Digiweb outage

vinnyfitz

Today's Irish Times reports:

Digiweb clients suffer as net link cut
By Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter




One of Europe's biggest satellite firms suspended a supply contract with the Irish firm Digiweb yesterday, cutting off hundreds of businesses from the internet.

Digiweb, which holds the largest number of State contracts to supply broadband to Irish schools, said it was doing everything possible to have its satellite broadband service restored.

About 450 firms using Digiweb's broadband satellite service have been unable to use the internet since the Luxembourg firm Satlynx stopped supplying Digiweb on Monday morning.

The outage has also affected up to three of the State-financed group broadband schemes, which were set up to help people in rural areas access broadband.

A Digiweb spokesman confirmed that the firm had told the Government about the problem and had assured it would not affect the schools' project.

The roll out of the €20 million schools project, which was championed by the former Minister for Communications, Dermot Ahern, begins next month with Digiweb holding contracts to supply 1,428 schools with a broadband service. It is understood the Dundalk-based firm is now planning to use a different satellite provider to supply some schools.

Satlynx, which sells broadband services to other telecoms operators, said yesterday it suspended the supply contract with Digiweb because it was in breach of contract terms.

A Satlynx spokesman said it took the action as a last resort.

Digiweb said yesterday that it had no outstanding payments owing to Satlynx and was working to resolve the dispute.

Legal action by both parties is possible if the dispute continues.

Meanwhile, Digiweb is continuing to market satellite broadband services to customers.

Satellite broadband is much more expensive than other types of broadband such as DSL or fixed wireless. But it offers customers in remote locations and in rural areas their only access to the high-speed internet services.

Several Digiweb customers complained yesterday that they were extremely dissatisfied with the lack of information.

Digiweb initially told some firms that they would be reconnected shortly.

Ms Beatrice Hartog, a director of the Cork-based embroidery consultancy firm Bizzee Bee, said she had lost 36 working hours because of the internet outage.



© The Irish Times

damien

Oh good god.

seamus

Wow, what incompetence.

cgarvey

It can only cast more common-people scepticism on satellite (broad)band, which in the bigger scheme of things can only be a good thing.. however big outages like that aren't good for any subscribers ... send up the blimp

jmcc

cgarvey wrote:

It can only cast more common-people scepticism on satellite (broad)band, which in the bigger scheme of things can only be a good thing.. however big outages like that aren't good for any subscribers ... send up the blimp

How would sending Mary Harney to Luxembourg solve the problem? If Digiweb/Satlynx don't get this sorted out soon, they may lose a lot of customers. Though it would provide a nice marketing advantage to the Wifi/*wan people if they ever get their act together.

Regards...jmcc

jwt

Several customers of mine are already sorting out ISDN and leased lines pending finding an alternative BB supplier.



And none of them were made aware that this was anything other than a minor technical glitch!

Three guesses what they said when they found out it was a contract dispute between Digiweb and SatLynx



John

SkepticOne

Now would be a good time for DCMNR to ask themselves why third-world solutions are still necessary in Ireland. Would it not be better to sort out the core problems first?

Cryos

SkepticOne wrote:

Now would be a good time for DCMNR to ask themselves why third-world solutions are still necessary in Ireland. Would it not be better to sort out the core problems first?

Im sensing a good angle for Ireland Offline here ?

Gone West

Its strange that Digiweb didn't have some auxialliry backup connection to the internet. This is terrible for them, since a disproportionately large percentage of their users are business users.

edit: silly typo

Cryos

IBB????

Digiweb not Irish Broadband

markholman

Our company is based in ruraly north Wexford. Our only option was to get satellite "Broadband" from Digiweb.

After a dropping a very large amount of money to buy the equipment, we've been supplied with something that could only just about be described as broadband internet access. The crippling factor is that if you use the internet access they provide, they end up throttling you during the day. Sometimes we'd end up with access that's slower than dial-up. even though we're coughing up €99 per month.

Now we have this outage, which they tried to fob off as a technical fault. What a joke. They made no attempt to contact their customers, their staff know ablsolutely NOTHING and their recorded message is a great thing to listen to if you want a bit of a laugh, BTW if you like listening to TAKE THAT elevator music.. just give them a call and you'll be bound to hear it! Give them a call, I dare ya! 0429396410.

Oh and another very funny thing. We received a letter in the post from Digiweb on Monday, entitled "Improvements to Your Satellite Broadband Services".. this is the same day that the connection went down and nowhere in the letter does it state what the improvements will be! Now I know! None At ALL!

What are we gonna do!

Is there anything we can do?

Here's hoping it'll be back online soon,

Regards,

Mark

dahamsta

Jesus, is it offline since Monday? I'd sue their asses into the ground. (Although you'd have to wonder if there'd be any point. Next weeks issue of the Phoenix should be interesting either way...)

adam

jwt

SkepticOne wrote:

Now would be a good time for DCMNR to ask themselves why third-world solutions are still necessary in Ireland. Would it not be better to sort out the core problems first?

