BT vs Digiweb

22-09-2005 4:26pm #1

Getting Broadband at home, don't need a top line product or anything, have done some research and I figure either EsatBT's Broadband Home or else Digiweb's DSL 1 would be the most suitable (don't want any bundled line rental or anything else), just need to pick between them. Here's how they line up:

Installation

BT: €50 Digiweb: Free Monthly Fee:

BT: €15 for 4 months, then €30 Digiweb: €29.95 Traffic Caps:

BT: 12 GB Download, 12 GB Upload Digiweb: 20 GB Total
The offers seem equal enough, I don't need a massive cap and contention ratios and speeds are the same in each, so does anyone have any particular recommendations? Would be leaning towards BT purely because they're a larger company so presumably would be more reliable

cgarvey · 22-09-2005 4:39pm

I'd offer a word of caution on BT Customer Service. I don't condone Digiweb or anything, but they do interact on these boards and seem to be answering post questions thus far. They're also more likely to appreciate your custom. So weigh up customer service (pre-sales, after-sales and tech suport) in your decision.

.cg

bk · 22-09-2005 4:59pm

I'd highly recommend getting BT's bundled line rental product, even if your parents are paying line rental at the moment, you will save them money.

BT + Line Rental = €40 pm
Digiweb + Eircom LineRental = €55 pm

Share the difference with the line rental payer.

holden · 22-09-2005 5:03pm

i can only recommend digiweb... i've been using their higher priced 3mbit package for months now and used the 2mbit before that. costly as it is, it is still the best broadband that this country offers. digiweb's customer support is friendly and helpful whenever issues arise and the service has been very stable throughout.

Sarsfield · 22-09-2005 7:20pm

I agree with bk. Is there a particular reason why you don't want bundled line rental? It IS much cheaper.

My BT service (1Mb and line rental bundled for €40/pm) is rock solid.

shortys94 · 22-09-2005 7:50pm

Digiweb is great, there support is great too, i have their satellite service and although i am payin way too much for what i have at least i know its the best i can get so far

pugleon · 23-09-2005 12:45pm

They are similar packages. But what I would take into consideration if it was me is:

Digiweb is wireless, wireless products will have issues. Goes without saying.

The metro product does offer an analogue over wireless phone service, but again, wireless so prone to issues. Even though its running under new wireless compliance standards.

Contention seems to be alot higher on digiweb. You can say what you want about BT, but their contention ratio is almost non-existant from what I've experienced. And their transit carriers are just super. Always get high speeds even to crappy poorly hosted sites. You really get what you paid for and then some. 1.7MB constantly...

Metro is a new product, unproven to the masses. BT have been doing broadband sucessfully for a good while now.

The only downside I can see to BT is their accounts dept. But they say they are working on that. So provided you keep an eye on the bill. Wheres the problem?

Theres my 50 cent anyways

derryyank · 23-09-2005 2:48pm

Besides Wireless Digiweb also offers DSL and Satellite and I do believe they have been around for while

jor el · 23-09-2005 3:07pm

I think digiweb also offer DSL over phone line, and that's probably what the OP is looking at judging by his post.

Anyway, if this is the case then both should be the exact same service as it's both Eircom re-sold. However, the tech support and customer support may be quite different. I've never been a digiweb customer so I can't say, but I can say plenty about BT. Their accounts dept is absolutely useless, worse even. Their customer service I've always found to be OK, just don't ring them at peek times, leave it till around 7PM and you'll get through much quicker. I've only rang tech support twice and they seemed to know what they were on about both times so I'd give that a thumbs up too.

Price wise, go with BB and line rental if you choose BT and you'll save €15 a month off the line rental alone. Unless of course your company, or parents, or some such are paying your line rental and you don't care about that.

crawler · 23-09-2005 5:05pm

derryyank wrote:

Besides Wireless Digiweb also offers DSL and Satellite and I do believe they have been around for while

1997 to be exact

bush · 23-09-2005 5:50pm

What way do you pay for digiweb, does it have to be direct debit or by credit card does anyone know?

23-09-2005 7:58pm

jor el wrote:

I think digiweb also offer DSL over phone line, and that's probably what the OP is looking at judging by his post.

Correct.

What's involved in changing line rental (from Eircom to BT)? Installation fees and work etc? What needs to be done? It wouldn't be much good if we had to change number. Didn't actually consider the bundled package

bk · 23-09-2005 8:26pm

28064212 wrote:

What's involved in changing line rental (from Eircom to BT)? Installation fees and work etc? What needs to be done? It wouldn't be much good if we had to change number. Didn't actually consider the bundled package

There is very little involved, you simply fill in the application form similiar to the BB one.

You get to keep the same phone number, same physical line, same telephones, etc. There are no install fees etc.

It is really very simple, they continue to use the Eircom line, you just pay BT instead and BT then pays Eircom to rent the line.

Maskhadov · 23-09-2005 9:00pm

i ordered digiweb back in July (when my town said it was live on their website) and they still havent got around to installing it.

Its very annoying talking to them on the phone, they just give the same bog standard reply out - I handed your details over to the technicans.

happy cookie · 24-09-2005 5:11pm

So quick question here... if Eircom still own the line (after all BT are paying Eircom for the line rental), what happens if there's any problems with it? will they start throwing the ball at each other and leaving the customer hanging in the middle?

bk · 24-09-2005 5:41pm

happy cookie wrote:

So quick question here... if Eircom still own the line (after all BT are paying Eircom for the line rental), what happens if there's any problems with it? will they start throwing the ball at each other and leaving the customer hanging in the middle?

Eircom are still responsible for line repairs, etc.

Sarsfield · 24-09-2005 5:56pm

But I think you should only have to deal with BT even in the case of a line fault. It's up to them to deal with Eircom.

pugleon · 25-09-2005 1:34pm

I had a few issues with the change over. Needed a new ECU/CCU for starters. Rang BT, who had eircom out next day. Why Eircom I'm not sure, thought they had their own engineers. Perhaps because line rental wasnt switched at that point.

Next time I rang bt about line changeover as it was about a week since dsl went live. And still saying incomplete on their website for pstn changeover. So they told me it was in the final stages. And that it should be finished in a few days. No more Eircom bills etc.

Sure enough, true to their word.

I'm expecting problems with the bill, since everyone else has had them. But with the call back function on customer service ya just wait for them to get back to ya. Go about ya business.

Speeds are perfect. And all in all its a better package then anyone else is offering on the Eircom network. So why not!

BT vs Digiweb

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