3 National Broadband Scheme - how do I escalate a complaint?

anotherfinemess

Is a mbps the same as a meg?

Sponge Bob

Yep , 1024 kilobits = 1 megabit = 1mbit = 1mbps = "a meg" or 1 meg.

eircoms 1 meg is actually around 800k because you lose around 200k in overhead the way they quote their product.

davetne

ToadVine wrote: »

I got 3 NBS about ten days ago as I have no other BB options. I installed everything and got repeater, Mi-Fi, etc working. From day 1 the speeds were between 0.3gbps and 1.5gbps download and 0.01mbps and 0.3mbps upload with pings between 90ms and 400ms. In other words absolute crap. The connection also constantly dropped ... the Internet is in effect unusable.

So I decided to contact 3 to see if they could do something about this. I now know the meaning of frustration.

First contact with 1913 was last Monday. The Indian tech based in Bombay ran me through a plethora of tests which had absolutely no effect. He then promised me that the Irish Network Support team had been emailed as a priority and they would be back to me within 48 hours max.

Wednesday came (48 hours later) and still no contact from 3 so I called 1913 again on Wednesday afternoon and got Bombay again. An incredibly polite Indian technicians listened patiently, and then assured me my complaint was sent again to a higher level Irish Network Support team and that I would be guaranteed to hear back within 24 hours.

Friday came (another 48 hours) and still nothing from 3. I phoned 1913 again and this time insisted to talk to a manager rather than go through the same thing with another technician. The manager listened to my story (I was telling it for the 3rd or 4th time at this stage) and gave me his word that he would deal with this personally and that he had enough clout to escalate this to the highest level of the Network Support Team in Dublin. he also promised to personally phone me back within 2 hours to let me know what was happening.

6 hours later ... no phone call ... I'm sitting in front of a computer that refuses to connect to the Internet and when it does it takes an age to load a page and drops connection immediately I click on a link.

I am not happy when I phone 3 again. Another Indian technician. Takes my details again. Listens to my story again. Promises to email Dublin and escalate my complaint again. Tells me I'm guaranteed to be contacted within 48 hours again. I am fuming and tell him all this has been done to no effect twice before. He cannot pass me to anyone higher because they have all left for the weekend. He cannot do anything except email Dublin with my complaint. He assures me that I will be contacted within 48 hours.

I hang up feeling more frustrated that I have ever felt before.

So what can I do now? Is there anyway I can contact Dublin directly? There must be a way around Indian tech support ... anyone know what it is? Who can I email? What can I do?

Any advice appreciated.

Hi, my name's <SNIP> , (3 a/c # <SNIP> ) My experience very similar and I have told them exactly my opinion - that they have used dishonesty to take my money. My advice; don't go anywhere near these thieves!

Cabaal

davetne wrote: »

Hi, my name's , (3 a/c # ) My experience very similar and I have told them exactly my opinion - that they have used dishonesty to take my money. My advice; don't go anywhere near these thieves!

davetne, I've removed your real name and Three A/C number from your post for your own protection.

I'd rcommend you don't post such details on boards.ie as its a public forum which means anybody in the world can see this information,

madasastick

Not sure if you are sorted. We had hassle in my area, in my case it was a fault with the tower which was down for almost a week. I got no satisfaction off the helpline so I emailed their complaints department and copied in the department of communications on customer.Service@dcenr.gov.ie. Miraculously it as all resolved within 24 hours, got a far better response from the DCENR than 3. It's the NBS so it's probably politically sensitive to some extent.

onthehorizon

Ahh the wonderful :rolleyes: 3 NBS. A load of rubbish that does not work period.

I signed up 6 months ago. I am not able to get any other service what so ever so was very pleased when a man from 3 turned up on my doorstep promising wonderful things. Should of known it was too good to be true.

Dongle didn't work on its own, but then I never expected it to as the man told me I would need a repeater.

Engineer turned up to install repeater could only get a singnal when the aerial was perched precariously on my son bedroom window sill and he had to run a cable across the room!!! I was not happy, my son is 7 and would easily pull that down but he insisted he HAD to install it there as it is company policy and if I had a complaint I had to get back onto 3. Which I did.

