North West Electronics/BlueBox

pipcoo

Here is a comment left on the petition page by a former Bluebox employee.


" Used to work for this crowd, got to a stage you were actually mortified going to houses, hoping they wouldn't do a speed test before you left, especially when kids were off school speeds would be s**t all day,
They have nobody that has proper technical knowledge to fix things,
Can't retain staff,
Sell a 50mb service when their equipment can only reach absolute max of 29, real world of 18-20 of peak.
They have masts overloaded.
No training for staff, I was a postman 1 week before I was climbing ladders installing for them."

chris_ie

Yeah, 29mb was the max I ever saw. That was back when things were better and in the early hours of the morning. It was very rare though. But just funny that he mentioned the 29.

TireeTerror

chris_ie wrote: »

Yeah, 29mb was the max I ever saw. That was back when things were better and in the early hours of the morning. It was very rare though. But just funny that he mentioned the 29.

Was that 29Mb back in the day when we all had black and white TVs?

editorsean

I wonder if the 29Mb refers to something that happened around July / August 2015.

I went through my log history on TestMy and found a handful of test results over 30Mbps around June. It looks like it was the fastest month I had with them and even the TestMy log (covering everyone that ran tests) shows a drastic change from June/July '15 to January/February '16.

TestMy summary graph - based on 1000 results between June & July 2015:



TestMy summary graph - based on 1000 results leading to present, i.e. January & February 2016. Bit of a difference...



Pity Ookla's Speedtest couldn't show summary graphs like this as I'm sure they have a lot more test results.

I use to run most of my download tests in multithread mode (as what Ookla Speedtest does), as the most I could get in normal linear mode was around 10Mbps.

The fastest test results I could find carried out on my former connection are as follows - normal download, normal upload and multithreaded download:

pipcoo

I hope something comes as a result of this petition and that a well implemented WiMAX system can be put in place as it does work if done properly. I was with Bluebox for over 4 years and at first it was pretty good until they oversubscribed and overloaded their network.

chris_ie

Another night of pathetic speeds :mad: A whopping 0.5MB download. Those using Three on here. What router are you using? I need the connection for work (on call) and this crowd cannot be relied on at all.

editorsean

I'm using a Huawei B593S-22 which I bought used off eBay. It's a mains powered router, similar size to the current Eir/Vodafone VDSL router.

Based on my brief experience so far, it's well worth going for over a MiFi. The Wi-Fi range is much better, it has 4 Ethernet ports and has an incredibly sensitive internal antenna as compared in my post here. I'm using with iD Mobile on Three's 4G network.

With the current 2 bar reception I get, the downlink speed varies between 4Mbps and 25Mbps with TestMy's standard linear test. Multithreaded (inc. Ookla) is generally 15Mbps+. The uplink speed is fairly consistent between 6Mbps and 7.5Mbps. The connection so far seems to be stable, no random 1-2 minute drop-outs like I was getting with Bluebox even before last September when it was performing better. The only minor drawbacks for me are the 60GB monthly cap and having a private IP (carrier-grade NAT).

I never thought of running a ping test yet in the evening. This is from 3pm just before writing this post, with my PC connected over Wi-Fi to the router upstairs:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 400, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 149ms, Average = 39ms

chris_ie

editorsean wrote: »

I'm using a Huawei B593S-22 which I bought used off eBay. It's a mains powered router, similar size to the current Eir/Vodafone VDSL router.

Based on my brief experience so far, it's well worth going for over a MiFi. The Wi-Fi range is much better, it has 4 Ethernet ports and has an incredibly sensitive internal antenna as compared in my post here. I'm using with iD Mobile on Three's 4G network.

With the current 2 bar reception I get, the downlink speed varies between 4Mbps and 25Mbps with TestMy's standard linear test. Multithreaded (inc. Ookla) is generally 15Mbps+. The uplink speed is fairly consistent between 6Mbps and 7.5Mbps. The connection so far seems to be stable, no random 1-2 minute drop-outs like I was getting with Bluebox even before last September when it was performing better. The only minor drawbacks for me are the 60GB monthly cap and having a private IP (carrier-grade NAT).

