NTL/UPC good or bad?

ciencin

Thinking of getting the NTL (or is it UPC?) broadband and would like to hear reviews from people who have it.

In particular:
- do they loose connection a lot / shut their servers for maintenance a lot?
- any little small print term and conditions I should be aware of? (One that I love particularry is their "UNLIMITED" broadband is in fact 250gb a month).
- are their prices final per month or do they have the "its €25 per month, but we forgot to mention its only €25 for the first month"

Is there a better internet provider within €30 price range? (im looking for ok speed, with large monthly download limit for streaming movie etc, but dont have a phone line, also located in Westmeath so a bit limited on coverage).

p.s. just read in another topic that the 8m/b is moving up from €25 to €32? Is this true?

Thor

Have had them for years with little interruptions, Although they have the odd few problems they are definitely the best ISP in ireland. If you can get UPC then i would highly suggest you do.

Also its true that the price is going up, I believe its so they can make back some of the money due the the amount of upgrading they have been doing for the 100mb line service.

ciencin

bah found out today that UPC is not available in my area unfortunately... so guess its back looking for another provider...

billyboy01

Thor wrote: »

Have had them for years with little interruptions, Although they have the odd few problems they are definitely the best ISP in ireland. If you can get UPC then i would highly suggest you do.

Also its true that the price is going up, I believe its so they can make back some of the money due the the amount of upgrading they have been doing for the 100mb line service.

Yeah, if you like the 70 quid charge on top of your month charge, they levy you if you transfer more then 250gb's of data. On there so called 30meg Unlimited, no caps broadband service. This so called 100mb line at 80 quid a month and probably capped with a similar 250gb limit. mmm!:rolleyes:
Cancellation for me before the 4th of Jan 2011, and I have been a NTL loyal customer since 2003 when they started with the old 1mb connection. They never bother me, until this new UPC wing called AUP appeared. If your a light web browsing and email user happy days, but if your like to download larges file, which you should be on there current maximum service!:rolleyes:

Improbable

billyboy01 wrote: »

Yeah, if you like the 70 quid charge on top of your month charge, they levy you if you transfer more then 250gb's of data. On there so called 30meg Unlimited, no caps broadband service. This so called 100mb line at 80 quid a month and probably capped with a similar 250gb limit. mmm!:rolleyes:
Cancellation for me before the 4th of Jan 2011, and I have been a NTL loyal customer since 2003 when they started with the old 1mb connection. They never bother me, until this new UPC wing called AUP appeared. If your a light web browsing and email user happy days, but if your like to download larges file, which you should be on there current maximum service!:rolleyes:

Afaik, the extreme package doubles your monthly fee. I agree the FUP is a bit disheartening but in all honesty, what could you possibly be downloading every month that it becomes an issue? Oh, and the FUP on the 100mb line is 500gb iirc.

billyboy01

Improbable wrote: »

Afaik, the extreme package doubles your monthly fee. I agree the FUP is a bit disheartening but in all honesty, what could you possibly be downloading every month that it becomes an issue? Oh, and the FUP on the 100mb line is 500gb iirc.

Thats not the point, the service is sold as an unlimited product, and charging an extra 70quid on top of your 42quid BB charge is a bit Irish! Especially when I did not exceed the 250gig limit, since I was warned. Also its 250gb transfer UP and Download. Easily reached if your watch HD content. Anyway Bye Bye UPC, thanks to the 4th of Jan price hike!:P:P:)

ciencin

billyboy01 wrote: »

Thats not the point, the service is sold as an unlimited product, and charging an extra 70quid on top of your 42quid BB charge is a bit Irish! Especially when I did not exceed the 250gig limit, since I was warned. Also its 250gb transfer UP and Download. Easily reached if your watch HD content. Anyway Bye Bye UPC, thanks to the 4th of Jan price hike!:P:P:)

Heh When I rang them up yesterday the sales guy was saying "You should go for the 15mb broadband as it provides UNLIMITED download limit". If that's not lying to your customers I dont know what is :pac:

