Fitting a phone line to access my digital world!

Reby2013

Hi guys,

Moving into a rental property to complete a 5-month course soon and want to get broadband.
At present there is no phoneline in the house.
The landlord is fine with this as long as he is not liable for any associated charges.
I was just wondering that if I get a broadband package with a provider such as Magnet (who do not have a minimum contract requirement & I assume will look after getting the line in etc.) and I then cancel the contract at the end of the 5 months, will the line then be de-activated and the landlord will not be liable to any charges?

Really want to clarify this today, so any replies will be so appreciated.

Rebecca

FSL

Make sure the line is not on a minimum contract. While the broadband package may not be on a minimum contract the line may be.

Reby2013

Great advice thanks.
Even if the line was on a minimum contract, those usually tend to be 12 months right? So the most Id have to pay would be 12 months and then no costs thereafter for the line I had fitted correct?

Reby2013

Anyone?

Mr. G

Reby2013 wrote: »

Great advice thanks.
Even if the line was on a minimum contract, those usually tend to be 12 months right? So the most Id have to pay would be 12 months and then no costs thereafter for the line I had fitted correct?

Be careful leaving a contract early as you may have a cancellation charge etc

Contact Magnet as they are the only company at the moment with no contracts and they can get a line installed for you.

The cost of a connection for a landline is €121.93 (done by eircom), however Magnet may be able to waive this

DieselPowered

Reby2013 wrote: »

I then cancel the contract at the end of the 5 months, will the line then be de-activated and the landlord will not be liable to any charges?

if you cancel after 5 months, assuming the line is with Eircom direct, you will
have to pay the balance up to the 12 months, ie 7 months line rental which is currently about €25.50 per month, so that will add up to about €178, however if your contract is with Magnet for example (who sub-contract Eircom as already pointed out to install the line), you really need to look at their terms and conditions for cancellation, they may have to pay eircom as per cancellation above.

As the line/broadband/contract is not in your landlords name, I don't see why they would be liable.

Mr. G

DieselPowered wrote: »

if you cancel after 5 months, assuming the line is with Eircom direct, you will
have to pay the balance up to the 12 months, ie 7 months line rental which is currently about €25.50 per month, so that will add up to about €178, however if your contract is with Magnet for example (who sub-contract Eircom as already pointed out to install the line), you really need to look at their terms and conditions for cancellation, they may have to pay eircom as per cancellation above.

As the line/broadband/contract is not in your landlords name, I don't see why they would be liable.

Don't forget with Eircom, there is also the cancellation charge of a months line rental on top- €20.96 + VAT (€25.78)

DieselPowered

Mr. G wrote: »

Don't forget with Eircom, there is also the cancellation charge of a months line rental on top- €20.96 + VAT (€25.78)

I think that only happens (very common) where you don't give Eircom 30 days notice (in writing I think) for cancellation of the service.

Reby2013

With Magnet there is a €50 charge up front for Set-up and in the event of pssible cancellation, then €45 per month.
So I assume this will cover the cost of installing the line(done by them through Eircom) and then the cost for them of arranging with Eircom to cancel the line.
Anyone confirm this?

DieselPowered

Reby2013 wrote: »

With Magnet there is a €50 charge up front for Set-up and in the event of pssible cancellation, then €45 per month.
So I assume this will cover the cost of installing the line(done by them through Eircom) and then the cost for them of arranging with Eircom to cancel the line.
Anyone confirm this?

That would make sense, charging €45 per month cancellation charge.

Again, if you take the Eircom price of 7 months left to pay + one month extra cancellation charge, so €25.78 * 8 = €206.24.

Magnet cancellation charge of €45 * 7 (months) = €315
balance of say €108 to Magnet and €106 to Eircom.

I can't confirm it, but knowing how Eircom works, its fair to deduce this from the prices you have given.

Reby2013

Cool thanks for that Diesel Cool

DieselPowered

Out of curiosity, is there TV in the house you are moving into, say UPC, where you could avail of a TV/Broadband package without having to look at a telephone broadband solution?