While this was my own initial reaction as well, on further reflection, this is not a problem inherent in satellite itself.

If A WISP or DSL reseller ran into contractual "difficulties" their clients too would be in the same boat.

That said Digiweb need to rethink their customer notification policy. And secondly rethink their backup plans if their primary backhaul supplier has problems.


This raises an interesting question about all resellers, WISPs and Sat sellers. What secondary backhaul suppliers have they sourced and how long would it take them to migrate their systems to the backup???????



John

Cryos

jwt wrote:

While this was my own initial reaction as well, on further reflection, this is not a problem inherent in satellite itself.

If A WISP or DSL reseller ran into contractual "difficulties" their clients too would be in the same boat.

That said Digiweb need to rethink their customer notification policy. And secondly rethink their backup plans if their primary backhaul supplier has problems.


This raises an interesting question about all resellers, WISPs and Sat sellers. What secondary backhaul suppliers have they sourced and how long would it take them to migrate their systems to the backup???????



John

Well if your reseller i would suppose if the dsl service from eircom goes down you would be placed on whatever secondry system eircom have. Cos if your a reseller you might be technically concidered a customer of eircom also, therefore resellers would not have to source their own secondary backhaul as whatever eircoms secondry solution is it would take effect to them to.

As for the rest i dont know

1340harley

Current canned response coming from Digiweb is:

"Due to the dispute with our Satellite provider our Satellite Broadband service has not been reactivated. Digiweb are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience caused to our Customers due to this outage and we are working tirelessly on having the issue resolved.
We will have regular service notice updates and will do everything in our power to keep our Customers informed. Regretfully we don't have an exact time for service restoration at this point but we will provide all information as it comes to hand, we hope to have service restored sooner rather than later."

Despite assurances from there support area thatthe connection would be back yesterday evening, still nothing.

Also they are still not bothering to keep customers informed as to the situation and expected down time. The question as to wether they will be compensating their customers for this has not even been responded to even though they have been asked several times.

I wonder if i can claim the payments back from my Credit Card company seing as they are not providing the service that they promised.

dahamsta

Blitz wrote:

Well if your reseller i would suppose if the dsl service from eircom goes down you would be placed on whatever secondry system eircom have.

He's talking about wireless and satellite providers (he did actually say). Satellite is very expensive so, as in this case, it seems unlikely operators have alternatives available if their upstream pulls the plug on them. And most small to medium wireless operators have just one breakout point to the Internet. You'd wonder about some of the larger ones too, given this...

adam

vinnyfitz

1340harley wrote:

I wonder if i can claim the payments back from my Credit Card company seing as they are not providing the service that they promised.

Good question. You should be entitled to some refund.
Why don't you ask ComReg what your rights are?
They have responsibility for consumer protection in the sector

pollyantic

Was due to get Digiweb satellite installed next week.
Not a chance in hell i'll be using them now.

Mediasat

If you are a Digiweb satellite customer that is without service, you can get service restored through <.cg tut tut>.

If you own your satellite equipment, we should be able to reconnect your satellite service in a few hours.

For details, please contact <.cg tut tut> or <.cg tut tut>.

This posting is aimed at those that are currently without service, so they can get their service back, it isn't meant as a general advertisement.
If Digiweb aren't going to help, at least there is an option for those people that they may not have been aware of.

dahamsta

Look everyone, it's an ambulance chaser!

damien

We just sent MediaSat a bill for advertising on our forum. The terms and conditions of our website state that if you are going to engage in advertising you agree to €500 administration fee plus whatever DeVore charges for ads. Thank you, please come again.

cgarvey

Mediasat, shame on you.. I wonder if you'd be so quick to post here if you yourselves had an issue with your provider?

No advertising is allowed, which is clearly identified in the charter, let alone the low/oppertunistic advertising you've enaged in here.

Read the charter before posting here again please.

SparkyLarks

markholman wrote:

What are we gonna do!

Is there anything we can do?

Here's hoping it'll be back online soon,

Regards,

Mark

Surely That company was answering the question posed by Markholman and thus the post was a valid one, rather than being advertising as such, call for the forum mods not me but anyway

As this is my first post her( long time listner first time caller) I don't want to step on anyone's toes but if someone turns to Ireland Offline saying my Satellite connection has gone down what can I do, then Ireland Offline should point them to any company that can help them get online again.

Which should what this thread should discuss, i.e what Digiweb customer can do to get service back.

Anyway keep up the good work

Jana

Hi,

I'm one of Digiweb's foreign customers and - since Digiweb has (of course) not provided me with truthful information and since there also is no way to get the Irish Times here in Sweden - I had to find out about Digiweb's misleading (dis)information policy ("we're experiencing some difficulties with the satellite platform today", "it's a technical problem", "our engineers are working to resolve the problem asap" etc.etc.) by contacting Satlynx and afterwards confronting Digiweb's "support" with their statements.

