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    Wednesday, August 27, 2008

    ComReg (The Mouse) backs down in LLU fight with Eircom


    In yet another show of strength and the want to feck over Broadband users in Ireland and protect their bottom line Eircom brought Comreg to court when Comreg (The Mouse) announced back in June that they wanted Eircom to drop the wholesale price it charges other operators for LLU line share from €8.41 a month to €2.94 per month.

    Well Comreg have dropped the case and let Eircom win!
    Fantastic...great job protecting consumers in Ireland Comreg you deserve some type of award.


    Full story from http://www.siliconrepublic.com
    Financial costs, the burden of resources and the length of time a court case would take have been cited by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) as the reasons it won’t fight an appeal by Eircom against its decision to reduce local loop unbundling (LLU) wholesale prices.

    In June, ComReg directed Eircom to reduce the wholesale price it charges other operators for LLU line share from €8.41 a month to €2.94 per month.

    The aim was to have the price cut in place for a year to analyse the effect it would have on the marketplace.

    However, in July Eircom appealed this decision in the High Court.

    Yesterday, ComReg said that it considered the financial cost of the appeal process, the likely burden such a case would have on ComReg’s own resources and the probability that a judgement would not be delivered until well into 2009, so it decided against contesting Eircom in court.

    “ComReg regrets Eircom’s decision to appeal and has decided that it must now act in the most practical and expeditious manner available to it and try to minimise the level of uncertainty in the marketplace arising from Eircom’s appeal.”

    ComReg says that in the meantime a detailed expert analysis into LLU line share will enable it to propose a specific and substantive price to the market in place of the original benchmark price it proposed.

    As a result, the decision to reduce LLU line share down to €2.94 has been permanently shelved.

    The news has been greeted with dismay by independent licensed business Telco Magnet, which described the original directive to reduce line share pricing as a progressive step by ComReg and indicated a willingness to take a more forceful line against Eircom’s anti-competitive pricing.

    Magnet chief executive Mark Kellett said he was extremely disappointed that ComReg felt it necessary to back down in light of Eircom’s legal action.

    “Eircom has once again shown that they will use any and all means to protect their monopoly position in the market. Struggling under €4bn of debt ,the company’s sole objective is to protect its cash flows from its legacy product suite.

    “Eircom clearly do not want competition and as a consequence are frustrating Ireland Inc’s desire to move with the rest of the developed world to have a digital economy,” he said.

    “Despite the anti-competitive pricing of LLU services by Eircom, Magnet has successfully launched innovative voice and data business services and high-speed, dedicated broadband over its LLU infrastructure.

    “These services bring real benefits to our customers and allow them to benefit from modern telecom services — these services are not and never will be available from Eircom,” Kellett said.

    By John Kennedy


    Yet another good bloody reason why Eircom Sucks!

    Tuesday, July 22, 2008

    Exchanges being upgraded to ADSL 2+

    From the Eircom website, here's a list of exchanges due to be upgraded to ADSL 2+
    From eircom website:


    (Tuesday, 22nd July 2008) eircom is currently implementing a series of DSL broadband speed upgrades which will significantly increase Internet speeds available to a large portion of eircom's retail and wholesale customers.


    The upgrade programme consists of two stages:
    1. The installation of ADSL2+ equipment in 117 of the largest exchanges in Ireland.
    2. An automated software upgrade for the majority of eircom retail and wholesale customers currently on 2Mb or 3Mb broadband.


    Stage 1 - ADSL2+ Upgrade
    The installation of ADSL2+ equipment to our largest telephone exchanges allows eircom to offer speeds of up to 12Mb on its network. This process has been completed in more than 100 exchanges to date. Existing broadband customers, previously on 4Mb or 6Mb broadband, that have a line which qualifies for the faster speeds and who are connected to one of the following exchanges are in the process of being upgraded to 10Mb and 12Mb respectively.