Mr. G

DieselPowered wrote: »

That would make sense, charging €45 per month cancellation charge.

Again, if you take the Eircom price of 7 months left to pay + one month extra cancellation charge, so €25.78 * 8 = €206.24.

Magnet cancellation charge of €45 * 7 (months) = €315
balance of say €108 to Magnet and €106 to Eircom.

I can't confirm it, but knowing how Eircom works, its fair to deduce this from the prices you have given.

I think Reby means that for the 70Mb package its €45 a month for when you get service. Not €45 for the remaining months as well because there is no contract I would imagine they use the initial €50 to cover cancellations etc

Reby2013

Yes I would pay €50 at first to cover set=up phone line, activate broadband and cancellation. then €45 per month until I cancel.
Does it seem sensible to you guys that would cover everyting, including whatever cost is involved in deactivating line.

No TV or cable connection in the house either.

SpaceTime

You can usually just take the service to a new address if you move too without penalty or charges. Check that with the company you're signing up with.

Also you don't have to sign up with eircom first to get the line activated, any of the DSL providers will do that for you with the possible exception of Sky who seem to get confused when people ask them to do that.

With UPC, you can port the service to another address without fuss, and if there's no UPC in that area, they'll let you out of contact and collect their equipment.

Beware of the new "Fibre" products offered by the phone companies like eircom, Vodafone, etc .. they're mostly subject to an 18 month contract. Magnet's the only exception to that. Unless someone can point to someone else ...

UPC's probably still the best bet for broadband/phone in any area it's available.

DieselPowered

ok, so I've read the actual Magnet page here for this service.
Its a fibre broadband service, so why do you need a telephone line installed?

SpaceTime

Because it's "Fibre to curb"

With very few exceptions (a few parts of Sandyford and Wexford) all of the e-fibre type products are provided over a phone line.
The fibre goes to a box on your street / in your area and from there it's VDSL2 to your house.

With UPC fibre it's fibre to a cabinet somewhere too and coaxial cable to your house using DOCSIS 3.0.
UPC can do 150Mbit/s and actually hit that speed.

Eircom (and anyone else using their infrastructure) can do up to 70Mbit/s and 20Mbit/s up.
However, in reality it seems to be more like 40Mbit/s - 50Mbit/s or so for most people but it's still not to be sneezed at!

Unfortunately, with VDSL2 technology that the phone companies use the speed drops off quite rapidly the further you are from the street cabinet.

In most cases, the UPC service will give you the advertised speed where as the eircom one is dependent on the length of the line.

Simple difference: Eircom use phone lines i.e. a normal pair of wires much like speaker cable and it's not shielded. It's just twisted pair. This is lossy and picks up noise so the speed drops the longer it is.
UPC use shielded coaxial cable to your house which is far higher bandwidth and is not lossy or subject to interference.

The "e fibre installation" is basically just installing a central VDSL splitter/filter socket in your house and making sure the wiring's up to scratch. There's no fibre in your house at all.

Reby2013

When i finish my course I'll be moving back in with my mom, so wont need to transfer.
Just want to make sure I wont get stung for anything to do with the phone line once Im finished, as per details in prior posts

TheChizler

I've never advocated this before, but I think you might be better off with some kind of mobile internet package OP. Unless you manage to get one of the above to waive cancellation/install fees etc.

Reby2013

Aren't they all painfully slow and therefore useless for streaming vids and the like?

TheChizler

Reby2013 wrote: »

Aren't they all painfully slow and therefore useless for streaming vids and the like?

Depends on where you are and your provider. With Meteor I've generally found YouTube on my phone grand in towns, it's one of the lower resolutions on phones though so not a direct comparison.

Speed and reliability are some of the things you can trade against the cost of getting a line installed for 5 months.

If you've a decent signal in part of the house you can get wifi hubs that you plug the dongle in to, can greatly improve reliability.

Reby2013

Had a look at all those mobile broadband providers, they all require a 12 month contract

dub45

Your best bet is to get the information from Magnet directly and get any agreement in writing - no matter what anyone tells you here ultimately Magnet or whichever isp you go with will be the decider on costs etc.