Broadband: Should I opt for Eircom or Vodafone?

Right, so the situation isn't great where I live for Broadband.

In Dunshaughlin, Meath, there is no UPC, Magnet (Who I used in Donabate and were fantastic), or Imagine (Yet)

So I am looking at the following for Broadband.

Vodafone at Home or Eircom.

Vodafone is €45 Phone & Broadband (10% off Mobile Customers) and Eircom is €61 Phone & Broadband

Hearing terrible things about Vodafone especially from BT customers and couple of hardship stories from people dealing with Eircom.

Need wireless though as other half has discovered Facebook and I've discovered XBox Live.

Rang Vodafone, Dowload Allowance is 60GB Eircom is 50GB, wouldn't download that in a month by any stretch of the imagination.

I have used XBox Live by routing the mobile broadband (Vodafone) through the PC and setting up a network. It works ok, but would prefer something a little more solid.

Both are 'up to' 7mb and this seems to be the best I can get in the area.

Any advice from personal experience which to opt for?

Many thanks.
Locke

Hi Locke,

If you must go with either of these, I suggest you go with Eircom, while I find Eircom slow and there customer service bad, Vodafone is a nightmare, I signed up to the home broadband and phone, after two weeks I found out my landline could not take the broadband so I cancelled, well I taught, Vodafone sent me plenty of bills, which eventally they credited on there systems, but only after ring COMREG and complaining, I voiced my corcerns to Vodafone explaining to them I would never buy any of there products again, I would steer well clear of Vodafone, but if you decide to go with them if theres problems with the signal, Vodafone contact Eircom to fix the problem which takes longer than usual.

All the best
Chris

Thanks Chris,

Great Advice and I think I'll give Vodafone a miss. Your post seems to echo the general feeling towards them.

Locke

+1

There are a lot of unhappy Vodafone customers over on the Broadband forum of Boards.ie (currently down).

Have you checked out Pure telecom - I've used them for broadband & phonecalls the past while & I'm quite happy with them - worth a look anyway

I must be lucky - on Vodafone mobile BB for 3 months now. Absolutely fine. €19.99 per month, dongle free, no other costs. The limit is only 3G but I wouldn't use even half that - though I guess a lot of people would want more.

I have the mobile BB Caveat and find it ok, few problems lately but need to have Mobile Broadband for a site I manage as I do be at games and reporting for it. Although most of the problems seem to be with their 'at home' packages.

Have not looked into Pure Telecom TLC, see they are €65 and only 20GB Cap. Not sure about them but thanks for highlighting them.

It's a nightmare to be honest. Is it too much to ask for decent broadband?

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Just to add Vodafone at home have taken over all BT customers.

Huge amount of negative comments about both but for what it is worth I was a customer of BT and now Vodafone at home and have never had any problems at all dealing with either. Had minor issues/questions from time to time emailed them and they always got back to me reasonably qucikly and solved the issue.

They do an up to 3mb broadband and free off peak national and local calls for 39 or €35 if you have a vodafone mobile account, I think this is a great package for anyone who isn't at home to use the landline during the day

vodophone have no on the site support.

Can someone explain the diffference between mobile bb and at home bb??
We recently had a call from a vodafone rep as bb is coming to our area. He wanted to sell us the at home package for €45 pm but i only want the mobile one (€15 or 20 pm). He said we couldnt as its because the bb is coming through the phone line. Is this correct?? Can i only pick up the mobile signal from masts???
Bit thick when it comes to this technical stuff............

If he was selling the Home BB then it does come through the line.

Mobile Broadband can be picked up in any of the stores be it 3, O2, or Vodafone or a Car Phone Warehouse or Online.

Got switched over from BT to Vodafone when BT sold out their residential, I can't complain about the qulaity of BB or phone line, in fact they upgraded me from 1MB to 3MB, however their customer service & support is atrociuos.

I have been trying to change bundles with them since early December & apply the 10% discount from our Vodafone Mobile pay monthly account, but despite 5 e-mails and 3 phone calls, they have been incapable/unwilling to do it, I suspect its down to them having an unwritten policy of locking in ex-BT customers to a less favorable bundle than they offer to new customers.

They have now also billed me twice for Nov/Dec, they have not done the second DD yet so I am waiting to see what happens next.

Locke, I am in a similar situation to you, I am in Cork suburbs and seems like only choices open to me are VF or Eircom. Because of the frustrating customer service, I am on the verge of switching back to Eircom also, however have held off as there is a significant cost difference ( €45 v €61), I am however now getting near the "last straw" with VF..........

Thank RSMike. I got a call back from VF Agent seeing did I want to push ahead and order. I told her no. Said I was cautious from experience with their Mobile Broadband and she was hesitant when I pulled her up on who fixes what when it goes wrong.

Looking like eircom. Or wait and wait and wait for wiMax

Also consider [broken link removed] who are among the cheapest (although note the disconnection charge) and who have free calls in Britain and Ireland or free calls off-peak only. They have a lower download limit, unless you pay for unlimited, but the vast majority of people would not use this in typical browsing anyway. They have occasional technical problems, but their billing is sound.

thanks ardmacha

Opted for Eircom.

Tentative steps, first night, it's giving me average 5.5mbs over 4 speed tests over the past two hours and 300kbs upload. Blowing my vodafone mobile out of the water.