I have been in touch with other affected customers outside Ireland - primarily in Germany - who all share the same experience: Digiweb has not made any attempt to keep their customers informed about a) the true reasons for the outage, b) the expected down time ("service might be restored tomorrow, next week or next month, we just don't know"), c) about refunds or less d) about compensations.

Digiweb's "support" pointed out to me yesterday that according to §18 of their terms and conditions the service was distributed on an "as is" and "as available" basis "without warranties of any kind" and that access to the service was not guaranteed. However, as I see it this paragraph can only be interpreted as refering to technical circumstances and can certainly not comprehend possible contractual disputes between Digiweb and another company resulting in a service outage.

I suggest that those who have become victims of Digiweb's dispute with Satlynx should stay in touch and exchange information in order to take concerted action if necessary. A majority of the satellite service subscribers (including myself) seem to use the service for business purposes and are experiencing problems which go far beyond (as Digiweb like to put it) "inconvenience". I myself am determined to not just take Digiweb's inacceptable behavior lying down and I hope that all the others affected by Digiweb's breach of contract are not going to let them get away with it either.

I am not a lawyer but I suppose that we at least have a chance to get out of the contract without any "cancellation fees" and to get a refund of the money we have paid for the satellite service in advance if we collect written (!) proof for their attempt to cover up the outage as a technical problem and if we can document their refusal to make statements as to when the service will be resumed.

There is a German board that also discusses the Digiweb outage issue and I'm sure they'll welcome comments/info in English: http://sat.citymeeting.de/forum/index.php/f/1/e3e8c94ebd79b55be724be2f0777e2ae/

I will point out the thread in this board to the German board as well; you can contact me at tlaloc23REMOVETHIS@gmx.de (you'll need to remove the "REMOVETHIS", of course).

Jana

SkepticOne

Jana, I'm surprised that in Sweden people need to resort to satellite resellers. Are you in a remote area? Are there any other options?

cgarvey

SparkyLarks wrote:

Surely That company was answering the question posed by Markholman and thus the post was a valid one, rather than being advertising as such, call for the forum mods not me but anyway

I disagree .. he was point out one of the MANY satellite solutions.. who are also a reseller of satellite bandwidth. It's more than coincidence that that one solution offered was his own. That's pimping. It was also his/her only contribution to the forum, ever.

Personally, I don't see that as being a solution to poor markholman's downtime anyway, as that's just passing the same risk on to another company (and, most likely, costing him more in exit fees and new connection fees).

.cg

damien

SparkyLarks wrote:

I don't want to step on anyone's toes but if someone turns to Ireland Offline saying my Satellite connection has gone down what can I do, then Ireland Offline should point them to any company that can help them get online again.

Sparky this is true, however MediaSat only appear to be on here to take customers from Digiweb. Now if MediaSat were to offer to help Digiweb customers and Digiweb by giving them a service until Digiweb restores their own I'd be all for that. Would MediaSat be willing to do that ? Help out a fellow company ? Surely it's better to work with fellow companies and fight the incumbent ?

In regards to helping Digiweb customers I've emailed Colm Piercy from Digiweb and asked them to come on to this forum and explain the current situation. We've been getting emails about this for the past few days and I notice that some people have made complaints to ComReg too.

Digiweb need to start giving more information before their reputation is severely tarnished.

Cryos

I would just like to have a little rant on about this:

I do not condone what mediasat guy has said, however the question was asked and a solution was given, i do not belive media sat was in any breach of the charter as it was not a New topic that specifically advertising the service, simply saying Someone asked what he was going to do, media sat gave them a solution, therefore he has provided a solution for a problem which effects a fair few users.

You see this happen all the time in the broadband section altho you will not see a direct representative from a company or a large body, you have users sugesting solutions for other users not happy about Serivce A so they sugest Service B and a brief outline of how to get that service.

That is my 2 cents here.

Jana

SkepticOne wrote:

Jana, I'm surprised that in Sweden people need to resort to satellite resellers. Are you in a remote area? Are there any other options?

I really wish there were other options!
I am aware that Sweden has quite an "IT"/"telecommunication country" image abroad, but in many areas (especially in rural areas) a dialup modem connection is all you can get.

C_Lan Goku

I work in a pc shop in the west of ireland and digiweb just came to the area a few mounts ago, now we offer wireless BB to peole around the town as well as digiweb,and we sell a lot of our service to home users , a lot of the busness users went to digiweb cause if the free webspace ,
we clocked digiwebs dl rate at 115 during the day on a 1 meg connection that is hardly better that ISDN , and now all the busness are running to us for answers cause they cannot get trough to digi web ,
but all we can say is we told them you so

o well more custemers for us

jwt

Would someone from Mediasat care to PM either Damien or I about the above posts or mail info AT irelandoffline DOT org.

In particular explaining the comments about school Sat, pimping and ambulance chasing.

John