    List Of Completed Exchanges

    Stage 2 - Automated Software Upgrades
    The automated software upgrade for eircom retail and wholesale DSL customers is underway and will take place over a number of phases. Customers on the 2Mb product, whose lines pre-qualify will be upgraded to 3Mb and customers on the 3Mb product whose lines pre-qualify will be upgraded to 7.6Mb.

    Phase 1

    Qualifying customers in these areas have already been upgraded

    Phase 2 - July

    Exchanges scheduled for upgrade over the weekend of 26th July

    Phase 2 - August

    Exchanges scheduled for upgrade over the weekend of 9th August


    A schedule for broadband upgrades for all remaining exchanges will be published as soon as it has been finalised and other operators have been informed.


    Documents are in PDF format, you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read them

    Friday, July 18, 2008

    Eircoms Complaints Procedure & More!

    If you have an issue with eircoms phone or Broadband service and you feel your getting no where through the standard channels you may want to make a complaint.

    Please remember at all times to remain calm and civil when talking to Eircom & Comreg employees

    You can send your complaint by email (see eircom.ie). To ensure your complaint is effectively resolved, please ensure you specify the cause of your complaint and provide your eircom account number (located at the top of your bill).
    By letter

    If you prefer to put the complaint in writing, you can send it to the following address:

    eircom Customer Care,
    5th Floor,
    Telephone House,
    Marlborough Street,
    Dublin 1.
    By fax

    If you wish to send Eircom your letter of complaint by fax, you may fax Eircom on 1800 200 480.
    By phone

    You can contact Eircoms Customer Care team directly on freefone 1800 200 481, 9am - 5.30 pm (Mon - Fri) where you can speak to one of Eircoms Customer Care Executives and register your complaint.

    The Customer Care Executive will provide his / her own name and provide you with your unique reference number and acknowledge your complaint on the phone.

    Eircom's aim is to resolve your complaint to your complete satisfaction. Our Customer Care Executive will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible, preferably during your phone call. If this is not possible we will inform you of the length of time we expect it to take to investigate and resolve the complaint.

    Make sure will all above process that you get a reference number for your complaint, if you find after the period Eircom stated your complaint would be resolve or you find its still ongoing after about 14 working days you may go to Comreg by emailing consumerline@comreg.ie while also :

    a) including your Eircom reference
    b) request a comreg complaints reference number

    Go from their then.

    If any details are incorrect or need to be removed etc please e-mail info[AT]eircomsucks.com

    Friday, July 11, 2008

    True ADSL choice....your kidding me right?


    So who exactly re-sells Eircom Wholesales Bit-Stream ADSL product, well here's a short list: (if I'm missing anyone drop me a e-mail)

    - Eircom Retail
    - BT
    - Imagine
    - Perlico
    - Vodafone
    - UTV
    - TalkTalk
    - Digiweb
    - Irish Broadband
    - IFA Telecom

    Some of these providers also may have their own LLU (Local Loop Unbundled) ADSL or ADSL2+ services but you'll find that the vast majority of their home/consumer ADSL services are likely provided via Eircom Wholesales offering.

    This is often all new to some people and it really shows how limited true choice for a different ADSL package in Ireland really is, especially when compared to the packages that the likes of a true LLU provider like Smart Telecom provide.

    In short you'll find that basically all the package the above providers provide are more or less the same...yet another reason why Eircom Sucks!

    No Surprise! Dial-up still "popular" in Ireland

    This is honestly no surprise, its nothing to do with people choosing dialup over Broadband and its more to do with people have NO CHOICE when it comes to using dialup over Broadband because they just can't get Broadband!

    Its certainly not popular...popular is used incorrectly its more to do with no other available internet access for most people.

    Discussed on Ireland Off-Line forum on boards.ie

    Taken from: http://www.enn.ie/article/10124572.html

    Some 35 percent of Irish internet users go online using a dial-up connection, far higher than the European average of just 12 percent.

    That's according to the European Commission's 'E-communications Household Survey', which shows that although Ireland's PC penetration rate (58 percent) and internet penetration rate (49 percent) are on a par with the average European rate, our broadband take-up still lags behind. Broadband penetration in Ireland stands at 20 percent, well below the European average of 36 percent.

