Happy Camper after leaving Eircom for Smart

romperstomper

Hi all,

I have successfully completed the move from Eircom 1Mb to Smart 2MB. It is effectivately half price for twice the product and im delighted. The only caveat is that once u cancel Eircom, it can be up to 2 weeks wait before Smart will be online in your home. The delay is Eircom's fault (I have had this verified by a relative that works there). Even though the blackout was a pain it was totally worth it. Big thanks to Garfield Connell who kept me sane during the blackout by assuring me that while it might take a while it would be worth it. He was right.

RS

viking

Glad to hear you're happy with the move.

Did you have to change your telephone number?

Viking

RangeR

romperstomper wrote:

Hi all,
The delay is Eircom's fault (I have had this verified by a relative that works there)

I'm just curios, did this relative say HOW it was Eircom's fault. I'm interested to know how Eircom delayed things. I had a similar issue with them a few months back.

viking

IrishTLR wrote:

I'm just curios, did this relative say HOW it was Eircom's fault. I'm interested to know how Eircom delayed things. I had a similar issue with them a few months back.

Eircom can't/wont unbundle a telephone line and do number porting to another operator on the line at the same time. Hence the down time while the two seperate processes occur. Ideally other operators would like these processes to occur simultaneously but eircom say their systems can't handle it and to update their systems would cost millions and millions.

More info on the current issues here

RangeR

viking wrote:

Eircom can't/wont unbundle a telephone line and do number porting to another operator on the line at the same time. Hence the down time while the two seperate processes occur. Ideally other operators would like these processes to occur simultaneously but eircom say their systems can't handle it and to update their systems would cost millions and millions.

More info on the current issues here

I know what the Eircom party line is and am aware that their employees follow it to the letter. I'm just interested in some REAL confirmed report as to what they did to slow things down.

We all know that Eircom do it, we know their "reasons", just that we have an insider here who MAY be able to tell us the inside perspective.

Below is a bit off topic, but I just want to explain my reasons for asking.
======

In my case, for example, I signed up for smart broadband but it's not available in my area yet. However, I switched to their phone service as well. I filled out all the needed forms but got a letter from Smart 2 weeks after that saying that Eircom won't transfer as I gave incorrect information on my form. I then rang Eircom to confirm the information I sent them. It was all perfect. It was Eircoms way of keeping me for another month and maybe get me to blame Smart for it.

Blub2k4

I waited 2 months for the switchover and if it had not been for the fact that I know Eircom were playing silly buggers and Garfields reassurances and excellent support I'd have thrown the towel in as well.
Glad I waited now

viking

IrishTLR wrote:

I'm just interested in some REAL confirmed report as to what they did to slow things down.

We all know that Eircom do it, we know their "reasons", just that we have an insider here who MAY be able to tell us the inside perspective.

The reason eircom give for the delay in switchover, and this is confirmed by OLO's, is given in the URL I linked to:

Eircom's internal systems use the actual telephone number as the “unique identifier” in their database. Each record in the database stores all the associated services (voicemail, diverts, etc) in relation to that particular telephone number. If that telephone number is unbundled and a GNP order is then placed by the other operator to move the number onto their network, eircom's internal systems identify that number as having moved off eircom's network and therefore all services associated with it are cancelled including LLU. This results in the customers telephone line being completely cut off when the number is ported!

Now whether this is true or not, no-one can verify but it does seem plausable that eircom's systems were never created with LLU in mind and that the actual telephone number *is* the “unique identifier” in their database.

Unless eircom expose the DB structure of their internal systems then we have no way of verify what they say.

IrishTLR wrote:

Below is a bit off topic, but I just want to explain my reasons for asking.
======

In my case, for example, I signed up for smart broadband but it's not available in my area yet. However, I switched to their phone service as well. I filled out all the needed forms but got a letter from Smart 2 weeks after that saying that Eircom won't transfer as I gave incorrect information on my form. I then rang Eircom to confirm the information I sent them. It was all perfect. It was Eircoms way of keeping me for another month and maybe get me to blame Smart for it.

A lot of this type of shennanigans is occuring, you should contact ComReg to voice your compllaint.

Stephen

You'd think the account number would be the unique identifier in eircom's DB.

viking wrote:

Eircom can't/wont unbundle a telephone line and do number porting to another operator on the line at the same time. Hence the down time while the two seperate processes occur.

So are you saying that you've actually got to keep your phone number (after the delays) and get smart? As far as I was aware you still had to give up your number (or pay eircom some ridiculous fees to forward it) to switch over to smart? If so, great!

Zulu

I'm currently waiting 4 months. I hope it'll be worth it. My first taste of Smart is bitter though - I've had a series of lies told to me ("account was sent to eircom yesterday"; "account was sent last week"; "sending your account today"; "account is ready to be sent", you know the drill...) :mad:

Hopefully.
Hopefully, they'll have it sorted for me today. They called late last night too tell me they're sending my modem via courier. That being said, I specifically asked them for account details over the phone as I have my own router, but I was too tired last might to argue.

kaizersoze

Irish TLR wrote:

In my case, for example, I signed up for smart broadband but it's not available in my area yet. However, I switched to their phone service as well. I filled out all the needed forms but got a letter from Smart 2 weeks after that saying that Eircom won't transfer as I gave incorrect information on my form. I then rang Eircom to confirm the information I sent them. It was all perfect. It was Eircoms way of keeping me for another month and maybe get me to blame Smart for it.

