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How bad is "bad enough to cancel"?

  • 12-04-2010 1:37am
    #1
    who_me
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,669 ✭✭✭


    I'm in the process of switching ISPs from Smart Telecom to UPC (I have both connections for this month). The Smart connection was excellent, but very expensive.

    I'm going from:
    Smart 24Mbps down, 1Mbps up, no contention
    to
    UPC 30Mbps down, 3mbps up, no contention

    On the phone, the salesperson said if I went for a 15Mbps, I'd never get less than 14Mbps - I was obviously quite dubious about that! After having the 30Mbps line installed (which was quite an experience!) my results were:

    SpeedTest:
    Smart: 18Mbps UPC: 12-13Mbps

    Large download (iPhone SDK from Apple.com):
    Smart: 16Mbps UPC: 6Mbps

    Smart's 24Mbps service is quite a bit faster than UPC's 30Mbps. These tests were done during the evening; during the morning Smart was a bit slower, and UPC quite a bit faster, but still Smart was on top. (UPC upload speed was an excellent 2.9Mbps at all times)

    I have committed for 1 year, but I'm not happy with a connection almost 66% slower than my old one. Will I get grief if I cancel due to non-delivery of the service promised??

    It seems to me:
    - Neither ISP can cope with such fast end-user connections at peak times. There's no point offering 30Mbps (or 120Mbps in the future) with no contention to the customer, if they're going to get "choked" at peak time, presumably due to limits on the ISPs own internet connection.

    - Neither company is able to balance home and business customers. If you want a great home ISP, go with a business ISP (very quiet at evenings/weekends) like Smart. If you want a great business ISP, go with a home ISP like UPC (very quiet during business hours).


Comments

  • #2
    johnciall
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 445 ✭✭johnciall


    who_me wrote: »
    - Neither ISP can cope with such fast end-user connections at peak times. There's no point offering 30Mbps (or 120Mbps in the future) with no contention to the customer, if they're going to get "choked" at peak time, presumably due to limits on the ISPs own internet connection.


    Thats exactly what contention is, an isp having less overall bandwidth than what they've sold to their customers.

    If an ISP has sold you a service as "uncontended" and your not getting the full transfer speed you'd be in a good position to argue that their not meeting their side of the contract and getting yourself released from it.

    out of interest when did UPC start selling as uncontended?


  • #3
    who_me
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,669 ✭✭✭who_me


    johnciall wrote: »
    Thats exactly what contention is, an isp having less overall bandwidth than what they've sold to their customers.

    If an ISP has sold you a service as "uncontended" and your not getting the full transfer speed you'd be in a good position to argue that their not meeting their side of the contract and getting yourself released from it.

    out of interest when did UPC start selling as uncontended?

    I always took it that contention only applied to the connection from the end-user to the ISP's uplink. I could be very wrong in that, but I never took it as a given that (say) a 30Mbps customer with no contention was guaranteed 30Mbps of bandwidth on the ISP's uplink. No ISP could guarantee "no contention" if that were the case.

    (I always assumed there was a multi-stage connection: you have no contention from the user to the exchange, you may have contention from the exchange to the POP, and again from the POP to the ISP, and there will always be contention on the ISP's uplink.)

    I was very surprised when the UPC sales rep said they had no contention; given the price was cheap that was what sold it for me. It's not a bad connection, but sadly a lot slower than Smart. I'm pretty sure the last time UPC called me (they sure are persistent!!) they said it was contended.


  • #4
    johnciall
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 445 ✭✭johnciall


    who_me wrote: »
    I always took it that contention only applied to the connection from the end-user to the ISP's uplink. I could be very wrong in that, but I never took it as a given that (say) a 30Mbps customer with no contention was guaranteed 30Mbps of bandwidth on the ISP's uplink. No ISP could guarantee "no contention" if that were the case.


    IF the ISP has a lower Uplink in it's datacenter then thier selling contended services, not in the traditional sense of contention but at the end of the day it's just contention on a larger scale,

    Rather than an antire street signing up for 30Mbit when theirs only 30Mbit backhaul to the street it's a whole town signing up and thier only being 100Mbit backhal to the area [not the best example but you get the idea]


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