UPC Broadband Customers - Opinions Wanted

WhoElse

Disappointing - Glanmire still has no fibre connection. This means slower and more expensive service - line based braodband only (subject to eircom service interruptions, and any provider having to pay eircom 26e a month, so passign the cost onto us).

I asked UPC if they had plans to roll it out and they couldn't say. Glanmire is effectively the city now, and was only still classified as county for political infighting. I wonder has this affected the decision to not roll it out here?

basically UPC's loss, Vodafone and sky's gain, and my loss...

horgan_p

I'm in Bishopstown , moved from Sky and Eircom to UPC (the basic tv package ,basic phone package and 50mb Bband). Bill every month hovers around the 70 euro mark , including phone calls.
To be honest with 50mb broadband live TV becomes somewhat of a novelty.
I never watch live tv anymore. I think to add the basic package costed 10 - 15 euro per month.
Best service I've used , ever.I'm working as an IT manager and if I could I'd move the office across to UPC in a heartbeat.

Outkast_IRE

im a customer for over 7 years now , first just broadband now bb,tv and phone. Have always been treated well , and the broadband is the best around without a doubt.

Chuck Stone

The TV package is a complete waste of money unless you have no way of receiving Freesat and Saorview with a combi set top box or if you want Sky Sports.

UPC broadband is excellent.

54kroc

WhoElse wrote: »

Disappointing - Glanmire still has no fibre connection. This means slower and more expensive service - line based braodband only (subject to eircom service interruptions, and any provider having to pay eircom 26e a month, so passign the cost onto us).

I asked UPC if they had plans to roll it out and they couldn't say. Glanmire is effectively the city now, and was only still classified as county for political infighting. I wonder has this affected the decision to not roll it out here?

basically UPC's loss, Vodafone and sky's gain, and my loss...

UPC broadband works perfect in Glanmire, has done for a good few years.
They won't install down here though.

EyeSight

horgan_p wrote: »

I'm working as an IT manager and if I could I'd move the office across to UPC in a heartbeat.

not sure if they would be a great choice for a large business but they would for a small one

i think they have great home broadband. I find it difficult to see why people who can go to UPC would choose eircom who are slower and more expensive. i think both companies have equally poor customer service

I find UPC tv to be painful, i have the old box and if i make a mistake typing in a channel number or if i'm not super fast at typing the number i'll be taken to the UPC information channel. everytime that happens i get a strong urge to slowly kill the idiot who thought that'd be a good idea. their remotes suck too

run_Forrest_run

only UPC TV available in Passage, no broadband yet...doubt it will be available soon either.

horgan_p

EyeSight wrote: »

not sure if they would be a great choice for a large business but they would for a small one

i think they have great home broadband. I find it difficult to see why people who can go to UPC would choose eircom who are slower and more expensive. i think both companies have equally poor customer service

I find UPC tv to be painful, i have the old box and if i make a mistake typing in a channel number or if i'm not super fast at typing the number i'll be taken to the UPC information channel. everytime that happens i get a strong urge to slowly kill the idiot who thought that'd be a good idea. their remotes suck too

Well I'd use it for browsing. e-mail , vpn and other backend services I'd keep with Eircom.

Sephiroth_dude

Anyone from ballincollig using upc?whats it like ?

babo9

54kroc wrote: »

UPC broadband works perfect in Glanmire, has done for a good few years.
They won't install down here though.

What does that mean? It works perfectly, but they won't install it!?

Roar

I'm in Ballyphehane. have UPC and no complaints whatsoever. Great service. Cancelled my sky last year because I have no need for it - any sport I can stream, and any movies or shows I can download. Well worth getting if you can.

Milly33

UPC seems the way..We have it also and have to say they are great...Every year also they top up the speed as such, without any extra charge which is quite nice...Never had ny problems with them, and with the installing it only took half an hour or so, and no problems of ill be there in a hour and so on...

I wouldnt go near them for the tv channels they are a bit slow on that side, we got the package this year and despite TV being rubbish anywho they have messed up charges and all that goes so I wouldnt be too happy with that service

booboo88

minidazzler wrote: »

UPC is the best broadband connection you can get in Cork city and suburbs at the moment.