Signal was still rubbish, still got nowhere near the promised 1.2, complained over and over again till they sent men out to put up and external aerial.

They were here half and hour and could NOT get a signal AT ALL!! They got onto 3 and informed them that they had no signal and could not install aerial. They told me that someone would contact me within 48 hours to arrange whether I needed a satellite or not.

No one called...I had to call them!!

In this time I did get service, but I would compare it to dial up of the old days but less reliable. It would ALWAYS drop off at the most stupid moments and between 4pm and 9pm you could forget it all together.

So finally last week the men turned up with my satellite. It is enormous, three times the size of a sky dish. They installed it and then informed me that I was only allowed to download 100 MB a day or else my speed would slow down!! I told him that is stupid...I am entitled to 1mbs speed with the satellite no matter how much I use it a day unless I go over my 10g a month...not so he says.

So anyway first few days it is flying and then grinds to a terrible halt.

Get back onto 3....they try telling me I have gone over my daily limit of 560mb a day.....another limitation but one I know is not true, I have the numbers in front of me to prove it. An HOUR i was on the phone with the Inidian bloke who kept trying to fob me off making out it was my fault. I am not stupid I work with computers I know what I have and have not done.

Finally he agrees to reset my totals and that after this happens within 48 hours it should work again.

Guess what...it doesn't.

When it is working it flys along, but 80% of the time it doesn't. It is slow, the signal drops off and then won't work for an hour at a time. If you go over 100mb a day then the signal which is supposed to slow down by 13% goes down to zip so you can't use it at all. 100mb is nothing at all. I only use the net for checking e-mails, a few forums and facebook and I can easily use it, god forbid if you try to use youtube.

The only time it works properly is between 11pm and 4am when they open up the channels and allow you to use it as much as you like over your alloted 100mb.

Oh and I just have to put up with it or if I want to I can end my contract....how very nice of them I have no other choice but 3 and they know it.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Sponge Bob

onthehorizon wrote: »

So finally last week the men turned up with my satellite. It is enormous, three times the size of a sky dish. They installed it and then informed me that I was only allowed to download 100 MB a day or else my speed would slow down!! I told him that is stupid...I am entitled to 1mbs speed with the satellite no matter how much I use it a day unless I go over my 10g a month...not so he says.

So anyway first few days it is flying and then grinds to a terrible halt.

Get back onto 3....they try telling me I have gone over my daily limit of 560mb a day.....another limitation but one I know is not true, I have the numbers in front of me to prove it. An HOUR i was on the phone with the Inidian bloke who kept trying to fob me off making out it was my fault. I am not stupid I work with computers I know what I have and have not done.

Finally he agrees to reset my totals and that after this happens within 48 hours it should work again.

Guess what...it doesn't.

When it is working it flys along, but 80% of the time it doesn't. It is slow, the signal drops off and then won't work for an hour at a time. If you go over 100mb a day then the signal which is supposed to slow down by 13% goes down to zip so you can't use it at all. 100mb is nothing at all. I only use the net for checking e-mails, a few forums and facebook and I can easily use it, god forbid if you try to use youtube.

The only time it works properly is between 11pm and 4am when they open up the channels and allow you to use it as much as you like over your alloted 100mb.

Oh and I just have to put up with it or if I want to I can end my contract....how very nice of them I have no other choice but 3 and they know it.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

The satellite has a different and lower limit than 3 Midband. It is capped at 10gb down and 1gb up a month. However there is no DAILY limit in the contract . That is a MONTHLY limit.

Get onto the department, customer.service@dcenr.gov.ie like the previous poster did give them your account number and let them explain the contract to 3 . Deal with them through the department not through Mumbai. The minimum speeds are 1mbit down and 128k up, minimum!!!!

Is it a Eutelsat Tooway gizmo inside the house or what is the make/model of the gizmo with the lights you plug into. I heard they fell out with Tooway recently

I can understand an enormous dish in the west by the way

onthehorizon

Yep I have a tooway modem, the satellite is tooway as well.

