By Rita Kyriakides
SOME customers who have applied for the new digital line used for Internet access offered by the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) complain they have been waiting for up to five months for the service to be installed.
The Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) provides high-speed digital connectivity and enables Internet Service Providers to deliver high-speed services such as video, audio and Internet.
But some customers who applied for ADSL at the State Fair in April say CyTA has still not installed the service.
Greg, a Cytanet customer who applied for ADSL at the Fair, is furious because he cannot get a proper response from the Authority as to when it will install it.
” I eventually had to phone someone within CyTA, not the help line, to get any sort of response. Someone phoned me back and said that my application was being processed but could not say when they would be installing the line,” he said.
Another customer, Maria, said the installation of her ADSL took CyTA one week because of a problem on her computer that they were not able to resolve.
When applying for the service, customers have the option of connecting with either an Ethernet card, which would allow you to set up a network of computers on the same connection, or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, which is a more basic connection that most home users would have.
Maria’s problem came when her Ethernet card would not work with the ADSL modem, which left the CyTA technicians at a loss.
” After several technicians tried to sort out the problem, CyTA decided to change the ADSL to connect through the USB port,” said Maria.
One Limassol customer who has had ADSL for a while was shocked when he was told he had to go and pick up the ADSL equipment himself from CyTA.
” I was told that my modem was ready so I fetched it and installed everything myself,” he said.
He also said that in the beginning the connection was slow and sometimes he was not able to connect but that the problem now seems to have been sorted out.
One local computer technician told the Sunday Mail that he would not recommend that businesses apply for ADSL until CyTA has ironed out the initial problems they are experiencing.
He also explained that ADSL means a 24-hour connection, leaving the businesses open to hackers, and that they would therefore have to take extra security measures.
” If the line is only for using the Internet then it is great, but users have to bear in mind that the maximum speed would not be obtained if there are many users logged in at the same time,” he said.
Lia Malioti, the Product Manager for i-choice, the CyTA department responsible for ADSL, insisted that they were not experiencing any problems and that all applications will be processed by the end of this month.
” We are hoping that by the end of this month we will no longer have a waiting list,” she said.
Malioti also said that CyTA was only responsible for setting up the ADSL and if there were any problems with the customer’s computer, it was not their problem.
Several factors determine whether ADSL can be installed in a customer’s home. The local exchange, to which the phone line is connected, has to have the necessary equipment to support the service, and the distance between the customer’s home and the exchange must be less than four kilometres.
Installation of ADSL is charged at £40, which includes a special modem and a filter that splits the phone line so there can be unlimited access to the Internet without engaging the phone line itself.
There is also a monthly charge of £35 — £23 for ADSL and a £12 subscription fee for the Internet Service Provider.
Customers can check the availability in their area by either calling the Cytanet help line on 0800 8080 or visiting the i-choice website on www.i-choice.cyta.com.cy
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
