Digiweb Launches 30mb Metro Service.

Hogzy

Broadband provider Digiweb has rolled out a new 30Mbps broadband service to an addressable market of 500,000 homes across Ireland.

Source

We cannot get UPC in our area. I am currently getting 10mb on an up to 24mb package from vodafone.
What exactly is "Metro Broadband"? Is it wireless?

jor el

Digiweb Metro is a wireless service, yes.

Rossi IRL

just rang them there and i can only get 2mb,,,,internet in the country is pissing me off

-=al=-

Ahh satellite interwebs... probably has shoddy data limits and would the pings be appalling on this service!?

actually its 60/70gb limits... anyone use this service? My q would be about the pings, wouldn't they be terrible on that service?

jor el

Metro is not a satellite service, it is a fixed wireless service. Pings would be in line with all proper broadband services.

Hogzy

jor el wrote: »

Metro is not a satellite service, it is a fixed wireless service. Pings would be in line with all proper broadband services.

Is there any thread on boards with Metro customers giving their opinions of the service? Iv been searching everywhere and cant find any.

I was talking to Digiweb CS and they explained that it is up to 30mb. This set alarm bells ringing, because it probably requires a good line of sight to get a decent signal. I wonder would it be as good as what UPC offers. ie 20mb = anywhere between 18-20mb. Where as with DSL you will most likely never come close to the "up to 24mb"

-=al=-

used irish broadband fixed wireless and it was grand got 2mb up and down and never an issue with anything...

Solair

There's a lot of unnecessary confusion about these services.

There are FWA fixed-wireless-access services like Digiweb Metro, Nova Networks etc etc... these are all pretty rock solid with low ping times and operate via a small antenna on your roof that points at a local mast somewhere.

The connection's done via a microwave link and various technologies are employed to carry the data.

In Digiweb's case, they use a DOCSIS cable modem, i.e. same technology as UPC, but over a microwave link instead of cable.


These services are light years ahead of satellite broadband and they are drastically better than mobile broadband (3G / WiMax portable devices).

They're fully comparable to DSL services and they often also provide a telephone line via VoIP (similar to UPC)

If you're going to be watching a lot of online video / netflix etc, however watch out for the caps on some wireless services!

PogMoThoin

It will definitely need perfect line of sight.

Also remember, Digiweb are the throttling kings, they'll throttle you if you 1GB over their rolling cap. Be sure to read the small print on their usage limit.

Psygnosis

60gb cap on a 30mb broadband thats a disgrace netflix would eat that in no time.
Any downloads from xbox ps3 would eat into fairly quick what is with these providers not providing power users a higher cap I'd pay easly 50 quid a month for this with a unlimited cap but 60 gb I'd get through that in no time 150gb but would be ideal

Hogzy

Psygnosis wrote: »

60gb cap on a 30mb broadband thats a disgrace netflix would eat that in no time.
Any downloads from xbox ps3 would eat into fairly quick what is with these providers not providing power users a higher cap I'd pay easly 50 quid a month for this with a unlimited cap but 60 gb I'd get through that in no time 150gb but would be ideal

I was talking to Customer service and explained this exact point. They offered me 100GB (40gb extra) for an extra €15pm. Its still not great though. I would need AT LEAST 150gb included in the standard price before id even consider it.

-=al=-

Psygnosis wrote: »

60gb cap on a 30mb broadband thats a disgrace netflix would eat that in no time.
Any downloads from xbox ps3 would eat into fairly quick what is with these providers not providing power users a higher cap I'd pay easly 50 quid a month for this with a unlimited cap but 60 gb I'd get through that in no time 150gb but would be ideal

Sure who was it there in the last few weeks cut their data limit and charged when you get over it... madness in this day and age that data limits aren't expanding with the usage since eeeeverythingg is online now.. madness i tells ya

I'm still in Dublin and cant get a fixed broadband service.. taking the proverbial piss in 2012. This thread had me excited for a minute till i read it was just the metro, which i can't get :pac:

Hogzy

-=al=- wrote: »

Sure who was it there in the last few weeks cut their data limit and charged when you get over it... madness in this day and age that data limits aren't expanding with the usage since eeeeverythingg is online now.. madness i tells ya

I'm still in Dublin and cant get a fixed broadband service.. taking the proverbial piss in 2012. This thread had me excited for a minute till i read it was just the metro, which i can't get :pac:

Where do you live? Dublin Bay?:pac:

-=al=-

I wish, would be nice by the sea! In between Lucan and Newcastle.. funny that I like 5 mins drive from 100mb fibre optic goodness.. Tried everything and there's nothing here. Not even fixed wireless or a dreaded bita Wimax.. Phoneline can handle up to 1Mb gayballs altogether! I do rant about it a lot :pac:

Sponge Bob

-=al=- wrote: »

I wish, would be nice by the sea! In between Lucan and Newcastle.. funny that I like 5 mins drive from 100mb fibre optic goodness..

