Getting Broadband

If I may rant a bit over the delay for Esat BT's broadband connection...

It is because of Eircom that the delay is happening, and it is deliberate. In an area where broadband is avalable, Eircom can get you connected in most cases within 3 weeks, while on Esat, for some in the wsame area, it has taken almost 6 weeks. Eircom deliberately delays the service to Esat, so that perhaps those customers waiting for Esat connections will give up and sign over to Eircom instead.

I have seen it, and also an insider told me why the delay happens!

Screw Eircom, go for Esat! They even give you more download quota's than Eircom!

Seanie.

<RANT>

Celtic Tiger, my big black hole!

I wouldn't be surprised if some old biddy is still connecting me to my ISP via a switchboard.

Digiweb is my only alternative. At least E1000 to buy the dish and connect and then E85 a month.

And then some crows would cr*p all over it.

Has Bertie A. ever travelled outside The Pale?

</RANT>

James,
Thats what you get for living in rural west kerry

Yes, dark skies are directly proportional to technological advancement. I have to fight off the Pteradactyls whenever I take my scope out.

Talking of technology, there is a new system called WiMax, which has a range in the tens of kilometres. It may well replace mobile phone technology, including 3G and provide Voice Over IP as well as other Internet usage. Natuarally the businessmen in the Dáil are waiting for their brown envelopes before Ireland enters the 21st century.

I'm with NTL. 50 euros a month for 1.5Mbit cable.

Just be prepared for the usual problems with getting the installation engineer out (3 times) and having your existing TV connection screwed up, and your billing mucked up....

Once it's up and running it's great. But it's a good idea to add www.ntlhell.co.uk to your favourites. :roll:

If I may rant a bit over the delay for Esat BT's broadband connection...

It is because of Eircom that the delay is happening, and it is deliberate...
Seanie.

Whether or not it is deliberate is an exercise for someone else to determine. (The line testers are supposed to be independent.) In any case we moved house in early november and we've been trying to get broadband moved since then. The line tests fine one day and then zap it tests horrible the day ESAT-BT finally has authorization to move the service.

ESAT-BT, UTV and others could work a little harder as advocates of their existing customers. Eircom, as the monopolist utility responsible for the lines are the bottleneck in ALL DSL requests in Ireland and it seems that they would have slightly more incentive to upgrade lines for their own customers than for the customers of their service competition. I do know that the line testers have not been consistent or timely in updating the broadband availability database. We were in our home for nearly 2 months without broadband before someone at Eircom noticed that our phone number wasn't in the database. It tested O.K. one day but by time we contacted ESAT-BT to tell them the line was O.K., it was listed as bad again. We're still waiting. Broadband in Ireland is spotty at best. I heard a rumor the other day that most people in Korea have 10MBs internet to their home!

One more issue. The Eircom service representative insisted that the DSL line test was not affected by equipment within the house. I've since learned that this is not true as it is a loop test. If you have any old modems, fax machines or even just dodgey phone lines and connectors, disconnect them. Then wait N months (N= some large integer) for the line testers to passover your neighborhood. Sprinkle a bit of holy water on the phone jacks if you think it will help. Passing a DSL line test is as chaotically random as T-0 seconds of the big bang or the probability of passing an Irish driving test. But that's another story...

Good luck.

I rang Digiweb. Coming at 8am tomorrow to install wireless Broadband. Friends say they are very happy with results. So far they have been excellent.. phones answered immediately. Calls returned etc. Yeah I know... I havnt paid anything yet.

Ill keep you all posted.... If I can get on line!!!!!!


Liam

One more issue. The Eircom service representative insisted that the DSL line test was not affected by equipment within the house. I've since learned that this is not true as it is a loop test. If you have any old modems, fax machines or even just dodgey phone lines and connectors, disconnect them. Then wait N months (N= some large integer) for the line testers to passover your neighborhood. Sprinkle a bit of holy water on the phone jacks if you think it will help. Passing a DSL line test is as chaotically random as T-0 seconds of the big bang or the probability of passing an Irish driving test. But that's another story...

Another issue with the line test is that it is stored on a database rather than done when you ring up. So unless you actually have an eircom engineer doing it, all your 'test' consists of is some 'service representative' checking a web page.

I know of one person that disconected everything in the house from the phone line, including the main phone for a month in order to get the line to pass. Once they got broadband installed they had no issues plugging all the phones etc. back in.

The nice folks at boards.ie have a very informaive forum dedicated to broadband which some of you may find useful www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=259

Cheers,
~Al