I had a similar experience when ringing up 3 broadband a year ago, where the sales man assured me that if I upgrade to their new modem I'll have speed of up to 7mb! However after getting in contact with their tech support I found out that their maximum speed is only 5mb, the modem CAAAAN support 7mb but they don't have that available yet

Thor

billyboy01 wrote: »

Thats not the point, the service is sold as an unlimited product, and charging an extra 70quid on top of your 42quid BB charge is a bit Irish! Especially when I did not exceed the 250gig limit, since I was warned. Also its 250gb transfer UP and Download. Easily reached if your watch HD content. Anyway Bye Bye UPC, thanks to the 4th of Jan price hike!:P:P:)

hmm, Not sure where you are getting €70 on top of the €42 from, If you go over the 250gb limit they will increase you too €80 a month. Also you are lucky thats all they do, According to there terms and conditions they can charge you 3c per MB you go over the limit.

Its not really just UPC considering alot of isp's is doing it, a lot of them will say unlimited and still have a limit, Its not fair and it shouldn't be allowed but blame com-reg for allowing it.

Also how do you know you didn't go over the limit, They don't offer a means for checking it, Perhaps you have an unsecured wireless and somebody else is using it. It has happened before.

As far as I'm concerned with all the small problems upc have, They are still better then any other broadband provider in Ireland.

I really don't understand your point,. You are saying that its easy to go over the limit and that it shouldn't exist, But you then also say you didn't go over the limit.

FlawedGenius

ciencin wrote: »

bah found out today that UPC is not available in my area unfortunately... so guess its back looking for another provider...

Magnet 2nd best after them, especially if your into gaming and downloading!

Anan1

I switched to UPC from Vodafone a few months back due to appalling service from Vodafone. After a few teething problems (which they were helpful about), I find UPC just works. Speeds are consistently high and it drops perhaps once a week, whereas Vodafone was dropping several times a day. I did need to buy my own router and get a cable modem only from UPC, though.

vibe666

billyboy01 wrote: »

Thats not the point, the service is sold as an unlimited product, and charging an extra 70quid on top of your 42quid BB charge is a bit Irish! Especially when I did not exceed the 250gig limit, since I was warned. Also its 250gb transfer UP and Download. Easily reached if your watch HD content. Anyway Bye Bye UPC, thanks to the 4th of Jan price hike!:P:P:)

the AUP v's 'unlimited' argument has been done to death here dozens and dozens of times and according to comreg as long as they qualify the use of the word unlimited by stating any AUP/FUP limits in their T&C's they are acting within the law.

almost every ISP these days has a FUP/AUP so you're going to find one wherever you go.

its very likely that the UPC AUP was altered to include the download limits as a direct result of a lot of the posts in this forum complaining about it not being in the AUP documents, but since they are now working within what comreg has deemed appropriate there's not a huge amount that can be done about it.

personally, i would be a lot happier if they stopped using the word unlimited and stated plainly and simply that there were limits and what those limits were, but other than writing to them and complaining there's not a huge amount that can be done and although i appreciate that you are new here and probably aren't aware of the long and very VERY drawn out history of the whole thing, giving out on here for nth time about something that has already been done to death (and repeatedly resurrected) does nothing except get on everyones nerves.

By all means feel free to leave UPC if you can find someone offering better speeds and/or a higher cap/fup/aup but afaik those are very few (if any) and far between unless you are in one of the very few places with access to magnet fibre.

bealtine

http://irelandoffline.org/2010/06/when-is-unlimited-not-unlimited/


All providers are guilty of calling their packages "unlimited" in their marketing blurb.

vibe666

bealtine wrote: »

http://irelandoffline.org/2010/06/when-is-unlimited-not-unlimited/


All providers are guilty of calling their packages "unlimited" in their marketing blurb.

i guess comreg are the ones who need a spanking then more than anybody, but that's nothing new either.

bealtine

vibe666 wrote: »

i guess comreg are the ones who need a spanking then more than anybody, but that's nothing new either.