But you are located near all the big data centres in the "Internet Capital Of Europe" itself and with no less than Pat the Rabbit as your local TD.

This simply could not be true! :eek: You surely took out a 0 or perhaps 2 x 00's

Hogzy

-=al=- wrote: »

I wish, would be nice by the sea! In between Lucan and Newcastle.. funny that I like 5 mins drive from 100mb fibre optic goodness.. Tried everything and there's nothing here. Not even fixed wireless or a dreaded bita Wimax.. Phoneline can handle up to 1Mb gayballs altogether! I do rant about it a lot :pac:

Both my next door neigbours, One with a house 10m away and the other with a house 20m away can get full UPC services. I on the other hand cannot get it apparently. Everytime i call up UPC they say that a neighbour wont allow UPC on their property. It makes no sense because both my neighbours have UPC therefore should be allowing them on no problem.

funnyname

Hopefully Airwire follows suit soon

-=al=-

Sponge Bob wrote: »

But you are located near all the big data centres in the "Internet Capital Of Europe" itself and with no less than Pat the Rabbit as your local TD.

This simply could not be true! :eek: You surely took out a 0 or perhaps 2 x 00's

Yep, that is cor-ekt

Google is actually a few mins down the road, it's a travesty! and a big giant massive bunch of fancy factories n shizzle

D'Peoples Voice

Solair wrote: »

There's a lot of unnecessary confusion about these services.

There are FWA fixed-wireless-access services like Digiweb Metro, Nova Networks etc etc... these are all pretty rock solid with low ping times and operate via a small antenna on your roof that points at a local mast somewhere.

+1
My parents have the 2 Mb Digiweb Metro Budget - works out €90 per annum or € 7.50 per month - they only use the internet for email and Facebook etc

I signed them up to the SamKnows survey and their results are very quite consistent for the past 3 -4 months.

February

Downstream throughput
1.84Mbps Average
1.01Mbps Min 10pm, Sun 5th Feb
2.02Mbps Max 1am, Fri 24th Feb

Upstream throughput
0.53Mbps Average
0.41Mbps Min 9pm, Sat 25th Feb
0.63Mbps Max 8pm, Sun 12th Feb

Latency
35.03ms  Average
14.21ms  Min 9am, Mon 27th Feb
799.14ms Max 9pm, Tue 7th Feb

Packet Loss
0.17% Average
0.00% Min 12am, Sun 19th Feb
33.33% Max 9pm, Mon 6th Feb

January

Downstream throughput
1.75Mbps Average
0.82Mbps Min 7pm, Thu 5th Jan
2.01Mbps Max 1am, Sun 22nd Jan

Upstream throughput
0.53Mbps Average
0.44Mbps Min 7am, Mon 23rd Jan
0.65Mbps Max 7am, Mon 9th Jan

Latency
34.17ms Average
8.60ms   Min 6pm, Tue 31st Jan
822.32ms Max 6pm, Mon 2nd Jan

Packet Loss
0.20%  Average
0.00%  Min 9pm, Tue 17th Jan
65.00% Max 11am, Fri 27th Jan

December

Downstream throughput
1.87Mbps Average
0.95Mbps Min 8pm, Sun 4th Dec
1.99Mbps Max 1am, Sun 4th Dec

Upstream throughput
0.53Mbps Average
0.45Mbps Min 8pm, Sat 3rd Dec
0.67Mbps Max 1pm, Sun 11th Dec

Latency
31.45ms Average
9.82ms Min 5am, Sun 11th Dec
170.42ms Max 4pm, Tue 27th Dec

Packet Loss
0.13% Average
0.00% Min 2am, Thu 22nd Dec
41.68% Max 2am, Sat 10th Dec

DVD-Lots

Well I took the plunge and asked for my 8mb Metro Home package to be upgraded to the new Express. Rep said it will take about 2 days to activate so I'll report back when it becomes active. Am dissapointed that it is still a 60gb cap but I rarely go over as it really does stop me from downloading sh1te that I don't need. Only an extra fiver a month and the 1st three months are going to be €29.99.

