Fibre Pilot Customer - Upgrade to eFiber?

m03et005

Hi Guys,

I signed up to the initial trial in the Wexford town area and already have FTTH installed. I initially opted for the 25mb speeds and a usage allowance  of 100gb @ 50e a month including NetTalk Off-Peak talk package (Eircom Fibre Broadband 25 plan)  with a view to upgrading speeds at a later date.

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of sales agents called to the door. They didn't know what would happen after the 20th May as regards to upgrade and suggested that I check speed after 20th May. Still 25mb.

I rang Eircom after their visit and was told that because I was an existing fibre pilot customer, I was stuck with my current plan . I was a bit miffed at this because if the neighbours down the street sign up now they can get 50mb speeds and unlimited allowance for the same price as I pay. I feel penalised now for participating in the trial which surely was some advantage to Eircom as regards testing or whatever.

My questions are:

What is the length of contract for pilot customers?

Will/can they switch to efibre price plans?

Is there a dedicated support portal/number for customers who have participated in the pilot schemes? I recognise efibre is a new product and I was participating in a pilot programme but the few times I've rang sales or support, the agents literally had no clue how to help me as "it was a pilot".


For example, during installation, my phone jacks around the house were deactivated.

Support: "Yeah, that comes with getting fibre".


Me:  " My friend got fibre in and his phones all work"

Support: "How do you know they work?"


Me: " Because when you pick one up, there's a dial tone and when you dial a number, the number rings"

Support: " Oh........ would you think of getting an electrician in?"

I gave up.

A call to a friend of a friend who's a Eircom technician told me to snip a couple of wires in the main phone jack and bingo. He said it should have been done during install but people weren't up to speed because it was " all so new".

Anyway

Thanks for listening

Cian

ainiseoir

m03et005 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I signed up to the initial trial in the Wexford town area and already have FTTH installed. I initially opted for the 25mb speeds and a usage allowance  of 100gb @ 50e a month including NetTalk Off-Peak talk package (Eircom Fibre Broadband 25 plan)  with a view to upgrading speeds at a later date.

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of sales agents called to the door. They didn't know what would happen after the 20th May as regards to upgrade and suggested that I check speed after 20th May. Still 25mb.

I rang Eircom after their visit and was told that because I was an existing fibre pilot customer, I was stuck with my current plan . I was a bit miffed at this because if the neighbours down the street sign up now they can get 50mb speeds and unlimited allowance for the same price as I pay. I feel penalised now for participating in the trial which surely was some advantage to Eircom as regards testing or whatever.

My questions are:

What is the length of contract for pilot customers?

Will/can they switch to efibre price plans?

Is there a dedicated support portal/number for customers who have participated in the pilot schemes? I recognise efibre is a new product and I was participating in a pilot programme but the few times I've rang sales or support, the agents literally had no clue how to help me as "it was a pilot".


For example, during installation, my phone jacks around the house were deactivated.

Support: "Yeah, that comes with getting fibre".


Me:  " My friend got fibre in and his phones all work"

Support: "How do you know they work?"


Me: " Because when you pick one up, there's a dial tone and when you dial a number, the number rings"

Support: " Oh........ would you think of getting an electrician in?"

I gave up.

A call to a friend of a friend who's a Eircom technician told me to snip a couple of wires in the main phone jack and bingo. He said it should have been done during install but people weren't up to speed because it was " all so new".

Anyway

Thanks for listening

Cian

Scary stuff!
Obviously best not to be on the first wave of installations?

m03et005

ainiseoir wrote: »

Scary stuff!
Obviously best not to be on the first wave of installations?

Cheers.

I don't want to be bashing eircom and I'm not a telecom engineer but just a note on the installation.

There is a cabinet at the entrance to my estate and they had laid fibres along the pavements. As I said, I signed up for the trial. One lovely Saturday morning two vans arrived and I thought goody, I've going to have fibre broadband this afterrnoon.

The two gentlemen ran the cable 15 feet from a thingy on the pavement to the box thingy on the side of the house. They then said " Right, we're off, someone will be along next week to complete the install.". Disappointed, but maybe different type of technician required?

Following Saturday, another van arrives. Brilliant me thinks. He drills a hole in the wall and passes cable into sitting room. Here we go!! Then " Right, I'm off. Someone will be along to complete that install" and leaves after 5 mins.

A few days later, a third person arrives while I'm at work. Fibre broadband alright but phone jacks in house deactivated bar a phone plugged directly into router.

Hopefully lessons were learned during the pilot programmes in Wexford and Sandyford. I did receive a call regarding feedback from a 3rd party company shortly after install and offered my experiences but that's it to date.

Cian

eircom: Mark

m03et005 wrote: »

Cheers.

I don't want to be bashing eircom and I'm not a telecom engineer but just a note on the installation.

There is a cabinet at the entrance to my estate and they had laid fibres along the pavements. As I said, I signed up for the trial. One lovely Saturday morning two vans arrived and I thought goody, I've going to have fibre broadband this afterrnoon.