I will get onto the department as you suggested. I told the people at 3 that they had never told me about a daily fair usage allowance, I said to them that if I wished to use my entire 10gb in a week I should be able to as long as I don't then use it for the rest of the month but they disagreed and stuck to the notion that if I go over a certain amount a day I will be penalised for it with a slower rate of speed. the mad thing is is they quoted me that I am allowed 560mb a dayand I go nowhere near that!!

My speed slows to a halt if I go over 100mb which is exactly what the engineer who installed the satellite told me, but 3 seemed oblivious to this and when I mentioned it to them they told me they had no information about the satellite. I told them to put me onto someone who does and I was passed for one person ot the next....none answered my question!!

Thanks for the advice, I will get onto that straight away.

watty

It's a dish actually. The Satellite is 22,500 miles away in space.

Sorry for being pedantic.

What you have (modem + ODU + Dish) is called VSAT, Very Small Aperature Terminal as for two way link rather than reception only , anything smaller than 3m (10') is regarded as "small".

There is little or no capacity with dedicated Irish "footprints" (reception area, think of a giant flashlight or car headlamp shining down from space), so on the same satellite where 80cm works in England and 75cm works in France, out West here you may need 1.2m (1200cm). Signal is very much worse in rain, especially your uplink (transmission from ground back to satellite) so in far south west or west some Satellites need a 1.8m dish. Almost all traffic, except streaming radio or video need a short acknowledgement on uplink, so even if receive is still good, poor uplink in rain will make loading Web pages very much slower, though YouTube might be unaffected (after an initial delay).

Your allowance is Monthly. Anything less is a breach of 3's contract for NBS.

cowboy.1981

onthehorizon wrote: »

Ahh the wonderful :rolleyes: 3 NBS. A load of rubbish that does not work period.

I signed up 6 months ago. I am not able to get any other service what so ever so was very pleased when a man from 3 turned up on my doorstep promising wonderful things. Should of known it was too good to be true.

Onthehorizon - thanks for an excellent account of your dismal experience with the NBS. While thousands of people are experiencing this, few persevere as you have, and fewer still keep a record of their experiences.

The Tooway satellite service is also re-sold by Digiweb, who have very helpfully provided full details of the download caps on this service.

http://support.digiweb.ie/questions/3808/Tooway+Satellite+Traffic+Usage+%26+Fair+Access+Policy+Explained

As you can see, in addition to the daily cap, there is even a 1 hour cap - if you exceed 120MB in a 1 hour period (assuming that 3 have opted for the cheapest package - "Tooway Value"). This would explain why you are seeing your speeds throttled within one day of usage over 100MB. (120MB including overheads). The total monthly download limits on this package are 2.4GB well below the 10GB mandated in the NBS. As Watty has pointed out, the NBS terms only refer to a monthly cap - therefore invoking 1 hourly caps is completely contravening the terms of the NBS.

Here are the NBS terms stated clearly on Department's own site,

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Development/National+Broadband+Scheme/NBS+FAQs.htm#Speeds

It is definitely time to report this to the DCENR, as SpongeBob recommended.

While you are at it, lodge a Small Claims Court claim on-line for the full value of your contract to date with 3, plus your wasted time, and expenses (max €2,000). It will cost you only €15 to lodge the claim, and you can claim back this cost in your expenses. It is clear that at no time have you been provided with the services you have contracted for.

watty

It's possible 3 are now just subcontracting to ordinary Retail Satellite Internet.

Their original plan involves a Satellite still not launched. We pointed out at the time that their "partner" supplier (Avanti) did not have enough capacity for NBS.

Obviously 3 may need to negotiate a special (expensive) deal to meet their NBS commitments. It sounds very like they have not done this.

The NBS requirements in terms of speed, and cap on Satellite would cost maybe 3 to 4 times the entry level satellite package, reducing contention to NBS limits could also quadruple the price. So it sounds like 3 is reselling a package 1/10th of value or less of what the NBS demands.

Eircom lost out on NBS partially because they priced the Satellite part of the package properly based on a real service rather than Avanti Promises.

Eircom was mostly going to use Meteor (which is 100% owned by them), which is almost identical to 3's offering, with some DSL upgrades and Fixed Wireless for the lucky few, however eircom unlike 3 is a real ISP. The Department seems to have simply chosen the cheapest and either ignored technical advice/Due diligence or not bothered getting it as neither of the only two proposals left at the end met the original NBS specification.

