Cyprus-Forum.com

[chock_band]

Hi all...

CYTA was my provider for many years and I was mad with their high prices (compared to the rest of the Europe anyway). Ok, we are in an island and it's expensive to throw a wire in the water and connect with the main land, but still, the price difference is to high.

But at that time, there was no other solution, so I wend with CYTA.

When Cablenet came into the game they offered a direct cable connection (fiberoptics) with a steady connection and much less pricing.
I had to wait for a couple of years to be able to connect with them, since their cable is only going around the highway and not in all streets (Limassol)
As a matter of fact, I was able get Cablenet after I moved to another address where I got lucky! (Well, I didn't know then)

So, finally I had Cablenet. To tell you the truth, I was a little skeptical about this "upto 6MBits/sec" but I did not give too much attention, since I thought that they would not drift too far away from that number. Wrong!

To make the story sort, I will tell you the end. I am back with CYTA now after paying Cablenet for 9 months and receiving the worse service I ever received in my life from a service provider of any kind of business. Their speed was over 5Mbits/sec only after midnight when everybody was sleeping (including myself most of the times). Whenever I measured the speed in the evening, the result was never over 2Mbits/sec and in most cases it was not over 1Mb! I spoke many times with the technicians and I got better results for a few days, but after that, back to the dark ages. One of them was actually honest and gave me the obvious answer. "We have to distribute our bandwidth to too many the customers!!"

The bottom line here is. They buy some bandwidth and try to distribute that according to the users need, but it is not enough to give all of them what they promise. It's simple mathematics. If they have 100 customers with 6Mb contract, they must have 600Mb, right? Wrong! They buy 200Mb and try to keep everyone happy by taking a little from here and give it there and so for. Now when almost everyone watches movies online (XBMC), or is connected to a video streamer, the demand is there, so there is no more fooling.

CYTA is still more expensive, but the difference with Cablenet is not that big anymore. However, they can give you now internet with no obligation for a telephone line (which was required previously) and most important, they are honest. When they say 4MB, it is always that. Ok, for me all providers are thieves, because the price we are paying for Internet is way, way too much (never mind this island shit), but when we don't have another choice, we have to go with the one that does not make fool out of us. And of course we must go with the cheapest one. Don't just read the advertisements and this big numbers like 24MBits/sec. It's all lies.

Cablenet made a fool out of me. I paid the highest price for Internet (speedwise) for the last 9 months!! I was paying 25 euros per month for 1MBit/sec !!

Stay away from them!!!!!!!!!!!

[Get Real!]

They buy some bandwidth and try to distribute that according to the users need,

No shit!

Anyone offering telephony services in Cyprus has to go via Cyta which is the semi-government run communications authority of the country, so it doesn’t matter what their advertisements may claim they can NEVER offer you faster or better than Cyta.

But even if someone was to offer you cheaper prices… so bloody what? What about the inconvenience of moving and after-sales service?

Do you think they can match Cyta’s 1,000 technicians island wide or country wide infrastructure and grip on the island? Fat chance!

[Sotos]

Many people are satisfied with Cablenet so I don't think their international bandwidth is the limiting factor. I suspect that in your case you hit one of the disadvantages of Cable tech in general: The cable is shared among many homes so if your area has a lot of Cablenet subscribers your local cable doesn't have enough bandwidth to meet the demand at pick hours. This is not a problem for ADSL because each home has its own copper wiring which is not shared with anybody. Of course ADSL has other disadvantages ...e.g. if the copper wiring connecting your home is not in good condition or you are too far from the exchange then the max speed you can get will be limited.

If they have 100 customers with 6Mb contract, they must have 600Mb, right? Wrong!

That is always "wrong" for all companies. Those 100 customers will not use all 6MB 24/7. A company should just make sure that even at pick hours there is enough bandwidth for good speeds. This is why the speeds are advertised as "up to". If you want guaranteed speed then you should get a leased line ... a 2MBPS line with Cyta costs close to €300

Anyone offering telephony services in Cyprus has to go via Cyta which is the semi-government run communications authority of the country, so it doesn’t matter what their advertisements may claim they can NEVER offer you faster or better than Cyta.