I never thought of running a ping test yet in the evening. This is from 3pm just before writing this post, with my PC connected over Wi-Fi to the router upstairs:

The routers I have have the option of using a 4G dongle, but figure the routers would provide better speed. I'd just be replacing the NWE antenna with this. The other 2 routers already in the house will handle the wifi. The packages are still quite expensive for the monthly caps though! I know there are other ways that people use it :P

editorsean

Same plan here - Once I receive the adapters to attach my antenna, I'll be mounting my antenna outside in place of the dish. If I can get hold of an RJ45 crimper, I'll attach a new plug to the cable leading to it on the inside as this way I have an Ethernet connection running from the router to the rest of my equipment like I had with Bluebox.

Evening time ping on iD seems similar to earlier, although the throughput this evening is around 10Mbps to 15Mbps. Being a MVNO, Three itself probably would have even lower latency. This was run just after 9pm:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 400, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 26ms, Maximum = 169ms, Average = 40ms

Slightly better average than my DSL line:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 399, Lost = 1 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 165ms, Average = 45ms

m99T

Im back again! Stopped checking this thread but it seems that **** is still going down.

chris_ie

Yep, still rubbish. I've mailed them a while back and been told to do the usual speedtest -> screenshot -> word doc procedure. However, in the past they just asked for a few speed tests a bit of time apart, now they want one in the morning, evening and at night. I refuse to do them anymore because, if it shows above 1MB they are just going to say its contention. But sure according to their site :

What does Contention Rate mean?

• Contention Rate is the maximum number of other people you will have to share the connection infrastructure with. If all connections were downloading at the same time then your download speed could drop hugely — but in reality this doesn't happen. This is a theoretical worst case, and as a result you can enjoy much faster download speeds.
  

editorsean

Have a listen to the Shaun Doherty Show podcast that was aired on Wednesday on Highland Radio - jump to 07:30.

http://www.highlandradio.com/2016/03/30/shaun-doherty-show-listen-back-to-wednesdays-show/

It mentions about one person who took his issue up with ComReg which eventually ended up with Bluebox deciding it was in their best interest to terminate his contract without any consultation even though the contract had not lapsed either. It mentioned the full story was published in the Inish Times.

I also came across this article mentioning just how tough it is to get through on the phone to NWE that some people are driving to their Derry office:

http://ulsterherald.com/2016/03/18/pressure-mounts-on-publicly-funded-broadband-provider/

NIMAN

Surprised it took so long to make it into the media.

editorsean

We finally got the LTE antenna mounted outside and aimed for the best dBm readings, hovering about -75dBm RSSI, -100dBm RSRP and -7db RSRQ. The main change was the RSRP value. The previous best figures I could get for it was -108dBm with the router only and -105dBm with the antenna aimed out a non 'E' coated skylight.

The following was roughly the upload speed I was getting on NWE on the 28th January, 11:40am, a few days before they cut me off:



Now with the new set-up about 9pm today:



The download speed is fluctuating quite a bit at the moment due to peak time (Saturday evening), so the following is a approximate average download test with a chunky 50MB block:



While there's no way I'm ever going back, I'm curious to watch what happens as the FTTH roll-outs and 4G upgrades take place over the year. For example, had I never tried NWE, there's no way I would have tried them now with 4G and the various 3G providers here.

Just a year ago, I could not pick up any 3G within several kilometres of my house and now there's 3G with Vodafone, Three & Meteor and 4G on Three and even the poor 3G I was getting with Three (2-6Mbps down, 0.6Mbps up) was a massive leap ahead of what I was getting with NWE over my final 6 months with them.

Tommy Lagahan

editorsean wrote: »

We finally got the LTE antenna mounted outside and aimed for the best dBm readings, hovering about -75dBm RSSI, -100dBm RSRP and -7db RSRQ. The main change was the RSRP value. The previous best figures I could get for it was -108dBm with the router only and -105dBm with the antenna aimed out a non 'E' coated skylight.

