Phonewatch / eFibre vs Vodafone Simply Broadband

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pipman66

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As an existing eircom DSL customer, I decided to look into cutting my costs (and increasing from 15MB DSL to fibre connection) - I live in Wicklow, so no UPC available to me!

After researching all my options when it comes to broadband, I found:

  • eircom eFibre will cost €53 per month with a talktime bundle (which I don't need as I haven't made a landline call in about 1 a year!)

  • Vodafone Simply Broadband will cost €35 per month, with no inbound/outbound calls - which suits me.
So I called Phonewatch to confirm that the monitored alarm would work, only be told that it will not work as it is monitored through the landline!! It will work with eFiber though ... they then suggested that I could get a GSM unit installed at a cost of €250 - which I would not be keen on as it can be easily blocked!

Has anyone got any experience or knowledge of Vodafone Simply Broadband fibre? I know about the 300GB fair usage limit, but that doesn't worry me - I only use about 180GB per month.

Also, anyone got any ideas on the monitored alarm system over the fibre? It seems mad that I can't have my alarm monitored unless I have an analogue line installed ... so much for the digital world!!
 
Just out of interest, if a potential new customer phoned up Phonewatch (who are no longer owned by Eircom), would they be told the same thing ?
 
You can get SABB from eircom and Magnet too. Same problem, monitored alarm needs a landline
 
pipman66 said:
... they then suggested that I could get a GSM unit installed at a cost of €250 - which I would not be keen on as it can be easily blocked!
Click to expand...

Copper phone lines can also be easily cut, so don't base your decision on this.
 
JohnJay said:
Copper phone lines can also be easily cut, so don't base your decision on this.
Click to expand...

Copper being cut will trigger an alert in any good monitoring station.

It's actually easier to use a GSM blocker than to go cut a physical line. Gardai have reported some burglar gangs using blockers powerful enough to block out monitored alarms over an entire estate.

Whatever monitoring you choose (and do shop around, PhoneWatch are by far the most expensive), make sure they include comms channel monitoring that will alert if the pstn or GSM service goes down.
 
jdwex said:
You can get SABB from eircom and Magnet too. Same problem, monitored alarm needs a landline
Click to expand...

SABB is just a self-activating bell box, they'll just activate if the line to the alarm panel is cut, or the box tamper switch is activated. They won't interact with a monitoring station.

Monitoring options exist for pstn, GSM, GPRS, and IP (over DSL with no need for phone service). It's all down the the monitoring company what options they support.
 
I'll check out which alarm system I have that was fitted by them, and then hunt around - as it is absolutely ridiculous that they won't support monitoring over the Fibre network - forcing us back into the stone age!!

I'll post the model of the system tonight/tomorrow and then check around the different companies that monitor.

Can anyone recommend a good monitoring company? I am currently paying €27 per month ... so would look to cut that right down if at all possible!

Thanks
 
PhoneWatch alarm technology is behind where a lot of the competition are. Since they were bought out by Sector, they're only using their equipment. So they'll only support what that equipment can do.

Post in the [FONT=&quot]Recommend tradesmen and suppliers forum for recommendations. You'd be much better off going to an independent company who are not tied to a single brand of equipment who will be able to design a system that meets your needs rather than forcing the same old solution on everyone. You should be able to cut almost half off that annual bill.[/FONT]
 
Leo said:
SABB is just a self-activating bell box, they'll just activate if the line to the alarm panel is cut, or the box tamper switch is activated. They won't interact with a monitoring station.

Monitoring options exist for pstn, GSM, GPRS, and IP (over DSL with no need for phone service). It's all down the the monitoring company what options they support.
Click to expand...

SABB - Stand alone broadband in this context, copper is jumpered at the VDSL cabinet, but there is no copper connection (for voice) back to the exchange
 
jdwex said:
SABB - Stand alone broadband in this context, copper is jumpered at the VDSL cabinet, but there is no copper connection (for voice) back to the exchange
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks, didn't know that!! Sooo many acronyms, hard to keep up :D
 
pipman66 said:
As an existing eircom DSL customer, I decided to look into cutting my costs (and increasing from 15MB DSL to fibre connection) - I live in Wicklow, so no UPC available to me!

After researching all my options when it comes to broadband, I found:

  • eircom eFibre will cost €53 per month with a talktime bundle (which I don't need as I haven't made a landline call in about 1 a year!)
  • Vodafone Simply Broadband will cost €35 per month, with no inbound/outbound calls - which suits me.
So I called Phonewatch to confirm that the monitored alarm would work, only be told that it will not work as it is monitored through the landline!! It will work with eFiber though ... they then suggested that I could get a GSM unit installed at a cost of €250 - which I would not be keen on as it can be easily blocked!

Has anyone got any experience or knowledge of Vodafone Simply Broadband fibre? I know about the 300GB fair usage limit, but that doesn't worry me - I only use about 180GB per month.

Also, anyone got any ideas on the monitored alarm system over the fibre? It seems mad that I can't have my alarm monitored unless I have an analogue line installed ... so much for the digital world!!
Click to expand...

Make sure that you can actually get it to YOUR HOME.Eircom gave me the run around for over a year telling me that E-Fibre was in my area and that I would have it in 10 days - 2 weeks time.
I got that same excuse for a year on at least 10 different occasions.
Yesterday morning they finally admitted that they dont even know when they can give me E-Fibre so I gave up on Eircom and have UPC comming out to hook us up tomorrow afternoon with 60mb bb and a phone.

Our HKC alarm is connected to the existing incomming Eircom line,so all the UPC chap has to do is use one of the spare cat6 cables from the attic down to the siting room to connect the alarm up to the UPC modem box and I have my alarm back on line via the phone.
 
jdwex said:
Eircom retail would be given the same info as other operators, and the CSRs mainly work for an outsourced company.

The wholesale site gives a better indication of what is happening - down to cabinet level

http://fibrerollout.ie/where-and-when/
Click to expand...

Been there done that and got the t-shirt.Its been at my area exchange cabinet for so many months at this stage and allways the same excuse when I rang and told them this.."we are just waiting on an engineer to hook up your house"."You will have it in around 10 days time".

Yesterday was the final straw for me so Eircom can go and jump now.

And if they want me to pay a cancelation fee,well I will see them in court for it,as they have failed to provide me with a service and gave me a shockingly bad phone line for many months too.I have all emails with them saved and records of all phone calls to them too.
 
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