Damien Mulley

290 Responses to “Broadband choices and options in Ireland (Updated Oct 2009)”

1. Timothy says:

   August 8, 2006 at 4:12 pm

   I think you might need to update your costs re BT bundles. Latest literature from BT ireland offers 1MB+Line rebtal+ unlimited anytime all-Ireland calls for €35; 2MB+Line+unlimiter anytime all-ireland/Britain calls fo €45 etc.

2. Marci says:

   August 9, 2006 at 7:37 pm

   I want some type of faster dialup and download.

   I live in West Cork on Sheepshead Peninsula.

   What are my chances?

3. Irish Telecom News says:

   August 13, 2006 at 10:05 pm

   Hi Damien,

   Nice list.
   One question though, you mention that to unbundle your line you need to change your number. I thought unbundling meant paying your line rental to some company other than Eircom in which case you don’t have to change your number. I switched to BT and kept my numbers.

   Thanks

4. Damien says:

   August 13, 2006 at 10:18 pm

   Unbundling is having your line physically moved in the exchange and plugged into the equipment of another provider.

   In your case you have wholesale line rental and calls with BT. Quite different.

   The whole thing with unbundling was eircom said the only identifier for a line was its phone number and so they had to keep it in their system even if you got an unbundled service and if you tried to use your old number there’d be a conflict so you had to be given a new number. ComReg believed this!

   Number portability is going to become a reality by end of this month from what I hear. Well done ComReg, only 6 years later.

5. Patrick says:

   August 17, 2006 at 11:55 am

   With regards to BT billing system – disaster. I was minding my parents house while they were abroad, and they received a stinker of a letter in from some debt collection crowd in the UK. They had subscribed to BT and had subsequently cancelled the subscription. Lucklily they had everything in writing including all invoices etc etc. I called BT, they (eventually) accepted that there was no money due to them, then they advised me to call the debt collection crowd, who advised me to call BT, who advised me to call the debt collection crowd…are you getting the picture?? Eventually after another 10 – 15 phone calls various threats, pleads and rage, got it sorted. Of course not a word of apology from the incompetent eejits, and when I tried to get something in writing acknowledging that there was no money due to them – no chance!

   Anyways, signing up for NTL Max this week for a new apt in S. Dublin, have been assured that it will not be a problem and that a technician will be around late next week – so far have been impressed with them, if they deliver on their promises I will be signing there praises here next week!

   Thanks for putting the list together Damien

6. yvonne says:

   August 19, 2006 at 5:51 pm

   I have just ordered irish broadband. i cant get broadband any other way and i’m paying eircom a fortune for flat rate 30euro a month and also my son won’t get off and keeps using extra hours which cost me even more. also we are paying line rental when there are 5 mobile phones in the house !!!! even though im slighly worried about the bad press for ibb speeds it still seems worth it for what im paying now for the internet. WISH ME LUCK!!!

7. Dick Doran says:

   August 23, 2006 at 7:24 pm

   Damien well done for opening discussion on the broadband issue, however this has led to confusion (mine) following all the posts I’m now well confused. I’m an eircom customer for phone however I use utv internet on dial up at the moment, and mainly use the internet for research, however I find the speed a problem with so many sites incorporating graphics. I’m in Dublin area and from your list Smart seem like a good bet what do you and your “viewers” think ? (paticularly since they have been round the area looking for business, I missed them)

8. tony says:

   August 28, 2006 at 2:11 pm

   Why do alarm systems conflict with broadband? I saw something about a splitter to overcpme this conflict, in an earlier post, but who installs this? What does it actually do? Is it something I can do myself? I would like to go for the BT €45 offer, but I’m not sure I can with this potential conflict. BT say that if I ask my alarm company they may be able to do it for me, but they are quoting €150!

   I’m currently with UTV and the customer service via email is diabolical.

9. Austin Rock says:

   August 31, 2006 at 10:53 am

   Great summary and extremely usefull. Just one thing, how much frre webspace comes with these bundles if any? Or this question irrelevant?

10. Gerry says:

    September 10, 2006 at 11:17 pm

    For those put off BT because of the billing situation, I think for an extra 2 euro or so they will provide a written bill. I had dial-up(anytime) with them and never had a billing issue. Anyway after years of waiting my line finally passed(well on amber) the BB test. Going to go with Eircoms Home Starter first as its only a 6 mth contract, you get all the equipt free, free connection and 1 months sub free if you order online. Even though they are dearer than BT with that deal(free stuff) its a good starter offer and after 6 months I can move if I want. Great work Damien.