That's another bone of contention. It's been discussed before on Boards (and confirmed by Garfield AFAIK) that if you have Smart telephone service on your line, Eircom won't unbundle it. You have to transfer back to Eircom and get a new Eircom account number. Then the LLU process can begin.

viking

Stephen wrote:

You'd think the account number would be the unique identifier in eircom's DB.

Everything on a telephone line is linked to the phone number. When eircom port a number from an 'LLU line' to an OLO, their system identifies that number/line as having moved away from eircom, hence all services are cancelled on that line (including LLU - which is an eircom service). Therefore, the customer's line will get cut off when the number is ported !

Stephen wrote:

So are you saying that you've actually got to keep your phone number (after the delays) and get smart? As far as I was aware you still had to give up your number (or pay eircom some ridiculous fees to forward it) to switch over to smart? If so, great!

Thats what I was wondering about when I asked the OP.

LoBo

romperstomper wrote:

The only caveat is that once u cancel Eircom, it can be up to 2 weeks wait before Smart will be online in your home.

Just to say I'm currently in the middle of switching from UTV broadband to smart, and despite the excellent price I'm extremely disappointed with the downtime. Current estimate 1 month. That's ridiculous.

With Garfield's help i've had all forms needed in smarts hands & correct before switching off UTV & yet it still takes this long.

27th July: UTV disconnected
28th July: smart attempt to move us over, eircom fails it as broadband is still 'on the line' (apparantly it takes at least a week for this mystery to solve itself)
9th Aug: smart finally able to initiate the move with eircom (so that's exactly 2 weeks of downtime with no reason)
23rd Aug: smart bb estimated to be on (it takes two weeks to transfer).

1 month's downtime to switch providers is ridiculous. Sort it out.
:mad:

Blub2k4

LoBo wrote:

1 month's downtime to switch providers is ridiculous. Sort it out.
:mad:

Yeah one would ALMOST be tempted to stay with Eircom, but that would be the plan it would seem, stick it out, it will be sorted out at some point in the future and this anti-competitive practice will stop.

odie

What is really needed is for Eircom to be split into 3 groups like BT in the UK. One for Wholesale, which other Telecommunications and ISP companies can deal with and one for the public to set up Home and business phones, then a 3rd for their ISP BT Broadaband.

I have dealt with BT in the UK when I worked for an ISP here providing support for broadband customers in the UK.

BT's systems are linked via their database, and it runs very smoothly, UK ISP's have access to parts of the BT wholesale database so that they can submit orders for ISP migrations from BT no matter who the provider is.

When training, a BT manager told us the cost to BT was a few of million squids, but they recouped a lot of this from licensing the access to other ISP's and telco's. So the cost is minimal in the end.

Eircom are just whingeing so that they can make it as difficult as possible for other telco's, ISPS to move in on their territory.

OFCom in the UK made BT do this as part of their unbundlling the LLU, so there is no reason COMReg can't do the same here. All they have to do is follow the UK example as Eircoms setup is virtually the same.

dub45

LoBo wrote:

Just to say I'm currently in the middle of switching from UTV broadband to smart, and despite the excellent price I'm extremely disappointed with the downtime. Current estimate 1 month. That's ridiculous.

........................

1 month's downtime to switch providers is ridiculous. Sort it out.
:mad:

Its even messier if you have your line rental with UTV - its hard to coordinate the bb cancellation and the move of the telephony back to Eircom so as to minimise the bb downtime.

N.B. It can take a month to move the telephony back and you need to contact Eircom to do this. So plan well if you are thinking of moving to Smart and your telephony is not with Eircom as it has to be brought back and a new Eircom account number obtaned before you can begin your move to Smart.

bingo9999

really glad the wait was worth it. I'm in the middle of that wait myself so thats good to hear. Eircom are sickening with those practices and deserve to be whipped for it. It has only made me more opposed to them and now switch the phone line over to smart too, I hope they crash and burn for this!

lardboy

I've just got my first bill for Smart and it has brought home just how much cheaper it is. This monthly bill is for only €40, as opposed to a bimonthly €170-190 that we got from eircom when we were on Home plus.

It's half the price for a superior product, the only downsides being the loss of number and a month downtime while switching. Bite the bullet and make the move people, you won't regret it.

arikv

lardboy wrote:

I've just got my first bill for Smart and it has brought home just how much cheaper it is. This monthly bill is for only €40, as opposed to a bimonthly €170-190 that we got from eircom when we were on Home plus.

It's half the price for a superior product, the only downsides being the loss of number and a month downtime while switching. Bite the bullet and make the move people, you won't regret it.

I second that, it's great and fast.

Only wish I had a better router

opus

Went live today on the Quaker Road exchange in Cork, happened on the day that Smart said it would. Had to change my phone number but not a big deal. Impressed with how straight forward it's been so far, it's around two months behind schedule compared to last Feb which isn't too bad considering all the doom & gloom I heard about how long they would be delayed by Eircom's rearguard action.