FYI, Hylas (the proposed Avanti satellite) is mostly funded by ESA as it's partially experimental. Eutelsat's Kasat is a production Satellite launching this year with more capacity (About x10 more?).
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=455437

Broadband-by-satellite company Avanti Communications Group PLC Wednesday said the vehicle set to launch its Hylas 1 satellite may now not be ready in time for the launch in September, but this won't affect the launch schedule.

Originally set to launch on Falcon 9 (First experimental test flight last week), ESA got cold feet and supplied extra finance and negotiated Soyuz or Ariane launch via ESA European space port in South America. This will perhaps be late September or Early October. It then takes some weeks to commission a satellite assuming the launch was OK and the Satellite works (they have had assembly problems). It looks like Hylas may be available, if it works, at the end of NBS rollout instead of start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HYLAS

Eutelsat's Kasat on improved Tooway (if launch successful) could bring VSAT prices lower than 3's €19.95 NBS or normal price, making 3 supplied Satellite under NBS a more expensive option!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooway
http://www.techtir.ie/node/1000021
http://www.dailywireless.org/2010/04/08/broadband-satellites-looking-up/
Kasat from Eutelsat is launching 3rd Quarter 2010. (Sept to Dec?). I don't have exact date.

Sponge Bob

At the end of the day it is entirely up to three to source a satellite package that is compliant with the contract terms of the NBS and to ensure that their satellite NBS users are on this package. What Tooway are up to is irrelevant, strictly speaking. Three are entirely responsible for finding a satellite service that is compliant with the contract terms of the NBS and Three know this.

a) There are other suppliers who may be more suitable than Eutelsat/Tooway
b) Tooway evidently can supply more suitable packages than the cheap yellowpack one three put you on...that's from reading that Digiweb page. It looks like the 100MB an hour has a 2.4GB cap per month. You are entitled to 10Gb down. Fortunately they can provision them remotely and it would not require a visit or time wasted on your part.
c) The contract with the department gives an end user cap of 10GB down. This actually translates into 12Gb of inbound traffic to the Tooway'gizmo' (including error correction and encapsalation overhead). Having stripped this c.2GB of overhead out the Tooway box delivers the end user 10GB of usable data. You should not be charged for overhead and it should not be counted. This is a technological 'cost' of delivery. It is very important that you get a download meter app installed to measure the traffic in and out of the Tooway box from your own gear in case there is a disagreeement about real traffic and traffic including 'overhead' . You are entitled to 10GB Net per month!!!!

3 are obviously in breach of contract with the department when they put you on that 2.4Gb a month package. Do mention that the EU money is being misspent if the contract is not being fulfilled and that failure to supply the correct satellite service will result in a complaint to the EU Anti Fraud Office about the Department ....seeing as half the money comes from Brussels. That will focus all of them I assure you I wonder how Analsys Mason let them do this to the NBS customers seeing as Analysys Mason have a contract to supervise the delivery of the NBS to the end use and to certify this with Brussels on behalf of the Department. I would ask the Department how many other NBS users are on the wrong satellite package and what Analysys have done about this and will do about this.

Then, once three start to roll over ( rather fast) , demand an apology in writing for putting you through an insulting time wasting procedure with some denial of service muppet in Mumbai and a categoric written assurance that such a denial of service will never occur again.

Do NOT deal with anybody by phone and insist that all communications are in writing from now on.

yuloni

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watty

3 can't change the terms.

The NBS contract with 3 specifies the speed and monthly cap. No matter how special for 3 the SBI pack is, if it doesn't meet the spec, 3 has broken their contract.

The contract with the department gives an end user cap of 10GB down. This actually translates into 12Gb of inbound traffic to the Modem. A 6Gbyte Cap breaks the contract!

3 is doing a lot of the subsidy as their price to Dept was predicated on Avanti's Hylass service, which may not launch till Dec 2010.

