Switchover to SMART

celt2005

A Chairde,


Want to switch to SMART Telecom from EIRCOM, my understanding is I can hold onto my present phone number, and if am in first 100K subs, will not have to pay line rental.

Moneywise, I would now pay 35 euro a month for SMART Broadband / PSTN Line , the same rate for wireline phone calls, and have the 21 euro / month line rental scrapped.

Can you see any problems with my plan ????

lensman

I think smart telecom are being very cute here with the headline grabbing
"free line rental for life "can you switch ? have you met anyone who can or has ? ..I haven’t do they have 100k potential customers within their area ? I live 1mile from an eircom digital exchange and used to have eircom BB but smart telecom say the can't supply me, I can't even sign up in advance only express my interest :rolleyes...I think it's like a dog chasing his tail, lots try but very few manage to catch it meanwhile they get lots of useful contact info so they can bombard you with s*** in the future.
now with NTL & its the best move I ever made and I save a few bob too

machalla

The only problem with your plan is that currently you can't switch to Smart and keep your old number due to eircon stifling competition. You will need to switch number to get it done anytime soon.

As someone who was unable to get BB over our phoneline (thanks to eirCON) I am more quite happy with smartbb so far. They are the only company offering ADSL2 which has enabled me to get BB.

I think the smart rollout is based on the availability of a MAN to piggyback over. Feel free to correct me on this as I've not followed it all properly but if its not in your area then they can't (again correct me if wrong) provide the service.

beller b

machalla wrote:

The only problem with your plan is that currently you can't switch to Smart and keep your old number due to eircon stifling competition. You will need to switch number to get it done anytime soon.

As someone who was unable to get BB over our phoneline (thanks to eirCON) I am more quite happy with smartbb so far. They are the only company offering ADSL2 which has enabled me to get BB.

I think the smart rollout is based on the availability of a MAN to piggyback over. Feel free to correct me on this as I've not followed it all properly but if its not in your area then they can't (again correct me if wrong) provide the service.

Its good to finally be hearing from Smarts customers machalla,. How do you find it & what exchange are you on?

Mountjoy Mugger

beller b wrote:

Its good to finally be hearing from Smarts customers machalla,. How do you find it & what exchange are you on?

Go here: http://www.smarttelecom.ie/products/broadband/step1.htm

philologos

so smart telecom still gonna be 4 times faster than Eircom 8Mbit?? or was that just a good marketing stunt to catch the public out before we all reached 2Mbit sounds a bit sly to me m8

GarfieldConnoll

Jakkass wrote:

so smart telecom still gonna be 4 times faster than Eircom 8Mbit?? or was that just a good marketing stunt to catch the public out before we all reached 2Mbit sounds a bit sly to me m8

Jakkass,

Ad was produced when eircom home starter was 512/128. We launched 2048/128. Eircom subsequently upgraded home started to 1024/128. Still substantial price difference between the two.

Garfield.

Tazzle

It's still technically false advertising. Even if produced in good faith.

Peteer

GarfieldConnoll wrote:

Jakkass,

Ad was produced when eircom home starter was 512/128. We launched 2048/128. Eircom subsequently upgraded home started to 1024/128. Still substantial price difference between the two.

Garfield.

Hey Garfield!

I'm currently enjoying Smart Broadband, the only problem I have at the minute is the 128k Upload speed. Any plans to increase this to 256 or better?

Thanks,
Peter

LoBo

Any sign of Crown Alley being set up? Have a revised date yet?

beller b

LoBo wrote:

Any sign of Crown Alley being set up? Have a revised date yet?

Here.. anyone on Santry or Coolock heard anything back from Smart yet? These were down for May 9th.. I was just checking a friends number on Smarts web site & I see a little note beside May saying this date is only an indication & Smart will contact you WHEN your exchange goes live... Doesn't sound good , does it? PMed Garfield for info . I'll post when I know more.. Don't know if I can take any more delays||||

Legion

beller b wrote:

Here.. anyone on Santry or Coolock heard anything back from Smart yet? These were down for May 9th.. I was just checking a friends number on Smarts web site & I see a little note beside May saying this date is only an indication & Smart will contact you WHEN your exchange goes live... Doesn't sound good , does it? PMed Garfield for info . I'll post when I know more.. Don't know if I can take any more delays||||

Well its still only 5th May and they did say they'll be ready to take orders on the 9th so four more days to go..but dont be surprised if the May* on the website changes to June* July* etc.

