# broadband connection - best deal?



## suicra05 (7 Sep 2005)

Who is offering the best deal for broadband at present. I am living in D. 16 and am registered with smart telecom. They are taking a longer time than expected due to access to exchanges. Interested in going with another provider until Smart get their act together. Which provider would offer the best deal and would not want long contracts entered into?


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## ClubMan (7 Sep 2005)

Have you checked out the price lists at [broken link removed] (the links at the left hand side bring you to prices for non _DSL _broadband services)?


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## Carpenter (16 Sep 2005)

I checked out eircoms boradband package, which I was going to sign up for at €29.99 per month, but I see that this will revert to the "normal" price of €39.99 in April 2006!  This is hardly good value or very affordable for home users?  I think I'll be pricing around.......


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## machalla (16 Sep 2005)

I think BT Ireland do a solid deal on BB at the moment.  Smarts is the best wired BB option around at the moment.  Eircon are the ones causing problems for them with rollout though.  

Also www.digiweb.ie are doing a new product called Metro which is now available.  Good value if it works as expected and actually faster than anything out there I think.  Only NTL BB would be equivalent.  Not sure on what usual signup time but normally a year is the usual.

The only other non yearly subscription is IBB ripwave and I wouldn't touch IBB with a bargepole these days.  Very very poor service they offer.


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## Carpenter (16 Sep 2005)

Thanks Machalla, I'll look into that.  Still can't see why eircom can't come up with a realistic home package though.  Their €19.99 package is poor value as already dicussed here.


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## DrMoriarty (16 Sep 2005)

machalla said:
			
		

> I think BT Ireland do a solid deal on BB at the moment.


Me too - especially if you 'bundle' it with line rental and their Talk/Talk Plus plan, and especially if you caught their special offer during the summer (€15 off for the first 3 months, IIRC, and only a 6-month minimum contract).


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## Lemurz (17 Sep 2005)

BT have the best offer but the worst service.

Try calling their customer service - it's a joke!

I can't make or receive calls for the past 48 hours, but my broadband is working fine???  Advised today after holding for almost an hour that earliest I could expect service is Monday - 5 days without a phone!!


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## Carpenter (17 Sep 2005)

Sh*t! I've just signed up to BT Ireland!  I think the package is good value but now you've got me worried about the service!  I did think their website was poor too, ah well I'll know soon, what's the deal if I revert to eircom after the 6 months contract is up?


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## demoivre (19 Sep 2005)

Carpenter said:
			
		

> Sh*t! I've just signed up to BT Ireland!  I think the package is good value but now you've got me worried about the service!  I did think their website was poor too, ah well I'll know soon, what's the deal if I revert to eircom after the 6 months contract is up?



Customer service seems to be the main issue with BT but from what I have read their bb in general seems to work fine. There is a thread on boards re Bt that might interest you http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=302696.
I'm with UTV myself but am greatly tempted to switch to Bt and get a 2mb bb plus line rental for 100 euro ( 80 euro for the 1 mb ) bi monthly versus about 113 bi monthly for UTV 1 mb and eircom line rental . Decisions, decisions ....


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## Proactive (20 Sep 2005)

Hi,

About to go BT but want a wireless router connection which they don't do. But they do say you can buy your own and connect it up with no problems. Has anyones else tried this ? Any good recommendations on best deal for wireless router ?
Thks.


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## podgerodge (20 Sep 2005)

I have this one - works grand around the house

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1033606&productID=133499


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## Leo (21 Sep 2005)

If you think BT's customer service is bad, wait 'till you try Elara!!! Took me months to get a faulty monitor replaced.
Leo


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## podgerodge (21 Sep 2005)

well you can buy it at www.komplett.ie as well ... but it's 20 euro dearer!


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## ninsaga (21 Sep 2005)

Have just come across the Digiweb.ie offer .... on the face of it..it looks OK...

The Metro BB offer includes..

-€35/month for 3Mb BB whicj includes the line rental charge
- contention ration 40:1
- 30GB Traffic Quota
- €99 connection charge (bummer as usual)
..all plus VAT of course
....and thoughts on this ....

ninsaga
..ok here are some of the unsavoury items in the t's&c's...