The hourly /daily allowances break the intent of the NBS contract.

yuloni

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Sponge Bob

Condi wrote: »

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The 1 week restriction is ridiculous, complain to the departmental email address about it and threaten the EU Anti Fraud office on them. Normal people are asleep between midnight and 7am.

yuloni

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Sponge Bob

The contract between the government and three does not specify ( in essence) that the allowance is 6GB odd a month during normal waking hours only.

yuloni

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cowboy.1981

Condi wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Condi, your accurate and detailed log of your experiences with NBS, while absolutely typical, is probably the most articulate ever to be published on Boards. While I can understand that you are totally exhausted from persevering and escalating these issues at this stage, can I plead with you to send one more email to communicate your final views to the DCENR, preferably copied to the EU, as suggested by SpongeBob.

While you may be content to put up with the non-compliant Satellite solution at this stage, the reasons you should continue to escalate are as follows,

(1) The NBS will expire in around 3 years and 9 months, after which you will likely face paying the full Retail cost >€120 per month for the satellite solution.

(2) 3 should not be continuing to receive the Government and EU subsidy while failing to meet the minimum contractual requirements for NBS. This money is fully recoverable from 3, and could be put to better use providing a proper solution for you and others.

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

Sponge Bob

Bump. Some people are too lazy or stupid to search, the important information is all here save for one small item.

Three have introduced a new repeater ( signal booster) since this thread was last active in June.

Repeaters are 100% FREE to people in weak NBS areas and UNAVAILABLE on other mobile networks and to 3 customers OUTSIDE NBS areas.

So don't bother asking. Sequence for NBS

In each case after the MiFi stage you must escalate as explained earlier in this thread. The 3 call centre is as useless and stupid as ever.

If Dongle does not work try Mifi
If Mifi does not work try Nextivity Repeater*
If Nextivity Repeater does not work send out engineer to install Coiler Repeater which has an external engineer installed antenna*
If Coiler Repeater does not work send out Satellite Installer.

* New Repeater slots into product line around here.

shg101

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Bump. Some people are too lazy or stupid to search, the important information is all here save for one small item.

Three have introduced a new repeater ( signal booster) since this thread was last active in June.

Repeaters are 100% FREE to people in weak NBS areas and UNAVAILABLE on other mobile networks and to 3 customers OUTSIDE NBS areas.

So don't bother asking. Sequence for NBS

In each case after the MiFi stage you must escalate as explained earlier in this thread. The 3 call centre is as useless and stupid as ever.

If Dongle does not work try Mifi
If Mifi does not work try Nextivity Repeater*
If Nextivity Repeater does not work send out engineer to install Coiler Repeater which has an external engineer installed antenna*
If Coiler Repeater does not work send out Satellite Installer.

* New Repeater slots into product line around here.

I got a Nextivity Router in April. Is there a new different one?

Back in April they told me that the Nextivity wasn't compatible with a wireless modem. Disaster since I had bought a MiFi from them and had just brought one of the first iPads into the country! Managed to move the 4 devices (Window unit, coverage unit, MiFi, iPad) around so that things worked (but had to discover this on my own).

Things worked fine until the last month, when speeds have dropped off a cliff. Still get good pings though (91msec with 0.1Mbs download speeds!).

goodservice

cowboy.1981 wrote: »

This is absolutely normal experience for the mobile midband "service" offered by 3.

If you are in an NBS area, the Govt have contracted 3 to provide a mininum specification of "always-on" internet with 1.2Mbps down, 200kbps up, and 120ms latency. If you are not getting this 24/7 you need to keep escalating until they are forced to provide you with the Satellite alternative. The satellite is not dependent on 3's mobile network and appears to work ok, so far. However, the latency is much higher.

There is no point wasting your time with India. You need to escalate to the senior management in 3, and copy to all the relevant Government authorities who are paying taxpayers money to 3 for this debacle. (€80 Million of EU/Irish tax-payers money)

Others on Boards who have escalated have found this route successful. Below is the list of people you need to escalate to. Please persevere - don't let 3 get away with this shoddy service.

Even if you are continuing to pursue your issues with 3, it is important that the relevant authorities are informed that the service delivered to customers is not working as contracted.

