Live areas from Smart

the corpo

fixed the 'proxy' problem by turning off peerguardian. somehow apple.com and msn.com's ip ranges got added to the peerguardian blocklist. most odd.

Sponge Bob

so there is no Smart Proxy problem, everybody chill!

J-blk

the corpo wrote:

somehow apple.com and msn.com's ip ranges got added to the peerguardian blocklist. most odd.

Not that add really - dell.com and many other IT giants are on the blocklists too. Just allow HTTP traffic and you'll be fine, without having to disable PG.

Back to what the thread is really about though, seems the Dublin list is up to 7 exchanges live - I guess depending on how many exchanges there are, this could be ok or very, very bad.

@rabbitinlights: If you are getting messages like "This exchange is on our current Network Build Programme for this year", I'd have to say it does not look good.

When I enter my phone number (Dublin - North Main), it lists it as "near future" (er... yeah, that's specific), having changed from April/May. Seems then that they really have no idea where their rollout stands with many areas. Great...

The_Hustler

Mine originally said May/June and they haven't contacted me (of course) but I just checked my number and it said :

Your phone number ******** is in the exchange CLONTARF.
Congratulations, Broadband is available to you! Would you like to avail of this amazing offer?

That's a surprise!

juliuspret

Clontarfs exchange is enabled???

Is Jerry Ryan plugging Smart or something and as a payback they'll upgrade his exchange ASAP???

J-blk

juliuspret wrote:

Clontarfs exchange is enabled???

I'd be wary of anything on Smart's website at this point - until people post on actually being connected to an exchange, I'd take it with a grain of salt...

Anyway, my frustration is increasing day by day and I think I'm gonna be calling up BT (don't think NTL is in my area). BTW, assuming you make the jump, I doubt you need to give Smart any warning or anything (they never bother to contact us anyway)? Just tell them to piss off when they call 6-9 months down the line?

juliuspret

If you cant get Smarts mythical Broadband installed then the next best thing in order of status would be:

1. NTL (If available)
2. BT Broadband (shoddy customer care)
3. IBB (Russian Roulette - You feeling Lucky Punk)

NTL of course would be the preferred choice in terms of cost and speed with of course reliability a prime factor.
BT Broadband are slightly slower due to DSL's current 2Mb home CAP but are the best priced DSL with fairly good reliability.
IBB is a bit of a hit and miss affair but the payoff is excellent with 2Mbit speeds approaching what a 3Mbit offering would give(if some reviews in the "I love IBB" thread are to believed)...but are you willing to take the chance as the medium of wireless will NEVER be as reliable as wired Broadband.

beller b

You don't have to tell Smart anything...There is no contract in place untill your connected

J-blk

Well, I'm getting fed up of waiting for Smart - other than one call two months ago, nada, nothing...

NTL is not available in the city center as far as I know. BT seems to be one I'll end up with as IBB don't do Ripwave here anyway and since I'm a tenant, I can't really plop their antenna thingmabob on the roof...

For what I want, BT seems to cover - I don't game online, just browse - my typical use in a month varies around 9-11GB so UTV falls just a little short for me, cap-wise.

Jumpy

the corpo wrote:

fixed the 'proxy' problem by turning off peerguardian. somehow apple.com and msn.com's ip ranges got added to the peerguardian blocklist. most odd.

Why odd? Apple and MS are anti P2P due to a) apple is a music provider and b) lots of MS stuff is transferred over P2P.

fisab

Just noticed a change in Smart's "Review Line check result" for Dennehy's Cross Cork.

Up to last week it used to say - "Ready in May/June".
Now it says :-
"This exchange is on our current Network Build Programme for this year for Dennehys Cross exchange in Cork."

I guess we're looking at 2006 now!!!!!

I wonder are there alot more similarly delayed exchanges.

JNive

yes lol
im on this exchange and it changed a few days ago indeed.

And i wouldnt mind but its a fairly big ass echange too, with i estimate about 25,000 connected to it lol. ( anyone in the city with a 434 or 454 number that is hehe )

rabbitinlights

fisab wrote:

Up to last week it used to say - "Ready in May/June".
Now it says :-
"This exchange is on our current Network Build Programme for this year for Dennehys Cross exchange in Cork."

I guess we're looking at 2006 now!!!!!

I wonder are there alot more similarly delayed exchanges.

Shantalla in galway is the same, but garfield said it should be done by the end of july...... but he made it clear that it could slip.

juliuspret

rabbitinlights wrote:

.... but he made it clear that it could slip.

Hahahahahaha!!!

8track

rabbitinlights wrote:

Shantalla in galway is the same, but garfield said it should be done by the end of july...... but he made it clear that it could slip.

Letterkenny also now saying 'This exchange is on our current Network Build Programme for this year'. Was May/June..going with BT while waiting - although I'm also waiting on BT since 17th June!

beller b

Does anyone get the feeling they are not telling us something....?

juliuspret

No sh!t.

All their resources are tied up in the courts...they are probable laying off people as well.
Honestly though if they can beat eircom in the courts now with a 6month pause in BB rollout...it would be easier than years of crap.

