Digiweb vs UTV vs BT

EliCash

I've been comparing all of the broadband/phone providers available in Dublin and seeing as Smart and NTL are unavailable to me, I'm considering UTV, BT and Digiweb Metro. I've experienced at first hand BT's wacky billing madness but have been impressed by their broadband consistency. If Digiweb is anything like Irish Broadband, which I've seen in action, then I'll be avoiding them. UTV seems to be solid these days and their phone package is decent. Do you need to pay line-rental with Digiweb? I presume not. Digiweb has high contention so I think it could be slower than UTV and BT at times couldn't it?

Here's some of the info on those three:

UTV
2M Down/128k Up
24:1 Contention
16GB Cap
€40 per month (€26 for 6 months)
€24 line-rental per month
€30 setup fee
€30/€60 cancellation charge.
Good phone package.
Cost over 6 months (spreading one-off fees across 6 months) - €79
Cost over 12 months (spreading one-off fees across 12 months) - €59
Cost per month after one off fees have been paid - €64

BT
2M Down/128k Up
24:1 Contention
24GB Cap
€40 per month (€35 for 4 months - maybe not for me though cos I had free trial)
€10 line-rental per month
€50 setup fee.
Cost over 6 months (spreading one-off fees across 6 months) - €66
Cost over 12 months (spreading one-off fees across 12 months) - €54
Cost per month after one off fees have been paid - €50

Digiweb
3M Down/512 Up
40:1 Contention
30GB Cap
€42 per month
Line rental included???
€112 setup fee
Cost over 6 months (spreading one-off fees across 6 months) - €60
Cost over 12 months (spreading one-off fees across 12 months) - €52
Cost per month after one off fees have been paid - €42

These costs are assuming you take the respective phone packages of each company. BT have a few and UTV has alot of free calls with theirs but it complicates things too much to go into those too. If there are no really significant performance drops with Digiweb when traffic is heavy and there is no line-rental, then it seems to be the best value. Other than phone tarriffs, which are more specific to each user and can be reduced a number of ways, am I missing anything? What does everyone think?
Oh yeah... has anyone got Digiweb and kept their phone number without any problems?

Cheers.

PiE

Digiweb [strike]vs UTV[/strike] vs BT

That should make your decision a little easier.

gavjd

What's the story with line rental on digiweb dsl? If it's not included then that means BT is substantially cheaper than the other 2MB options? I'm living in an apt so I can't install an antenna, and I've had enough of IBB...

curiosity

I'd say Digiweb hasn't got line rental included.

I'm presently wih UTV. Looked around in last few weeks to see who has best deal. Of the 3, BT is the one i have decided to switch to. The €50/month fee for line rental and dsl beats UTV (€40dsl+€24 line rental) or Digiweb (€42dsl+€24 rental). btw Digiweb cap is 40gb, easily the best of the lot. However i don't know about their contention ratio, 40:1 seems high, u sure its right?
Plus you'll still need a call provider if u go with them.

UTV have lowest cap(8gb), plus they are strict about charging excess usage.This can be expensive. They charge €2 extra if u don't take calls from them. They do offer free off-peak landline calls, however these are the cheapest type of calls anyway (BT offer free anytime landline calls for €15/month) U should compare call charges on a few bills.

As my phone bill is fairly low (rarely more than €10/month), BTs €15 cheaper price won me over.

PS. i know UTV get a slating here for customer service, but they've been good over last few months. They even reacted well when i told them i was moving to another ISP.

crawler

curiosity wrote:

I'd say Digiweb hasn't got line rental included.

I'm presently wih UTV. Looked around in last few weeks to see who has best deal. Of the 3, BT is the one i have decided to switch to. The €50/month fee for line rental and dsl beats UTV (€40dsl+€24 line rental) or Digiweb (€42dsl+€24 rental). btw Digiweb cap is 40gb, easily the best of the lot. However i don't know about their contention ratio, 40:1 seems high, u sure its right?
Plus you'll still need a call provider if u go with them.

UTV have lowest cap(8gb), plus they are strict about charging excess usage.This can be expensive. They charge €2 extra if u don't take calls from them. They do offer free off-peak landline calls, however these are the cheapest type of calls anyway (BT offer free anytime landline calls for €15/month) U should compare call charges on a few bills.

As my phone bill is fairly low (rarely more than €10/month), BTs €15 cheaper price won me over.

PS. i know UTV get a slating here for customer service, but they've been good over last few months. They even reacted well when i told them i was moving to another ISP.

(Digiweb) With Metro you get 3Mbps broadband and phone line & Number all included for the €42 ( €35+vat) - with the DSL package, you pay eircom for the line rental...

Zab

Does anybody know the lead time on these products? From order to install?

Eircom too actually. I have to get rid of IBB ASAP!

Blaster99

It's ultimately down to Eircom to install the service, so anything from 1-4 weeks. With BT you can add another month because they will lose your application form (even if you do it online) about 15 times.

For ADSL, I would have thought BT are unbeatable. If you've never had ADSL installed you can also avail of their offers which are very good.

If you're in a Clearwire area, it seems they'll get you up and running the following day.

Digiweb Metro seems to be about a month.

Zab

Okay, so the fastest service takes the longest to deploy? Typical.

I don't think I want to consider another wireless ISP.

Thanks! I think I'll go with BT ... what's wrong with Eircom though (other than the fact that it's Eircom)?

Blaster99

Nothing wrong with Eircom other than the price. I have Eircom ADSL and it's excellent. I got it installed in a week, just called them up and ordered it over the phone.

Zab

Hmm ... perhaps they're a little faster at installing their own products too!

Do you know if I can get one of the business packages on a residential line? The site seems to imply that I can. Is there any downside to this (except cost)?

Talisman

A friend of mine got a business package from BT on a residential line last year. At the time Eircom were arsing around not allowing BT to access the exchange to install a residential package. He went with a 1MB business connection and he hasn't looked back since.

curiosity

crawler wrote:

(Digiweb) With Metro you get 3Mbps broadband and phone line & Number all included for the €42 ( €35+vat) - with the DSL package, you pay eircom for the line rental...

Oops, i stand corrected Crawler. missed the metro bit. That €42 all in is definitely the best of your options, although the cancelling of your landline is a bit of a hassle, perhaps. Those of us in the sticks should be so lucky.