UPC Broadband - First Impressions @UPCIreland

It's exactly a week since the UPC engineers switched our broadband connection from Eircom to UPC and my first impressions are largely very positive. The 100 Mbps package does exactly what it says on the tin. I am getting 100 Mbps plus over an Ethernet cable from the router to my desktop PC in my home office. And it is consistent - I have run several speed tests over the past week and it comes up over 100 Mbps every time. Very happy with this - it is 25 times faster than our old Eircom connection, and it is cheaper too. This is a really fast connection - it is really noticeable when working with large files in Google Drive and SkyDrive.

UPC Broadband - Rápido!
Image source: WorldOfGnome.org.

However, WiFi within the house was poor. The UPC engineers told me to expect a 30% fall off to about 65 Mbps, but it never came close to this in any part of the house. It was as low as 4 Mbps upstairs, and my iPad could not pick up a signal in my bedroom. I tweeted about this to @UPCIreland who arranged for a Tech Support call. We checked and changed some settings, but to no noticeable effect.

This morning I moved the router to the centre of the house. This meant extra coaxial and Ethernet cabling. Despite never having worked with Ethernet cabling before, I was pleasantly surprised that everything worked. The WiFi is a lot stronger in the house, ranging from 20-40 Mbps - even upstairs. There are extra Ethernet slots on the router, so I'll probably hook these up so that my daughters get the best speed possible upstairs for their laptops.

The verdict? Very happy with UPC so far!

Finally - Hello UPC, Goodbye Eircom!

Great excitement in our house this morning with the arrival of UPC engineers to install fibre-optic broadband. They were very efficient and were in and out of the house in less than an hour. They connected the fibre cable to a co-axial cable which runs through the wall of our house - this is connected to a new modem in our office at the front of the house. As you can see in table below there is a stark difference between what Eircom were able to offer and what we now have from UPC.

Before (Eircom)	After (UPC)

But......

...they don't tell you when you order broadband that you can lose up to third of the speed over WiFi. I checked the speed on a laptop right beside the modem and sure enough it measured 74 Mbps - still impressive, but quite a drop over a few inches. The modem is at the front of our house, but 15 metres away at the back of the house the download speed drops to 34 Mbps. But much worse than this is the drop to 2.9 Mbps upstairs. I was not expecting this! So I'll be onto to UPC Tech Support for some advice on what to do, though I expect that this will mean extra cabling to move the modem closer to the centre of the house.

This also marks the end of our time as customers of Eircom. According to the UPC engineers today they have a full schedule and are very busy doing exactly what they did in our house - moving customers from Eircom to UPC. In the meantime, Eircom are sitting on their arses letting this happen - good luck with that business plan guys.

Why are Sky bothering? But still waiting for @UPCIreland

I received a letter today from Sky asking me to "Be the first to enjoy our new Unlimited Broadband"! The offer is for unlimited broadband usage with calls for €40/month. My current Eircom package is €59/month, so on the face of it Sky are offering a cheaper package. Saving €19 a month equates to €228/year - not to be sneezed at.

When I first heard that Sky were coming to Ireland I thought that this might be the way to get away from the shitty broadband service that Eircom offers (see my speed check taken just now to left - this is supposed to be uncongested 8mbps!). But I have since discovered that they plan to use the same telephone line that Eircom use, which has a maximum capacity of 4mbps in our area. This means that Sky will only be able to offer the same service - so why are they bothering? How come they can't discover what the areas are in Ireland have poor broadband infrastructure? I will not switch from one rubbish provider to another. They are wasting their time with me.

On September 5th last I wrote about UPC installing new cables in our neighbourhood. Now over 5 months later there is still no sign of any service. All I get from @UPCIreland on Twitter is that they will be contacting everyone in our neighbourhood when the network is live. Still waiting.....

Something weird is happening to broadband in Blackrock

Some time ago I was informed by an Eircom engineer who came to my house to fix a connection that the  8 Mbps line that I pay for is only capable of a max of 4 Mbps. 

Today, after moving my router to the centre of the house I did a quick speed test and have seen the highest ever figure that I have recorded - 4.28 Mbps. How is this possible on a 4 Mbps line? Are Eircom finally doing something about their shitty broadband service in our area? I have discovered via Twitter that Eircom are rolling out fibre broadband in our area - indeed it is available at the other side of the road at the end of my garden. Will they beat UPC? On 14th September last I wrote about UPC installing cable on our road, but nothing has happened since. 

The race is on between UPC and Eircom for customers in Blackrock!

"Hello UPC" - not so fast!

