Magnet and getting a new phoneline in

Scon

I've seen a few messages with a similar question but it was hard to find an outcome.

Basically, I want to get magnet broadband into our flat. The flat has no phoneline. In magnet's online questionnaire they ask is there a phoneline and it feels like they are going to offer to deal with Eircom on behalf of the customer.

I got a phonecall from Magnet, following the questionnaire, and once I mentioned that it was a flat, they said they couldn't do anything and had no further advice to give me. The guy suggested that had it been a house, there was something they could do, but not a flat. The building is a former house split into flats and one of the other flats already has a phoneline coming in (but I can't tap into that myself). I was a bit surprised that Magnet left a potential customer hanging like that.

Eircom want you to take out a contract with them if they install a phoneline. This seems crazy. Is there no way for me to get a phoneline into the flat and sign up to magnet without paying off Eircom?

Moonbeam

The only way to get around paying Eircom is if you are on and Local loop unbundled (LLU )exchange and Magnet are offering it there,otherwise you have the pleasure of paying phone rental to Eircom.

Scon

Are you sure this is particular to the problem here? Technically, on Eircom's lines, line rental must be paid. But don't competitors waive this, on the surface, when they state 'no line rental' (as magnet do). Really they are just paying Eircom the line rental themselves or, like you mentioned, not having to if it's in an LLU exchange.

I am at a loss to how you set up with a broadband company other than Eircom when you need Eircom to install the phoneline. It feels very anti-competitive.

amtc

Technically you can, the processes are set up for this (check eircom's Access Reference Offer) but other companies don't choose to do so.

Bohrio

amtc wrote: »

Technically you can, the processes are set up for this (check eircom's Access Reference Offer) but other companies don't choose to do so.

Companies have been doing this for a few years now, but afaik only with business customers. You ALWAYS pay eircom no matter what. Currently, most Access Seekers (ISPs) pay a certain amount of money for WLR (something between 20 to 24 euro per month depending on the ISP), for LLU (ULMP) they will pay less than half.

I believe there are a couple of ISPs who are looking into doing this now for their residential customer, however, I dont think they will be a change in the price. Reason is simple, although I dont agree with it, there is very very little profit out of DSL for residential use.

If these ISPs decide to go ahead and provide ULMP (or GLUMP if people decide to port their numbers) this might give the ISP the chance to make some profit, they might, in the end, lower the price (to an extent).

You are probably wondering why not all ISPs have started using ULMP/GLUMP and moved away from WLR and there are several reason but mostly is QoS and costs.

At the moment, Eircom doesnt provide any sort of QoS, and neither do BT. But even if you find an ISP who does, bandwidth will also be an issue. VoIP will require at least 40 kB up/down (100 kB if they use g.711), that means that on a 1 mb line (1024/128) you could end up using between 35-70% of your total bandwidth, without QoS this might affect your day to day phone conversation. You can set priorities from the router but that requires extra work. People using torrents will def be an issue for ISPs. Access seekers will also need to make sure they have a solid VoIP infrastructure... and this are just a few examples.

The other one is maintanance costs. If you have WLR with Eircom (a normal PSTN line) and there is a fault on the line, eircom will charge you 0 euros to fix it. But if you move to LLU (GLUMP) and there is a problem with your PSTN side, you will need to log it as a LLU fault, and this cost arounf 140 euro per fault! So you might wanna make sure you are logging a genuine fault!

So the service is available, but is not an easy things to do... but it is coming...

zg3409

Get a phone line in from Eircom then switch. However in most areas Magnet is just reselling the exact same thing as eircom at a slightly better price. You would need to be in city centre and on a magnet exchange to get the best offers.

Scon

zg3409 wrote: »

...at a slightly better price.

That's a big point, I think. It's more than slightly better for me wanting 24mb broadband and no phone. It's a pretty significant saving.

Your advice is one way I hoped would work but I'm getting no confirmation from the suppliers on this. Magnet just say they can't advise me. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence that I won't be stuck with a contracted bill with Eircom if I switch to them.

zg3409

The main thing you need to determine if you are on an exchange that magnet can offer an seperate service or just a re-sell of Eircoms product.

To know this you need to find which exchange you are on:

Go here:
http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/

and scroll down to coverage map.

Then tick exchange boundaries and also tick Broadband BMB. Then zoom into your address. This will show you the name of your local exchange.

Click on the exchange icon itself and then you can calculate your distance from it. From that you can determine likely speed. You can then ring magnet and ask them do they have equipment inside the exchange or if they are just reselling Eircom's service.

Their service is very limited. This should help answer your question.

I agree they should have a similar map themselves showing which exchanges they are on and what areas they cover.

Scon

I think their attitude of 'sort it out yourself' in a subject that should be their expertise and not mine put me off. I thought that would be an ideal area to trump competition.

I chanced Smart, thinking it would be similar. The guy on the phone confirmed he could service my street no problem and when I said I didn't have a phone connection in the house he said that was absolutely no problem and that they could install it themselves free and they'd take care of all that.

He mentioned the exchange that I'm on and I'm pretty close to it. I take it that this is a resold Eircom bundle but the far better price to Eircom and the difference in approach to sorting out the phone line installation was what won me over.

zg3409

Scon wrote: »

I take it that this is a resold Eircom bundle but the far better price to Eircom and the difference in approach to sorting out the phone line installation was what won me over.

It depends. Smart offer both resold Eircom (basically digiweb's product) and their own unbundled service.

You would need to confirm which they are offering. The prices shown on their site are for unbundled service

If I put in an non smart exchange number I get

You’ve qualified for our Nationwide Bitstream products, which we provide via our sister-company, Digiweb.
For more details call us now on 1850 945 549 or click on the links below to browse and order:

Residential broadband packages

Then it links to:
http://www.digiweb.ie/home/broadband/dsl/

Which has different prices and offerings. The cheapest package on offer is €30.45 p/m . Line rental €25.78 excluded from price, so basically 55 per month min.

If you look at this page:
http://www.digiweb.ie/home/broadband/index.aspx

and select county and town it says what services are available there.

If I were you, I would ring back Smart and ask them is it a "National bitstream" or unbundled exchange. National bitstream is not really smart at all, but resold Eircom by the company digiweb

Scon

Very informative, thanks!

I was told that the cheaper prices on their site apply to me and that I'm on the 'Merrion Exchange' so I guess I'm on their own unbundled service. Will double check.

zg3409

They have a lot of exchanges in Dublin so I would say you are covered. You could use the phone number of a nearby business and put it in here:

http://www.smarttelecom.ie/line_checker.aspx

The main catch with smart is they do have a download cap but it is very high.