Broadband options - rural area

daenerysstormborn3

My partner was a customer of Eircom for 10+ years and left them at the end of May due to an issue that he had been having with his broadband for 2 months that 4 engineers were unable to fix. We were lucky enough to be able to leave them penalty free (after the involvement of Comreg).

We then moved to Digiweb after Digiweb first promised us Satellite broadband (which they now say because of the "lie of the land" they cannot provide), they then promised us an 8mb connection (which 3 weeks into the contract it turned out we can't obtain over 3mb on our line), they then told us we could be able to get a 5mb connection but in the end we are now stuck with a 3mb connection (the same as what we had with Eircom prior to the problems) which is extremely slow and Digiweb are an absolute joke to deal with (we have involved Comreg yet again as Digiweb promised us numerous times over 4 weeks that they would call back in relation to the broadband issue and a billing issue - they promised us a discounted rate for first 3 months which was never applied - and they obviously never did).

So it would appear that our line can only manage a 3mb connection which was adequate up to March when we began having problems with our Eircom broadband and we ended up with no broadband for nearly 2 months.

What are our options? Do we have any options other than what I've posted above? Is this just the reality of broadband in a rural area (south Kilkenny)? I only ask because we are currently trying to decide whether to bother staying with Digiweb (they may be our only option, best of a bad bunch so to speak) or find a different/better provider. We won't bother moving if it's just to another provider for the same service but is there any better options out there for us?

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Voafone work off the eircom lines and offer excellent speeds and prices so they'd be my fist port of call if I were you

daenerysstormborn3

If they work off the Eircom lines though it'd just be the exact same speed, 3mb, wouldn't it?

Just spotted this on their website - If your line doesn’t yet support Enhanced Broadband, the maximum broadband speed you’ll get will be 3Mb. We currently expanding our Enhanced Broadband service across the country, and once it’s available on your line we’ll automatically upgrade you for free.

I'd bet that our line doesn't support Enhanced Broadband, so it would just be the same speed again.

smellslikeshoes

If 3mbits is all your line is capable of none of the DSL providers are really going to be able to better it no matter what they say. There are wireless providers who could possibly better it but a lot of them can be very hit and miss.

daenerysstormborn3

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

If 3mbits is all your line is capable of none of the DSL providers are really going to be able to better it no matter what they say. There are wireless providers who could possibly better it but a lot of them can be very hit and miss.

Yeah, unfortunately we checked with Digiweb 5 times before we confirmed our order and each time they said that yes we would be able to get satellite broadband or an 8mb connection.

I've just had a look at the Vodafone coverage map and we come up as "fair" so I doubt that would be much good.

smellslikeshoes

Don't go near satellite broadband. 3mbit DSL > any satellite broadband. Just so we are clear when I said wireless broadband I was referring to fixed wireless, not 3G dongles. Just like with satellite, 3mb dsl > any speed 3G dongle.

daenerysstormborn3

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Don't go near satellite broadband. 3mbit DSL > any satellite broadband.

Ah sure Digiweb were telling us we'd get a 30mb connection and it would be uncongested and the whole lot, sucked us right in. We did our duty though, double checked everything with them 5 times, making sure they had all their facts straight and they told us that we'd definitely get, at the very least, an 8mb non-satellite connection off them. Biggest bunch of gangsters going.

colm_mcm

Surely if digiweb fixed wireless isn't working, there arent that many options left?

daenerysstormborn3

colm_mcm wrote: »

Surely if digiweb fixed wireless isn't working, there arent that many options left?

It would seem so. Just said I'd ask here in case we were overlooking some magical provider.

Such a pity broadband in Ireland is still in such a sad state. We're in South Kilkenny but we live just 15 minutes from Waterford City so you'd think things would be a bit better here.

smellslikeshoes

colm_mcm wrote: »

Surely if digiweb fixed wireless isn't working, there arent that many options left?

There are other options but it's anyone's guess if it would be worth taking the risk. Me personally I'd stick with 3mbit Dsl, better the Devil you know, but there are wireless providers like Ripplecom who have coverage around the OP's position.