    Friday, July 04, 2008

    Eircom's Official Reponse to delays on 8MB Upgrades.



    It seems Eircom Press Office is running overtime using templates when people send them e-mails querying the 8MB Upgrade delay.

    Here's their response:


    Sections in brackets are removed or advising.

    The speed upgrades have been taking place on a phased basis over the last number of months and will continue throughout the next 6 to 8 weeks. We have extended the list of exchanges that will be upgraded which has naturally had an impact on our date for completion of all upgrades.

    If your telephone line is connected to the (EXCHANGE NAME HERE) exchange, then speed increases on the eircom 2Mb broadband product and the eircom 3Mb broadband product will come into effect in this exchange in the next 6 to 8 weeks.

    The speed upgrades for these specific products will apply to all telephone exchanges nationwide for customers whose telephone line qualifies for these speeds. The 2Mb product will be upgraded to 3Mb and the 3Mb product will be upgraded to 7.6Mb. The 3Mb broadband product upgrade to 7.6Mb will not utilise ADSL2+ technology.

    (THE BELOW SECTION DEPENDS ON YOUR EXCHANGE BEING ENABLED FOR ADSL2+)

    The (EXCHANGE NAME HERE) exchange was ADSL2+ enabled last month. Customers served on this exchange who wish to avail of our 12Mb product, and whose telephone line qualifies, can contact our broadband customer service team on 1800 242 558 to place an order.

    Best Regards

    Press Officer


    So lets hold Eircom to their word, I expect to see 8MB speeds available to Eircom and Eircom Wholesale customers in 6-8 weeks.

    Thursday, July 03, 2008

    Eircom's old ADSL mouse compaign

    Anyone remember this?
    "Turn your mouse into a super mouse!"

    Well back in 2001 when ADSL basically didn't hardly exist anywhere in towns up and down Ireland a number of people created errorcom.com (no longer exists) and they also created errorcom t-shirts.



    I've done abit of historical searching and found a picture of one of the suggested designs, from what I'm aware the t-shirts were never made or sold due to legal reasons....its also worth noting that eircom shutdown errorcom.com and eircon.org...both satire sites.

    Its sad to see that still ADSL availability and line pass rates are still poor for people outside large towns and citys through-out Ireland...especially compared to the UK.

    Re-Design

    Its been a few years now since this site started and I felt with the recent renewed interest in Eircom with regards to its delayed speed upgrades to upto 8MB it was time to bring the website back to life and get people talking about why we continue to put up with poor Broadband availability throughout Ireland (via DSL) and slow Broadband speeds when compared to other European country's.

    Hope everyone likes the new look and everyone keeps discussing Eircom's issues either on this site or Boards.ie's Broadband Forum.

    Wednesday, July 02, 2008

    Eircom delay 8MB speed upgrade and piss off their customers!


    Back in January 2008 Eircom announced they'd be upgrading many exchanges in Ireland to upto 8MB speeds:

    Retail broadband customers will continue to pay the same monthly fee and will receive the speed upgrades free of charge, while today’s announcement will provide lower wholesale broadband prices.

    eircom will now offer broadband products with download speeds that range from 1Mb up to 12Mb per second. The speed upgrades and new products will be introduced on a phased basis over the coming months.
    They also advised that final dates for each exchange would be finalized between January and June 2008, well at the end of June 2008 they announced these would be delayed until a as of yet unconfirmed date.

    For all those people on Eircom and stuck using Eircom Wholesale Bit-Stream resellers (UTV, Perlico, BT (for the most part), Vodafone etc this is yet another reason why Eircom sucks!

    On the other scale of things UPC (NTL/Chorus) recently announced packages of upto 20MB speeds which they've already began rolling out to customers....no set cap either (includes a Fair Usage Policy I'd imagine though).

    Perhaps this will force Eircom into spending money on ADSL2+ who knows, I guess time will tell.

    Any further comments on this delay from Eircom customers or employee's are welcome.