Hmmmmm... after getting a little excited at the prospect of getting "up to" a 25mps broadband connection from UPC to replace the paltry 4mps connection that I have from Eircom (see shitty D+ rating below), I called UPC Sales to see what was available. The good news is that they can provide Sky+, telephone, and 100mbs broadband for about €20 less than what I am currently paying for everything per month. The bad news is that it could take up to three months before the network will be live. But I don't believe this as companies that provide broadband services in Ireland never tell the truth. I remain to be proven wrong, but I suspect  that we will not be connected to faster broadband until at least the New Year.

My current connection
via Speedtest.net.

In the past few week I have got extra space on Google Drive - syncing data has been a lengthy experience as it takes hours to update everything from home. So a faster connection would be really useful. With an upload speed of 0.32 mps, using cloud services like Google Drive will suffer from this tiny upload speed. The UPC option is looking better by the day - I just wish they would get on with it. A week has passed since they put cables on all our houses - they are still hanging loose.

Countdown to "Hello UPC" and "Goodbye Eircom"

I wrote here last week that UPC are upgrading their network in my area. One of my fears was that in order for me to get broadband, everyone on our estate would have to do so too. Turns out that this is not true!

I called UPC Sales today to check out what is happening. They are upgrading their ancient network to fibre optic - I am told that it will be capable of download speeds of "up to" 100 mps - considerably more than the 3-4 mps that we get now. Their very helpful Sales Assistant on the phone (Alannah) worked out a package for me that includes Sky+, broadband, and phone, that is nearly €30 a month cheaper than what I pay now for equivalent to Sky and Eircom. The disadvantage of the new package is that there will be less channels available (mostly those that we don't watch) and that our broadband connection will be 30 (yes - thirty!) times faster than we have now. Apparently installation and testing of the new cable in our neighbourhood will take 2-3 months before we can connect.

For me it is a "no brainer" to switch to UPC - anything is better that the 4mbs shite that Eircom provide. Here's a flavour (UPC ad) of what we can expect in our neighbourhood in the near future:

Will UPC cure broadband woes? The answer appears to be "No"

UPC are coming to Blackrock! At least a card through the door says they are. Today an engineer came to my house and added a fibre optic cable to the corner of my house. It is still dangling at the end (see photo), and has not been connected to anything. We don't have a UPC account and basically this is replacing the old Cablelink network which has probably been here since the 1980s - we have never used it since we moved here in 1996. So I don't know why they are replacing a cable I don't use?

Just under a year ago I wrote about the area where I live as being a black spot for broadband. Currently we have an "8MB Next Generation Broadband" connection from Eircom that is only capable of a maximum of 4MB. This is shit. So anything is better than this. UPS seem to offer speeds of up to 25MB - can this be true?

My hopes of getting a great broadband speed appear to be dashed as the engineer told us that since our house is at the end of the cable - EVERY HOUSE on our road has to sign up for broadband before we can get it! WTF - can this be true? There are 32 houses on our road - I can't believe that UPC would go to the bother of upgrading the network, only for this to happen. I've already called the UPC sales hotline to enquire more, but gave up after holding for several minutes - not a good sign. 

My only response to all this is to not believe anything that a company that "provides" broadband says.

Mobile Broadband - a long way to go

I was tempted during the week to switch from eircom broadband to O2 broadband. O2 had a stand in the Atrium of the College where they were offering "up to" 7MB and 22MB packages for €9.99 a month to students. The offer (supported by HEAnet) is also open to staff of Colleges. I thought this would be a good option for our iPad - we had a prepay option which costs €19.99 for a 30-day pass, so I'd be cutting the cost in half. Good deal!

When I got chatting to the salesperson at the stand he told me that the gear he was selling was also a mobile wireless hot spot and that I could use it for up to five devices - and a 22MB connect to boot! But - there was no long queue to get this bargain. I also put up a question on Twitter and anyone that responded said that O2 service was poor. In the end I decided just to get it for the iPad.

In the Atrium of the College (smack in Dublin City Centre) I ran a speed test on the iPad which showed a connection of 0.6MB - oh dear, what had I done! I went out to the Liffey and stood across from the O2 building on Sir John Rogerson's quay which has aerials on the roof  - the signal speed went up to a semi-respectable 1.5MB. When I got home to Blackrock I tried another speed test in the kitchen which showed 0.3MB, it was 0.6MB if I tried at the window at the back of the house (0.2MB at the front window). My eircom connection to my desktop computer shows 3.6MB, while if the iPad is switched to our wireless network, it gets a speed of 3.31MB. The slow speeds over the mobile network are due to no 3G in our area. This is also an area where WiMAX doesn't work either. Are mobile signals avoiding us? We live in a mobile communications black spot. So glad I was not tempted to change everything to O2!