I have a 20 Mb package in my house and routinely get 19mb on speedtest.net, that is phenomenal throughput, where friends on eircom 5 mb package are only getting 3.

Service interruptions are minimal, there is no cap, they aren't bending over and taking it prison style from IMRA.

I actually can't laud over them enough, it is a perfect connection almost all the time I have found.

Compare that to people I know with eircom, they get outages at least twice a month for hours on end, the packages without caps are hugely expensive, and eircom swallow when IMRA tell them.

Go with UPC is my advice.

Though not the TV package...that still sucks.

P.S. I am not now, nor have I ever been associated with UPC, Chorus or NTL. Just really love the internet connection!

I have to agree, I was at my wits end trying to figure out what I was doing wrong with eircom as they had always implied it was a fault at my end, not the case, switched to upc and no problems at all. I went from constantly having to reboot the modem maybe 3 or 4 times a day to not a glitch.
and the amount its always the same, eircom were ridiculous with their limits.

Iceylou

i am unfortunately with eircom. omfg do i feel like smacking them and the 4th modem off the wall. we pay for the 7mb package and if we are really really luck we get 5mb but mostly its 2mb. we might switch to upc but they have told us we can only get the normal broadband not the high speed atm.

does anyone know if sky are going to provide broadband soon?

babo9

Iceylou wrote: »

i am unfortunately with eircom. omfg do i feel like smacking them and the 4th modem off the wall. we pay for the 7mb package and if we are really really luck we get 5mb but mostly its 2mb. we might switch to upc but they have told us we can only get the normal broadband not the high speed atm.

does anyone know if sky are going to provide broadband soon?

Well their "normal" broadband is still far far far far superior to Eircom, I think their minimum speed is 20MB, my parents have it and it's brilliant.

54kroc

babo9 wrote: »

What does that mean? It works perfectly, but they won't install it!?

It means what it says.
I had it in my place for around a year but had to give the modem back to the buddy who's house I got it from, Try it, borrow a friends modem and hook it up and see for your self.
I believe they would need to do a lot of upgrades on the line in Glanmire to guarantee the service down here, but at the moment it does work perfect out as far as the arse end of Sallybrook.
I'm trying to find a friend willing to let me have it installed at their place so I can bring it down here.

minidazzler

Iceylou wrote: »

i am unfortunately with eircom. omfg do i feel like smacking them and the 4th modem off the wall. we pay for the 7mb package and if we are really really luck we get 5mb but mostly its 2mb. we might switch to upc but they have told us we can only get the normal broadband not the high speed atm.

does anyone know if sky are going to provide broadband soon?

Their Hi-Speed broadband is the 100mb package, you don't need that. Get their normal package it's still vastly superior and likely cheaper than Eircoms "premium" packages.

babo9

54kroc wrote: »

It means what it says.
I had it in my place for around a year but had to give the modem back to the buddy who's house I got it from, Try it, borrow a friends modem and hook it up and see for your self.
I believe they would need to do a lot of upgrades on the line in Glanmire to guarantee the service down here, but at the moment it does work perfect out as far as the arse end of Sallybrook.
I'm trying to find a friend willing to let me have it installed at their place so I can bring it down here.

Really? So you had UPC tv for example but you just hooked the tv cable up to the UPC modem and you were able to get fibre-powered internet? I often wondered how they could provide tv, but not broadband, thought they came via the same cables.

But if that is the case and it's that easy, what's to stop someone paying for tv and hooking up a cable modem and stealing internet?! Or am I missing some other part of the story?

outofmind6

Has UPC got an unlimited usage, though?

54kroc

babo9 wrote: »

Really? So you had UPC tv for example but you just hooked the tv cable up to the UPC modem and you were able to get fibre-powered internet? I often wondered how they could provide tv, but not broadband, thought they came via the same cables.

But if that is the case and it's that easy, what's to stop someone paying for tv and hooking up a cable modem and stealing internet?! Or am I missing some other part of the story?

All modems would have to be provisioned by upc for them to work.
I didn't just take a random modem and hook it up, I had it installed in a buddies house, then I brought it to my house and paid the bill for the time I had it.
If you did have a dodgy modem you would be very easy to find as opposed to one of the fixed TV boxes of yesteryear.

