Smart employee happy to answer questions on bb rollout

kasintahan

Any idea on the Foxrock exchange? 01 289xxxx

Mutor_CS

Wow, this is a very impressive looking product. If only I wasn't tied into one of those stupid 12-month contracts I'd be on your site right now.

A question about the "first 100,000 customers" thing - a colleague posted on an internal forum here at work that "only after putting all my details and sending me a mail did it tell me I was customer 200,3xx" (edited for privacy)

Have you really already got over 200,000 customers for this? Eircom are barely at 100,000 after years of trying. If so, perhaps you should remove the free line rental offer blurb if it's gone.


Oh and this is another vote for *at least* 256Kb upstream.
[I don't really understand how you can do 'the numbers' and whatever other research and figure that customers want/need 2Mb down but only 128 up. I just hope it spurs Eircom/Esat et al to improve their offerings.]

monomaniac

bla wrote:

after your 12 months you can quit at anytime once you give them a months notice you dont have to go into another 12 month contract

Fantastic - cheers!

GarfieldConnoll

Mutor_CS wrote:

Wow, this is a very impressive looking product. If only I wasn't tied into one of those stupid 12-month contracts I'd be on your site right now.

A question about the "first 100,000 customers" thing - a colleague posted on an internal forum here at work that "only after putting all my details and sending me a mail did it tell me I was customer 200,3xx" ......

The reference number does NOT equate to your position in the queue. I don't know how the ref is generated. I'll find out. You'll definitely be in the first 100K.

Garfield.

GarfieldConnoll

Hi,

There have been a few questions on interleaving and whether it will be 'on'/ 'off' or something in between.

Interleaving is an error correction service that allows us to extend the service across longer copper pairs. For most people interleaving will be a positive. However, if you game alot or use VoIP or video-conferencing, it can be detrimental.

We're still awaiting final confirmation on this, but it looks like, on an individual, case by case basis, we'll be willing to switch interleaving off. It will be by request only and we'll have to check the quality of the connection after interleaving is removed.

Hope this helps.

Garfield.

8track

Hello Garfield. Can you explain the situation regarding your bb and monitored intruder alarms (not eircom phonewatch)? Are special arrangements required, e.g. the alarm equipment provider/installer installing an alarm dsl filter?

Thanks in advance.

Tazzle

This is what I like to hear. Flexibility.

Sponge Bob

You will get a lot of Gamers with interleaving off and good to see you can do it per access channel and not globally on the BRAS or DSLAM .

My q's

1. Galway. Which exchanges are on the list to be done in May/June

2. Limerick. Which exchanges are on the list to be done in May/June

3. Cork. Which exchanges are on the list to be done in May/June

4. Have you requested 076 NGNs and do you intent to provide instead of Geo numbers

5. Have you requested VoIP geos ?

6. Will there be a cost to getting the numbers in 4 and 5 if you are a smart customer?

7. Can Smart port a Geo and allocate a VoIP geo to the same line, both to function in tandem albeit with separate termination.

8. Will Smart support SIP or H323 for VoIP termination or direct breakout from the DSL CPE

9. Which of the above 4 - 9 will be 100% supported as standard from the launch of the very first exchange , in March or April 2005 and which are "Aspirational" as your PR persons tend to describe Vapourificacious statements

TIA

S

sixtysix

i rang smart on monday asked what the download cap is and the lady said she would ring back with the answer- got a phone call from a different smart lady today who still did not know the answer but informed me i would have to sign for their cps to avail of their broadband offer!

dub45

GarfieldConnoll wrote:

Dub45,

Your email was forwarded to me yesterday. I'll answer here rather than mailing back. Hope that's okay.

Lots of people will be in contract, but lots more won't be.


There are lots of different types of transfers. In LLU you are physically leaving the eircom network (barring the copper pair) and joining our network. We'll need to have your port configured to offer service prior to your line being moved. That's achievable.

.

I dont feel you answered my question at all - what communication/coordination do Smart propose to have with potential customers so as to ensure a smooth transition from existing isps

There was not even a hint in your reply that you have considered this.

Some people for instance may have to buy their way out of 12 month contracts to move over to Smart. They will need a lot of information so as to ensure minimum expense smooth transition. Some peopel maybe running small businesses from home and cannot be without bb and so on and so on.

I am on the crown alley exchange due in March/April. I am on a 12 month contract with UTV. How do Smart envisage that someone like me will move to Smart. I would need to give a minimum of a months notice to my current ISP to terminate (say I dedided to buy out the contract). Are Smart in a postion to say yes we will be able to connect you in six weeks time? (for example)

Are you expecting customers to make an act of faith and terminate or have you given any consideration to such a situation. Also UTV customers cannot transfer telphone service until bb is termated.

