better compared to general EU standards........ and if they were not happy, one quarter of the country all wanting better all at once would have change brought in immediately, as I dont see any one million man march outside the dail I will stand by the fact that yes this here is the vocal minority.

Again how do you know this? Have you done a poll, some research into this "fact"? How do you know that the vast majority are happy?

Why are broadband issues only now coming to the attention of the press is it because everybody is so happy (including the journalists) so they are suddenly taking an interest in the subject.

Cryos

bealtine wrote: »

Again how do you know this? Have you done a poll, some research into this "fact"? How do you know that the vast majority are happy?

Why are broadband issues only now coming to the attention of the press is it because everybody is so happy (including the journalists) so they are suddenly taking an interest in the subject.

To play devils advocate on this one, What numbers do you have of people who are unhappy ?

bealtine

Cryos wrote: »

To play devils advocate on this one, What numbers do you have of people who are unhappy ?

I have made no such claim:) I'm simply asking why somebody would assume that the everybody is "happy" with no evidence.

Cryos

bealtine wrote: »

I have made no such claim:) I'm simply asking why somebody would assume that the everybody is "happy" with no evidence.

Well this is true, but then wouldnt i ask you (in the spirit of a dialogue such as this) if you think that the scale is tipped further on the one side ? or would you say that People are neither happy or unhappy about their service ?

therokerroar

I'd just like to ask one of the Eircom employees on here:

I'm on the 3mb Eircom Package (€51.78 per month as standard IIRC) and my area isn't going to be upgraded to NGB until August at least according to your Coverage Map. Where do I stand in relation to the Usage Cap? I'll almost certainly be going over the limit each month due to there being a number of heavy Internet users in the household, so can I now expect to be paying €101.78 per month?

Thanks.

hightower1

bealtine wrote: »

Again how do you know this? Have you done a poll, some research into this "fact"? How do you know that the vast majority are happy?

Why are broadband issues only now coming to the attention of the press is it because everybody is so happy (including the journalists) so they are suddenly taking an interest in the subject.

And I will state again that the reason I know this is because if one quarter of the country were not happy with something we would all know about it, it would run on the evening news the majority of the time and be in printed press page 1 every day (tabloid and broadsheet). I have said this already so please read it properly this time.

Also the mainstream press represent the major issues and concerns of the majority of the public and they are not running consistent stories on massive dissatisfaction with broadband products in IRL hence no public outcry.... no consistent news reports on this.... no major issue perceived with the product.


It needs no special research as its simple common sense beatline.....


if it were a major issue the major press would run constant reports of this after all this is how they make their living..... there is no major issue hence the term vocal minority. Its clear as day to anyone.

therokerroar

teddy b123 wrote: »

So how does this €2 per GB work for us non NGB customers (the ones that are deep in the white patches of Munster)
will we get charged €2 Per GB for all excess usage?
will we get charged €2 Per GB to a max combined broadband bill of €49.99
or
are we going to be charged at all?

Basically the same question I'd like to be answered too.

therokerroar

therokerroar wrote: »

Basically the same question I'd like to be answered too.

You're not going to get an answer because none of these lackeys know.

bealtine

hightower1 wrote: »

It needs no special research as its simple common sense beatline.....

In this case your appeal to "common sense" has no basis in reality just in your belief system that you want to promote as a "God given" absolute truth yet again with scant or no evidence at all.

The only way to find out is for you to setup a survey and actually ask people. I *think* you'll find you are wrong but then that's only my belief.

bealtine

Cryos wrote: »

Well this is true, but then wouldnt i ask you (in the spirit of a dialogue such as this) if you think that the scale is tipped further on the one side ? or would you say that People are neither happy or unhappy about their service ?

Sure thing, I tend to believe that the more technically knowledgeable the user is the less likely they are to be happy.

It's an evolution I've seen numerous times now first users are delighted with the service and eventually they start to use the facilities like skype and youtube etc and they then realise how crap their service actually is.
It's a standard progression.

smellslikeshoes

hightower1 wrote: »

Thats irrelevant, the point I'm making is are they happy with their service? Not are they aware the Irish network infrastructure could be better compared to general EU standards........ and if they were not happy, one quarter of the country all wanting better all at once would have change brought in immediately, as I dont see any one million man march outside the dail I will stand by the fact that yes this here is the vocal minority.

Absolute hogwash. If you decide that Irish people must be happy with their broadband because there isn't marches on the dail then the irish people must be happy about everything. If you truly believe that Irish people are happy with their broadband you must be living on the same planet as Eamonn Ryan.

bk

I think the pace at which people are switching from Eircom to UPC and also to the likes of Vodafone and o2 mobile BB, plus the massive drop in numbers of people with landlines, is a clear indication that people in general aren't happy with Eircom.

Actually the massive popularity of 3G as an alternative for wired BB in Ireland, despite all the disadvantages of 3G for at home BB, with a penetration rate much higher then any other developed country, it is a clear indicator that there is something very broken with wired broadband in Ireland.

jay93

yomamasflavour wrote: »

I wouldn't have though the cap would be as big an issue.