LostinBlanch

Got an email at work saying Whitehall exchange was "going live" in late May, website originally ahd it for March / April. We can't wait and have moved over to Eircom for 6 months free trial, after that if Smart is up and running then we'll definitley look. Problem is we can't live horse and eat grass forever - Smart PR/Advertising heads note - a little truth goes a long way.

^whitey^

Anyone using Smart Telecom & Smart Broadband and getting the free line rental?

chorus techy

Tazzle wrote:

It's still technically false advertising. Even if produced in good faith.

It's four times faster than Irish Broadband's Ripwave service
And to most people, they haven't a notion about the speeds of broadband - all they care about is the unbelievably substantial price difference between smart and eircom.

And in response to another post, it maybe very difficult to switch to smart (believe me, I'm going through hell at the moment to change) but this is pretty much all eircom's fault - and it's worth it in the end if you don't have to pay over twice as much too greedy eircom when you could get smart!

CyberGhost

hey Garfield, any plans to move to Clondalkin?

beller b

Legion wrote:

Well its still only 5th May and they did say they'll be ready to take orders on the 9th so four more days to go..but dont be surprised if the May* on the website changes to June* July* etc.

5th of May 4 days to go ,with Sat & Sun in the middle, When given an exact date it looked like we were getting places,( I still hope we are, Garfields usually spot on & I havn't heard anything bad so am trying to keep positive). With the 10 days between getting the modem & being connected I'd really like to be hearing something by now....

Trampas

If u sign up 2 smart but cant get BB for a few months u shouldn't have to pay any rental until BB is available.

Has anyone done this??

I feel they are tryin 2 get d money in before spending it on the lines

beller b

Don't think they will connect you on voice untill BB is ready.. If you could surley it would speed up the process when the BB arrives... Garfield, can it be done??????

^whitey^

Trampas wrote:

If u sign up 2 smart but cant get BB for a few months u shouldn't have to pay any rental until BB is available.

Has anyone done this??

I feel they are tryin 2 get d money in before spending it on the lines

beller b wrote:

Don't think they will connect you on voice untill BB is ready.. If you could surley it would speed up the process when the BB arrives... Garfield, can it be done??????

Me and my dad went to sign up for ST and were just going to wait till SB became available to switch BB provider and avail of free line rental.

After a few phone calls all was well until they told us that if we agree to switch , that Smart Telecom is outside of all offers such as free line rental for life.

Now, we were prepaired to pay line rental untill SB was available (June-July), but they still said "...you'll have to confirm with SB about the offer..." (which we did). I say "...dont ye all work for the same company, surely if ye are offering all in one billing ye should know about Smart broadband?...". They say "...I work for Smart Telecom not Smart Broadband...".So we say grand we all ready did that, but ST still said "they're offering was outside any free line rental e.t.c".

So we say **** that, cancel everything, something sounds dodge here. But they still called us back trying to get us to switch.

We also got a welcome pack in the post which we sent back cancelling everything.

In my opinion that is rediculos we had to ring Smart BB and Smart Telecom separately loads of times to try and confirm everything, something which smart should have done.

So now we're just going to wait till June -July and look into it again.

JNive

I feel what she was trying to say, very badly, was that the free line rental is part of the broadband deal, and that if you took up the service right now, you would still need to pay line rental, until the broadband was made available to you etc.

You could of course register for the broadband and not avail of their phone service until you get the broadband, and you will still get your free line rental.

Rather than separate companies, they would indeed be separate 'support divisions', she just seemed to have very bad ways of expaining how things work.

Baud

LIGHTNING wrote:

machalla wrote:

The only problem with your plan is that currently you can't switch to Smart and keep your old number due to eircon stifling competition. You will need to switch number to get it done anytime soon.

You dont loose your old number! Thats the number one misconception flying around at the mo. If you check the smart webpage the make it clear that you keep your old number.I made the switch as I am sick to my tits of stinking IBB and the poor service.