The two gentlemen ran the cable 15 feet from a thingy on the pavement to the box thingy on the side of the house. They then said " Right, we're off, someone will be along next week to complete the install.". Disappointed, but maybe different type of technician required?

Following Saturday, another van arrives. Brilliant me thinks. He drills a hole in the wall and passes cable into sitting room. Here we go!! Then " Right, I'm off. Someone will be along to complete that install" and leaves after 5 mins.

A few days later, a third person arrives while I'm at work. Fibre broadband alright but phone jacks in house deactivated bar a phone plugged directly into router.

Hopefully lessons were learned during the pilot programmes in Wexford and Sandyford. I did receive a call regarding feedback from a 3rd party company shortly after install and offered my experiences but that's it to date.

Cian

Hi Cian,

Apologies for the delay in replying to the thread. Can you PM me with your eircom account number and I will look into it for you.

Thanks, Mark

ainiseoir

m03et005 wrote: »

Cheers.


Following Saturday, another van arrives. Brilliant me thinks. He drills a hole in the wall and passes cable into sitting room. Here we go!! Then " Right, I'm off. Someone will be along to complete that install" and leaves after 5 mins.


Cian

Why in the name of all that's good and holy did they have to do that?
is it because they couldn't use your landline?

m03et005

ainiseoir wrote: »

Why in the name of all that's good and holy did they have to do that?
is it because they couldn't use your landline?

Mark,

Thanks for the reply. PM sent.

Ainiseoir,

From what I understand, the pilot programme involved fibre to the home (FTTH) so a fibre is directly connected to the router via a powered box installed on an interior wall. I believe efibre is fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) so you are connected via your existing landline to the nearest cabinet.

My old copper landline was disconnected during the install.

Regards

Cian

Freddy Smelly

m03et005 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I signed up to the initial trial in the Wexford town area and already have FTTH installed. I initially opted for the 25mb speeds and a usage allowance of 100gb @ 50e a month including NetTalk Off-Peak talk package (Eircom Fibre Broadband 25 plan) with a view to upgrading speeds at a later date.

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of sales agents called to the door. They didn't know what would happen after the 20th May as regards to upgrade and suggested that I check speed after 20th May. Still 25mb.

I rang Eircom after their visit and was told that because I was an existing fibre pilot customer, I was stuck with my current plan . I was a bit miffed at this because if the neighbours down the street sign up now they can get 50mb speeds and unlimited allowance for the same price as I pay. I feel penalised now for participating in the trial which surely was some advantage to Eircom as regards testing or whatever.

My questions are:

What is the length of contract for pilot customers?

Will/can they switch to efibre price plans?

Is there a dedicated support portal/number for customers who have participated in the pilot schemes? I recognise efibre is a new product and I was participating in a pilot programme but the few times I've rang sales or support, the agents literally had no clue how to help me as "it was a pilot".


For example, during installation, my phone jacks around the house were deactivated.

Support: "Yeah, that comes with getting fibre".


Me: " My friend got fibre in and his phones all work"

Support: "How do you know they work?"


Me: " Because when you pick one up, there's a dial tone and when you dial a number, the number rings"

Support: " Oh........ would you think of getting an electrician in?"

I gave up.

A call to a friend of a friend who's a Eircom technician told me to snip a couple of wires in the main phone jack and bingo. He said it should have been done during install but people weren't up to speed because it was " all so new".

Anyway

Thanks for listening

Cian

all fibre trial customers will be set at upto 70mb until sometime next year when the bulk of the exchanges are upgraded... ftth customer will eventually offered upto 150mb sometime in 2015. contracts for efibre is 18months

fttc customer will be limited to upto 70mb until vectoring is enabled after that speeds will go up beyond 100mb but again not until after 2015 when the bulk of the exchanges in the country have been enabled
you should be able to upgrade to 70mb but you will enter a new contract.

all new customers for now will only be fttc and voip will NOT be available so the engineers will install 1 point called an NTU for the fibre modem to connect and upto 2 points called DPE for a (Plain Old Telephone System) type phone. the fibre modem will ONLY work on the NTU point and not on the DPE points. Engineers will move the NTU upto 30metres from the point in the hall using cat 5 cabling

total install time will be about 2hrs and the engineers have been trained to instruct customer how to connect upto 2 wireless devices. then the customer will have to sign a checklist form to say that the equipment is installed and up n running BEFORE an engineer can sign a job as being completed.

ftth will only be available to the existing trial customers or customers that live in a ftth wired building.

eircom will not be installing ftth in existing buildings for a good while yet.

eircom: Mark

m03et005 wrote: »

Mark,

Thanks for the reply. PM sent.

Ainiseoir,

From what I understand, the pilot programme involved fibre to the home (FTTH) so a fibre is directly connected to the router via a powered box installed on an interior wall. I believe efibre is fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) so you are connected via your existing landline to the nearest cabinet.

My old copper landline was disconnected during the install.

Regards

Cian

Hi Cian,

Got the PM and got back to you.

Thanks, Mark