Interesting goings-on on Boards.ie Broadband forum

See this user.

There was a post about how Smart Telecom (recently purchased by or bailed out by or something by Digiweb) have now got a 170GB limit on their 'unlimited broadband', and that some people might be inclined to think that Smart don't make this clear enough, and in fact might even allegedly refer to it as 'unlimited' without qualification.

Now, I'm not going to get into this debate about whether it is sensible, ethical or non-misleading to call limited things 'unlimited' without making it very clear to the potential customer that the term 'unlimited' is, in technical terms, a 'lie'.

Anyway, this guy's primary issue seemed to be that someone on the phone from Smart referred to it as 'Digiweb-Smart':

As a member of the "Smart Sales Dept" i know for a fact no body announces the company or refers the company to any customer as "Digiweb Smart", it's plain and simply Smart Telecom???

Rarrrr! Me enraged Smart employee! Me cannot punctuate! Me maybe not so Smart???

But yeah, that in itself isn't so interesting.

Looking back at past posts... Here's one on the NTL upgrade:

according to the website you have to sign into a new 12 month contract for the upgraded speed

Does this mean we will be automatically upgraded into a new 12 month contract without our consent?

And another NTL/UPC:

also when doing a speedtest on speedtest.net my local server is coming up as Limerick when it should be Dublin ... maybe my connection is being routed differently??

i can nearly be certain its a upc issue

Another UPC (on a thread from someone considering moving to either UPC or Smart):

i have UPC and am on the "so called" 20Mb package.. it seems to work fine during the day but always after 5.30pm and up to about 1am the speed drops to approx 3Mb. its more than likely a contention issue 

Smart LLU broadband has a contention ratio of 1:1 as they have their own infrastructure in selected exchanges so u would always be guaranteed full speed 24/7

No relationship disclosed despite the Smart plug, I note. Here's one on a BT problem:

im suffering the same fate the last few days 

And another BT:

i wouldn even recommend BT to my worst enemy at this stage

Some more Smart plugs:

Smart Telecom uses its own equipment in exchanges, offer up to 24mb , no download limits and 1:1 contention ratio ... cant go wrong with that?

...

Smarts contention is 1:1 , the speed you apply for is the speed you will get and no download limits ( unlike other fair usage policies there are none with Smart as you are not line sharing )

...

Smart telecom has a package at the moment as u said above 4MB for 40.52 per month. 1:1 contention and "real" no downlolad limits unlike this fair usage crap.... and if u sign up before the end of the month u get the 1st 3 months broadband free

A post from before most of these:

i work for an isp and we can check these factors in a few minutes for any new customer signing up once the line is active and you have the eircom a/c number and phone number.

So, poster says that he works for an ISP, back in the day. He then proceeds to badmouth various ISPs which he uses, and talk up Smart. And then, later, he mentions that he's a member of the "Smart Sales Dept" (quotes his, not mine). Why, if I had a nasty, suspicious mind, I might be inclined to think that he was attacking the competition, and promoting his own company, all without disclosing affiliation! But no, I'm quite sure that it's the case that he left a different, un-named ISP and started with Smart after he made the last 'NTL is evil' post, 13 days ago. Hmm. Maybe not!

I'm sure it's not actually Smart's policy to have their employees promote them without disclosure on forums, but it isn't the best of form.