Cork photographer focuses ire on Eir over broadband services

A well-known photographer has snapped after losing his high-speed broadband service, despite moving to an office closer to an internet exchange in the heart of Cork City.

Cork Business Association member Billy MacGill said he enjoyed internet speeds of up to 30MBs in his old office just off Oliver Plunkett St, about 100 yards from the exchange near the city’s central post office.

He moved in July to a new office on Oliver Plunkett St, just 23m from the exchange. Despite paying €147 to his broadband provider Eir to transfer his account to the new address, his broadband speeds have collapsed. Tests on his line show he is getting speeds as low as 0.82MBs.

“I get 1MB on a good day,” said Mr MacGill.

Technicians said he is entitled to up to 50MBs but, despite several phonecalls to Eir’s customer service and technical departments, the issue has yet to be resolved.

He said the slow broadband speeds are making it increasingly difficult for him to run his photography business, which relies heavily on reliable, super-fast broadband to email images and access stored data on Dropbox.

He criticised his provider, Eir, last night for dragging their heels and failing to deal with his complaint almost three months after his office move: “I contacted their customer service department, who transferred me to their technical department, but still the issue wasn’t resolved.”

After five separate transfers, and being on hold on one call for up to 90 minutes, he gave up: “After a few weeks, I contacted their corporate affairs department and explained my position. I said it would be very negative for Eir if they didn’t respond, and I asked to get it cleared up as soon as possible. The person I spoke to said he’d get back to me. I didn’t hold my breath. I’ve left two messages since, but I’m still waiting for the call back.”

Mr MacGill said the company boasts about having the best high-speed broadband network in the country, yet cannot seem to resolve a technical problem in the heart of Cork city.

Eir last night said its networks team was analysing the situation and a spokesman said the company was hopeful the customer would get high-speed broadband.

A survey earlier this year found that only half of all broadband users are satisfied with the internet speeds they are getting, and almostone third say they are getting slower broadband speeds in their homes than they are paying for.