Connected to SmartBB

gtsreddy

hi
does any one get connected to smart telecom broadband
we signed up last month , and they took the direct debit
so far no sign of any connection to us
when ever we rang the customer service people( absolutely irritating voice from them) saying the same story you will be contatced soon by our agent

machalla

I'm supposed to be connected this week. Day 8 of the 10 day "you should be connected within 10 working days" period they specified. I got the modem last week.

The exchange you are on could make a difference too.

I think we signed up over two months ago and there were a fair few signups in between so you may be further down the list at this point. That could be part of the delay also.

Have a browse through this forumk for more threads to do with smart signups as theres a lot of people asking the same question.

gtsreddy

i live in smithfield
our exhange is in north main itmseems
what about you ??? where is yours based ,

Splendid

I rang them on Monday. Was told i could be connected this month.
I just had to get Eircom to switch the line back on. Luckily there was a special offer and i got it done for free. Just waiting on my Eircom account number to order it properely.

chorus techy

I'm in Templeogue (Walkinstown exchange) - *apparently* I am to be contacted by Friday to arrange delivery of modem, connection etc. etc.

machalla

Well I'm sitting here connected up via smartBB to the might interweb! Just thought I'd let people know its not a complete myth and to hold on.

Initial impressions are not too bad. I ran a quick speedtest and it seems to be giving me speeds of 1.5mb (on a line that failed Eircons BB test consistently).

I ran a speed test and I'm getting speeds of 1551 kbps on average.
http://www.abeltronica.com/velocimetro/pt/?idioma=uk&newlang=uk

Browsing seems pretty fast although I'm having problems getting some sites (well one www.fileplanet.com).

I'm just trying a quick download test by downloading ubuntu (linux debian based distro) and I seem to be getting around 230 KB/sec on average to the heanet (irish) server. This is on the firefox download manager.

So far pretty happy

Pings seem to be in the 30ms range to jolt.co.uk. All looks good so far.
----
2 21 ms 19 ms 19 ms 84.203.137.193
3 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms 84.203.130.117
4 30 ms 32 ms 32 ms pos2-0.ar04.ldn01.pccwbtn.net [63.218.52.1]
5 30 ms 32 ms 32 ms pos4-2.br02.ldn01.pccwbtn.net [63.218.12.166
6 31 ms 32 ms 32 ms lon1-10.nildram.net [195.66.226.59]
7 35 ms 32 ms 33 ms 84.12.225.130
8 32 ms 32 ms 33 ms jolt-gw.nildram.net [195.149.20.126]
9 33 ms 32 ms 33 ms 82.133.85.65

Trace complete.

Mountjoy Mugger

chorus techy wrote:

I'm in Templeogue (Walkinstown exchange) - *apparently* I am to be contacted by Friday to arrange delivery of modem, connection etc. etc.

Summerhill here. I was to be contacted over a week ago. Nothing since.

Emerson

Interesting.. what do you get on http://www.irishisptest.com/myspeed/ ?

OfflerCrocGod

1.5Mbps from a line that was failing before is pretty good I must say, do your download speeds stay at ~230K or do they fall off?

Emerson

I get 1.1megs off that site on BTIreland:2mb

1.71megs off irishisptest.com

edanto

I signed up with Smart almost a month ago, and was left with the impression that I'd have a modem inside 10 days.....

Still nothing, and a conversation last week with their Head of Broadband has explained that even though my local exchange (beggar's bush) has the Smart hardware, it's still not online. They expect to have it up and running by the end of April. She was helpful and also concerned that their sales force was leaving people with the impression that the modem would be delivered 10 days after the direct debit form was submitted.

So, beware - if anyone is thinking of getting an eircom line reconnected just for this offer, you will be paying eircon rental until the local exchange has the Smart equipment properly setup and your free line rental kicks in. Might be worth checking with them if that is the case before re-ordering your eircom line.

Also, she mentioned that they are having 'issues' with eircom (court case pending) in relation to transferring customers to the new service that already have eircom line rental and smart accounts for calls. Luckily, this didn't affect me, but it sounds like something to avoid.