I have been with Digiweb for at least 4/5 years and can't fault it tbh. Speed is consistant and I use it for gaming and streaming. Router went haywire on me once and they sent a replacement out and was back up and running the next day. Only ever had 2 outages in all this time so I can't recommend them enough.

And no I don't work for Digiweb, just one very satisfied customer (for now!).

Simi

DVD-Lots wrote: »

Well I took the plunge and asked for my 8mb Metro Home package to be upgraded to the new Express. Rep said it will take about 2 days to activate so I'll report back when it becomes active. Am dissapointed that it is still a 60gb cap but I rarely go over as it really does stop me from downloading sh1te that I don't need. Only an extra fiver a month and the 1st three months are going to be €29.99.

But what's the point of upgrading to 30mb if you can't use it? I mean if you can't utilise the 30mb to download large files, then what good is it other than giving you bigger numbers on speedtest.net?

TBH if someone was able to get even 2mb dsl, I'd recommend that over digiweb. Their pawltry caps mean they are little better than getting a 3g dongle at this stage.

jay93

Some DSL providers havn't got great caps either VF have a cap of only 40GB on one of their packages they do have a 300GB option but this costs extra.

The 60GB cap is there on Digiweb to control the network from getting overloaded since it's not DSL i wouldn't expect a big cap.

BTW mobile providers o2 VF only give you 15GB and 10GB for VF
Three offer the most 60GB so i fail to see where Digiwebs cap is paltry
considering if you sign upto Eircoms NGB Basic the cap is only 10GB!

Psygnosis

Thats not really comparing like with like now is it.
3g is not 30mb
DSL is not 30mb for 90% of people
Users who would want or need a 30mb line would more than likely use it for downloading vast amounts of data.
Take UPC's as this would be a like for like package when you hit those speeds
So UPC's nearest package is 25mb
Which is a 500gb cap so digiwebs is almost a 10th of what upc offer thats crazy, what's the point of digiweb offering this when the people who use it expect a bigger download allowance.
Its like having a ferari with a 5 litre tank for the petrol

UPC's 25mb offering

• 25Mb downstream; 2.5Mb upstream
• FREE wireless router (applies to new Broadband customers only)
• 24 hour online connection - no time restrictions
• No telephone line required
• 500GB usage limit.
• Up to 15 email addresses
• 300MB web space

Hogzy

Psygnosis wrote: »

Its like having a ferari with a 5 litre tank for the petrol

Thats a really good analogy.

DVD-Lots

Can't avail of UPC as I am couple of miles outside of town, only saving grace is I have a direct line of sight to the mast as I'm on a hill.

Just because I get a faster download speed doesn't mean I expect a bigger download cap. I'm getting it for faster downloads, simple as.

Also, as I'm getting the 1st 3 months at €29.99 it means that I am saving 30 quid for 3 months off my normal bill, then paying an extra fiver for the next 9 months, so for an extra 15 quid for the year, I have 30mb download speed. Seems like a deal to me.

Hogzy

DVD-Lots wrote: »

Can't avail of UPC as I am couple of miles outside of town, only saving grace is I have a direct line of sight to the mast as I'm on a hill.

Just because I get a faster download speed doesn't mean I expect a bigger download cap. I'm getting it for faster downloads, simple as.

Also, as I'm getting the 1st 3 months at €29.99 it means that I am saving 30 quid for 3 months off my normal bill, then paying an extra fiver for the next 9 months, so for an extra 15 quid for the year, I have 30mb download speed. Seems like a deal to me.

Seems perfect for you so. But for the large majority of people, when you increase the download speed people usually download more. When download speeds increase I think it opens doors for alot of people who didnt get the most of the internet before because their speed was to slow to avail of new services. If you have a 1mb connection then you are more than likely not going to stream that much because its such a hassle to stream at 1mb. Where as if your given substantially more speed you can realise the true potential of the internet and your demand for capacity will increase dramatically.