Do you actually have the broadband installed? Machalla does, and he had to change his number.

L.

GarfieldConnoll

Baud wrote:

Do you actually have the broadband installed? Machalla does, and he had to change his number.

L.

You have to take a new number. Hopefully, in the future, you won't, but you do right now.

Garfield.

_Kaiser_

beller b wrote:

Here.. anyone on Santry or Coolock heard anything back from Smart yet? These were down for May 9th.. I was just checking a friends number on Smarts web site & I see a little note beside May saying this date is only an indication & Smart will contact you WHEN your exchange goes live... Doesn't sound good , does it? PMed Garfield for info . I'll post when I know more.. Don't know if I can take any more delays||||

My mam is on the Belcamp exchange - just checked it now on their site and it says Broadband is available...

halenger

I just saw the same thing. I haven't been watching the boards all too much since the upgrade but I haven't heard it mentioned that it went live.

If SMART can offer better upload and keeping of current phone number then I'll consider it. 40 euro a month for 2048/2048 is very tempting though. Need to get my site tested though.

^whitey^

JNive wrote:

and that if you took up the service right now, you would still need to pay line rental, until the broadband was made available to you etc.

Basically they didnt know anything about Smart broadband and refused to confirm that: If we switched from eircom to Smart Telecom we'd get the free line rental WHEN we switched from East BT Broadband to Smart Broaband.

Note: we were on the phone to several different people not just one person.

JNive

Ok, in conclusion, and to save you the hassle of having to endure that torture again lol.

Smart Broadband is a bundled along with the Smart Telecom Phone Service, meaning you cannot have their broadband and use another provider for calls.
SO
To get the free line rental you need to 'register' and return a direct debit form to Smart Telecom after going through the steps on the website, but do not register for their phone service in the meantime, unless you want to of course, it isnt required.
THEN
Approaching the time when they can be in your exchange they will contact you with a date, or close estimate.
NEXT
You will need to contact Esat to cancel your DSL/Bitstream ( whichever you are on ) and once that has been completed, (remembering of course that you may be liable for a small fee for the remaining month or part of ) you get back to smart to officially put in an order, and within 10 days of this, you should have your modem pack out to you, and your line enabled/connected and surfing happily.

As far as im aware, you are also given the chance to hold off from ordering, if you wish to keep your number, and therefore, still be assured of your free line rental, correct me if im wrong.

The main point of this is, before you can put the official order in with Smart, you cannot have ANY exisitng broadband connection on your line, including bitstream etc. And most providers require 1 months notice of termination, and you usually would have less than this notice from Smart, so the likelyhood is that you would incur a following month of Broadband charges from your current provider ( even while not connected, since its a 'penalty' fee for breaking contract )

Hope that sums most points of the changeover up.

^whitey^

Thanks JNive that makes things a bit clearer.
You say that "To get the free line rental you need to 'register' and return a direct debit form to Smart Telecom after going through the steps on the website"

Do we have to do this now or could we wait till BB becomes available, I presume we would still be in the first 100,000 in June/July.

Thanks for your help.

JNive

currently, the number of those registered is about the 17,000 mark or so apparently, i believe they estimated 70,000 sign ups by the end of the year if my memory is correct, so yeah, there should be no rush in registering to secure that free line rental.

Also, it is unclear at this point when customers will be able to use their eircom phone number on their Smart service, Smart themselves estimate July/August for this, but these things have a habit of drawing out, especially with eircom, obviously.

I should add that generally you should expect up to 10 working days without broadband, so get that dial-up modem dusted off :-)

And also, your contract with Smart doesnt commence, until your line is broadband enabled with them, meaning if for whatever reason you change your mind etc. you can cancel with no penalties. Again, correct me if im wrong

Serbian

Tazzle wrote:

It's still technically false advertising. Even if produced in good faith.

If you listen to the ad closely it says "Up to 4 times faster than some Broadband packages". I don't know if they always said that or if it has changed, but that's what it says now.

dub45

Serbian wrote:

If you listen to the ad closely it says "Up to 4 times faster than some Broadband packages". I don't know if they always said that or if it has changed, but that's what it says now.

Is there still anyone out there offerring 512?