11. Sean from Carlow says:

    September 11, 2006 at 4:38 pm

    http://www.teles-skydsl.com

    That is a link to a german satellite provider which gives one-way satellite broadband throughout europe. If you are like me, out in the middle of the countryside, several miles from the nearest exchange with ancient phonelines which are barely capable of giving you telephone access, satellite broadband is the only option available.
    As is previously stated, satellite broadband is the most expensive BB available. I think this german provider is fairly cheap with tariffs ranging from 10 euro up to 50 euro.
    I chose a tariff which gives me 4MB download (it gets no-where near that but is well over 2MB nonetheless) speeds and a monthly download allowance of 2000MB with a further 2000MB for file downloading for a monthly price of 50 euro. The hardware which includes a satellite dish and a receiver cost me about 100 euro. If u have a satellite dish u can use it and fore-go the expense of getting one from them. U should note however that an 80cm dish is recommended if not needed for ireland as we are on the rim of europe.
    The site explains how it works. Briefly, you need a phoneline and a fairly clear view of the south sky. You have to install it yourself. I had alot of trouble installing it because it is fairly hard to fine the satellites. However the task was made 100 times easier when i bought one of those cheap satellite finders from lidl or aldi, i’m sure argos probably has them aswell.
    Anyway, i am fairly happy with the setup. I am paying through the nose for half a satellite service, meaning i have broadband download speeds but my upload is still dependent on your dial-up connection (thats how the phoneline fits into the system).

    One final thing, my phoneline is so bad that i can only gets speeds of 12-14kbps. As a result i got myself a Vodafone connect card which gives me a speed of 57Kbps (thats what it reports to me anyway). Using a connect card is pretty costly as in my case you have pay per MB of traffic. That means u pay so much for each MB you download/upload.
    The beauty of the satellite BB is that I only use the connect card for uploading and because the amount you upload is a fraction of what you download, the connect card is costing me very little.
    Overall, i think it is costing me about 60-70 euro per month, i put about €20 credit into the connect card.
    Yes it is expensive compared to the regular BB but it is the only option to me at the moment and almost certainly for the foreseeable future. I think it will be a cold day in hell before Eircom delivers broadband through the phonelines to much of rural Ireland.

    Thats my 2 cents……… 🙂

12. Gerry says:

    September 11, 2006 at 11:03 pm

    Sean, that sounds fine for all the ppl who cannot get BB from Eircom\BT ect. However one thing I could not determine from their site is this: as you need to use your phone line and dial-up connection are you also being charged a dial-up charge by Eircom\BT or whatever Irish ISP you are using while using this service.

13. Damien says:

    September 11, 2006 at 11:05 pm

    Yes and if you have a flatrate package you’ll use it up soon enough and if your line is really shit it means upload is so bad it interferes with download. If you’re not on flatrate you’re even more screwed. Don’t forget the cost of line rental when pricing dialup.

14. Sean from Carlow says:

    September 12, 2006 at 7:33 pm

    Yeah i agree with pretty much everything damien says there. A flat rate is a must for this type of system. I don’t fully agree with Damien when he says you will use up your flatrate allowance quickly. I don’t see how, when u are only using the dial-up for uploading which like i said is a fraction of the volume you usually download. Of course this varies from person to person.
    Damien you seem to have a dislike for satellite broadband. I’m not saying it’s on par with the other options available, i think it is very inferior to DSL broadband (over the phonelines), but the fact is for a huge number of ppl, it’s the only option available.

    Teles-skydsl is by far the cheapest provider of satellite broadband i have seen.
    >No installation fee (cos you do it yourself) whereas other providers charge ridiculous sums of money to install it.
    >hardware costs are very small compared to other providers
    >but the biggest advantage of using these guys is their monthly fees, what other satellite provider gives u speeds up to 4mb for 50euro? 24mb if u can use the pci card they have.

    Don’t take my word for it, check out their website. I just wanted to show people that satellite broadband doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

15. Damien says:

    September 12, 2006 at 8:02 pm

    Satellite broadband is an oxymoron. It is broadband for boats and for deserts. Even oil rigs use microwave technology for broadband. My big issue is that people are not informed about the limits of this technology.

