TV / Broadband / Phone bundles

[JohnH]

For the last while we've had our tv with sky and our broadband and phone from Eircom.
Being honest Freeview would probably suit me and my wife but we need all the kids channels that Freeview doesn't have (Nick Jnr, Disney etc..)

I've been looking at some of the bundle offers from upc, Eircom or sky but I'm wary of getting into a contract and finding the provider is bad to deal with.

Does anyone have experience of UPC? Is horizon as bad as the reports on boards.ie would suggest?

Does anyone use Eircom for tv? I'd love to hear what the interface is like.

Alternatively does anyone have phone / broadband from Sky? What are they like to deal with?

Any other recommendations would be welcome.
Thanks

[Ketron]

For the last while we've had our tv with sky and our broadband and phone from Eircom.
Being honest Freeview would probably suit me and my wife but we need all the kids channels that Freeview doesn't have (Nick Jnr, Disney etc..)

I've been looking at some of the bundle offers from upc, Eircom or sky but I'm wary of getting into a contract and finding the provider is bad to deal with.

Does anyone have experience of UPC? Is horizon as bad as the reports on boards.ie would suggest?

Does anyone use Eircom for tv? I'd love to hear what the interface is like.

Alternatively does anyone have phone / broadband from Sky? What are they like to deal with?

Any other recommendations would be welcome.
Thanks

First hand experience with Horizon. Its rubbish don't do it!

Its not just the slow menu etc thats annoying or the purely designed and unintuitive interface, I have the power cycle the box every couple of days because the internet drops.

I'm looking into changing to the old style modem (Cisco one) that I can bridge and the basic tv package set top box.

I'm currently paying 80 a month (never use the phone) and to keep my 240mb connection and do the above it will cost me 75. I'll have less channels but in my mind its worth it to get rid of the horizon box!

Love the ridiculous broadband speeds, but UPC's TV set up sucks the fat one!

[JohnH]

Thanks, that's UPC tv out so!

[Ketron]

Thanks, that's UPC tv out so!

If I was in your position I'd get UPC broadband, free-view and XBMC for the kids

[JohnH]

Thanks, that's UPC tv out so!

If I was in your position I'd get UPC broadband, free-view and XBMC for the kids

That's what I was leaning towards but I need to check out XBMC and see if the mother in law could find nick Jnr when she's babysitting!

[eddiem74]

John, like you I have Sky for TV and Eircom eFibre for broadband.

Sky were not offering fibre when I moved from Eircom broadband to their fibre offering.
I had UPC in the past many moons ago and after terrible customer service swore would never, ever go back.

Sky is a trouble free TV service but is probably over priced however they are now adding a lot of online options for on demand type services and from my experience it just works... Their customer service is generally acceptable to deal with also.

Sky have only recently started offering the fibre service so will be interesting to see the performance of that and if eircom is limiting bandwidth in any way.

I would think Sky probably has a really decent 12 month deal that makes it worth it for the year and then see from there.

[JohnH]

John, like you I have Sky for TV and Eircom eFibre for broadband.

Sky were not offering fibre when I moved from Eircom broadband to their fibre offering.
I had UPC in the past many moons ago and after terrible customer service swore would never, ever go back.

Sky is a trouble free TV service but is probably over priced however they are now adding a lot of online options for on demand type services and from my experience it just works... Their customer service is generally acceptable to deal with also.

Sky have only recently started offering the fibre service so will be interesting to see the performance of that and if eircom is limiting bandwidth in any way.

I would think Sky probably has a really decent 12 month deal that makes it worth it for the year and then see from there.

I agree with you on the quality of Sky's offering Eddie, I'd hate to end up with something that was a pain to use.

I want to get a call package that includes mobiles and international calls. I was working at home a bit in Jan as the Mrs wasn't well and the Eircom bill was about €150, mainly down to 3 long international calls and a load of Irish mobile calls

For what I've seen so far Sky's call packages don't include Irish mobiles

[John_D]

I have upc and I'm very happy with it but I'm not on horizon, I've the last of the cisco HD boxes.
Can't complain about the service, it never goes down.
Also the broadband is deadly, I'm on a 120mb connection. Currently paying 57 per month.
Can you still get the old boxes I wonder?

[Ketron]

I have upc and I'm very happy with it but I'm not on horizon, I've the last of the cisco HD boxes.
Can't complain about the service, it never goes down.
Also the broadband is deadly, I'm on a 120mb connection. Currently paying 57 per month.
Can you still get the old boxes I wonder?

Yep, I've confirmed that. They are pushing horizon hard but ya can get them still

[John_D]

Good stuff, I'm wary about 'upgrading' to horizon.