I mean this in the sense that Smart only has a 170GB cap, and upc has a 270GB cap - so Eircom's 250 is in that ballpark (at least it'd be better than the desperate 75GB:()

I'd imagine the lack of speed (i.e vast majority wont get past 20Mb/s, and thats assuming they can even get the higher package) would be the real problem.

ah i suppose yeah 250GB is a well improvement from the dismal 75GB do they not know how much some people use the internet there caps are crap but 250 GB sounds more reasonable to be honest i never even went over my 30GB limit before so 250 would be well enough !! alot of lines wont get even near 20mb as you said some actually most lines max out at 19mb so even best quality lines are not even likely to get the full 24mb ..wish i had UPC round here :(

TechnoFreek

I recently moved to vodafone and can only get 3mb down here in Arklow, Co. Wicklow.

Eircom state on their coverage map that Arklow will be upgraded in August. Does this mean that vodafone could be in a position to offer a similar package as eircom? And by that I mean technically there is no reason why vodafone couldnt start providing 8mb packages etc

Being stuck on a sh1tty 3mb is pretty depressing for a country who's future lies in the "smart economy"

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

Sponge Bob

justatechy wrote: »

Disclosure: I'm a networking professional currently employed by eircom.

The above is rather disingenuous. What do you think the likelihood is of all users using all of their bandwidth simultaneously? No ISP in the world dimensions their core network by a rule like that. They would go bust in weeks (if they could get investment for such a ridiculous scheme in the first place).

Thanks for posting justatechy. The point is that the EIRCOM NETWORK IS NOT UNCONTENDED and that it CANNOT be for the precise reason you gave, It would cost too much.

The network core cannot take the sum of all these 8mbit connections, it cannot even handle every 1mbit connection downloading at the same time.

All ISPs capacity manage their core networks to cope with peak demand. This demand is usually very predictable and very consistent, and can be forecast for up to a number of years in advance with reasonable accuracy. The bigger the ISP and larger the customer base, the more consistent and predictable the traffic on the core network.

Years might be pushing it but eircom are well able to make such a prediction and have some very good people workling for them, always have done.

Those very good people NEVER MADE the claim that eircom is completely uncontended because they know it is NOT completely uncontended but that this is perfectly manageable in most situations.

The marketing fuks made the claim about eircom . It applies equally to Digiweb and Vodafone and UPC and BT as well as eircom and for the exact same reasons.

ISPs make decisions on core capacity based on average bandwidth per user, plus overhead for growth, plus overhead for peak demands, plus overhead for resilience.

Current is 96kbit per IP port I believe, can you confirm that or is it more??

Depending on the network design and the ISP this will usually lead to somewhere between 40-70% peak link utilisation. Some taxpayer funded networks may run at lower utilisation but commercial ISPs need to make money from their investments...

In other words we still have 155mbit ATM circuits in some areas because eircom won't slap a wavelength on that circuit

While there are potential events that can lead to unusual sudden traffic levels (e.g. big news event, critical windows patch, virus/worm etc. ), these spikes are generally surprisingly small in relation to the total core network capacity and congestion if any often takes place at the source of the unusual traffic rather than in the ISP core.

Fair point there. No network can handle an event like 911 for example.

They are much, much less likely to cause a customer impact than congestion at the access layer.

It is this access layer congestion that the new NGB products are addressing. Believe me (or not, if you desire)... this is where you want improvement in capacity. This is also the layer that costs the most money (orders of magnitude more than the core) so it is not a cheap option to gain popularity. It is an expensive option, to deliver real improvements to real life DSL performance.

I never had any problems problem with my exchange, it is small with at least 155mbits and subtends off a 10gbit lambda. You may note that I never complained about eircom speeds in this forum

All I am saying is that I believe the NGB product will make a real and noticeable improvement to broadband performance for a majority of users. I'm surprised at the amount of negativity towards it and would recommend people wait for their upgrade and see how they find it.

The negativity is not towards the speeds, the negativity is towards the possibility of poor people who can only get 1mbit getting gouged something horrible in their monthly bills because their teenagers watch you tube.

this was going to be a short post...

Eircom should allow people to control their expenditure, bottom line.

Many would prefer the Digiweb throttle and rolling cap to be applied rather than shell out €26 extra a month that they do not have!!!!!

Eoin_Sheehy

tullie wrote: »

Apologies if this is the wrong section to ask, but how do I find out what speed of connection my eircom line can support, having issues with the wireless speed or lack thereof.

http://www.speedtest.net

PogMoThoin

Eoin_Sheehy wrote: »

http://www.speedtest.net

That only tells him what speed he's getting.
To tell the state of Your line You're gonna have to look at Your line stats on your router. Login on 192.168.1.254, enter expert mode and the stats will be under dsl statistics. Post them here or check by putting them in this link
http://212.23.23.177/adsl/default.aspx