All in all, it's reassuring that when their service does kick in (like for machalla) it seems to be all singing, all dancing. How long have we been waiting for this?!?

edanto

machalla

I'm getting 1.18mb downloads on that site. I think it may be slower due to the wireless network having a poor connection where this machine is. I had a laptop plugged in earlier upstairs and it was faster.

I downloaded Open Office earlier (70mb) in under 5 minutes and got a consistent speed of 220KB/Sec after it dropped from about 250KB/Sec.

Browsing speeds are zippy.

So still looking good. Mind you I may be the only person connected on the dolphins barn exchange for all I know. So the rest of you "Stay orf my bandwidth!!!".

beller b

sounds good what exchange are you on. They need to do something about thier sales team I spent 10 mins on the phone today trying to get a straight answer, he was the most annoying b*****d I have ever spoken to. I,m giving them one more week & then its off to esat maybe

julius

Hes on the "Dolphins Barn" exchange in Dublin.
Cork wont get it for a couple of months and your guess is as good as mine before it goes beyong the cities.

At least its a kick in the pants for eircoms/BT's most lucrative exchanges, in the cities, and they are forced to offer everyone, even those in the relative sticks like myself, a much more competitive deal.

Smart will never reach me...but Im not too bothered as its causing eircom to sweat which gives a better deal for all.

beller b

Duh! should be paying more attention to the last post.. I,m on the Santry Exchange Smart swear its ready for April I am not sure..... Rang Esat for the Crack they havent got the jist of this competition lark at all.. Wanted to charge me €90 installation BUT the modem is SELF,,,, YES SELF Install... Rip off Ireland is alive & well,,, come to think of it maybe I should copy this post to Rip Off Ireland LOL

julius

You pay the €90 for the background work in setting up the connection and physically moving the line to BT's equipment!!!!

For an technician to call to your house you would pay €190 or something or you can pay €90 for a self install!!!!

When
€190-€90
=> €100......then you get the cost of the technician/self install itself.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul007

If you order online, the setup fee for the self-install is €40.

damien

machalla wrote:

Well I'm sitting here connected up via smartBB to the might interweb! Just thought I'd let people know its not a complete myth and to hold on.

How's your voice service ?

julius

Paul007 wrote:

If you order online, the setup fee for the self-install is €40.

I was just explaining why he would have been charged €90 instead of having it for free.

On the question of the new €40/€30 charge for online ordering depending on service......will present trialers of BT Broadband who have yet to pay a single cent to BT be able to avail of the discounted prices.
As like most I ordered BT Broadband online, and would very much like to avail of the cheaper prices.

robo

I emailed them the other day - took 6 days for a reply!

But was told:

With testing, we anticipate the exchange will be in a a position to accept customers by the 29th of April. We will contact you in due course to advise of the modem delivery and Broadband installation.

I am on the Crown Alley exchange! So fingers crossed!!

machalla

damien.m I haven't really used the voice service so far apart from one incoming call. The sound quality actually seemed clearer than before but that may be my mind playing tricks with me. I did notice when I picked up the phone yesterday evening that the tone on it was different which made me think to plug in the router and see if it had connection.

Anyone ringing your old number gets transferred to the new one so thats not a bad thing. So far so good anyway.

One thing I noticed is that the router they send has got a firewall but its not enabled by default. It looks like the router needs some configuration for gamers if the firewall is turned on as it seemed to block me out of World of warcraft for instance and I need to figure out how to set up the correct ports for this.

damien

Ah ok, so they issued you with a new number ? Have they said you'll get back your old number or how long this forwarding will go on for ?

Did you get the option of keeping your old number but waiting until it's switched ? Was there any downtime ? I've been told by some surces and confirmed by others that it can take up to 6 weeks for a transfer if you want to keep your old number. During this time you will not have a voice service.

damien

Completely off-topic:

Job Advert in the Indo:

Broadband and Residential Customer Care Reps needed at Smart Telecom:

Due to phenomental growth, Smart Telecom, Ireland's fastest growing telecoms company is looking for top class customer care agents. If you have at least 1 years customer care experience, are computer literate, and believe you have a natural <b>apathy</b> with the customer, please apply now.

machalla

We just got a new number. They offered us the choice of waiting till the court case with Eircon is resolved but that could be anythime till july or later in their own estimation it seems. We didn't want to wait so just said transfer us to a new number. I don't think the old number will be coming back unless for some reason we swapped away from Smart entirely.