Nice! What antenna did ya get? I have 2 Poynting LPDA 0092s ready to put up on the side of my house here just haven't gotten around to drilling the holes for the mounting pole yet. Contention in the area is starting to utterly murder Three now though unfortunately so Id say even with the new antennas outside im going to be stuck. already getting -55dBm - -65dBm and the speed drops below 1mbit. Might swap back to 3G for a while instead of LTE.

These are the yokes I picked up: http://i.imgur.com/i7JwRMw.jpg

editorsean

It's an 800MHz MIMO panel antenna which I bought off eBay. The following is a similar listing for the same antenna:
http://r.ebay.com/eJaMdz

It's actually my 4th antenna! When Meteor 3G became available in my area, I bought a 4G dongle (E8278) with 2 antenna connections. The dongle itself could not pick up the signal even with me holding it up outside the skylight. So I bought an eBay cheapy antenna, i.e. a small white diamond antenna with a '+' shape. It got a one bar signal and a surprisingly good download speed on Meteor (8Mbps) with a prepay SIM, but the upload speed was at best about 200Kbps so I knew getting 3G here was indeed possible and that it was time for the next step up.

I then bought a single 12dB LOG antenna from the Polish seller "proscan-antenna". I thought 3G only needed a single antenna, but was very surprised to only hit 5-6Mbps down even though the upload speed now hit 1Mbps and the signal went up to 4 bars. When I attached one lead from the cheapy to antenna port #2, the download speed increased back up to 8Mbps. After a quick bit of online research, I soon found out the second antenna port is used for Rx diversity on 3G.

The Polish seller no longer had this antenna listed, so I decided to go for their 1780 - 2700 MHz colinear MIMO antenna which was quite an expensive purchase at about €120. I always thought all the networks operated 3G on 2100MHz in Ireland and certainly did not expect 4G to be in my area for years to come. I quickly learned my mistake when the antenna arrived. It could not list Meteor in the network search, let alone connect! When Vodafone 3G went live in my area, not even its network was listed and similar for Three, so all three networks are operating 3G on 900MHz here. If only dongles and phones could show what frequency it's currently connected on...

Knowing that 3G was operating on 900MHz and that 4G would operate on 800MHz, I decided to go with a dedicated 800-900MHz antenna as narrow band antennas tend to be much smaller than a wideband antenna of similar gain. With Meteor, it increased the downlink speed to 10-12Mbps and the uplink speed remained about 1Mbps. So despite the 18dBi claim, it basically had the equivalent performance of two 12dBi LOGs.

You must be right next to the cell tower with those readings. Unfortunately I don't think the antennas would deliver much better throughput especially with that incredibly strong -dBm reading. Generally the uplink suffers first with LTE as the signal gets weaker. Assuming there is little contention on the mast, the downlink can usually maintain above 10mbps by the time the uplink hits 1Mbps.

I sure would like to see how your antenna would perform here as that's got to be the largest 3G/4G antenna I've seen to date! If that's a LOG antenna (which to me looks like it is), it will have 4 times the gain of what I have as my wideband log is 33cm long.

I would definitely recommend trying 3G also. Try both the Three and O2 masts as Three broadband SIMs can use both (Three phone SIMs can only use O2's 2G network). 3G can easily handle over 20Mbps depending on contention and bandwidth of the cell tower. For example, in Ballybofey, the Meteor 3G mast consistently delivers 20Mbps on TestMy:



If your Three SIM is a phone SIM, I would suggest getting the lend of a mobile broadband Three SIM to see if it fares any better. Based on what I'm seeing, Three give much higher network priority to its mobile broadband accounts. See this post where I tested various APNs with my Three on my phone and this one where I compared my phone against Three mobile broadband.

Tommy Lagahan

Wow thanks, didn't think they actually gave priority to mobile broadband, always thought it was the other way around having been on the NBS scheme for years. Did away with that contract but I'll borrow the brothers sim that he still uses from the NBS.

