Vodafone, Eircom or Magnet for VDSL?

kodi

My Vodafone contract ends soon, so I was thinking about switching to VDSL.
I'm about 100m from the cabinet and I was told that 70Mb/s is easily achievable here. After looking at the offers I left three to consider:

Vodafone - cheapest. But they have 300GB limit after which they can charge you 1c/MB. my average usage during last 10 months was around 230GB, so I am exceeding it some times. The other thing - currently I have 24Mb/s, connected at 9.2Mb/s, but during the evenings speedtest.net from Vodafone's own server show my speed at 1-2Mb/s. I'm just worried If I switch to Vodafone VDSL I'll have very fast connection to the exchange just to be bottlenecked at the output.

Magnet. Price still acceptable, but Yesterday I read their Magnet-Traffic-Management-Protection-Policy.pdf and I just laughed at it. 512MB limit between 4PM and 1AM? Then throttle down to 1Mb/s? No access to the router? C'mon... Anyone can confirm that this document is actually true?

Eircom. Most expensive. No download limits but they have full traffic monitoring and enforcing piratebay access restriction. I'm not using piratebay to download "stuff", I'm using it to download ISOs of ubuntu or some other CC/GPL things - it's just faster.

So if anyone can give me an advise or have any experience with those three I would be very grateful.

Tiroskan

The only thing I can tell you which may give you a bit more peace of mind regarding Vodafone is that I've always found that they quite accurately record how much of your allowance you've used on your account page online, so if you keep an eye on it you shouldn't really be in any danger of going over it.

5.11 Tactical

Vodafones major problem is Customer Service and CSRs and Techs basically fobbing you off and lying through their teeth.

There prices are good but to be honest I savour good Customer Service and Tech support than low prices.

If at all avoid Vodafone like the plauge.

There is also digiweb but prices are far to high, eircom block sites and to high and magnet have weird T&C's.

If Digiweb price their packages more realistically I would go with them.

Gumbi

The Magnet throttling thing is for 4 GB. And try won't throttle you if you are utilising major streaming sites in that time. So not as bad.

Totally unlimited off-peak.

kodi

Gumbi: the problem is I'm working from home now and sometimes not 9-5. Often I have to download an image of virtual machine or iso from MSDN and it can easily be over 4GB (you sure about it? in their agreement it's 512MB - 4Gb). Still waiting for an answer from Magnet, though.

Tiroskan: yes, that's how I calculated my monthly usage

5.11 Tactical: I am with Vodafone (and before that - BT) for 6 years now. They customer service is atrocious. It took me 4 months to convince them to call Eircom to reset the modem that was stuck. At work guys were betting when I'll have my broadband back and my phone on speaker playing some crappy waiting music for few hours a day started to be a subject of jokes (and yes, they were betting on how long this time I will wait to someone answer it). I still didn't get an answer if the actual speed will be the same as my current one (often 1-2Mbps in the evenings) or will it improve somehow. For now I just got an answer "in the evening Internet is slower, because more people are using it". Seriously?

Gumbi

Hmm. I thought it was 4GB. It's still BS though, I fully agree. It seems like a veiled attempt to curb torrenting, as they do not throttle major media site usage (Netfilx, YouTube etc).

But that is no use to you who wishes to utilise bandwidth perfectly legally. Definitely tell them about this and ask what they'll do about it.

RikuoAmero

Gotta hop on the Magnet are stupid bastards bandwagon here. I watch Youtube yes, but I also watch a lot of Vimeo and Blip.tv (mainly ThatGuyWithTheGlasses and SFDebris on Blip). To the network infrastructure, there is no difference between a Youtube video and a Blip video, it's still just a video stream. Now suddenly a Magnet customer has to keep a tally in their head of just how many 1080p Blip videos they've watched. Or what if you start downloading a game through Steam/Xbox Live/Playstation Network? Most of them are over 4GB.

It's like being sold a super car, with an engine that can go 500 kph and can go 10,000 kilometers on a single liter of petrol...but if you dare drive more than 40 kilometers in a single evening, your speed will be drastically cut. At that point you scratch your head and ask "Then, why should I pay for this super speed if I don't actually get to use it how and when I want?"

kodi

Salesman from Eircom knocked to my door today. He didn't know much, but luckily his boss was there as well. So we had a little chat. There are no download/upload limits (they were till about a week ago). Customer has full access to the modem/router. And they guarantee that even when they roll out the IPTV in October, user will still have full access to the device.
They convincing people to switch to Eircom ADSL temporarily, then to upgrade for free to eFibre. Prices doing it that way are little more competitive than on the website - first 6 months - €35, then €50 for 50Mbps, or €5 more for 70Mbps. If you will use your existing ADSL modem, you'll get €30 off your first bill. Contract is for 18 months, installation and VDSL device is free. Waiting time is about 4 weeks in my area. But switching from ADSL to VDSL takes no almost no time. Total price with the existing ADSL modem discount for the contract term is €780, or about €43.5 per month for 50Mbps and €870 or about €48.5 for 70Mbps and you have off peak calls included in the price (which is no use for me, but if anyone needs it...). They couldn't tell me how much is package with the unlimited national landline call. I asked about traffic monitoring and the story behind Piratebay. They claiming that only one domain is blocked - piratebay.se, and they don't block torrenting as such at all. However - If you get caught downloading something you shouldn't and they will get a letter that you did, there is three strikes rule in place. He was surprised other ISPs are not doing this. Oh - one more thing - he said that as they will roll out IPTV this year it's in they interest that everyone connected to VDSL will have a speed at least 20Mbps even (or especially) during the evenings.