    BTW Sean you are legally entitled to 28kbps on that phoneline. Talk to ComReg to force eircom to fix it, if you want.

16. Sean from Carlow says:

    September 13, 2006 at 1:12 pm

    Again i can’t disagree with you there either. Satellite broadband is only one-way broadband, u only get the speed increase when you download and even then it is limited because of the slow upload speed. You need to upload even when u are downloading, small though it may be.

    I’m am delighted about your comment on Eircoms obligations. It would be great if i could get them to fix it. Do you have any proof of that though? I have looked for info on their legal obligations but from what i can tell from forums, they don’t have any regarding the internet.

17. Damien says:

    September 13, 2006 at 1:17 pm

    http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0629.pdf

    Talk to ComReg about it. 1890 229 668 or consumerline@comreg.ie

18. Andrew says:

    September 15, 2006 at 1:21 am

    i have a mega prob i cant seem to be able to get broadband any where i like in carnerhone just off beafort kerry abd i am really stuck can u help me plz

19. Mavvv says:

    September 18, 2006 at 1:00 pm

    Anyone know if NTL have a customer sales department, been waiting over a week now for a call.

20. not so smart says:

    September 20, 2006 at 2:53 am

    1. Smart Telecom, 3300 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24 Tel:**** 01 4699300 *****

    2. Your phone number ****014699300**** is serviced by the CITYWEST exchange.
    This exchange is NOT on the Smart Broadband Network Build Programme.

    Please check back again at a later date

    3. HA HA HA

21. Alan says:

    September 28, 2006 at 12:35 pm

    Well done and thank you for spelling out to the idiot like myself exactly what is and is not available.

22. Roberto says:

    September 28, 2006 at 6:40 pm

    So the only internet provider without a download cap is Smart Telecom and they aren’t available in Clare Co. where I’m relocating….So what can I do 40 GB or less is too little, here in Italy where I’ve been living i used to download at least 15GB a day for a small fee of 19€ a month!!!!!
    I guess I’ll have to change my habits

23. not so smart says:

    October 3, 2006 at 12:28 pm

    Well Alan you are welcome – I suppose you cant see the irony in a broadband provider not being able to provide broadband to its own exchange?
    And with 47,000 end users not being able to make calls since friday last?

24. Jasmin says:

    October 6, 2006 at 9:15 am

    Hey can anyone help me, I moved house last week and had a digital tv/ broadband package with NTL which was, for the most part, great. BUT! I called tham today to change the address and they said my new address is on MMDS service (whatver that is)and so I can have tv but not broadband. Basically is there anyone who does a digital tv and broadband package that is fairly reasonably priced in the Galway area?

25. ling cung says:

    October 17, 2006 at 5:39 pm

    can any one ,give me an update on the situation on smart telecom
    is it true that i will lose my phone line , but keep my broadband.?
    do i have to do something or dose this all happen automaticallly.

26. Liam O'Brien says:

    October 17, 2006 at 9:37 pm

    Looked around for satellite broadband and local internet cafe pointed me in direction of http://www.europeonline.com. Great value satellite access for rural dwellers, 249euro for 12 months including install etc, 512 download up to 2mb upload. Only hitch is it’s only compatible with pc and windows. I’m an apple user so I’ve lost out. Heard good reports about it so hopefully this might allow someone to rise out of the rural broadband abyss. I’m not out of there yet!!

27. Malcybarkid says:

    October 22, 2006 at 5:58 pm

    Hi! I live in the west of ireland and have just received hardware for teles skydsl – dish and usb box.
    Does anyone know which satellite I am supposed to be looking for?
    I have also had problems loading the software – keep getting error message re missing driver. Anyone else had this problem?
    Many sympathies with Sean from Carlow – I live in the sticks as well – I do slightly better at 14.4 to 16.8 – I have Onspeed installed which really makes a difference to general surfing, but doesn’t work with secure connections!
    BTW will onspeed work with skydsl – and could it be causing the software problems?
    I’ve had the dish on the roof for nearly a week now without any success – any help would be greatly appreciated as frustration is beginning to take it’s toll!!

28. variant says:

    October 23, 2006 at 8:22 pm

    In sweden you can get 100MB/10MB no limit, no contention, 32euro a month fiber optic internet connection. This is available in virtually all populated areas:

    http://bredbandsbolaget.se/wps/portal/produkt/bredbandviabredbandsuttaget/bredband100

    you don’t need to speak swedish to read those figures!