Fibrepower is just a name they don't run fibre to your house, TV and broadband both come down the same coax cable.

evilivor

54kroc wrote: »

All modems would have to be provisioned by upc for them to work.
I didn't just take a random modem and hook it up, I had it installed in a buddies house, then I brought it to my house and paid the bill for the time I had it.
If you did have a dodgy modem you would be very easy to find as opposed to one of the fixed TV boxes of yesteryear.

Fibrepower is just a name they don't run fibre to your house, TV and broadband both come down the same coax cable.

I presume it's a straightforward install then? I used to have UPC for tv before - the points are still there - so I were to sign up for broadband it's just a matter of getting signal switched on again and connecting the modem they supply?

54kroc

evilivor wrote: »

I presume it's a straightforward install then? I used to have UPC for tv before - the points are still there - so I were to sign up for broadband it's just a matter of getting signal switched on again and connecting the modem they supply?

It's pi*s easy to install, I think they offer a self install option as well.
There might be an anti tamper device or a filter on the tap where your wire comes from which would have to be removed for the broadband to work.
The filters just screw off but the other yokes should be taken off by upc.

You might get better advice over on the broadband forum.
I worked with upc years ago when they first launched broadband and I've not installed a modem in a long while so my advice might be out of date.

evilivor

54kroc wrote: »

It's pi*s easy to install, I think they offer a self install option as well.
There might be an anti tamper device or a filter on the tap where your wire comes from which would have to be removed for the broadband to work.
The filters just screw off but the other yokes should be taken off by upc.

You might get better advice over on the broadband forum.
I worked with upc years ago when they first launched broadband and I've not installed a modem in a long while so my advice might be out of date.

Thanks. It's the self install I'm interested in because I have experience of wasting many hours, back in the day, waiting for UPC installers to come around. If I can do it myself they may just have a new customer.

parsi

FWIW - I've had installers out twice for broadband (on first connection and for upgrade). They arrived during the promised time slot and called in advance. I also received an automated call the previous day.

TBoneMan

I've been with Eircom, BT, SKY and UPC over the years. UPC but all the others to shame for price quality & service. You won't regret switching and i have phone, TV & broadband with them for a really good price.

TanG411

There's only one gripe I have with UPC. It's that one little thing that grinds my gears.

Their routers.

They provide two of them. A Cisco EPC2425, and a Thompson (I forget the model). I have the Cisco and am having a load of problems with it wirelessly. The wireless signal has weakened dramatically the last couple of days, and it's not due to interference. It's dropping out every couple of hours, which has me turning it off and on and fiddling with the antenna until there's a signal.

The wired speeds are fine, so it's not UPC's problem. It's just the router.

I would use another router through bridging, but then the phone would be unusable.

Obviously I'd still go with UPC over every other company out there. They's be the perfect company if they can strike a deal with a different company to provide the routers.

nodolan

ThinksAmoral wrote: »

There's only one gripe I have with UPC. It's that one little thing that grinds my gears.

Their routers.

Yeah, I discovered that pretty quickly. I'm using an Apple Airport Express for my WiFi at home, it's been up and running without problems for months now.

I've got 50Mb with UPC in Cork city and the speed is incredible. Blokes I know down the road have eircon and another Vodafone and both are desperately slow. I hate UPC as a company (they've made so many mistakes with my account, customer service sometimes all over the place etc.) but can't fault their broadband.

fionny

They have a brand new model of Cisco modem / router they are rolling out to new customers a techie told me while he was replacing my Thomson which kept rebooting... he said they are not giving them out to existing customers until all the thomsons they have in stock are gone....

if this thomson goes Ill be insisting...

On the customer service I have to say UPC has improved no end... the tech guys are friendly and dont just rely on a script.. I am impressed with them these days and ya their broadband speeds are unrivaled if you can get them (100meg )

54kroc

fionny wrote: »

ya their broadband speeds are unrivaled if you can get them (100meg )

That's borderline trolling, ya lucky git.:)

gbee

Iceylou wrote: »

does anyone know if sky are going to provide broadband soon?

Sky is satellite, satellite is slow for domestic BB [they might offer a BB provider service over the phone line ~ that'll be Eircom's!!!!]