As far as I know the number allocated is in the range that is allocated to Smart as it starts with 01-6 rather than the old 01-4. So I presume that its here to stay for now. I'm not sure how long the "you will be transferred" message when dialing the old number will stay in place. Its not too important to us as theres not many people who have that number anyway.

There was no downtime for us in voice service anyway. It was working fully when I got home yesterday evening.

Oddly enough we generally found a much better response rate over email rather than phone. They were supposed to call us to tell us when the service had switched over but there was no call yesterday unless they called the landline. Or unless we hear from them today.

dub45

damien.m wrote:

Completely off-topic:

Job Advert in the Indo:

Broadband and Residential Customer Care Reps needed at Smart Telecom:

Due to phenomental growth, Smart Telecom, Ireland's fastest growing telecoms company is looking for top class customer care agents. If you have at least 1 years customer care experience, are computer literate, and believe you have a natural <b>apathy</b> with the customer, please apply now.

Natural apathy? Rare honesty on the part of an advertiser? I hope they take more care with their installations than they do with their proof reading!

Shougeki

robo - when did they contact you?

Im on crown alley also and they havent contacted me!!!

Brian

robo

I emailed them on the 7th of April asking when Crown Alley Exchange would be live and when I might be connected! And they emailed me back on the 13th of April saying what I posted above - With testing, we anticipate the exchange will be in a a position to accept customers by the 29th of April. We will contact you in due course to advise of the modem delivery and Broadband installation.

I shall keep you posted on how it goes.

EliCash

machalla wrote:

We just got a new number. They offered us the choice of waiting till the court case with Eircon is resolved but that could be anythime till july or later in their own estimation it seems. We didn't want to wait so just said transfer us to a new number. I don't think the old number will be coming back unless for some reason we swapped away from Smart entirely.

As far as I know the number allocated is in the range that is allocated to Smart as it starts with 01-6 rather than the old 01-4. So I presume that its here to stay for now. I'm not sure how long the "you will be transferred" message when dialing the old number will stay in place. Its not too important to us as theres not many people who have that number anyway.

There was no downtime for us in voice service anyway. It was working fully when I got home yesterday evening.

Oddly enough we generally found a much better response rate over email rather than phone. They were supposed to call us to tell us when the service had switched over but there was no call yesterday unless they called the landline. Or unless we hear from them today.

Did they say it was possible to go back to the old number (after the courtcase)? I'd like to sign up now but really want to keep my number. Is it Smart that set up the forwarding for you or Eircom? Not sure exactly what the deal is with the forwarding workaround. Anyone know who needs to be contacted to get a new number temporarily, with calls to the old number forwarded to the new one AND revert to the old number as soon as possible?? I know someone mentioned it before but don't remember reading exactly how to do it. Cheers!

machalla

I didn't bother asking about going back to the old number as its not a big issue for us.

I'm not sure who set up the transferred calls I presume its just part of the whole process. I wasn't even aware of it except that someone rang me last night and mentioned it.

Your best bet is to ask Smart I would say. Once the court case is resolved successfully I don't see anyone having the same problem as long as Eircon don't try and obstruct the process even more.

damien

machalla wrote:

Your best bet is to ask Smart I would say. Once the court case is resolved successfully I don't see anyone having the same problem as long as Eircon don't try and obstruct the process even more.

Ok, just for clarification. The Court Case is not about number porting. It is about an eircom taking exception to ComReg sending it directives. I don't wish to go deeper into this as the Court Case is opening today. Even if ComReg win, eircom will still have to create an automated process for all these transfers and a method to allow people to retain their number and smoothly transition over to the Smart system. This could take weeks or months.

julius

So eircom dosent want the regulator to regulate them????

What utter ignorance!!!!!