Comreg, the chocolate teapot of regulation:)

vibe666

bealtine wrote: »

Comreg, the chocolate teapot of regulation:)

tell me about it.

i tried to make a complaint against BT several years ago and they maintained that they couldn't do anything until i had been through BT's own complaints procedure. when i said that i was complaining to comreg about BT's complaints procedure because they were totally unable to process my complaint, she didn't have a clue what to do.

fuppin' muppets the lot of them.

billyboy01

Thor wrote: »

hmm, Not sure where you are getting €70 on top of the €42 from, If you go over the 250gb limit they will increase you too €80 a month. Also you are lucky thats all they do, According to there terms and conditions they can charge you 3c per MB you go over the limit.

Its not really just UPC considering alot of isp's is doing it, a lot of them will say unlimited and still have a limit, Its not fair and it shouldn't be allowed but blame com-reg for allowing it.

Also how do you know you didn't go over the limit, They don't offer a means for checking it, Perhaps you have an unsecured wireless and somebody else is using it. It has happened before.

As far as I'm concerned with all the small problems upc have, They are still better then any other broadband provider in Ireland.

I really don't understand your point,. You are saying that its easy to go over the limit and that it shouldn't exist, But you then also say you didn't go over the limit.

Yes I agree there is no such thing as an Unlimited service, but I kept below the agreed 250gb transfer limit, and was charged an extra 70quid. With no appeal or explanation from there customer complaints team. Anyway I was not happy with there whole package TV(pixelated and freezing pictures) and phone(Dropped calls) as well. Anyway thanks to there 2011 price increases, im out of there contract without the 200quid cancellation fee!:)

I have plenty of other options in my area with similar speeds and prices for BB.

Trevor451

billyboy01 wrote: »

I have plenty of other options in my area with similar speeds and prices for BB.

Good luck trying to get 30mb broadband from any other isp in Ireland :eek:

vibe666

Trevor451 wrote: »

Good luck trying to get 30mb broadband from any other isp in Ireland :eek:

if he's lucky he might be able to get magnet 24mbps, or even magnet fibre 50mbps if he's very very lucky.

billyboy01

Trevor451 wrote: »

Good luck trying to get 30mb broadband from any other isp in Ireland :eek:

More like in the real world 10-15mb, when tested with Speedtest.net:rolleyes:

Nollog

Regarding the cap.
I installed dd-wrt on my wireless router a month after I got upc to check my usage.
I've downloaded+uploaded roughly 260-290 GB per month for the past 3 months and haven't received any notice or anything from UPC.

I think they only send you the nasty letter if you go over by a lot, on a continued basis.
Nobody knows for sure since they don't share how they meter your usage, but that's my guess.

Thor

/\/ollog wrote: »

Regarding the cap.
I installed dd-wrt on my wireless router a month after I got upc to check my usage.
I've downloaded+uploaded roughly 260-290 GB per month for the past 3 months and haven't received any notice or anything from UPC.

I think they only send you the nasty letter if you go over by a lot, on a continued basis.
Nobody knows for sure since they don't share how they meter your usage, but that's my guess.

I did the exact same thing(Love!!! DD-WRT!!) Have gone over the limit a few times and some times by about 100gb or so.

Its really only if you go over it by huge amounts and only if there is alot of people in your area that have broadband, I rang them and asked about the limit and the guy was talking to said that it doesn't apply to me really because there was enough people on the same line as me that i would be effecting, Its really only there to stop contention on high demand areas.

Seems unfair but, Considering they give the same rules to everyone and only apply to those that may be affecting other people, It does seem that upc in the end are being considerate, They won't give out unless you really are affecting other people.

vibe666

billyboy01 wrote: »

More like in the real world 10-15mb, when tested with Speedtest.net:rolleyes:

not for most people from what i've seen on here, including me.

just now.



and the best i've had in the last week or so.



i'm sure its different for everyone and there's been times ages ago when i've only had 2-3mbps, but in recent memory (and i just checked my speedtest history) it's been pretty great almost the whole time.

according to speedtest.net i've done 24 speedtests since 4th november (last time my IP changed) and only one of them was below 19mbps, with most being in the mid to high 20's.