As far as I can tell I'm actually 9KM from the mast at least, its the only one I can spot, its line of sight since I'm higher up than it. I'm using a Poynting XPOL-A0002 (http://conugis.com/products/lte-3g-umts-antennas/xpol-a0002-antenna/) currently with the cables shortened down to about 15CM and hooked into me modem with small pigtail adapters to reduce cable loss. Whole setup is attached to an old towel rack stand on my bedroom window at the moment lol, pointing straight at the mast out the window. Three do some tomfoolery with their RSSI I think since the RSRP and RSRQ for Three are actually much worse than the vodafone mast I also pick up.
Vodafone has -75,-8 and reports -53dBm RSSI whereas Three is -85,-10 (sometimes -85,-15 at peak) and reports -60dBm~ depending on the time of day. Don't actually know too much about what all those values mean to be honest, just going off years of futering with modems and the mobile data monitoring tool.
There's a few towers within LOS since I'm up in the barnes mountains overlooking Donegal Town but theyre all feckin miles away. There's one 2KM away from me but its utterly blocked by a hill behind the house. Seriously considering putting me own setup on the hill and somehow sending that back down to the house.

I might borrow the brothers Huawei B315s while I'm at it when I get these bad boys hooked up, see if there's any improvement from the E3276-150 USB dongle I'm using currently. Might think about getting one of the new E5186 routers then off the net if it does improve.

m99T

Hi guys, so I am considering putting together a meeting to discuss the problems and in general broadband in Donegal. It would most likely be in Letterkenny.

Only going to do this if there is enough support. Would anyone attend?

Tommy Lagahan

m99T wrote: »

Hi guys, so I am considering putting together a meeting to discuss the problems and in general broadband in Donegal. It would most likely be in Letterkenny.

Only going to do this if there is enough support. Would anyone attend?

I'd be up for that. Tons of people in this county stuck on Three 3G since the NBS or NWE, both awful inconsistent services.

chris_ie

We might finally have some decent competition coming our way. Imagine LTE will be launching up here soon in rural areas. I contacted them and they reckon I might hear something in a few months.

People using this down the country are getting good results at the min, seen quite a few on around 40-50MB.

They state on the site :

"While the minimum speed that Imagine will connect you at is 30MB but can easily be 70Mb, depending on your location."

Daily download allowance is 20GB and downloads between 12am and 7am don't count towards the allowance.

Fingers crossed it gets done soon!

pipcoo

Here is another example of Bluebox incompetence. I cancelled my contract with them in December `15 and asked them to remove their equipment from my house which they have still not done. It turns out that they removed the dish from my brother-in -laws house last Thursday and left a receipt tucked under a flower pot with MY details on it. While we live on the same road the address is obviously different. It is almost funny that a firm can be so useless.

cushte

m99T wrote: »

Hi guys, so I am considering putting together a meeting to discuss the problems and in general broadband in Donegal. It would most likely be in Letterkenny.

Only going to do this if there is enough support. Would anyone attend?

first time poster here, i would be very interested in a meet up if it is still going ahead.apoligies for not reading all this thread but i think ive got the jist of it.if i had another option for broadband i would not be with this company.when and where will it be? tia.

Tommy Lagahan

cushte wrote: »

first time poster here, i would be very interested in a meet up if it is still going ahead.apoligies for not reading all this thread but i think ive got the jist of it.if i had another option for broadband i would not be with this company.when and where will it be? tia.

If we do go through with it we might as well give everyone on this page a shout: https://www.facebook.com/Bluebox-Broadband-Beyond-****-1709331289287410/?fref=nf

Had to laugh at the page name, was checking to see if their other page was still up lol!

They might have to do something if a hundred something people show up protesting.

editorsean

I spotted my demo video in the feed.

I did a similar one with Three just before switching my mobile to Meteor and have been tempted to pull it. I'm not sure whether Three spotted it or did an upgrade in this area as there has been a substantial improvement in Three's peak time speed here over the past few weeks.

At the moment (9:10pm) linear (e.g. file download, streaming), multi-threaded (e.g. simultaneous FTP transfers):



Earlier in the day and a multi-threaded from yesterday after midnight:



Surprisingly, this is with a Three prepay AYCE SIM. I ended up stopping iD Mobile for now as it had a few small issues, so I'm glad it was not a contract like Bluebox - It's capped about 20Mbps by pulsing the connection, surprisingly similar to what Bluebox did when I was getting good speed. This is a killer for VoIP / Skype or any other real-time application whenever a download is taking place. Another issue is that I had to restart the connection once or twice a day as it would intermittently slow way down (e.g. ~5Mbps max) and once I restarted the router, it was back to 20Mbps. I certainly never expected Three to be delivering VDSL like speed around here for years to come...