    When this comes to Ireland I will eat this shitty Irishbroadbent arial!!!!!

    variant

29. walter johnston says:

    October 25, 2006 at 3:14 pm

    hi folks
    Living in Ratoath co meath
    Just wondering what the best broadband package would be for me.

    I have an eircom phone line in but hoping to get a package to cover line rental and broadband and that i can make a small numbe rof calls on.

    if anybody has an idea on overall cost including vat i would be grateful( fairly reliable service only, wth 1mb +)

    thanks
    walter

30. jamie says:

    October 25, 2006 at 9:56 pm

    Very grateful for the information on the site. Currently have eircom broadband, but due to price and ntl now becoming available in the area i have an appointment for installation of ntl this weekend. Since making appointment, eircom prices have come down. Now having second thoughts.

    Is there anyone who has had recent experience of both who can give me advice on the comparison of the two in terms of speed, reliability etc.

    Any information before friday would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Jamie

31. Pete says:

    October 25, 2006 at 10:57 pm

    Damien
    Many thanks, a real service to humankind, well to that part of humankind who are looking to upgrade their broadband.

    I take your point on the hidden costs of NTL but assuming that you already get your TV from them, and therefore the extra costs are are already sunk, how does their service compare? Does anyoe else have experience of NTL/Chorus especially compared to another provider? Am currently working with IB ripwave which is pretty poor…though it improves to barely tolerable if you move it around the house. The NTL package seems a better value and quality choice than upgrading to the Breeze system….opinions?

    Phoneline is not a great option as we have eircom phonewatch and anyone I know who went that route had real trouble. Will feedback the results of my final choice when I make it and experience the results.

32. Mike in Limerick. says:

    November 13, 2006 at 6:54 pm

    Hi Guys, Have local broadband service in Kilmallock. I am allowed 5 Gigs download a month. Is there any software on the market that can measure my monthly usage so I will know when I have used my quota as my service provider does not have anything in place. I

33. Paul says:

    November 14, 2006 at 5:03 pm

    Great list Damien!

34. Robbie says:

    November 23, 2006 at 2:33 pm

    I have IB breeze in Limerick, billing problems at the start but otherwise OK. At the time it was the only option. Now I have lots of choices. The bundles (BT total talk) looks good but reluctant to down grade my upload speed from the current 1M to 128K. I use Skype a lot and send/recieve some large emails (>2M). Any thoughts ?

35. Pete says:

    November 24, 2006 at 11:22 am

    Ok folks. I promised to report back on NTL so here I am. First off I’m very happy with the connection, I’ve wi-fied the house and the connection is great in every room…even my PDA finds a signal in seconds. The service is free for the first few months too.
    The guy who came to set it up (free) was qucik, helpful and pleasant. I asked him advice on getting a wireless router and he produced one from his van together with two USB receivers and fitted the router for me….free! a special offer that NTL have for new connections but one that the sales people neglected to tell me about even though I had told them I was going to use a wireless router.
    This brings me to the downside, does NTL want our business at all? I spent many, many fruitless hours trying to contact their sales team on their contact ‘hotline’ (ha!) AND I was looking to upgrade my TV service too. Twice I was told by sales staff that my area was not yet wired for internet, despite receiveing numerous mailings telling me it was. Promised brochures were never sent (although one did arrive a few days after installation). I finally got to the botttom of the no sevice mystery, their (foreign?) call centre has a coverage map that is not up to date!!! Once I had argued the point with the sales assistant and she decided to believe me things went smoothly, the installer turned up on the day promised about a week after confirmation of details.

    Despite that little set-back I have nothing but praise for the service to date and would recommend it to anyone who is currently receiving their TV from NTL.

36. ROD FROM ORANMORE says:

    November 24, 2006 at 12:28 pm

    We have a requirement for mutliple i.e four IP addresses. Who offeres this service at the most competitive price?