/\/ollog wrote: »

I think they only send you the nasty letter if you go over by a lot, on a continued basis.
Nobody knows for sure since they don't share how they meter your usage, but that's my guess.

Karmafaerie mentioned that he'd been told by UPC that they have the ability to measure on both a calendar month and a rolling 30 days, so who can say.

the one time i got a letter it was for being over 110gb over on the 20mbps, but it was only my 2nd full month having it and the very first month they introduced the FUP so i had no idea they even cared.

i'd asked on the forums here and had stories from people of regular downloads of over 600gb per month with not even a whisper from NTL at the time, so i figured it was (for all practical purposes) truly unlimited as NTL themselves had said when i signed up.

once i got the first letter, i installed tomato on my router and started keeping an eye on my usage and kept it within the 250gb limit from then on and haven't had any issues since altho i am actually 8gb over right now thanks to a dodgy browser process gobbling up 10gb in the last couple of days and an unexpected pc rebuild after my SSD went titsup (again).

i'm sure they'll let me off 10gb this month being as its xmas

Nollog

vibe666 wrote: »

i'm sure they'll let me off 10gb this month being as its xmas

You next month: "OMFG THOSE UPC SHOWER UPPED ME TO THE 70 EURO PACKAGE"

Where I'm living there's 1 upc wireless signal, and 1 eircom one that pops up now and again, so I'm pretty sure I'm in a low-demand area.
I might be able to get away with 600gb/month.

vibe666

lol, probably!

let me know how that 600gb goes next month tho. :pac:

billyboy01

Well, I kept within the 250gb per month limit actually well under it after I got a warning letter six months ago from UPC, and still I got over charged!
So did many people I know too. We think it is just another revenue earner to make up the lost of subscriptions. With the amount of people leaving them due to cuts in income and people leaving the State! I have left UPC and so have the others I mentioned burnt by them.:rolleyes:

vibe666

billyboy01 wrote: »

Well, I kept within the 250gb per month limit actually well under it after I got a warning letter six months ago from UPC, and still I got over charged!
So did many people I know too. We think it is just another revenue earner to make up the lost of subscriptions. With the amount of people leaving them due to cuts in income and people leaving the State! I have left UPC and so have the others I mentioned burnt by them.:rolleyes:

ORLY?

there's a thread i started a while ago which has a poll in it showing that the overwhelming majority (over 78%) of UPC users on are happy enough with their UPC broadband, so your claim doesn't seem to hold water but if you have stats showing otherwise i'll happily eat my modem.

billyboy01

vibe666 wrote: »

ORLY?

there's a thread i started a while ago which has a poll in it showing that the overwhelming majority (over 78%) of UPC users on are happy enough with their UPC broadband, so your claim doesn't seem to hold water but if you have stats showing otherwise i'll happily eat my modem.

I used to be a Happy BroadBander with UPC, I too heard horror stories about them. But always said Im all right Jack, Fook you!

Then I got fooked by UPC, in the worst way! In the pocket!

So I agree if they dont bother you or take your cash, by all means stay with them!

They bothered me so I left!

vibe666

fair enough. what ISP are you going to though? i can you get magnet where you are?

roast

Hi ciencin. Was about to give you a little review of UPC, but seeing as they aren't availible in your area, I recommend you to go with Magnet broadband. They use a combo of fiber optic cable and copper wiring, and have uncongested speeds. The prices are fairly reasonable, but bear in mind that because they run on the Eircom network, 24€ of your bill is going to eircom anyway. Other than that, and other DSL providers are relatively the same. I'd advise to stay away from mobile broadband also.

vibe666

roast wrote: »

I'd advise to stay away from mobile broadband also.

that won't be hard. mobile broadband doesn't exist in ireland.

but stay away from mobile midband if you can.

roast

vibe666 wrote: »

that won't be hard. mobile broadband doesn't exist in ireland.

but stay away from mobile midband if you can.

Indeed. But all the cool kids are calling it mobile broadband. Definite false advertisement though.