I really can't get any proper information from Vodafone reps and the guys at local shop have no idea on details except it's "blazing fast". Last time I called they were giving me 70Mbps with unlimited landline Eire and UK calls for €37 with 24 months contract (I have a mobile with them - even pay as you go counts). I'd love to see some speed measurements from Castlebar, Ballina or generally Mayo VDSL users

Obskure

Ballina Vodafone customer with stats attached. Got connected today!!

kodi

Wow, looks nice! I really appreciate it!
Would you mind repeating this test around 7PM, please? That's when most people are "using Internet".

swoofer

i am same as you with vf and ex bt I know them very well. Remember most of the CS staff dont work for VF ie its outsourced so all they need is call numbers, the more the better, keeps them in a job. Speeds wont drop in the evenings and if they did you could request a stable profile of 50mb down 16 up. THE BIG PROBLEM WITH BF IS THE ROUTER OR GATEWAY as it will become known. Its LOCKED. You can do nothing with it apart from port mapping ie forwarding, ddns, for wireless you can change ssid's but only one works at any time ie its not dual band. range is adequate, i am in a bungalow, no guest networks, no broadband meter etc. Speeds are constant and pings dropped ever so sligthly. There is no download limit, it has been dropped quietly. You can sign for 12 months as an existing. when you sign up its over the phone and recorded, you have 7 days to cancel by phone but they wont answer the phone. You will be treated as a new customer, i know, its a shambles, no proper procedures in place. This the important bit when the kn engineer calls to hook you up you wont be connected immeditely but watch him closely and he will mke a call to eircom to prove connection is live. if in doubt ask him . then when you ring vf they will try and stall you as this is when they update router and change the passwords, be firm say you know line is live and only needs a buttonpress, make sure you can load a few sites, they can let you wait days so be firm and say engineer said etc.

If I had known about router i would have waited a bit longer, its been rock solid since 5th june but locked router has cost me 140 euro as i had bought a new one. i am on 44.50 packageso i am actually saving money, first time ever. ask back if you need more.

heres a wireless speed test, i am 800metres from cab.

kodi

I got nice deal (€37 inc. calls) with Vodafone, but TBH I was planning not to use their router at all. Also the lady from CS was insisting my line is not capable of doing 70Mb/s, which is a lie (I live about 150m from the green box and guys from Eircom said it's perfectly capable of that speed). There is a download limit, though - 300MB/month. After that they will charge you €1 per 1GB - it's hidden in the Fair Usage Policy document and it was confirmed by the VF representative.

May I ask what VDSL router did you get working with the VF and what are the settings? Thanks in advance!

BTW: I asked the rep about this 7 day policy and she said it's 7 days from the date the broadband goes active and you just need to contact CS.

roast

kodi wrote: »

I got nice deal (€37 inc. calls) with Vodafone, but TBH I was planning not to use their router at all. Also the lady from CS was insisting my line is not capable of doing 70Mb/s, which is a lie (I live about 150m from the green box and guys from Eircom said it's perfectly capable of that speed). There is a download limit, though - 300MB/month. After that they will charge you €1 per 1GB - it's hidden in the Fair Usage Policy document and it was confirmed by the VF representative.

According to the reps on the Talk To:Vodafone forum, this clause doesn't apply to their FTTC product - might be worth getting this in writing just in case.

kodi wrote: »

May I ask what VDSL router did you get working with the VF and what are the settings? Thanks in advance!

You can't use your own VDSL modem. But, if you request they set your modem into bridge mode, you can use whatever router you want.

kodi

Yeah, just got confirmation from VF rep online that 300GB/month is not enforced... They could tell it to the guys in the call center.

And with bridged router you just made my day So is it enough to call tech support after installation and ask to bridge the router?

roast

kodi wrote: »

Yeah, just got confirmation from VF rep online that 300GB/month is not enforced... They could tell it to the guys in the call center.

And with bridged router you just made my day So is it enough to call tech support after installation and ask to bridge the router?

I'd imagine so.

kodi

So you didn't try it? Tech support in VF was pretty unconvincing that they can do it. It was more like: "we don't provide such option to residential customers".

roast

kodi wrote: »

So you didn't try it? Tech support in VF was pretty unconvincing that they can do it. It was more like: "we don't provide such option to residential customers".

Personally, no. AFAIK it was previously available through the advanced username and password, but changed when firmware was updated.

kodi

Yes, that was possible for ADSL router. They don't want to disclose the admin details to non-business customers (similar policy as Magnet has, but sometimes it's possible to convince Magnet tech support to give you the details). So my original question stays: how GBCULLEN was able to use his own router?

I don't know about their VDSL, but Magnet's ADSL2+ service uses RFC1483 encapsulation rather than PPPoE. For VDSL you also need to know the VLAN ID.