Moriarty

From what Garfield says dub, it seems like you can leave your current dsl service running until smart actually physically rewire your line in the exchange. That would presumabley result in very little actual downtime (minutes I would presume) and you can cancel your previous dsl subscription once you're on smarts service.

That's all presuming uninterupted supply is worth the cost of an extra months subscription to your current ISP (depending on the billing cycle of the current ISP).

GarfieldConnoll

Sponge Bob wrote:

My q's

1. Galway. Which exchanges are on the list to be done in May/June

Shantalla, Mervue and Galway HPO. Galway HPO may be more June than May, just because of some civils we need to iron out.

Sponge Bob wrote:

2. Limerick. Which exchanges are on the list to be done in May/June

Top of my head, Castletroy, Dooradoyle and Roches Street.

Sponge Bob wrote:

3. Cork. Which exchanges are on the list to be done in May/June

Quaker Rd., Churchfield, Wellington Rd., Dennehy's Cross and Cork Central. Cork Central may have some civils issues, but we think we've resolved them.

Sponge Bob wrote:

4. Have you requested 076 NGNs and do you intent to provide instead of Geo numbers

Yes. No.

Sponge Bob wrote:

5. Have you requested VoIP geos ?

You've lost me. We have geo numbers. We can deploy them on VoIP connections, the only caveat being that the customer has to use them from the areas that the numbers traditionally apply to, i.e. Dublin geo used in Dublin only. That's a simplification, but should do for here.

Sponge Bob wrote:

6. Will there be a cost to getting the numbers in 4 and 5 if you are a smart customer?

Any Smart VoIP offering won't be directly linked to the Smart BB offering. Slight fudge there, but they are two different products.

Sponge Bob wrote:

7. Can Smart port a Geo and allocate a VoIP geo to the same line, both to function in tandem albeit with separate termination.

So you have your current geo number ported to the POTS element of your connection on our network AND you have a seperate VoIP number on your PC/ Mac/ ATA? If that's the question, then yes.

Sponge Bob wrote:

8. Will Smart support SIP or H323 for VoIP termination or direct breakout from the DSL CPE

Probably SIP.

Sponge Bob wrote:

9. Which of the above 4 - 9 will be 100% supported as standard from the launch of the very first exchange , in March or April 2005 and which are "Aspirational" as your PR persons tend to describe Vapourificacious statements

None. 076 numbers won't be opened by operators until April/ May. There are valid reasons. If that changes, we'll be at the front of the queue. Smart's VoIP product is being treated as seperate to the BB product. Neither requires the other.

Thanks for the questions.

Garfield.

dub45

Moriarty wrote:

From what Garfield says dub, it seems like you can leave your current dsl service running until smart actually physically rewire your line in the exchange. That would presumabley result in very little actual downtime (minutes I would presume) and you can cancel your previous dsl subscription once you're on smarts service.

That's all presuming uninterupted supply is worth (upwards of) an extra months subscription to your current ISP.

I would like him to say it though rather than you impute it:)

It is hard enough to arrange smooth transition beween existing ISPS!

How can Smart rewire a line though if it is in 'possession' of say UTV would that not break the contract with UTV immediately? Will Smart have authority to go near a line that is in contract with another supplier? Cant imagine Eircom/IOl/UTV etc being too agreeable to that!

Its not so much uninterrupted supply I am concerned about as big gaps in supply during any changeover.

Moriarty

Fair enough.

Bear in mind that none of the other ISPs are particularly helpful in keeping downtime to a minimum when switching between them.

Maybe smarts going to be different in that regard.. Garfield?

dub45

Moriarty wrote:

Fair enough.

Bear in mind that none of the other ISPs are particularly helpful in keeping downtime to a minimum when switching between them.

Maybe smarts going to be different in that regard.. Garfield?

And it is reasonable enough to assume that they are collectively going to be even more unhelpful than usual to someone who is coming in to rock the boat big time.

The saving on line rental is a huge incentive to get in there early so the whole question of switching (as soon as possible) and how it is to be handled is I think a very important issue.

Tony H

hi Garfield, any idea of when and if the Cobh exchange will be enabled .

GarfieldConnoll

sixtysix wrote:

i rang smart on monday asked what the download cap is and the lady said she would ring back with the answer- got a phone call from a different smart lady today who still did not know the answer but informed me i would have to sign for their cps to avail of their broadband offer!

