Should I switch to eircom "NGB"?

marrm

cgarvey wrote: »

You're on a 7Mb connection, so 700Kbps is not far off full whack (allowing for TCP overheads). Going down to 100Kbps means a ratio of around 7:1, which on a product with a contention ration of 48:1 is not anywhere near as bad as it could be. With NGN[sic] BB, you should expect to get not far off 700-800Kbps to most sites in the evening.

As for what the point of 8Mb/10GB BB? I think it's a damn site better than 512Kb/"Unlimited". The costs have to be controlled, and I, for one, welcome the move to usage-based pricing. Speed-based pricing was always a hack, and it meant that many people who just surf/email/video chat had to do so with artificially crippled connections. Now, costs are still controlled, but everyone will get the speed their line supports. A layer of complexity ("what speed do I need") is removed for a massive number of people.

The fact that many (most?) people won't get the 8Mb is a different debate altogether.

Had an eircom salesman call to my door. I'm on vodafone for my BB & phone (was with BT) - he tried to sell me the eircom basic package and told me:

1. there was no effective download limit, as long as I kept it below 1 TERABYTE!

2. I would get improved BB speed (currently getting 3.5Mb on my 7Mb line)

3. The upgraded service announced by Vodafone a few days ago was not as good as eircom's new NGB (new generation broadband service) :mad::mad:

Should I believe him?

He also told me I'd get Setanta Sports for free. Is it any good - content & quality?

marrm

Had an eircom salesman call to my door this evening. I'm on vodafone for my BB & phone (was with BT) - he tried to sell me the eircom NGB basic package and told me:

1. there was no effective download limit, as long as I kept it below 1 TERABYTE! :eek:

2. I would get improved BB speed (currently getting 3.5Mb on my 7Mb line)

3. The upgraded service announced by Vodafone a few days ago was not as good as eircom's NGB

Should I believe him?

He also told me I'd get Setanta Sports for free. Is it any good - content & quality?

Probably will not switch - I believe eircom stop access to certain interesting sharing sites.

marrm

marrm wrote: »

Had an eircom salesman call to my door this evening. I'm on vodafone for my BB & phone (was with BT) - he tried to sell me the eircom NGB basic package and told me:

1. there was no effective download limit, as long as I kept it below 1 TERABYTE! :eek:

2. I would get improved BB speed (currently getting 3.5Mb on my 7Mb line)

3. The upgraded service announced by Vodafone a few days ago was not as good as eircom's NGB

Should I believe him?

He also told me I'd get Setanta Sports for free. Is it any good - content & quality?

Probably will not switch - I believe eircom stop access to certain interesting sharing sites.

Further to my post above, I have just read on irelandoffline.org that NGB is really a new charging model for eircom, ie they give you a silly 10GB download limit and charge you through the nose for an overrun. They obviously did not tell my salesman that, he was promising me no extra charges unless I went over 1 TB/month (unlikely)

bealtine

http://www.ngb.ie/

All the real details are there, never mind the sales guy...

See the "NGB Products" section

watty

Vodafone are reselling eircom wholesale. AFAIK, eircom wholesale have to offer the same as they supply eircom retail.

Your speed upper limit depends on line to exchange, that's the same no matter who supplies the BB. Closer to exchange you might get higher speed with fancier DLSAM (VDSL2+ etc, more likely from LLU supplier than eircom).

That would be this Setanta? Or this?


I think door to door salesmen need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

IGNORE cold selling (email spam, physical mail spam, phone spam, door to door). Do your own research. If your roof leaks or gutters overflowing, don't take the 1st fancy van coming to door. Reseach prices, services and real customer experience.

(But this should not be construed as legal advice)

rom

marrm wrote: »

Had an eircom salesman call to my door. I'm on vodafone for my BB & phone (was with BT) - he tried to sell me the eircom basic package and told me:

1. there was no effective download limit, as long as I kept it below 1 TERABYTE!

2. I would get improved BB speed (currently getting 3.5Mb on my 7Mb line)

3. The upgraded service announced by Vodafone a few days ago was not as good as eircom's new NGB (new generation broadband service) :mad::mad:

Should I believe him?

He also told me I'd get Setanta Sports for free. Is it any good - content & quality?

Get him to write it down with his name from his ID card, date and sign it. Then you can believe him. :rolleyes:

marrm

marrm wrote: »

Further to my post above, I have just read on irelandoffline.org that NGB is really a new charging model for eircom, ie they give you a silly 10GB download limit and charge you through the nose for an overrun. They obviously did not tell my salesman that, he was promising me no extra charges unless I went over 1 TB/month (unlikely)

just phoned eircom:

1. My line can only support 4Mb, so the "guaranteed 8Mb" quoted by the sales fella was just lies (aka "sales talk"), as we suspected. :mad::mad:

2. eircom will charge €2 for every GB over the download limit paid for, so the "unofficial 1TB download limit" mentioned by the salesfella is also lies. :(

cgarvey

marrm wrote: »

Should I believe him?

Nope, as you'd suspected already (and others have confirmed).

NGB has clearly defined caps, and plenty of commentary about how they are now equipped to enforce those caps, and intend to, it's likely that they'll do so to some extent. 1TB is nonsense for any residential package. No matter how unlimited they claim to be, download 1TB with any residential ISP in Ireland and you'll be getting a call. That's 1) out the window!

2) implies they are changing the technology (type of DSL) or upgrading phone lines. They're not doing either. Dismiss!

Given that most of Vodafone's product offering is directly reselling eircom's own offering, that throws 3) out the window.

Finally, the Setanta you get free is a web-only version. Nowhere near broadcast TV quality and a subset of what you get with the regular TV offering. Handy for watching the odd match when you can't get it on TV, or to catchup on some highlights. But don't expect great quality or a full lineup of programming.

grahamg13

No they do have a download limit as soon as they upgrade to NGB they will start charging 2 euro every GB you go over seeing as the NGB basic has a 10GB limit per month its a very bad offer. You wont see much of a diffrence in your speed if your getting 3.5mb now. So all in all i wouldnt trust him. im with eircom and NGB is a disappointment from the eircom NGB website "BASIC: The maximum amount of data you can use (both upload and download) in one month is 10GB. If you go over 10GB, each extra 1GB will cost €2"

vincent_os

Well I recently moved from Digiweb to Eircom Next Generation Broadband based on the sales pitch I received from the guy who turned up at my door one evening.
The switching process was handled relatively seamlessly for me, so that much was done well. However, I am not getting the 8MB/S I was told I would receive based on my proximity to the exchange and the line test their engineers performed. In fact the line speed I am getting ate slightly worse than what I was receiving from Digiweb! See below for latest line speed test performed.

I could live with the line speed issues, but now I am having frequent connectivity issues. I went to cancel my service and I was told that I would be charged for the service to date even though I raised the issue within the cooling off period. In short I am not a very happy customer. The service is not doing what it said on the tin and rather than let me exit the service without cost, eircom is now moving the goal posts in relation to their stated position on the cooling off period.

Sponge Bob

vincent_os wrote: »

rather than let me exit the service without cost, eircom is now moving the goal posts in relation to their stated position on the cooling off period.

Can you show me the "stated position" bit you mean or tell me where it is??