NGB in Kilmihil

sibergoth

look at this.  a speed test via my phone this morning at home.
best ever speed i've got...   could this be related to three's impending LTE announcement ?  

ads20101

Very good speed - as I've said before I just don't understand how eircom aren't embarrassed that a mobile operator is (thoroughly) beating the speeds of a DSL exchange. 

The reps still haven't got back to me despite bumping my request - I don't think they're interested in updating us anymore. 

ads20101

sent 16/1/14

ads20101 wrote: »

eircom: Mark wrote: »

No problem ads20101

If you want to get back to us at the start of next year we can see if there is any news.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Just following up on your offer to link back in with you again to see if you have any better news.

The exchange is really under terrible pressure now and we are lucky if we get 0.5 Mb down at peak times thus making netflix and co almost unusable.

Please, please, please have some better news.

sent 17/1/14

ads20101 wrote: »

Bump.....

To any rep please

Another bump to any rep please........

ads20101

ads20101 wrote: »

sent 16/1/14

sent 17/1/14

Another bump to any rep please........

Any rep.....

I'm honestly just requesting an update as you advised me to do last year.

I don't understand why eircom are ignoring my posts

ads20101

ads20101 wrote: »

Any rep.....

I'm honestly just requesting an update as you advised me to do last year.

I don't understand why eircom are ignoring my posts

I'm starting to feel that I'm on my own...... Either that or eircom are trying to figure how to say "no, but try again next year" in a different way for the 3rd yr running

sibergoth

we aren't on the plan for fibre. 
cooraclare is...

anyone want to run a cable a few miles down the road ?

(not until around November time I think when Kilrush gets fibre...)`

swoofer

why does it say 15 hours response time and this thread is dated 30th january 2014.  is it true ESB fibre will target Kilmihill and grab a lead on eircon?

or is kilmihill a ripe location for community broadband?

sibergoth

Where did you hear that ESB fibre would come to Kilmihil?  I can't find a rollout plan apart from "urban areas outside Dublin"
We don't really qualify as an urban area!

It would be very nice. 150 Mbps up and down on real fibre to the home.  I would most certainly be up for that. 

I've given up on eircom providing anything here.  They just don't care. But 4G and ESB fibre could work here quite well.....  

ads20101

Kilmihil would be an ideal place for ESB fibre.

Like yourself sibergoth, I haven't heard anything connecting this to Kilmihil - but if it did come ESB have stated that their exchange would be open to all ISP's just like Eircom.

I can but dream.....

Anyway, on to the other matter at hand.

gbcullen - my request goes back longer than the 30/1/14.  The update request was originally sent on the 16/1/14.  I have bumped a few times and despite (what you quite rightly stated) eircom stating a 15 hr response time they haven't quite got around to my query.

They are either incredibly busy or they have now resorted to ignoring me.  I suspect that they see me as a bit of a nuisance but I am only enquiring when we are getting a decent broadband speed in the area (TBH I will settle on a moderate one!!).

Unfortunately I feel that things are getting worse.   When I first went onto DSL I had a reasonably consistent service, despite it being below 3 Mb/s.  But over the last 6 months I have noticed a massive reduction in speeds at peak times.  Between 8pm to midnight I have noticed that I can only have 0.5 Mb/s down.

This effectively rules out using Netflix in the evening.

I know that this is not something internally as I had major trouble with the weather affecting the connection over the last couple of months where the connection kept on dropping.  During the investigation they changed my modem, then my wall connections, then finally the whole line going from the house to the pole.  This stopped it from dropping, but there is obviously a serious peak time congestion issue in the village.

While I am on this note I would like to state that I found the 2 Eircom engineers extremely professional, courteous and put me at ease during the whole process assuring me that they wouldn't stop until they found the problem.  So I'd just like to say thanks on that matter.

swoofer

I have a slightly vested interest.  You should complain to eircom and copy it to comreg and that TD who keeps blathering on about 30mb.  I would shame eircom into doing something or as I posted elsewhere approach the ESB and be a guinea pig. Kilmihill is only 17 miles from ENNIS and about 6 or 7 from Kilrush but you would think it was on the moon.  But I bet there are plenty of electricity poles.  It would show up what ESB are really about as well.

I read somewhere that VF provide a better service in Kilmihill than eircom but find that hard to believe.  However, if it does all should move and drop eircon.

sibergoth

I've lived here for almost 15 years and i've struggled with the internet access the whole entire time.

i'm a techy, i work from home, I NEED good internet access to work and therefore live...    I can't sell the house (negative equity) and move somewhere better served and, to be honest, i don't WANT to move to a city.  not everyone can live in a city...