Sixtysix,

You don't have to sign up to CPS in order to take the offer. However, the offer is a bundle that includes BB, Voice and Line Rental (none for first 100K). So it won't be CPS, but when you go live on the service (as opposed to signing contract) we will be providing your voice service.

Hope that helps.

Garfield.

harney

Not sure if this has been addressed already, but, will we be able to pick up a static IP address or will it be a DHCP setup?

Gilgamesh

harney wrote:

Not sure if this has been addressed already, but, will we be able to pick up a static IP address or will it be a DHCP setup?

asked that on PM, is dynamic

KdjaCL

Your phone number XXXXXXXXX is in the exchange NANGOR ROAD. The exchange code is CLDD.
Congratulations, Broadband is available to you! It will be available in March/April. Would you like to avail of this amazing offer?

/does a lil dance just ine time for my contratc to expire with other people


kdjac

Moriarty

I've split out all the debate on the merits of more bandwidth to this thread. If you want to continue that debate, please do it there and not in this thread, so that we can keep this thread useful.

Sponge Bob

GarfieldConnoll wrote:

Shantalla, Mervue and Galway HPO. Galway HPO may be more June than May, just because of some civils we need to iron out.

Top of my head, Castletroy, Dooradoyle and Roches Street.

Quaker Rd., Churchfield, Wellington Rd., Dennehy's Cross and Cork Central. Cork Central may have some civils issues, but we think we've resolved them.

Very Cool stuff and a comprehensive answer . Thanks for the info.

Tenshot

Thanks for taking the time to post Garfield.

I currently have an ISDN line, which I need to keep for legacy reasons.

I think I'm on safe ground guessing Smart won't be offering an Annex B product compatible with ADSL (though feel free to prove me wrong!) so I'll need to get in a separate POTS line for broadband.

Can I order this directly from Smart, or do I need to order it from Eircom (with associated installation fees etc), then immediately cancel it so I can transfer to Smart? Is there a cleaner way to do this?

Also, is there a minimum contract period for Smart's broadband offering?

On the upload speed issue mentioned many times already, I'll throw my hat in with the "256 Kbps or better" brigade. I'm also strongly in favour of fast mode ADSL as the default setting, with an option for people experiencing problems to switch to interleave if needed, rather than the other way around.

I'm off to post some reasons in the other thread rather than cluttering things up here, so feel free to comment over there if you like.

Dummy

Garfield, Thank you for coming to explain the Smart Telecom offering to us first-hand.

My company has installed a second telephone line into my house and pays all the costs. It also pays for my IBB internet connection. This telephone line belongs to my company and recieves a very good rate from a non-Eircom service provider,

With this line in my residence, would it qualify for residential status and qualify for your offer?

I guess what I am asking for is an incentive to help my company make the decision allowing me to make the move.

snappieT

Thank you very much Garfield. I will be certainly considering the product.

Regarding the Ratio of Downloads to Uploads, since there has been quite a bit of support for more upload bandwidth, I have taken the liberty of creating an online petition to sign in favour of this. I would invite all boardsies to sign it here: http://www.petitiononline.com/boardsie/petition.html

Thank You,
Snapscan

OfflerCrocGod

snapscan1212p wrote:

Regarding the Ratio of Downloads to Uploads, since there has been quite a bit of support for more upload bandwidth, I have taken the liberty of creating an online petition to sign in favour of this. I would invite all boardsies to sign it here: http://www.petitiononline.com/boardsie/petition.html

I would also like to voice my support for more upload speed. On the other hand I don't like giving my e-mail address out so I'm not going to sign the petition, I would pay €50 for 768 up.

Moriarty

You can keep your email address private so no one (including the petition-starter) can see it, and they don't spam it themselves. I have no problem giving it to them anyway and I've never had any problems with them.

Mr.M

any idea's on when you'll be introducing this in Mayo, ie Claremorris or Castlebar

thanks

hmmm

Personally I couldn't care less about upload speed, it's effing annoying when threads on these forums get hijacked by nitpicking. So there.

I'm disappointed however to see that you are bundling voice and data as an inclusive package. Personally I would like to see an unbundled broadband only package available (I appreciate at a higher cost). I'm not alone in wanting to get rid of a landline and use the mobile for voice exclusively.

radiospan

Thanks for coming on here, Garfield. Definately gives me a very good first impression of Smart.

256K upload speeds is needed though, I think. I'm on 512/128 here, and 128 up is almost too low for that. The connection is being shared here by three PCs, so that only gives 2 or 3 kbps upload each before it starts to affect download speeds.

Although 2MB broadband in Ireland for €35? Incredible.

What does the "fibre footprint" in Cork look like?