Sticking with the Ferrari analogy. If you go get a faster car, you usually want to drive faster.;)

jay93

Psygnosis wrote: »

Thats not really comparing like with like now is it.
3g is not 30mb
DSL is not 30mb for 90% of people
Users who would want or need a 30mb line would more than likely use it for downloading vast amounts of data.
Take UPC's as this would be a like for like package when you hit those speeds
So UPC's nearest package is 25mb
Which is a 500gb cap so digiwebs is almost a 10th of what upc offer thats crazy, what's the point of digiweb offering this when the people who use it expect a bigger download allowance.
Its like having a ferari with a 5 litre tank for the petrol

UPC's 25mb offering

• 25Mb downstream; 2.5Mb upstream
• FREE wireless router (applies to new Broadband customers only)
• 24 hour online connection - no time restrictions
• No telephone line required
• 500GB usage limit.
• Up to 15 email addresses
• 300MB web space

Maybe people who would want to use the 30Mb service wouldn't download lots maybe they just want it for the comfort of faster internet speeds.

The limit of 60GB isn't much i know for a 30Mb speed digiweb could have offered even 150GB or something but since it is a fixed wireless service offering these higher limits would reduce to network to nothing in no time the 60GB cap is to discourage people from abusing it.

UPC is cable so a cap of 500GB is no problem for these types of systems a 500GB cap on a fixed wireless provider would reak havoc on everyone's overall broadband speed.

Simi

jay93 wrote: »

Maybe people who would want to use the 30Mb service wouldn't download lots maybe they just want it for the comfort of faster internet speeds.

Are you honestly saying you wouldn't prefer say, a doubling of your download allowance to the increased speed?

If you can only download an average of 2gb a day then your not going to be doing a whole lot of downloading now, are you? You won't get to experience this faster downloading very often or for very long.

The increased speed won't make any difference to gaming or how fast web pages load. It will improve streaming video, but i wouldn't be doing a whole lot of that if I had to worry about a 60gb rolling monthly cap.

It's nice that a provider has increased the speed on their top tier product, but in the absence of a cap increase it's meaningless.

I know Digiweb currently lack the resources to significantly increase the size of their customers caps, but it's an issue that left unaddressed will quickly see them become irrelevant as a provider in the coming years.

Offering a modest increase in cap size rather than a superficial increase in download speed would be far more beneficial to existing (and new) customers. But genuine improvements in service don't grab the attention of potential customers, pointlessly high download speeds do.

D'Peoples Voice

Simi wrote: »

The increased speed won't make any difference to gaming or how fast web pages load.

is that definitely true?
so a 30Mb connection won't open the web page http://www.centralbank.ie/Pages/home.aspx
any quicker than a 0.5Mb connection?

Simi

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

Simi wrote: »

The increased speed won't make any difference to gaming or how fast web pages load.

is that definitely true?
so a 30Mb connection won't open the web page http://www.centralbank.ie/Pages/home.aspx
any quicker than a 0.5Mb connection?

I don't have access to a .5Mb connection, but the page you linked to opened in under a second on my phone over 3g.

If the page was a giant picture or overloaded with flash then yes, obviously it would make a difference.

But that's not really comparing like with like. A better comparison would be between the new 30Mb connection and Digiwebs 8Mb offering, with which there would be no discernable difference whatsoever.

bk

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

is that definitely true?
so a 30Mb connection won't open the web page http://www.centralbank.ie/Pages/home.aspx
any quicker than a 0.5Mb connection?

Well, that page would download about 5 times quicker on 30Mb then 0.5Mb.

The page is 277KB or 2.2 Mb, so it would take under 5 seconds to download on a 0.5Mb/s connection, while it would take just 1 second on a 30Mb/s connection.

However you would see no difference between a 3Mb/s and a 30Mb/s connection, they would both download the page in the same 1 second.

Generally when you get to about 3 or 4 Mb/s, most people wouldn't notice any discernible differences when surfing most websites at higher speeds.

To be honest, even the 4 second difference above probably wouldn't be that noticeable. Speeds above 3/4 Mb/s are really only needed if you are downloading or streaming large files e.g. videos, games, etc.

That is why a high speed connection of 30Mb/s with only a 60GB cap is pretty useless, it is really only marketing.

High speed connections really need higher caps to be useful. I think very few people would need 30Mb/s speeds, with such a small cap. For instance you could download/stream a full blu-ray movie in just 3 hours, but it would effectively use up your entire cap!!

The size of caps need to be balanced with the speed of the service.