Here is the list of people you should escalate to,

• Minister Eamon Ryan, <eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie>
• ComReg (you will need a complaint ref number from 3, if they ever respond to you) http://www.askcomreg.ie/tell_us/comp...ries.51.LE.asp
• Patrick Kidney in Analysy Mason, the Consultants who are responsible for monitoring the performance of 3 under the NBS contract, <patrick.kidney@analysysmason.com>
• Robert Finnegan, CEO 3 Ireland, 3rd Floor, 6-10 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2
• The Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General, who is responsible for ensuring that public funds are not misappropriated <samantha_lee@audgen.irlgov.ie>
• Your local Public Representatives (Ministers, Councillors)
• Your local media (radio, newspapers)

Also claim a refund for the full period where the service failed to meet the minimum specification - you are entitled to it. If you don't get anywhere lodge a case with the Small Claims Court. It will cost you €15, but you can claim this back plus all your wasted time in expenses. 3 settle these cases before they go to court, because they don't want to pay lawyers to show up in court.

Don't give up, and thanks for sharing your problems on Boards. It helps others realise that they are not alone, when they read posts like yours.

Thanks so much for that info, it was so helpful. I signed up for 3's "broadband" in May, awful, awful, awful. I am at my wits end but will follow this advice. Do NOT ring, get a written record of everything. They are blaming their crap network on my modem. My average download speed is 0.50Mb/sec, it was supposed to be 7.2Mb/sec, after 6pm it goes to 0.04 Mb/sec average. The upload isn't even worth talking about. Will they give me the contention rate? No, because they are oversubscribed and the congestion is through the roof.

They want to "repair" my modem, I have to send it by post (NO WAY). I don't trust them, I'm sure it will have been "damaged" in transit. It takes 15-20 days minimum and you're without service and no replacement. If it arrived by courier why can't it be picked up by courier?? If the speed, congestion, cutting out, capping of usage, websites freezing etc etc etc were the modem, why does my crap service fluctuate at different times of day? Why does my speed plummet after 6pm? Why do I read thousands of complaints with identical problems? Do all these people need their modem repaired??

3 are the worst company I have ever dealt with, they take frustration to a new level. They are probably hoping that people get sick of it and drop it but PLEASE don't do that. If everyone complains they will have to do something. As far as ComReg goes, why aren't they enforcing their legal powers under the Communications Act? I have a complaint in since 15.11.10 and they have done nothing. I was told by one of their reps that their only job was to "open the lines of communication". How's that for an abdication of responsibility? And don't get me started on 3's call centre staff, hard neck is too nice a way to put it, absolutely brazen bare faced lies. I only wish I read the reviews on the web before I signed up.

I wrote to the 3 Head Office in Dublin and they didn't even reply. Honestly I have no words to describe how truly awful their service is in every way. They are trying to grind people down by making it as difficult as possible. I've lost count of the hours I've spent on the phone, only to hear their "diagnostics" of "delete temporary internet files" from my computer to improve the speed??

If they think I am paying to get out of this contract with an abysmal service they have another think coming. They should NOT be allowed to operate. They are an absolute disgrace and so are ComReg for standing by and alllowing them. They have not asked 3 to corroborate any of their lies with facts and figures, they get away with excuses, generic comments and crap awful service. It makes me livid, the injustice of it.

Sponge Bob

Are you in an NBS area, you never said.

dos7749

I would appreciate if anyone could PM me a sample of a complaint letter for 3 NBS to be emailed to ComReg to request an external antena to be installed. Thanks to all who replied helping me with this most frustrating adventure.

rarasek123

I should have read this thread earlier. I just cancelled my contract and I should have done it long time ago. During my 15 month with 3, I rang 1913 nubmer of times but only when I said I wanted to cancel they started offering upgrade of a modem (binding me to another 12 months with them) or diagnostic of the problem and external antena or satellite. But I'm not iterested in finding out if it would produce any improvement in my connection. I'm going to Vodafone.

Sponge Bob

What is the story on repeaters?

