Full details of ADSL Pricing and Caps - eircom's Telecommunications Scheme

Blue Max

The extract below is from the Telecommunications (Amendment) (No 10) Scheme, 2001 document released on Tue 11th Sept by eircom.

Caps are 3Gb, 4Gb 6Gb and unlimited for
i-stream solo, multi, plus, and enhanced respectively.

Excess is charged at 3 cents per Mb which is 2.26 pence excl VAT at 20%.

The original document can be found at
http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/2001no6.pdf

These limits are daft. These caps represent 13 hours of usage in a month for solo. There are 720 hours in a month so eircom are planning that each user be capped at 1.8% percent of capacity.

Can someone give us the actual cost of broadband capacity via a Global Crossing STM1 into Tier 1 of the Internet backbone because this is the true cost to eircom of giving us access.

Elsewhere in the ADSL contract for wholesale access eircom show 24 users are shared per 1 Mbit PVC back to their ADSL POP. Again, dividing 24 users into 1 Mbit gives each user an average of 41 kb if all were receiving at the same time.

What genius is doing the planning for this?

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Part 12.8

eircom i-stream

(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
eircom i-stream is a facility whereby a telephone customer connected to the fixed telephone network may avail of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line internet connection.
There shall be charged to and paid by the telephone customer in respect of the eircom I-stream facility

the charges specified in Part 21 of Section 1 of this scheme. The charges for Asymmetric Digital

Subscriber Line service are in addition to any charges payable in respect of telephone or other

services or telecommunication lines.

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Telecommunications (Amendment) (No.10) Scheme 2001 Section 1

Part 21
eircom i-stream
(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)

Level Bandwidth Download Connection Monthly
Limit(4) charge Rental

eircom i-stream solo 512kbs Downstream 3GB £98.45 £77.97
128kbs Upstream (125.00) (99.00)

eircom i-stream multi 512kbs Downstream 4GB £98.45 £110.26
128kbs Upstream (125.00) (140.00)

eircom i-stream plus 1MB Downstream 6GB £98.45 £129.95
256kbs Upstream (125.00) (165.00)

eircom i-stream 1MB Downstream Unlimited £98.45 £179.57
enhanced 256kbs Upstream (125.00) (228.00)


Note :

1 A customer requesting the connection of an eircom i-stream access must make available a telephone exchange line that is rented from the company to facilitate the connection of such access.

2 eircom i-stream connection and monthly rental charges are payable in addition to the telephone exchange line connection and monthly rental charges.

3 It shall be the responsibility of the eircom i-stream customer to ensure that compatible customer premises equipment is available to enable the company to effect the connection of such access.

4 Where customer usage exceeds the specified download limit appropriate to their chosen level, the company reserves the right to charge the customer for the excess use or to request the customer to select a more appropriate level for its usage. In the event of a customer refusing or neglecting to select an appropriate level eircom may upon due notice terminate the provision of the facility to the customer. The charge for excess usage is 2.26p / (3 cent) per MB.

5 Upgrades or downgrades to existing eircom i-stream access levels shall not incur additional connection charges. Monthly rental charges for upgraded or downgraded eircom i-stream access shall be based on the revised bandwidth.

6 Transfer of an eircom i-stream access where service is continuous and / or removal of an eircom i-stream access to another location will be subject to the appropriate connection charge as specified in the table above.

7 An eircom i-stream access is subject to a minimum contract period of twelve months. Where an eircom i-stream access is ceased during the minimum twelve month contract period the customer is liable to pay the monthly rental for the balance of the unexpired contract period up to a maximum of six months rental.

8 eircom i-stream is not necessarily supplied in all areas.

9 All charges shown are exclusive of value added tax.

(Effective from 2/10/01) Part 21 / Page 1

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infomat

This is dismal:
You must also pay line rental on top of a monthly charge.
Also note that you would be better cost wise running up 4GB on the SOLO offering rather than going with multi but note 4 covers this.

Paulw

This is a TOTAL disgrace !!! How can this be allowed ??

We really need to push home our anger and frustration to Eircom.

I certainly hope that Esat or Colt offer a cheaper service ... watch people migrate to them then !!!

How is this allowed in our country ???