They might use some of the Cyta infrastructure but Cyta is obligated to offer that infrastructure to other companies and they can not deny access or charge amounts that would eliminate competition. Also companies have a lot of their own infrastructure... like GSM towers of MTN, and Primetel uses an independent fibre optics submarine cable system.

Do you think they can match Cyta’s 1,000 technicians island wide or country wide infrastructure and grip on the island? Fat chance!

Cyta is obligated to offer its infrastructure to the private companies... and those 1,000 technicians need to get paid ... so maybe the support is good but you are paying for it. I changed from Cyta to Primetel. I now pay half and my connection is reliably faster. My mobile is with MTN and again I pay less than what I did with Cyta... but MTNs phone support does suck big time.

[Get Real!]

Support is important for me Sotos… for example:

Every 1-2 years I get bored of that router or set-top box sitting there, so I just pull it out, go to a Cyta shop and tell them to give me the new one! If you’re shameless but courteous they do!

Every 1-2 years Cyta upgrades my Internet speed for free… I don’t have to do anything.

Also, I can take advantage of good Cyta customer offers… for example a few months ago I moved from ADSL to VDSL (and dual set-top boxes) for just €4 a month. This also means that I can now have a FREE fax line by pinching the next available number!

Let’s say that your landline is 22123783 then you can pinch 22123784 to use as a fax line if the number is available or whichever number is available next.

Try doing all these things with other companies which are counting their pennies…

[Sotos]

All ISPs used to upgrade their speeds for free but when was the last time this happened? And I don't think we have VDSL in Cyprus ... what is your internet speed?? What you say sounds more like Broadband Telephony. I had ISDN before with 2 lines but I didn't really use the fax that often so I went to Cyta to ditch ISDN and they proposed Broadband Telephony as an alternative. For my needs Primetel suits me better. On Cytavision I could watch the home games of AEL if I paid €35 per month for the Full Pack... but that was way too much. With Primetel I get basic TV for €5, 3 times less than the equivalent basic TV with Cyta.

[Sotos]

I pay for 8mbps.

Within Cyprus:


To USA:

[Get Real!]

All ISPs used to upgrade their speeds for free but when was the last time this happened? And I don't think we have VDSL in Cyprus ... what is your internet speed?? What you say sounds more like Broadband Telephony. I had ISDN before with 2 lines but I didn't really use the fax that often so I went to Cyta to ditch ISDN and they proposed Broadband Telephony as an alternative. For my needs Primetel suits me better. On Cytavision I could watch the home games of AEL if I paid €35 per month for the Full Pack... but that was way too much. With Primetel I get basic TV for €5, 3 times less than the equivalent basic TV with Cyta.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got VDSL. Here’s what they did…

1. They replaced the cable from the road (pavement) coming into the house’s phone box terminal to a much thicker one… I forgot the standard. They did the same from the outside of the house to the master phone point.

2. They replaced my router with this VDSL model… (PDF download)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... 5247,d.d2k

3. They installed a new master phone point that has a VDSL splitter hanging off it.

4. They removed all ADSL filters because they’re no longer needed… they basically replaced all telephony hardware to VDSL.

5. And they had to ring up a colleague to make some software adjustments on my account before all this could be enabled/work. The techie was here for 2-3 hours to get it all done.

[Get Real!]

I pay for 8mbps.

Within Cyprus:


To USA:

Same here but I don't think it's a speed issue... it's a services issue like Voice over IP, handling dual independant set-top boxes, fax line etc.

[cyprusgrump]

I've got VDSL in Pissouri...

[Sotos]

What is your international speed like, with a server in the US for example? With Cyta I used to have problems streaming HD movies. Youtube 1080p had to stop and buffer for quite some time with my 8Mbps connection. That was a year ago though ... I don't know if they fixed things now. About VDSL... the 32Mbps down and 4Mbps up that they offer should be more than ADSL2+ can handle so it might be VDSL... but for some reason they do not advertise it as such ... while in Greece they do where Cyta Hellas offers 50Mbps down / 10 Mbps up for €38!!! https://www.cyta.gr/el/ForHome/3Play