I've asked eircom, vodafone, ripplecom, bbnet, many others if we will get better service here. the answer is always no..

i've started a Facebook page campaign (little interest)
i've written to the MEP for the area and had a reply, but no action yet.
I've been in the paper moaning about the speed..

I've basically tried pretty much everything I can think of... 

the problem has become worse lately, i feel due to more and more people becoming internet citizens,  guess what ... this is what the government and all the ISPs wanted !!   but they don't want to serve us better internet....


i currently have an ADSL connection with Vodafone.  the service would be identical now if i moved back to eircom.  I signed up with vodafone years ago because they gave me a higher usage allowance, but now both ISPs offer unlimited so it makes no difference.

the connections to every house in Kilmihil are artificially throttled at 2.55Mbps down and 0.3Mbps up.  
the backhaul is a microwave link with a max speed of 16Mbps.   
so if more than 8 people in the village are watching Netflix, that 2.55 to each house will begin to suffer.     If 20 people are online we may as well all forget it.......

you are right that there is a huge injustice being done to us here in Kilmihil, while CooraFECKINClare down the road will be connected to the Kilrush fibre sometime later this year...   why eircom can't lay a few more miles of fibre down to our exchange i don't know.

I don't think there are enough voices here who either recognise there is a problem or know that something could be done to make it better...


as usual, this remains a pain in the hole...

ads20101

sibergoth wrote: »

the connections to every house in Kilmihil are artificially throttled at 2.55Mbps down and 0.3Mbps up.  
the backhaul is a microwave link with a max speed of 16Mbps.   
so if more than 8 people in the village are watching Netflix, that 2.55 to each house will begin to suffer.     If 20 people are online we may as well all forget it.......

This is really the crux of the matter isn't it.

I think I have made this point before - surely Eircom can see that the Kilmihil exchange is massively oversubscribed for the data that it has and there is serious strain on the system at peak times.

But as you said, they don't appear to care.

sibergoth wrote: »

I don't think there are enough voices here who either recognise there is a problem or know that something could be done to make it better...

Yes, this has occurred to me also.  Why are there only a few of us actually jumping up and down about this?

My thought (for what its worth) is that most of the subs are people using fb and torrents so they don't see the immediate problem.  The most that is being said is 'that file is taking a long time to download'.

(Also, I did join your fb page)

With the Eircom reps now ignoring this thread I'm not sure what next course of action to take.

Should we all meet and discuss strategy in person? - if so pm me.

I'm pretty much exhausted of ideas with this increasingly deteriorating service.

sibergoth

internet virtually unusable in the evenings lately...   still no sign of any upgrades here... 

ads20101

sibergoth wrote: »

internet virtually unusable in the evenings lately...   still no sign of any upgrades here... 

Same here... can be as low as 0.3mb/s d/l between 20:00 - 23:30.  This makes the internet basically unusable during this time period.

I know nothing will be done here as I have previously asked the reps questions here and been ignored.

I have registered this as a complaint / fault this morning.  I have been assured that it will be investigated and that I will be kept appraised of the progress. 

The only reason I am posting is to ask everyone that has a congestion issue to phone customer services and register the complaint.  A few complainants are easy to ignore, we need to make more noise.

swoofer

This is just an idea.  ESB are getting a lot of publicity about a new fibre powered BB product, ie run fibre cable along wires to homes.   It strikes me that Kilmihill would be an ideal place for a trial.    A captive group, cant go elsewhere,  eircom etc are ..ite.  Location is only 2 miles off main road. and I know there is a powerline that runs direct to village from main road.

If it was me I would contact ESB and offer the village as a nailed down trial site.  It would get unbelievable publicity for the ESB.

sibergoth

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/esb-broadband-wont-improve-rural-experience-much-29983827.html

sibergoth

by the way, this thread is almost three years old now... we've been saying the same thing for three years and absolutely no change in our service... (except more people on the exchange means we can no longer use the internet at all at peak times... so it's actually got a lot worse since I first posted three years ago)

ads20101

I was just back on to customer care as I entered my complaint last Thursday and was assured that I would be updated.

Got through to this nice lady who informed me that my issue was referred to the eircom engineers as it was part of a wider local issue (ie affecting many people and not just me) and because of this I would not be automatically be updated as I was told.

