# Line upgrade required for broadband - what does this mean?



## lfcjfc (28 Apr 2009)

Finally broadband appears to have come down my road. All my neighbours around me have been able to to sign up for it through a range of different providers. When I tried to sign up with Perlico they told me that they couldnt provide broadband as the line needed to be upgraded and I needed to contact Eircom. Our house is new and our line was only connected about 6 months ago - although strangely, the first 3 digits of our telephone number is different to those of our neighbours. I thought that ability to get broadband was dependent upon exchange capability rather than individual lines. Has anybody come across this problem before, and if so, was it possible to resolve with with eircom?


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## z109 (28 Apr 2009)

I would say that you've got a re-used number. It probably hasn't been retested since the number was assigned to you, so the database that contains the eligibility information is probably out of date.

In the past, I used Netsource to get my line re-tested, but they have become part of Magnet, so I don't know if you will crash against the wall of indifference ("it says you're not eligible").

You could ask them to take you 'on spec' so that you do the connection, but they won't charge you if it doesn't work?


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## chris20051 (28 Apr 2009)

lfcjfc said:


> Finally broadband appears to have come down my road. All my neighbours around me have been able to to sign up for it through a range of different providers. When I tried to sign up with Perlico they told me that they couldnt provide broadband as the line needed to be upgraded and I needed to contact Eircom. Our house is new and our line was only connected about 6 months ago - although strangely, the first 3 digits of our telephone number is different to those of our neighbours. I thought that ability to get broadband was dependent upon exchange capability rather than individual lines. Has anybody come across this problem before, and if so, was it possible to resolve with with eircom?


 
Ring Eircom and see what they say, my house is 30 years old so im a bit different, I ran Eircom and they told me sorry no bb for you, next week sale guys trying to sell me bb from Eircom, so im not sure Eircom can help you as they seem to give different answers each time, phone line upgrade means you need a new line installed which can take bb, this normally costs €120.00, but I think I seen somewhere they are installing them for free, check the eircom website. I never followed mine up to be honest the mobile bb was much easier and straight forward


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## dave28 (28 Apr 2009)

chris20051 said:


> phone line upgrade means you need a new line installed which can take bb, this normally costs €120.00, but I think I seen somewhere they are installing them for free


Not quite correct chris ... phone line upgrade means you are most likely too far from the exchange, or your line is ok for voice but not for b/b or (more likely) served via "carrier" line which does not support b/b. It certainly does not mean you apply for another line which will probably not support b/b either


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## AlbacoreA (29 Apr 2009)

You could be next door to the exchange. If theres a fault on the line, that stops BB. Eircom won't fix it. Fault could be in your house, in the road, who knows. Eircom won't fix it. If you get a new line, they won't guarantee that one won't have the same problem. You could be living next door to Eircom itself it wouldn't make any difference. 

They must have put the country back 20yrs.


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## niallo34 (29 Apr 2009)

Had a similar problem myself recently - changed the phone line in my house to a new number (long story don't ask!) - I was still in the same Exchange and all my neighbours had 3MB BB

Everyone I spoke to in Eircom said the new line couldn't take anymore than 1MB BB - eventually after about two hours I got to speak to a manager and asked for an explanation why - turns out the line simply hadn't been tested


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## AlbacoreA (29 Apr 2009)

Did the line pass when tested. I got a different answer everytime I rang. I got the  opportunity to stand lookingj over the shoulder of someone in when they tested my line. They got an error and couldn't find anyone who knew what it meant. Last time they said I could get half a meg only.


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## lfcjfc (29 Apr 2009)

Thanks to all for the responses.

This is really my only chance of getting BB as I doubt mobile BB will work in the house when our mobile phones dont work (we think that it is down to the insulation - cavity pumped with beads and walls lined with foil-backed insulation).

When you talk of a line test, does that physically involve someone coming out and testing the line? When we tried to sign up with Perlico, they simply told us over the phone there and then.  

The houses either side of us have BB so I dont think it should be anything to do with distance from the exchange. We had a few problems with the phone service itself after it was installed - Eircom finally sorted that but I wonder whether their fix has caused us further problems. Strangely, A neighbour who got a phone connected a few months before us was told that theirs was the last line available in our area - I dont know what that means but strange that we have a different format number to our neigbours. 