For anyone using Three (or any other 4G service) with external antennas, here's a tip that may be useful: Instead of relying on the router's signal readings, start a multi-threaded download early in the day (e.g. 5 large FTP transfers in parallel) or run TestMy's largest 200MB test in Multi-threaded mode with the UK server. Bring up the Wi-Fi / Network graph in Windows task manager and watch the throughput while adjusting the antenna. If the horizontal and vertical polarity antennas are separate (like my setup), adjust them individually. I went from about 32Mbps max to 49Mbps max. using this idea without any noticeable change in the signal readings - RSSI (-77dBm), RSRP (-100dBm), RSRQ (-7dB), 3 of 5 bars lit.

gooner99

Just had a look on the imagine website. They seem to be live in Donegal now.

cushte

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

If we do go through with it we might as well give everyone on this page a shout:

Had to laugh at the page name, was checking to see if their other page was still up lol!

They might have to do something if a hundred something people show up protesting.

i checked out that facebook page, seems we might soon have options. is the meet up to discuss broadband in rural donegal still going ahead?

cushte

gooner99 wrote: »

Just had a look on the imagine website. They seem to be live in Donegal now.

had a look there, heres hoping they come to inishowen

chris_ie

If you give Imagine a call and give them your Eircode and other details they'll let you know once its going live in your area. When I called they said it could be a matter of months when it goes live in my area. They seem to be quite busy with the rollouts.

schizo1014

Has anyone else been having problems with this lot for the last week? Internet was down since last Thursday and only got through to them today said they were going to send an engineer is 5 to 7 days, a lot of people I know using this provider have been without interent for the last week. Where I am in Donegal bluebox is the only one atm where I can get broadband but for anyone interested another company called Beacon Broadband is being set up but it's a bit more expensive and has no real feedback from it

cushte

chris_ie wrote: »

If you give Imagine a call and give them your Eircode and other details they'll let you know once its going live in your area. When I called they said it could be a matter of months when it goes live in my area. They seem to be quite busy with the rollouts.

i called a few times there, on hold for over 20 minutes so i just filled out the eircode thing. waiting for them to get back.

cushte

schizo1014 wrote: »

Has anyone else been having problems with this lot for the last week? Internet was down since last Thursday and only got through to them today said they were going to send an engineer is 5 to 7 days, a lot of people I know using this provider have been without interent for the last week. Where I am in Donegal bluebox is the only one atm where I can get broadband but for anyone interested another company called Beacon Broadband is being set up but it's a bit more expensive and has no real feedback from it

i know of people off since 19th may and still waiting.i checked out beacon broadband and yes its more expensive but if it was consistant i think it would be worth it.i heard of another company called all digital systems but theres no prices on the webpage.

chris_ie

I've noticed a slight increase in speeds but having more problems strangely enough....

I'd usually watch and episode or two on Netflix at night, alot of the time the quality would drop and sometimes stop and buffer. However, now the stream has problems starting at times or will start and cut out. So I'm wondering have they started doing something with Netflix streams, to try and boost their speeds. Although I still need to a bit more investigating on my connection to rule out the main router.... I'm actually using the connection less and less these days, the 4G isnt great but works better.

fooker!

Has anyone been having any problems being able to upload things using NWE?
Same as above I dont really use it that often anymore, only if I want to download big files and aint in a hurry or if 4G is acting up!
But I tried to do a speedtest today and everytime it would stick at testing the upload part, so I tried uploading stuff like a picture to google image search but it wouldnt upload! tried a few other things but its the same!

editorsean

It sounds like you've the exact issue I had before leaving NWE where it was practically impossible to upload anything for most of the 5 last months I was with them. Jump to the 2:30 mark of this earlier video I posted and this clearly shows where the TestMy upload test kept failing to complete a tiny 96KB upload.

