Your Money: Crossed wires
Irish broadband providers have made great progress with customer care, but as demand grows for higher quality service, many packages are over-subscribed or badly run, writes John Cradden
Broadband deal: little Conor McGuirk was on hand recently to launch UPC's "triple play" service, which consists of a combined package of digital TV, high-speed broadband and telephone services
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You might assume that, as with any service, price and value would be the main determining factors in deciding which fixed broadband package to opt for.
You can choose basic packages with, for example, a 1Mb/s download speed and a monthly download limit.
Or you can pick more expensive packages with speeds of 3Mb/s or higher and with very high monthly download limits, or even none at all.
But in Ireland there are actually several other factors to consider, but the critical ones are local availability and the quality of customer service.
When it comes to local availability, Ireland ranks low compared to other countries.
For instance, it scores 20th out of a table of 30 OECD nations for households with broadband access in 2008, with almost 43pc using the highspeed internet connection.
The Government claims 65pc of households have broadband access, but the OECD figure doesn’t include mobile broadband services delivered over 3G mobile networks. The figure includes DSL, cable, fibre and wireless connections with speeds faster than 256kb/s.
DSL connections are the most common in Ireland, the study found, with few cable customers and only a small number of wireless subscribers.
Limited
Average prices for broadband access in Ireland remain among the highest in the OECD area, while advertised speeds were among the slowest.
The upshot of this is that, for users outside cities or urban centres, the choice of broadband service remains quite limited and, by definition, likely only to offer a minimal speed. Such users may feel a pang of jealousy for users with access to Chorus NTL’s new fibre-cable broadband services.
Early this month the firm, which is rebranding as UPC, announced a new 30Mb/s fibre broadband service, which it claims will be the fastest consumer service available when it begins early in January.
At present the fastest service is the 24Mb/s service from Smart Telecom, while the fastest available service from Eircom operates at up to 7Mb/s.
There will be a choice of three new broadband speeds under the new Chorus NTL service, which will be available across the one-third of its network that has been upgraded to date: 30Mb/s, 15Mb/s and 5Mb/s.
Prices will range from €22 per month for the 5Mb/s service (€30 for non-TV customers) to €42 (€50) for 30Mb/s service.
UPC is also planning a 120Mb/s service by August 2010.
Demand for faster broadband is growing because there are more ‘bandwidth-heavy’ activities that demand better and faster networks, such as online gaming, says Niall Kitson, editor of ‘PC Live!’ magazine.
“Consumers are convinced of the merits of broadband and they know what they want out of it. Be it RTE Player, Xbox LIVE, Playstation Network, YouTube etc, consumers now know where they want to go.”
In this context, Chorus NTL's new service seems like an irresistible proposition – if it’s available in your area – but the issue of the firm's poor reputation for customer service has continued to dog the company.
“UPC has made some real inroads into their previously frustrating customer service,” says Patrick Lee, director of price comparison website Uchoose.ie.
The website recently surveyed its members and found that satisfaction levels among UPC customers had risen.
“That said, UPC recognise they have ground to make up before they can fully win back everyone's trust and are fully committed to doing so,” he says.
Mr Kitson is also alert to broadband firms with poorly run services, and advises people not to shop purely on price. “We’re at a stage now where too many people have been burned by ‘good deals' when they find services to be either over-subscribed or badly run.
“Have a look at any discussion forum on broadband and time and again what rankles isn’t so much cost as value. Paying less but getting less isn’t good value.”
Mr Lee and Mr Kitson both advise consumers to research customer experiences as well as comparing prices.
“Customers should check the reviews. . . as well as speeds and download limits and gauge them against their particular needs,” said Mr Lee.
Concern about service disruption is one reason for “massive inertia” about switching providers, says Mr Lee.
“It might be that consumers feel it’s going to disrupt their service for a period of time and therefore more hassle than it’s worth,” he says.
However, lack of choice is another. “As for switching providers, we would see a lot more movement if there was a level playing field but so few areas have a genuine choice,” says Mr Kitson.
The good news is that switching providers is now easier thanks to new ComReg rules.
Regardless of whether you switch from one DSL provider to another, or from a DSL provider to a cable one, your new provider should get you connected quickly and easily.
“A calming engineer on the other end of the line will usually see you right within minutes,” says Mr Lee.