Sounds like a call to an eircom manager is the way to go. I paid the same fee for connection to eircom as everybody else so not happy to end up with a sub-standard line as a result.


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## AlbacoreA (29 Apr 2009)

Theres other means of getting BB via wireless or mobile technologies. But I'd try everything to get the wired one working first.


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## pmcf (30 Apr 2009)

lfcjfc said:


> Thanks to all for the responses.
> 
> This is really my only chance of getting BB as I doubt mobile BB will work in the house when our mobile phones dont work (we think that it is down to the insulation - cavity pumped with beads and walls lined with foil-backed insulation).
> 
> ...



i was in the same situation as yourself trying to get broadband from eircom it sounds like you have a carrier line im afraid theres isnt much hope of getting eircom to give you a proper line i tried for almost a  year and finally gave up and paid to get a new phone line installed.give eircom a call and ask them why you cant get bb on your line see what they say


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## lfcjfc (30 Apr 2009)

PMCF, can I ask what a carrier line is and how does it differ from normal line?
Thanks


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## niallo34 (30 Apr 2009)

AlbacoreA said:


> Did the line pass when tested. I got a different answer everytime I rang. I got the  opportunity to stand lookingj over the shoulder of someone in when they tested my line. They got an error and couldn't find anyone who knew what it meant. Last time they said I could get half a meg only.



Line passed - can receive BB upto 5MB


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## jimrohnfan (30 Apr 2009)

When we wanted to get BB a few years ago with Eircom, we were told we were on a carrier line, so we couldn't get it and they refused to upgrade the line. We were told it would cost €3000 to upgrade the line (I have no idea where they got this figure) but they weren't willing to upgrade it regardless. We eventually got satellite BB (a dish on the roof) from a company called Amocom and we are very happy with it).


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## pmcf (30 Apr 2009)

lfcjfc said:


> PMCF, can I ask what a carrier line is and how does it differ from normal line?
> Thanks


Basically a carrier line is a line thats split between a few houses its ok for voice calls but not for data transfer like bb and in some cases even dial up wont work on them.also if your going to complain to eircom write to them as well as phone them and alwasy get a referecne number from them for your complaint as they do like to mess you about a lot.


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## dave28 (30 Apr 2009)

Carrier technology is used by telco's all over the world - in the US it is known as "pair gain" - to make maximum use of copper cable by serving neighbouring houses on the same cable but at different frequencies, so maintaining privacy. 
(I can't do the link but look up "pair gain" on google / wikipedia for a better explanation).
 When we only required voice telephony (up to late 1980's ??) the customer was un-interested in the means that the service was provided once they could speak to and hear the person on the other end !
However, now that we have services other than voice eg dial-up internet but particularly broadband , the customer is more interested in how their phone service is actually delivered to the home ie. via copper, fibre , carrier, wireless , co-ax etc.
The telco's will  say they will provide / guarantee a basic voice service (1890's ??) - anything extra eg dial-up , broadband - is not guaranteed.


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## b1976 (7 Sep 2009)

"The telco's will say they will provide / guarantee a basic voice service (1890's ??) - anything extra eg dial-up , broadband - is not guaranteed. "

The above comment by dave 28 is incorrect with regards to Eircom.Comreg who is eircoms regulator state that they must provide funtional internet access of at least 28.8k. My guess is your not getting this.The next step is to make a formal complaint to eircom and get a complaint reference number.If you don't get this you are wasting your time as they will mess you around.From the day you get that number eircom have ten days to resolve that problem. If they don't you can get Comreg involved as your line is not fit for purpose. You can't use broadband as the reason as they are only obliged to provide you with a 28.8k.But to get the 28.8k they will more than likely have to give you a dedicated pair of wires to achieve this.Then you can have the line tested for broadband. Insist on the carrier being removed and if they give you the story which may or may not be true that they have no more spare copper pairs suggest that they find them either by changing them out by someone else or run new ones. I have been down this road with my parents telepone line and was successfull. Don't accept the fault as fixed until it is (ie recieving a 28.8k connection which your carrier line sounds like it can't give you)


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## AlbacoreA (7 Sep 2009)

If the lines supports 28.8 but not much more, that's not much good either.

I though they only had to provide a line good eoough for voice.  Good to know that's not true.


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