I still hope Smart get their BB rolling as they are the only reason I now have 2Mbit DSL!!!

J-blk

juliuspret wrote:

I still hope Smart get their BB rolling as they are the only reason I now have 2Mbit DSL!!!

Indeed - there is nothing I would love more than to see Eircom fall on it's a**... And Smart did apparently scare them in to doing something, though still, BB is going backwards in this country really...

I DO want to see Smart succeed - I really do. But their problem is that they would rather keep everyone in the dark, have no regard for their potential customer base and so, are losing more and more people. As it stands, my UTV contract is up, Smart hasn't bothered to call me or tell me anything in over two months, my exchange has changed to "near future" so really... why should I or why should any of us bother with them? The last thing we need is a company with the customer service mentality of Eircom, albeit at better prices...

juliuspret

It appears you will be moving to BT BB like others with a bit of common sense.

If UTV are too arrogant to do something new with their packages then they deserve to loose their customer base.

A it is Smart really dont have a customer base, only lots of online applications, which dont mean squat until they have something to sell to the masses not just 7 exchanges in Dublin.
At the moment Smart are in a PAUSE mode awaiting for what the courts to decide.
If eircom wins then Smart will be foreced to pull out of BB completely and disconnecting 500 sustomers is easier than 5,000!!!

beller b

juliuspret wrote:

It appears you will be moving to BT BB like others with a bit of common sense.

If UTV are too arrogant to do something new with their packages then they deserve to loose their customer base.

A it is Smart really dont have a customer base, only lots of online applications, which dont mean squat until they have something to sell to the masses not just 7 exchanges in Dublin.
At the moment Smart are in a PAUSE mode awaiting for what the courts to decide.
If eircom wins then Smart will be foreced to pull out of BB completely and disconnecting 500 sustomers is easier than 5,000!!!

That makes sense.. But as a rule Smart don't make sense!! I got a call from them the other day (even though I cancelled 4 weeks ago, because they wouldn't bother calling me) saying that Santry was NOW live. Even though the SAME day this appeared on thier web site......
"Your phone number 1862**** is in the exchange SANTRY.
This exchange is on our current Network Build Programme for this year.
If you would like to avail of this amazing offer, please sign-up below and we will contact you as soon as your exchange becomes available. "
What are they playing at ?
First 100000 customers ? they will be lucky to reach 1000!

juliuspret

It would take years for Smart to get 100,000 BB customers.

What are BT up to now?...30,000 home customers at best.

dub45

I realise that at this stage Garfield probably feels that hes damned if does and damned if he doesnt but if hes reading this I really think it might be useful to give people some idea of where Smart are at at the moment as the cynicism is growing rapidly about a company that in fairness I think we all wish well but feel are definitely not helping themselves in the way they are treating people.

J-blk

dub45 wrote:

I realise that at this stage Garfield probably feels that hes damned if does and damned if he doesnt but if hes reading this I really think it might be useful to give people some idea of where Smart are at at the moment as the cynicism is growing rapidly about a company that in fairness I think we all wish well but feel are definitely not helping themselves in the way they are treating people.

Very well said! I mean, a lot of people (myself included) will be pretty annoyed to have it confirmed to us that it may take another 6 months for our exchanges to be up and running, but some information is better than no information.

All I've had is the single call from Smart to "congradulate" me on being in the 100,000 (quite the achievement apparently, according to this thread) - no other updates.

Garlfield hasn't posted in this thread since the end of May, besides the fact it keeps growing.... Juliuspret has made numerous efforts to collect information from people on what Dublin exhanges are enabled so far - something Garfield could have told us in a matter of minutes...

At least tell us where we stand - what's going on with the legal battle, something... Changing their website to near future/later in the year and ignoring everybody, does not create any confidence on the customer's side...

Big Chief

had smart broadband for about a month now running from the beggars bush exchange

great stuff and had 0 problems so far and nice customer service from garfield who even phoned me at home and rearranged and tweaked my dsl for faster ping times

Eurochild

I'm on Mervue exchange in Galway. I was told that Smart BB would be ready in this exchange by the end of July by Smart's "customer service" (an automated voice message could probably do the same job), which, from what people here are saying, is theoretical at best. Garfield has not replied to my PM. I need to get BB for work ( I do 24*7 support on a rostered basis, and I live 1 and 1/2 hours drive from work).

Smart should treat their customers as adults and be honest about what is going on. Bad reputations, once earned, are hard to shake off.

I'm not really sure where that leaves me. Stuck with BT I suppose. I don't really want to go with them as I use UTV for my phone calls and pay practically nothing apart from line rental. But I guess I've no choice.

GarfieldConnoll

dub45 wrote:

I realise that at this stage Garfield probably feels that hes damned if does and damned if he doesnt but if hes reading this I really think it might be useful to give people some idea of where Smart are at at the moment as the cynicism is growing rapidly about a company that in fairness I think we all wish well but feel are definitely not helping themselves in the way they are treating people.