Gladiator

i download 3.5 gigs a month on ntl, best fiver ive ever spent,
and i will continue to say **** you eircon is this fashion.

Ps the odtr does not set retail prices only wholesale

Fergus2

The limit is 3 gigaBYTES, not gigaBITS..

that's about 13.65 hours at sustained 512kbps, or 286 hours at sustained 4.1kbps

I bet the wholesale price is about 10p less than the retail price, to make sure there is no competition. I suppose this is what eircom mean by "operating at a tiny margin". If you're reading Soula, what a con..

pete

Can someone give us the actual cost of broadband capacity via a Global Crossing STM1 into Tier 1 of the Internet backbone because this is the true cost to eircom of giving us access.

Can't answer that, but we got some Worldcom leased line prices in work 2 weeks ago - obviously seriously higher prices than eircom are charging for ADSL, but i have to say i saw no mention of bandwidth caps in any of the documentation.

If they don't have any, why do eircom?

Gladiator

im talking actual bytes, i can download about 3.5 in around 190 hours each month, keep in mind ive an extremely good 56k ntl connection, which a connection speed of 49k and a constant download of about 5.4k /sec

pete

not that it's any of my business, and maybe i don't want to know , but 3.5 gigabytes of what , and where the hell do you keep it???

Gladiator

ive 113 gigs of capacity. ive never actually downloaded 3.5 gigs in one go, like im not sad enough to give it ago and count over the weekend, but on downloading big files i adverage 19.5mbs an hours, now i know thats more then 3.5gigs but i average out that i wouldnt have that speed 100% of the time and i couldnt stay on 100% of the time.

Bacisly i could download at least that a month if i put my mind to it because the speed it there.

Delphi91

Originally posted by Blue Max
...These limits are daft. These caps represent 13 hours of usage in a month for solo. There are 720 hours in a month so eircom are planning that each user be capped at 1.8% percent of capacity....

Not if you read this account from Bizplus.ie who've been trialing ADSL:

BP Comment
Bizplus.ie has been trialling ADSL for the past two months. The service connects seamlessly and there is none of the frustration associated with dial-up internet access.

However download speeds are very hit and miss. On a Saturday morning, when the internet world is quiet, you can download big files much faster than over a 64k leased line.

On occasion, we've seen transfer rates of 70k, 80k or even 90k per second.

It's a different story during a normal work day. This morning for instance, the ADSL download speed was coming in at under 1k per second - much worse than even an antique dial-up 14.4 modem.

Apparently this variation has to do with the number of ADSL users connected to a particular exchange who are active simultaneously.
If you're the only user who's 'live', then ADSL really is internet Nirvana.

However if you're one of a crowd, you're not better off and possibly worse off. (11/09/01)

Mike

Gladiator

it actually cheaper do download on a 1891 56k connection

gurramok

so cheapest option is circa £100 + line rental @3 gb cap
where did the xtra zero come from ?:rolleyes:
its at least 3 times the cost of it in uk !!

last month I downloaded 6gb on ISDN 64k
the bill was about £130, so it is 'cheaper' than getting the equivalent 6gb cap in ADSL !!
its sad when to think that pay per min is now 'cheaper' than flat-rate:mad:

kamobe

Eircom simply don’t get the message, and until they do, we'll be stuck with unforgivable prices.

A MASS demonstration is need, be it a no internet day, pickets outside either government offices or eircom, or maybe a rally. Until such a drastic measure is taken, eircom will refuse to listen. They have just released a service for no one. No casual user will take that up, far too expensive. And the cap will ensure that relatively few 'hard core' users will take it up. They have lied and cheated, and are now continuing to take advantage of their market position. This has to end.

JamworkS

7 An eircom i-stream access is subject to a minimum contract period of twelve months. Where an eircom i-stream access is ceased during the minimum twelve month contract period the customer is liable to pay the monthly rental for the balance of the unexpired contract period up to a maximum of six months rental

Have a look to it, when it says about a minimum 12 months contract, but then says that if you cancel it, you could be liable of paying up to 6 months to Eircom in breakage of contract damages. But it doesn't say anything about if they can cut us off of the service or not, or in waht period of time they have to tell us before they do.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, can they do that anyway?

JamworkS