Good news on the horizon for Irish dsl users

Serbian

From what I have heard, Eircom are stalling on increasing upload speeds as they don't want to eat into their leased line market. I know DSL doesn't have the reliability or the 'purity' of bandwidth that a leased line has, but I think some people would be tempted away from a leased line if they could get a decent upload speed on DSL.

zuma

Serbian wrote:

From what I have heard, Eircom are stalling on increasing upload speeds as they don't want to eat into their leased line market. I know DSL doesn't have the reliability or the 'purity' of bandwidth that a leased line has, but I think some people would be tempted away from a leased line if they could get a decent upload speed on DSL.

There must be something illegal about doing that???

Then again its not like we have a regulator who gives a damn....!!!

Praetorian

I think Eircom are probably within the law in this case, but Comreg should have defined broadband properly in the first place. They should have said 256 up, 128 up on dsl is slower than dual channel isdn!

zuma

Im not too bothered about the upload speed for most things...but to raise the download speeds above 2Mbit then a corresponding upload increase will be required.

2m/128k is absolutely stretching it at the moment 16:1!!!!!

bk

I certainly expect Eircom to launch SDSL products in urban areas.

Eircom is coming under increased pressure from Leaps SDSL products and IBB's SDSL like products. Also I expect both Smart and BT will start doing SDSL LLU. It is a very profitable area for competing telcos on LLU.

These products will be very expensive for consumers, however they will be very attractive to small to medium sized business who currently pay an arm and a leg for leased lines that they don't really need.

If Eircom don't offer SDSL they know they will get their lunch eaten by the other telcos who have a lot less to lose.

On VoIP, Eircom already offers VoIP to it's business customers. I don't understand why people are excited about VoIP across DSL, either way you will stay need to pay the line rental. You can currently get free call packages from UTV, BT and Eircom, so what is the big deal?

VoIP is only exciting across NTL's or IBB's network as then you don't need to pay line rental anymore.

The only reason I can think that Eircom would increase the upload speed on ADSL are:

1) problems with xbox users - this can be a surprisingly big problem.
2) increased competition from NTLs products which have higher upload speeds.
3) They are going to introduce a cheap 512k/128k product for around €20 and they want to increase the gap between it and their premium products 1m/256k, 2m/256k

zuma

IMHO a 512/128 BB package from eircom is only around the corner as a "replacement" for eircom Time!

The rest of your points are sound as well bk as VoIP is only of great use for DSL customers who make lots of calls outside Ireland.

AdMMM

I'd be a bit sceptical about this and even if it is true it will probably take an age to go through all the different departments in Eircom and the like!

air

bk wrote:

On VoIP, Eircom already offers VoIP to it's business customers. I didn't understand why people are excited about VoIP across DSL, either way you will stay need to pay the line rental. You can currently get free call packages from UTV, BT and Eircom, so what is the big deal?

VoIP is only exciting across NTL's or IBB's network as then you don't need to pay line rental anymore.

Not if you are currently paying line rental on multiple lines which you can then service through a single line with DSL and VOIP.
It mightnt mean much to home users with a single line, but to businesses it makes a whole lot of difference.

bk

air wrote:

Not if you are currently paying line rental on multiple lines which you can then service through a single line with DSL and VOIP.
It mightnt mean much to home users with a single line, but to businesses it makes a whole lot of difference.

Yes, that was my point. Eircom and almost all the other telcos and vendors are offering VoIP services and equipment already to drop into companies PABX systems. So yes it will save a business money, but it will have little effect on home users unless you make a lot of international calls.

causal

bk wrote:

So yes it will save a business money, but it will have little effect on home users unless you make a lot of international calls.

Yes, and that's true for those who must pay line rental anyway - as you quite rightly stated earlier.
But for those who don't pay line rental VoIP is most certainly King. For example:

I use blueface VoIP on NTL broadband.
My bi-monthly bill was typically with eircom €110 = line rental + calls
My bi-monthly bill is typically with blueface €22 = subscription + calls
That's an 80% saving this will be even higher since blueface new subscription options

So for anyone who doesn't have to pay line rental i.e. wireless, cable, or DSL with Smart, then VoIP is your new best friend.

causal