Eircom fights back!

Well I never!

My recent moans about Eircom finally got results. After some recent contacts by Eircom staff, my Broadband speed has almost trebled - look at the latest speed test result! Recently the best I could get was 1.79 Mbps download - before this about 1Mbps was average. 3.57 Mbps is still "slower that 71% of" Ireland and Speedtest.net rates this as a grade "D" - however, this is enough to keep me happy. Richard, Eircom's excellent engineer who came to my house today, fixed the connection so that it is set to 4 Mbps at point of entry to the house. I am to expect some loss of signal within the house. He also told me that the distance from my local exchange is effectively doubled because the phone line goes up one side of the road (Newtownpark Avenue) and down the other before it gets to my house - adding about 1.5km to the distance.

I also received a call yesterday from another Eircom engineer who told me that my line had actually been capped at 2 Mbps - no wonder I couldn't get higher. He increased it there and then and suddenly the speed shot up to 2.5 Mbps - Eircom Richard tops this off today.

So - credit where it is due. Thank you to Eircom for dramatically improving the connection. You have not lost a customer! Thanks to Twitter and Blogger for helping me communicate my issues - the power of social media shows itself again.

Feedback from Eircom

Blogger and Twitter once again show that companies are watching what people are saying about them online. In my recent moans (and I acknowledge that I have been moaning) I have had responses from two people within Eircom. Eircom have a Brand Champion scheme and my situation is now being looked at again.

Stephen Beynon of Eircom also has commented on my blog post "Eircom invests €100m in broadband" - Are they having a laugh? and I'm happy to out the record straight here. I suggested that it would be a waste to upgrade fixed line networks, and that wireless would be the best way to go - but Stephen responds as follows:

Picked up your link on Twitter. Installing fibre is a bit like buying spectrum for mobile service. You can continually upgrade the electronics at either end to increase speed and use new technologies. So I don't think it will risk becoming out of date. 

As for mobile, the ever increasing demand for mobile data is one of the reasons the fibre roll-out is needed. There is only Li.ogre capacity over the air so the data needs transporting from the base station by fibre. 4G will demand huge amounts of fibre and is expected to be a big driver of demand for the new network.  Hope that's useful comment.

Indeed it is and thank you the information (and correction).

"Eircom invests €100m in broadband" - Are they having a laugh?

The Irish Times reports that Eircom invests €100m in broadband - I can't help having a giggle at this news. I have berated Eircom many times in this blog, and some Eircom folks have actually read my posts and reacted to them.

Eircom's new announcement is welcome news for Ireland, but I'm certain that it will have absolutely no impact on their service to my house. Their new fibre to the home (FTTH) technology is expected to support speeds of up to 150Mbps. This is about 100 times faster than they are currently supplying me. I feel as if the Government has just announced a new motorway costing millions that will carry thousands of vehicles, but the road outside my house is full of potholes. Who needs 150mbps at home? Some day of course Eircom see themselves providing TV and video-on-demand online - naturally they want to be in a position with their network to capitalise on this.

My own thoughts are that it is a mistake to spend millions on fixed cable - inevitably it will go out of date and need to be upgraded again in the future. I feel that wireless is the best way to go - much easier to upgrade, more attractive for consumers who are using more and more wireless devices, and less digging up of the streets.

D- for Eircom - slower than 80% of Ireland

It's been quite sometime since I had a rant at Eircom. Today I ran a test at www.speedtest.net and the results are mixed - Eircom gets a D-. First, a reminder that Eircom tell me (and bill me) that I have an 8MB/sec Next Generation Broadband connection. Their engineers tell me that the line to the nearest exchange only supports 4MB/sec. As you can see, the download speed is not bad at 1.79MB/sec - and is one of the highest speeds I have ever recorded at home.

BUT - it is less than a quarter of (or half - depending on who you believe in Eircom) what it is supposed to be. On top of this I am now paying extra every month for exceeding the download capacity. I need a new package and am now determined to change from the rubbish service Eircom have been providing. Imagine look the best of the rest. UPC offer fast broadband, but not in my area. Many people have advised me to avoid mobile broadband - however, my daughter Vicki does not use the WiFi in our house on her iPhone as Three mobile broadband is much faster than Eircom.

So I am in the market for a new ISP - and will make a serious effort to change before the end of the summer.