I originally got NWE so I could quickly upload ~50MB publications to my workplace and in the end I could not even send small e-mail attachments let alone FTP anything up most of the day.

So far Three's 4G in my area has been very stable and reliable. During the day it feels like VDSL, which is something I rarely experienced with NWE.

With Imagine LTE now setting up sites in Co. Donegal, I wonder if that will give NWE a shake-up...

cushte

so i just got off the phone with imagine , unfotunately they will not be in my area for a few months. they have 2 masts live in donegal but they are at the other end of the county. back to nwe, its not been so bad this last while. maybe they are going to improve since theres a bit of competition in donegal.just wondering if the meeting that was discussed earlier went ahead?

chris_ie

cushte wrote: »

so i just got off the phone with imagine , unfotunately they will not be in my area for a few months. they have 2 masts live in donegal but they are at the other end of the county. back to nwe, its not been so bad this last while. maybe they are going to improve since theres a bit of competition in donegal.just wondering if the meeting that was discussed earlier went ahead?

I had a similar response. They said it would be a matter of months. Where abouts did they say they were installing? NWE is still pretty poor for me. Have to jump on to 4G quite a bit at times.

They had more issues recently :

http://www.derrydaily.net/2016/05/26/boyle-raises-bluebox-broadband-blackout-with-economy-minister/

http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/40069

cushte

i think he said bundoran or bunbeg, its not in my range anyway, unfotunately. i also asked about contention but they said everyone would get 70mb/s,just wondering if that is right? I explained that bluebox contention is 48/1 and they said its limited to 400 per mast?

chris_ie

cushte wrote: »

i think he said bundoran or bunbeg, its not in my range anyway, unfotunately. i also asked about contention but they said everyone would get 70mb/s,just wondering if that is right? I explained that bluebox contention is 48/1 and they said its limited to 400 per mast?

Yeah Imagine seem to be limiting the number per mast at the moment. The site states a minimum of 30mb/s which would be the main number to go with. Alot of people have been getting around the 70 mark and up to 90 at times.

Just to add to this. BlueBox/NWE are 48/1 contention on a 50Mb connection. When Imagine say limited to 400 and you should get around 70Mb, it doesn't mean its a 70Mb connection with 400/1 contention, so don't worry about that bit

cushte

chris_ie wrote: »

Yeah Imagine seem to be limiting the number per mast at the moment. The site states a minimum of 30mb/s which would be the main number to go with. Alot of people have been getting around the 70 mark and up to 90 at times.

Just to add to this. BlueBox/NWE are 48/1 contention on a 50Mb connection. When Imagine say limited to 400 and you should get around 70Mb, it doesn't mean its a 70Mb connection with 400/1 contention, so don't worry about that bit

thanks for that, was a bit worried about contention rate when 400 others would be on their network. In the evening time with bluebox i cant even get a speedtest done.On youtube stats for nerds my speed is as low as 14kb/s. i think that warrants a phonecall to their customer service if i can get through.

schizo1014

As far as I know NWE are upgrading there masts sometime this year in a few places like Mountcharles and Barnesmore Gap so hopefully that will give us a stable speed, mines is only between 2-3mbs at most when I do a speed test

cushte

i just seen on the highland radio news website that imagine are slowing down their rollout in donegal. its on hold due to a slow uptake although it says west donegal, so maybe they are still coming to inishowen. As for bluebox i can still measure my speed in kilobits per sec. if i was getting 2-3mbs i would be extremely happy. I cant figure out how they are still in business.

tates1979

Any updates on performance in last few weeks? Considering it as an alternative to BT that barely makes it to 0.5mb in my area (Rural Co Derry). Or is the recent silence due to everyone deserting them?

Tommy Lagahan

tates1979 wrote: »

Any updates on performance in last few weeks? Considering it as an alternative to BT that barely makes it to 0.5mb in my area (Rural Co Derry). Or is the recent silence due to everyone deserting them?