I hear both the nextivity and coiler units are no longer used and that some Korean tech is used instead.

yuloni

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rob180

I have the Korean repeater since i join 3 under the NBS. It does improve the reception of the E122 modem.

yuloni

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rob180

Condi wrote: »

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It's made by SOLiD Technologies, Inc.
Model , S/N HR-3CHA-0202
Their website is www.st.co.kr

Hope that helps Condi

Sponge Bob

Pat Rabbitte will entertain complaints according to his own National Broadban Scheme Complaints procedure BUT you gotta give three their 10 working days to fix the problem first.

http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2011-10-11.1339.0&s=broadband#g1340.0.q

Analysys Mason "monitor" nothing, contrary to Rabbittes weasel words. They sit on their holes in Dublin countersigning EU funding drawdown requests for the Dept of Comms, that is all. High time someone brought this farce to Brussels or the EU Auditors.

Currently, the minimum download speed available to NBS broadband customers is 1.6Mbps and the minimum upload speed is 1.2Mbps, with a maximum contention ratio of 22:1. A further contractual upgrade will take place in October 2012, which will increase the minimum download speed to 2.3Mbps and the minimum upload speed to 1.4Mbps, with a maximum contention ratio of 18:1. Any NBS customer experiencing problems with the NBS service can contact 3’s customer care centre 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone at 1913 (free of charge). Additionally, a team of field engineers has been established to address NBS specific maintenance issues at customer’s premises.

My Department has a role when customers have fully utilised the established complaints process. It operates a dedicated NBS mailbox, which NBS customers can contact by email at nationalbroadbandscheme@nbs.ie with any comments or complaints they may have about their NBS service.

Dude2play

rob180 wrote: »

It's made by SOLiD Technologies, Inc.
Model , S/N HR-3CHA-0202
Their website is www.st.co.kr

Hope that helps Condi

Hi I Have one of these Repeaters/ Can you change the Aerial to a External one
Thnaks

rob180

Dude2play wrote: »

Hi I Have one of these Repeaters/ Can you change the Aerial to a External one
Thnaks

Not sure Dude2play, but it doesn't look too difficult to change it.

Dude2play

Thanks rob180
E-mailed SOLiD Technologies, Inc.
They Passed on me Request to The Branch Manager in The UK
I Will Post Results & Pictures when they contact me Again
Thanks for Your Help & To all the others above ;-)

Dude2play

Well After i Called 3 Mobile 52 Times, Usually on the Weekend & When i Go Home Every Night (In a Nice Friendly Manner) i thought i finally got Somewhere...After being asked to do the Speedtest ** N.B keep a list of test Results 4 times a day for a Week really Helps**
And telling them that i Crossed Ref the GPS coordinates on Google Maps of there mast to my house to get a Direct beam>>>>
Three sent me one of those txt msgs saying that i would be contacted in 3 working days (Funny they always send it on a friday)

Three Sent out a Engineer to Take a Look at my Repeater..
He Called at about 2pm (I was at Work) and Did a Signal Test From outside. I Was Talking to Him on the Phone and He Was Sound.
The Tech Went into the House and Reversed the Little White Box on the Repeater so that it could be Stuck to the Window Outside...

He Said that the Signal was Good (Only Because its 2pm in the Day and the main traffic was not already on Line Yet) and Left.

I Got a Call from my Wife Telling me That the Ping/Upload/Download had taken a Nose dive so i Phoned the Guy Back.. Ya i Got his Number...

He Said that He Would Fail the Signal Test and Send in a Report...

1 1/2 Weeks later i phoned 3 to ask what had Happened...???
I Was told that it had gone to The National Broadband Team in Dublin and They Would contact me in 3 working Days (Again Msg Sent on Friday).

Well Today is Wed and Low and Behold i got a Call from 3 Dublin (Again not on a Private number) who said that the Engineer Would Be out on Friday to Fit a External Aerial on my Roof....

Fingers are Crossed so i will let you All know the Outcome..
P.S My Stats on COD Black ops Has Really taken a Beating Because of this... To Everybody Elce Hang in there Kitty!!!!!

Dude2play

P.S to rob180
I Sent a Email to SOLiD Technologies, Inc.
And i Got this Reply:

Hello Joe & Padraic,
The customer is looking for outdoor antenna with our Home Repeater for better coverage.
I know you do have great outdoor antenna solutions with our HR.
Could you help him to get it properly?

