Are Smart Telecom finally going to do some real LLU work in Ireland? They’ve just announced unbundled ADSL2 for Eur 35/month. Sounds too good to be true, eh?

So what’s the snag? 128Kbps upload, no fixed IP, and “no contention” or “download limits”. The slow upload rules me out straight away, and many others like me, but maybe they’ll look at that. They have been interacting on public forums, which is positive.. but it remains to be seen how well they manage their rollout, and customer service (which have plagued all current DSL providers, bar none).

The 2 big issues for me are upload speed, and how they’ll manage their network to cope with warez monkies. However, it is definitely a move to be welcomed, and hopefully will spark some further competition, and not just the pathetic reselling of the incumbent’s bitstream products.

Hurrray!!

SDSL is almost here, with 2 Dublin exchanges being enabled in the coming weeks, according to this SiliconRepublic Article

Finally, someone to offer proper DSL competition, and not ESat BT’s lame attempt to offer competition in the area (small number of exchanges kitted out, small number of lines unbundled, small number of CSRs who care, lost orders, etc., etc.)

Definately a positive move.. good luck to LEAP in providing this service, and hopefully they’ll be cost competitive and have good customer service to back it up. Such a simple formula we’ve not seen to date, on any large scale.