Finally cancelled them last week but did test it out for a few days before to make sure they hadn't improved. It was still dropping to under 1Mbit at peak times. Yer better off with 3G/4G unfortunately. Went to them in person to cancel it, when they asked why I was cancelling I told them about the big dual antenna 4G setup I installed and the speeds I was getting (20-40mbit). I told them unless they could drop the contention down to a 10th of what it was and actually guarantee 10mbit I was still cancelling. Yer wan at the desk didn't have anything to say, so needless to say they know rightly how bad it is.

fooker!

I gotta say for me these past few weeks I'm finding that Bluebox has been better than 3 4G, just done a test on both and had 9.3mb download on bluebox and 0.65 on 3 4G!

But when fibre becomes available here next year they are both getting the boot as neither can be really depended on!

ednwireland

we have it at work as a backup to the eircom BB we use as our main provider.
(as if the phone lines go down we have a backup outside of that infrastructure)
we ha d anew service installed recently and its much better aerial replaced and account switched and its much cheaper
getting 30mb download from barnesmore, i'd be tempted to put it in at home if i could see a mast it would be an improvement on my 3mb

schizo1014

fooker! wrote: »

I gotta say for me these past few weeks I'm finding that Bluebox has been better than 3 4G, just done a test on both and had 9.3mb download on bluebox and 0.65 on 3 4G!

But when fibre becomes available here next year they are both getting the boot as neither can be really depended on!

I'm going off the mast in Barnesmore here and in the last few weeks its has gotten noticeably better alright, as you say up in the 9mb range, which is decent considering I only pay €24.99 a month.

schizo1014

ednwireland wrote: »

we have it at work as a backup to the eircom BB we use as our main provider.
(as if the phone lines go down we have a backup outside of that infrastructure)
we ha d anew service installed recently and its much better aerial replaced and account switched and its much cheaper
getting 30mb download from barnesmore, i'd be tempted to put it in at home if i could see a mast it would be an improvement on my 3mb

What is the name of the one you are getting 30mb off? as I know a few in Barnes who can't get bluebox (can't see the mast) and have been using a 3 modem for the last few years.

Tommy Lagahan

schizo1014 wrote: »

I'm going off the mast in Barnesmore here and in the last few weeks its has gotten noticeably better alright, as you say up in the 9mb range, which is decent considering I only pay €24.99 a month.

Are yis feckin jokin, as soon as I cancel it :pac:
FTTH is coming to barnes now within the next year though so at least yas will be able to switch to that. I'm 2KM away from even the rural FTTH though so I'm feckin shafted.
At least the MIMO antennas and 4G modem are managing to pull 12-30Mbit from the barnes Three mast for now. Latency is ****e though, getting a heart condition from bad hitreg on CSGO at this stage.

chris_ie

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Are yis feckin jokin, as soon as I cancel it :pac:
FTTH is coming to barnes now within the next year though so at least yas will be able to switch to that. I'm 2KM away from even the rural FTTH though so I'm feckin shafted.
At least the MIMO antennas and 4G modem are managing to pull 12-30Mbit from the barnes Three mast for now. Latency is ****e though, getting a heart condition from bad hitreg on CSGO at this stage.

As soon as you cancel things improve hmmmm

I haven't noticed much of an improvement in the evenings. Still around <2MB. But it went down yesterday evening and was still down when I went to bed so I mailed them and received a call from them this morning! It was back up but they said they'd monitor the connection for issues. Bit of a shock but nice to get, hopefully things are starting to improve on both internet and customer service fronts. Will check my speeds in the evenings again and packet loss to see if they've improved.

I'm on the blue lines for FTTH, although probably be one of the last areas done, but if Eir manage to stick to their 2018 end target its not a problem...

schizo1014

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Are yis feckin jokin, as soon as I cancel it :pac:
FTTH is coming to barnes now within the next year though so at least yas will be able to switch to that. I'm 2KM away from even the rural FTTH though so I'm feckin shafted.
At least the MIMO antennas and 4G modem are managing to pull 12-30Mbit from the barnes Three mast for now. Latency is ****e though, getting a heart condition from bad hitreg on CSGO at this stage.

Looking at the ftth rollout map and it doesn't look like fiber is coming anywhere near my own house so I'm not holding my breath.