37. stretch jones says:

    December 14, 2006 at 5:19 pm

    i want to say i’ve been having problems with IBB for last two weeks so i emailed them and they are sending me a new modem which should pick up a better signal
    they aint all bad

38. Lynda says:

    December 18, 2006 at 3:42 pm

    Hi,

    I have been trying to get NTL broadband. I ordered it and after aruging with the sales staff on numerous occasions, I managed to get the 14.95Euro deal for the first 3 months as had been advertised. They called out to install it on the scheduled day but they couldn’t get it working due to an NTL problem. I was told someone would ring me to re-schedule, but I’ve heard nothing. I rang them to find out what was happening but I was put on hold for 45 mins and then bounced from one customer service agent to another and then back onto the que and eventually I was hung up on. I sent them an e-mail asking what was happening. That was a week ago and I still have heard nothing. Their customer and sales service are the worst I have ever experience. I am now thinking of going with Magnet. Are they a good company to go with?

39. philip fields says:

    December 19, 2006 at 11:22 pm

    I have my telephone and internet connection with UTV. I am thinking of upgrading to broadband 1MB AND 6GBCAP, (no limit on time) for €9.99 for first 3 months and €16.49 month thereafter. I don’t see any mention to their broadband service on the sites you mention. Can you give me any feed back on their broadband service.

    Their billing service and technical support is excellent. I get free phone calls in Ireland and UK evening and weekends.

    Having checked through all the site you mention it appears that UTV might be the best one to go for. They always give prompt attention to any questions or queries I have.
    They also give me free webspace and support for websites I am designing.

    Please let me have your opinion on UTV broadband service.

    Thanks in advance
    Philip Fields

40. Daryl says:

    December 30, 2006 at 10:45 pm

    Info for Wireless Broadband from €25. Option Up to 3MB (Upload/Download) for Belgooly, Ballygarvan or Kilmicheal area contact Daryl Cronin on 0868888648. Will be extending our coverage very shortly.

    Setup takes only 30mins or so. Connecting people 7days a week, 12hrs a day to cater for people not available during usual 9-5 hrs.

    or maildaryl@vodafone.ie for further details.

    Regards,

    Daryl Cronin

41. gerard says:

    January 4, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    Great page Damien. All the Info I needed. Just wondering if anyone would recommend Imagine for their broadband service?

42. Roseanne Curtin says:

    January 5, 2007 at 5:53 pm

    Just saw the post asking for more info on Cinergi Telecom’s broadband packages. Have a look at my website: http://www.makemoremoney.ie/roseannecurtin There is information there on all of the packages. The package I use is the always on package for 15.99 a month which I think I really good value.

43. Pat Fahy says:

    January 14, 2007 at 8:18 am

    Can anyone answer this question ,does onspeed conflict with satellite broadband ? The technician who installed the system informed me that most of the call outs he gets are from people who use onspeed and other types of similar programs with the satellite system .I took his word for it and he uninstalled my onspeed .The only problem is when i can’t get anything from the satellite ,the onspeed would be handy .Would it be safe to get my onspeed back and only use it with the dial-up .Has anyone got any experience of this conflict .

44. Evert says:

    January 14, 2007 at 7:40 pm

    Damien,

    Are you filtering the comments?

    E.

45. Damien says:

    January 14, 2007 at 7:41 pm

    Any further spamming and electioneering will have you banned on my blog.

46. Evert says:

    January 14, 2007 at 9:40 pm

    Anyway, as I said; you might want to revise your comments on Clearwire if the discussions on boards.ie are anything to go by…

    E.

47. Harry Klein says:

    January 16, 2007 at 9:24 am

    I’ve been living in Ireland since November and returned to the internet middleages compared to the state that is usual in Germany (http://www.arcor.de/privat/dsl_kp.jsp?wmID=none&affID=97053624&int_cpid=home02). I miss my 16Mbit flatrate for €50. Maybe there will be one next year. It’s really hard to get used to a 30 GB limit again.

48. James says:

    January 17, 2007 at 1:36 pm

    I called Irish Broadband Sales to order the Breeze 2mb service. I live in Coolock Village. They tell me that the transmitter for the area has its maximum number of customers on it!

49. Niamh says:

    January 19, 2007 at 1:55 pm

    I have just bought laptop, but clueless to wireless broadband, Im living in apartment in D8 with no phone line, Was going with Irish Broadband for 18.95 a month. Anyoune recomend them or no?

50. keano says:

    January 23, 2007 at 5:15 pm

    Hi

    was wondering what u guys thought about the likes of http://www.betterbroadband.ie and switch4.ie, another is tryswitch.ie. Are these sites any good? are they trustworthy?

    Was wondering if anyone here had any experience of them