Reliability of UPC vs. Eircom broadband?

Turbulent Bill

Is there any reliability figures available on the various broadband providers, i.e., number of outages, total time without service etc.? Ideally a 3rd-party source, but in practice I'll take whatever figures I can get. My real interest is in UPC vs. Eircom.

We currently have an Eircom NGB connection which has been reliable but slow (c. 1.8Mb download) and expensive for what it is. There are lots of alternatives in Dublin 15 (UPC looking the best value), but the connection is needed for a home office so reliability is essential. Thanks!

markegan

Stay away from eircom.
Got broadband in for 1 week then cancelled . Up to 8mb download -.actually about 4 and about 0.5 upload . Have 50 mb (53) down and 5 mb upload .have had upc for 2 years now and no problem . Just make sure your pc / laptop can handle the speed !!

the world wonders

Get UPC and a prepaid 3G dongle for backup

Turbulent Bill

Thanks for the feedback.

markegan wrote: »

Stay away from eircom.
Got broadband in for 1 week then cancelled . Up to 8mb download -.actually about 4 and about 0.5 upload . Have 50 mb (53) down and 5 mb upload .have had upc for 2 years now and no problem . Just make sure your pc / laptop can handle the speed !!

The Eircom speed (or lack of it) isn't that critical, though obviously I'd prefer to have a faster connection for the same price with UPC.

the world wonders wrote: »

Get UPC and a prepaid 3G dongle for backup

Not a bad idea. We actually have unlimited data plans on the mobiles and could tether one of these to act as a backup.

I'm a bit surprised that ComReg doesn't publish reliability figures, might query them on this.

bealtine

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Is there any reliability figures available on the various broadband providers, i.e., number of outages, total time without service etc.? Ideally a 3rd-party source, but in practice I'll take whatever figures I can get. My real interest is in UPC vs. Eircom.

reliability of what exactly? Your local cable? Your local FTTC cabinet, reliability of DNS servers or the connection to the net and so on...it's a figure that's impossible to arrive at.

Basically I've never had problems with UPC and have a rock steady connection far more steady than any eircom connection I've ever had. It mostly depends on the quality of the cable into your house (and a few other things)

Turbulent Bill

bealtine wrote: »

reliability of what exactly? Your local cable? Your local FTTC cabinet, reliability of DNS servers or the connection to the net and so on...it's a figure that's impossible to arrive at.

Basically I've never had problems with UPC and have a rock steady connection far more steady than any eircom connection I've ever had. It mostly depends on the quality of the cable into your house (and a few other things)

Reliability of the end-to-end net connection, i.e., whether a connection is available to a working external server. It should be perfectly possible for the providers to supply this - you're paying them to provide the connection, so the least they should be able to do is say how available it is. Where in the chain any problems arise (access side/metro/core etc.) isn't my concern.

I have the same impression of UPC from searching on here, but I'm still curious as to how reliability is measured.

listermint

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Reliability of the end-to-end net connection, i.e., whether a connection is available to a working external server. It should be perfectly possible for the providers to supply this - you're paying them to provide the connection, so the least they should be able to do is say how available it is. Where in the chain any problems arise (access side/metro/core etc.) isn't my concern.

I have the same impression of UPC from searching on here, but I'm still curious as to how reliability is measured.

Its obviously measured on the fact that most users recommend them.

Im not sure what answer you want?

Its the fastest residential line available in the country, and Ive had it for 2 years with no downtime.

mrbrown69

Eircom's NGB (next generation broadband) :D:D



it's dial-up internet in comparison to what UPC offer

D'Peoples Voice

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I'm a bit surprised that ComReg doesn't publish reliability figures, might query them on this.

I believe that Comreg are waiting for the outcome of the SamKnows Survey.

Of course, the survey is only reliable if the sample is large enough.

If Irish people didn't bother their arses to register for the survey,
then I can't say we'll know for certain which provider is the most reliable.

Turbulent Bill

listermint wrote: »

Its obviously measured on the fact that most users recommend them.

Im not sure what answer you want?

Its the fastest residential line available in the country, and Ive had it for 2 years with no downtime.

There are plenty of posts on both the UPC and Eircom forums here about connection problems. Your service is good, but that's no guarantee that mine will be too. As I said above, I believe UPC is (miles) better than Eircom, but I'm really looking for some objective measurement of both providers' reliability.

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

I believe that Comreg are waiting for the outcome of the SamKnows Survey.

Of course, the survey is only reliable if the sample is large enough.

If Irish people didn't bother their arses to register for the survey,
then I can't say we'll know for certain which provider is the most reliable.

Thanks, this is along the lines of what I was looking for, will look into it.

Resi12

Was coming here to see if anyone else was having difficulties with Eircom but apparently not, seen this though when searching on Google and said I might as well give some 2c.

I have NGB with Eircom, I'm supposed to be getting 8MB, my speed the whole day today? 20kb. I live in Limerick City, so it's no location. Complete trainwreck of a company.

Stay away from them.

witnessmenow

Just to throw a spanner in the works to what everyone else is saying.

I have eircom broadband at home (8mb, get about 5mb but im a decent bit from the exchange).

It terms of reliability it has been much much better than any UPC I've ever had (in different houses in Galway). Quite often i would need to restart my UPC modems, I never have to do anything like that with eircom. I know I only get 5mb, but I always get 5mb.

Given the option as a home user I would pick UPC, because its cheaper and faster and I can live with some downtime.

If I was running a business I would keep onto my eircom line as it is solid as a rock.

BUT this is only my experience, seeing as I am not in the same location as you it pretty much means nothing

demanufactured

UPC provide broadband.
Eircom dont.

Ash.J.Williams

I've had UPC for years and even use it as our work ISP now. It's so much better than eircom that an outage here or there wouldn't bother me...(i don't get many outages)

Form my professional experience you really don't want an eircom outage between friday lunchtime and monday, as it won't be looked at by the unionised motherfukas!!
(this may have changed)

bee06

I've had both. Eircom first and now UPC.

In the year I had Eircom I never had any outages but did have an issue with the router and they had to send a new one out.

Have UPC about 2 years now and do have the the occasional outage. Mostly maybe a few mins to an hour and the longest was a day (starting on the Sunday)

starviewadams

Have only had 1 problem with UPC since getting it to replace Eircom over 2 years ago.And that problem was an outage at 2am on a Saturday morning for about 25 minutes,which isn't too bad really.

Like Eircom or any provider,it all depends on the lines going into your home.If UPC upgraded them recently or your house is relatively new and was wired for UPC then I'd say you'll have no problems.

No one on here can offer you a guarantee and say it'll work definitely 100% without any issue (like anything in life!)

BowWow

Constantly having connection problems with eircom since end Nov. Was sent "patch" for router that helped for a while, but problem as bad as ever now.
My 12 month contract with eircom about to end, so will probably change to Broadband/Phone with UPC - sad after 34 years as eircom customer. Not too concerned with broadband speed, but do want reliability.
Some questions - can I keep my number?
Have 4 "hard wired" phones in house at present - can these be connected to the UPC router?
Do I have to use filters on the phones with UPC?
Thanks....