- "Access to emergency services (112 or 999 calls) is provided on a “best effort” basis and is reliant on an electrical connection to the Customer equipment. Digiweb always use all possible means to ensure that calls to the emergency services are prioritised."
- it will cost you €55 to port your existing telephone number across
- if dialing a local number..you have to do the same thing as you currently do on mobiles ie prefix the area code


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## podgerodge (22 Sep 2005)

ninsaga said:
			
		

> Have just come across the Digiweb.ie The Metro BB offer includes..
> 
> -€35/month for 3Mb BB whicj includes the line rental charge
> 
> ...



since the "free phone line rental" is not line rental at all but just a voip type service it's a bit rich to call it such. 

I am concerned that Digiweb's product comparison on their website with Eircom regarding call rates do not specify daytime or nighttime - the rates quoted appear to be Daytime - but do the cheaper digiweb rates apply offpeak as well - in which case they are a lot dearer than Eircom. 

Also, I think it's a bit rich for Digiweb to be advertising "Genuine Free calls - Yes....... Eircom - No. "  These free calls only apply for Digiweb to Digiweb . 

They simply mention line rental from Eircom as being a cost that Digiweb do not have - without mentioning that for a pittance more than that i.e 3 euro you can have Eircom talktime with hundreds of inclusive minutes - now where would you be if you dialled all those minutes with Digiweb???

I don't think the comparisons are valid.

Fine if you want a 3mb broadband for 42 euro.  Not bad value. But I would go with Blueface for the voip option assuming you can do this over the Digiweb broadband line - can't see why not.


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## Carpenter (9 Nov 2005)

Woe is me!  with BT now since start of October, everything going ok, happy with the broadband etc. even got my first bill from BT (online).  Cue major upset!  Turns out there are no call charges on the bill.  I had opted for full Talk, Line Rental & broadband bundle.  This left me a little concerned.  I rang eircom to tell them they owe me money for 1 months line rental, which is paid up until Nov. with Eircom.  Eircom tells me that I'm still an Eircom customer- they never received any notification from BT that I was switching.  I'll be getting another bill from Eircom for line rental and calls until BT get up off their ar**s.  Needless to say I dropped BT a stinker of an email and threatened Comreg etc!  I thought there were charters in place (like with changing bank) to make changeover simple.  I'm beginning to wonder should I have stayed with Eircom.  There'll probably be up to a dozen emails back and forth with BT before this is sorted.  Does anyone else have any similar horror stories (with happy ending please)??  As a customer I have a right to expect BT to manage this chnageover properly- they don't mind charging me for the line rental etc.


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## soc (10 Nov 2005)

check out http://www.getbroadband.ie .  This list deals, per area.

-soc


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## ClubMan (10 Nov 2005)

machalla said:
			
		

> The only other non yearly subscription is IBB ripwave and I wouldn't touch IBB with a bargepole these days. Very very poor service they offer.


I'll second that.


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## DipsyChick (10 Nov 2005)

I signed up with BT broadband recently. Well I ordered it in August and received it two weeks ago. Customer Service is crazy  - they do not seem to have any policies in place for when something goes wrong. I haven't had any issues since I've gone live though. As I pointed out to BT its a bad reflection on them when their customer service number is one of the 10 most frequently dialled numbers !


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## paulkeano (18 Nov 2005)

*Bt*

They had me in tears! I waited months to get broadband. I told their customer service rep that I felt the only way to be broadband enabled with BT was to giv up my job, train to be a BP sales agent and to ring myself to process my Broadband order. I was the laughing stock at work as I'm sorry but my frustrations was sensed by those around me.

It works now, I guess they'll mess up the billing next..... ah well, at least I'm expecting it


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## SteelBlue05 (18 Nov 2005)

If you have it in your area NTL is a good deal. 2MB line with free installation for 35 euro per month but you get the first 3 months free. They also offer 25 euro per month for 1MB and 45 euro pm for 3MB.


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