Difference between DSL providers

selfbuilder1

Sorry if this has been asked before. I am wondering is there any difference between the broadband sold by the various providers from an exchange that's not LLU or NGB. Do all providers use the eircom equipment in the exchange and do they all use eircoms back haul. Most of the people in my area are with Vodafone or Sky. Do the eircom customers get a faster or less congested connection due to less people using their equipment or is everyone using the same equipment?

Thanks.

ED E

Only smart use their own equipment in LLU exchanges. Everyone else is on the same DSLAMs and the same backhaul.

bealtine

selfbuilder1 wrote: »

Sorry if this has been asked before. I am wondering is there any difference between the broadband sold by the various providers from an exchange that's not LLU or NGB. Do all providers use the eircom equipment in the exchange and do they all use eircoms back haul. Most of the people in my area are with Vodafone or Sky. Do the eircom customers get a faster or less congested connection due to less people using their equipment or is everyone using the same equipment?

Thanks.

Short answer is no...it's like the Ford motto you can have any colour you like as long as it's black...here you can have any provider you want as long as eircom supply it

FlawlessWeb

No difference, but you can fully expect sales people from every company to tell you that there network is far superior to the competition; when probed as to how/why; that's when the bs really starts

trompele

Actually there is a difference but not on last mile or backhaul as mentioned above. All of that belongs to eircom and each isp has own logical network but physical is all the same (same dslam, same backbone equipment, same fibre uplinks). The differences starts at eircom handover point. Handover is a location where eircom terminates its infrastructure to isp network. From there isp is responsible for routing traffic to other local networks (local means irish) and handling international traffic via tier 1 carriers (cogent etc). Generally here is where different isps have different bandwidth for local traffic and international. Small isps can afford smaller pipes and hence congestion might occur. As far as remember upc and eircom have terabps pipes in ireland and ie magnet gbps.

selfbuilder1

Thanks for all the replies. Just wondering if there is any advantage in going with eircom over vodafone, utv, sky etc. Speed and quality of broadband is my priority.

trompele

selfbuilder1 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. Just wondering if there is any advantage in going with eircom over vodafone, utv, sky etc. Speed and quality of broadband is my priority.

Eircom is always my choice if price is not primary factor.

degsie

selfbuilder1 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. Just wondering if there is any advantage in going with eircom over vodafone, utv, sky etc. Speed and quality of broadband is my priority.

It basically boils down to pricing and how you view the providers customer service. Other considerations are what hardware (router) and landline options each provide.