I explained that I would really like to be updated as I felt that nothing would be done otherwise.  She agreed and entered this as an individual network problem to eircom with a recommendation to see if changing ports may make a difference.  I stated that I felt it was not a porting issue as to my knowledge only 16 mb/s actually come into the village that has a population of 600+ people.  I made the point that only 8 people need to be using a streaming service such as Netflix to cause a congestion problem.

I also informed her of this forum discussing the problems here.  I added that the Eircom reps have been ignoring this thread for the past few months and are no longer communicating with us anymore.  I said that I felt this may be the case due to some of the participants being vodafone ISP customers, even though the primary issue is with the Eircom managed exchange.

I have now recieved a text update stating that my issue is being looked into and should be resolved within 5 working days.

Lets see if this goes anywhere......

sibergoth

good luck!  i don't hold out much hope though

sibergoth

Look at this.

Last night in Limerick city, a speed test from my shiny new iPhone 5S on the new 4G network on 'three'


pretty damn nice...!



this morning, a speed test again on my iPhone 5S on three, but at home in Kilmihil.


not bad, but it won't last the whole day...



can't wait until we get 4G here...   eircom is never going to upgrade us, but maybe the three network will...!?

sibergoth

in stark contrast, here is the eircom speed test, same as it's been for 4 years !

ads20101

Working in limerick today myself.

Got this on my phone:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/804238353

I am embarrassed for the kilmihil exchange when you can get the above speed on a mobile phone.

sibergoth

any luck with the 'issue being resolved' ?? 

ads20101

sibergoth wrote: »

any luck with the 'issue being resolved' ?? 

Oh where do I begin....

As you know last sunday I made a complaint through customer care.  Spoke to a nice lady from vodafone who explained that she would follow this up as an individual complaint.

A week went by and I heard nothing, so I called again.

I got through to this abhorrent, rude and angry vodafone agent.

Despite me not getting any feedback he stated that I did get a text 2 days after my complaint stating that my line was fine and that if I didn't get a text it was either a network issue or that I couldn't use my phone.  I tried to explain that I know that the line was fine as it is a congestion issue.

He kept on interrupting me.  He was exhibiting blatant passive aggression, not letting me finish a sentence.  At no point did I descend to his level.

He explained that the exchange was not able to give any more speed.  He implied that he did not care that the network is unusable at peak times.  Most damning of all he stated that I wasn't a priority for eircom and neither was the exchange.

I asked him what correspondance did he have with eircom and how was my complaint represented as a customer of his ISP.  He got angry with me at this point he stated that 'I wasn't listening properly' to him.

I then said that I don't think that we are going to resolve this problem today to which his reply was to say 'yes, I don't think we will resolve this issue' and (forgive my choice of description - but I can't think of any other way to describe him) the rude git hung up on me.

I have to admit, I almost prefer eircom's way of dealing with me ie ignoring me.  I least it doesn't infuriate me as much.

I have made a complaint on the vodafone site and I promise you I won't rest with this follow up.  I'll chase this bad experience like a rabid dog.

But maybe he's done me a favour.

You see I can now honestly say that my ISP won't do anymore about it and legitimately escalate the issue to comreg.

By all means let me know if i'm overreacting.  My anger is still rather raw.

sibergoth

wow.  not good at all.  did you get his name?

so now we have slow broadband and ignorant, abusive customer care ...   great !

ads20101

Oh yes, I have his name & an exact date and time stamp of the call.

ads20101

Full formal complaint sent in ...... 

Lets see how far this gets me.

ps.  I stated in the complaint that apart from the rude operator, I will move forward quickly if they cannot resolve the original issue to comreg, as I now feel that the eircom managed exchange is unable to provide a service at all points during the day and the ISP is unable to resolve the issue. 

This is not an idle comment.  This is exactly what I intend to do.

swoofer

you should copy your complaint to comreg and they will then know the timescale for VF to reply and they will give it a ref no.  

ads20101

When I discussed this with the vf rep they stated that they will deal with the complaint but will also try to resolve my original congestion problem.  

Unless absolutely necessary I don't really want to pull comreg into the operator problem.  When I escalate the matter I want comreg to focus on the kilmihil eircom exchange.

Hey, I'm not really sure.  Do you want to see my complaint letter - I will pm it on if you want.

sibergoth

i'd like to see it, sure.

did anyone see that there's a Consumer TV show that wants people to send in video of them doing a speed test where there is congestion or bad speeds... ?

I'd do it, except I don't really want to be on TV or in a video...   ads20101 do you want to be on TV?

I don't even watch TV, so no idea what the show is about...