Update on Smart broadband rollout

All,

There has been recent speculation regarding the progress of Smart’s broadband rollout. This post is to provide some clarity on what we have achieved to date and what we propose to achieve in the short- medium term. I am not providing long term plans for reasons that I will expand upon later in this post.

Speculation, even cynicism, regarding the rollout is to be expected, especially regarding some of the delays that we have encountered. However, it is encouraging to note that that cynicism has largely moved away from the service offering, to that of service availability.

I have articulated elsewhere in this forum the core tenets of the rollout and do not propose to repeat myself here (at least not in this regard). As with any project, there are a number of internal and external influences that impact on the project’s timelines. Many of the delays in making announced exchanges available have been external. Some of them have been internal.

As some of you have noticed, we have recently removed all dates from our website. The rationale for this is two-fold:

Firstly, some dates had passed and exchanges were still not live. Some of the dates associated with exchanges were now questionable and we would increase frustration if people made decisions based on these dates.

Secondly, and most importantly, due to the current restrictions that are in place regarding the provisioning of Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), Smart is re-evaluating its timelines. These restrictions include; loss of existing telephone number, requirement to leave Smart for Eircom before becoming a broadband customer and downtime between Eircom’s service and our own. As you may be aware, Smart is taking Eircom to the High Court regarding these restrictions. As you will appreciate, this situation restricts what I can say about the matter.

With no restrictions in place, Smart would unbundle identified exchanges as quickly as possible. However, there are restrictions in place and we are forced to take a pragmatic approach to our unbundling programme whilst those restrictions remain.

Our website now only states whether an exchange is or is not on our network build programme. If it is, we’ll definitely go there, we’re just not willing to provide a firm date. To reiterate, this is due the restrictions that are currently being placed on the LLU service.

So where do we offer service?

We currently offer service in the following exchanges:

Beggars Bush, Clontarf, Coolock, Clondalkin (Nangor Road), Crown Alley, Dolphins Barn, Santry, Ship Street, Summerhill and Walkinstown.

With the exception of Clontarf and Santry, all of these exchanges have customers connected, some of whom have posted on boards.ie. Clontarf and Santry are only accepting customer now, so whilst customer orders for these exchanges are submitted, they will not be live for a few days yet.

The next exchanges to be made available are:

Churchfield, Dennehey's Cross, Letterkenny, Mervue, Quaker Road, Shantalla and Wellington Road. All of these exchanges should go live in the next 4- 8 weeks.

The next group of exchanges to be made available includes:

Castletroy, Cork Central, Dooradoyle, Dundalk, Galway HPO, Lucan Ballydowd, Rathmines, Rathedmond, Roches Street, Waterford and Waterford Tycor.

We are not providing dates for these exchanges, not because we have not committed to address them immediately, but rather due to operational reasons that prevent us placing realistic dates against them.

In summary, as of right now, we will make Smart’s broadband service available in all exchanges identified on the network build programme. However, with the restrictions in place, we will not provide dates for availability.

As dub45 has posted, there is an element of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ associated with posting an update. Anyway………

Garfield.

dahamsta

GarfieldConnoll wrote:

Churchfield, Dennehey's Cross, Letterkenny, Mervue, Quaker Road, Shantalla and Wellington Road. All of these exchanges should go live in the next 4- 8 weeks.

Corcaigh Abú!

Eurochild

Garfield, I appreciate the feedback. I don't think people expect miracles, its just frustrating operating in a vacuum where no-one knows whats happening. I think there is a lot of goodwill towards Smart because of the way they have shaken up the BB market - it would be a shame to see that dissipated.

dub45

GarfieldConnoll wrote:

Update on Smart broadband rollout

All,

There has been recent speculation regarding the progress of Smart’s broadband rollout. This post is to provide some clarity on what we have achieved to date and what we propose to achieve in the short- medium term. I am not providing long term plans for reasons that I will expand upon later in this post...............................

In summary, as of right now, we will make Smart’s broadband service available in all exchanges identified on the network build programme. However, with the restrictions in place, we will not provide dates for availability.

As dub45 has posted, there is an element of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ associated with posting an update. Anyway………

Garfield.

Garfield thanks for that I think a lot of people will be glad to read that post not just for the information therein but for the assurance that Smart are concerned about how they are being perceived by customers and potential customers alike. Now a further suggestion - why not have the guts of your post added to your website so that it becomes a real point of information?

A page kept up to date (even if it is not what people would want to hear) would be very useful indeed I think. Even if it meant that people had to go elsewhere for say six months at least they would know where they stood.

And another suggestion now that you have people up and running you need a technical reference on the site such as Smart's basic settings for the modem, smtp information etc etc.

Paul007

Thanks for the update, Garfield.

I received a letter today telling me my exchange was live and ready to process orders.

I'm currently on a 3 month trial with UTV, I've heard people mentioning that BT can send you a DSL transfer form which enables you to change over to their broadband with little to no downtime.

Do Smart do this aswell?

I've waited 18 months to finally get broadband so I wouldn't fancy having to go 4 weeks without it.