That was on the 8th November, but Still have Recived nothing Yet...

Sponge Bob

To be honest, if it goes down every evening more or less from 7pm onwards no amount of aerials will do anything for you.

jor el

Exactly, improved signal will do nothing to improve on a congestion related problem. Only if you lose the signal completely will an aerial make a difference.

Signal strength and speed are not linked.

Dude2play

You Know You And SpongBob Are Spot on, When i worked in Chorus in limerick they put up Masts to Distribute the Signal in Areas, But they only had a Capacity of about 200 People per mast, Some Luckey Buggers only had to Share With 10 max. I Think the the 3 mast in our local area is at max Capacity!!! Thats what i get for telling people that i was Playing online Games !! with no lagging... Cheers Lads

bealtine

Dude2play wrote: »

You Know You And SpongBob Are Spot on, When i worked in Chorus in limerick they put up Masts to Distribute the Signal in Areas, But they only had a Capacity of about 200 People per mast, Some Luckey Buggers only had to Share With 10 max. I Think the the 3 mast in our local area is at max Capacity!!! Thats what i get for telling people that i was Playing online Games !! with no lagging... Cheers Lads

If your dongle works don't tell your neighbours:) They will start to use the network and congestion will mess up your speeds.

Dude2play

I Think its too late, a Lot of People on my road with 3mobile, when i went into there website to Check Where the Mast Was.. there were Little Blue Dots on my road. i think that they put these up on the page to See where their Customers are because there was one on my house...
AnyBody Know if i Could Buy a Disruptor Beam that can Blank out my Neighbors...??? Beam me Up Scotty!!!!!!!:):):eek::):)

Sponge Bob

If you live in an NBS area they are SUPPOSED to add more sectors to the cells to reduce contention because the Department allegedly monitors compliance. If they had enough sectors the signal would not disappear at night.

Send off a stiff email complaint about lack of service and contention to the government. Email address here.

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Development/National+Broadband+Scheme/National+Broadband+Scheme.htm

I find that ccing these emails to Brussels puts the skids under them because half the money for this scheme came from Brussels and the department is reporting 100% coverage and 100% success in NBS areas mainly because the Dept Of Comms were so fabulously brillliant getting enough masts and sectors installed to cover all requirements.

cc robert.madelin@ec.europa.eu Prabhat.AGARWAL@ec.europa.eu and nicole.dewandre@ec.europa.eu if you are alleging that the scheme is not adequate in your area...they like to see how the Department spends their money correctly.

strange and important people will suddenly ring you, note their names and numbers and PM them to me....then tell them to reply to you by email instead because they hate writing things down.

Tell us all how it goes in a week or two!

MajesticDonkey

cc robert.madelin@ec.europa.eu Prabhat.AGARWAL@ec.europa.eu and nicole.dewandre@ec.europa.eu if you are alleging that the scheme is not adequate in your area...they like to see how the Department spends their money correctly.

What exactly are these people, aside from MEPs?

Sponge Bob

Much better than that!

Bicker

Has anyone had any success in forcing three to drop their onerous sat download limit. I have hit the same problem, they tell me the clock never goes back to zero, so everytime you hit 11 gb you have to stop using it for a day and then it resumes to normality until you hit 11 again. Where should I go with this, I have no other supplier option where I am, and can't work with this as I trade shares online, and as you can imagine, it makes things a bit tricky......

Sponge Bob

Again if you do not formally complain to the right people ( DCENR) they will claim to be unaware of the various Tooway limits which are not in the 3 contract.

It is up to 3 to find a compliant satellite based service.

Bicker

I'm aware of that sponge bob, but has anyone had any success in resolving the issue ? I am currently going through the ten day wait-and-see if 3 do anything with the comms regulator.

Sponge Bob

The bigger issue is that the government took EU money for a stated service and are not making 3 comply with the package in the contract.

The comms regulator has nothing to do with this, it is the fault of 3 who get away with substandard sat services, the consultants analysys mason and the DCENR for not enforcing the contract.

It is up to 3 to find a compliant sat package, Tooway is not compliant save perhaps the 12Gb package at a pinch...that is because it will permit adequate hourly and daily limits.