Damien Mulley

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

1. Peter says:

   January 26, 2007 at 7:54 pm

   Mobile Broadband?

   Nice work Damien, if you get the time perhaps you could comment on the new Vodafone, 3, O2 HSPDA and Irish Broadband ‘Go’ cards for *mobile* broadband…
   am thinking of only getting that kind of broadband (as a new development, it’s a bit like only using mobile phones instead of fixed line phones)
   – perhaps handy for people who aren’t sure of staying in the same living locations for 12 month contracts?

2. Treasa says:

   January 26, 2007 at 11:32 pm

   Vodafone wrote to me to try and sell me their broadband product. Whilst I’m attracted by the lack of need for a landline and all that I think that their offer is more expensive and less speedy than what I currently cough up a fortune to Eircom for.

   As Eircom’s broadband (currently) works for me…I’m in no mood to change to something more expensive and less speedy for the moment. I may reconsider in six months time when I have to move house.

3. mick j says:

   January 29, 2007 at 9:20 pm

   Thanks for all the info, good stuff.

4. perlerousse says:

   February 9, 2007 at 4:47 pm

   just got this today from Magnet;

   “Our Starter package – 2Mb for €15 + line rental €24 – is still available & will be available till the end of February 2007 because from the 1st of March our broadband will be available only for Business Customers.”

5. Richard says:

   February 9, 2007 at 5:20 pm

   Niamh,
   Had Irish broadband ripwave in Cork and they were absolutely cat. Never worked properly altough I was situated comfortably inside there transmittors range

6. goo says:

   February 13, 2007 at 2:40 am

   i was to lazy to read all comment but some of u might be interested in one more provider which gives service in northen area: http://www.net1.ie/coveragemap.html
   But u might need to wait for installation cause there only few people workin’ on it.
   Once u got it it’s allright. I had no problems with them.
   so http://www.net1.ie

7. Texan IT says:

   February 16, 2007 at 7:07 am

   Damian,
   Nice work my friend. I really like your blog. It is really informative on broadband and dsl terminology. Perhaps I could talk you into plugging my site at sometime at Texan IT – DFW Website Design | DFW Computer Networking. You do a great job!

   Signed,
   Texan IT – Computer Networking Guy

8. John Egan says:

   February 19, 2007 at 9:32 pm

   Hi,

   I’m trying to get wireless broadband in Dublin, but I dont want to be tied down to a contract becuase i’ll be moving in a few months. I was thinking of the vodafone wireless modem, anyone have any recomendations or ideas,thanks,great blog!

9. Seamus says:

   February 20, 2007 at 3:37 pm

   Just after signing up for IrishBroadband’s wireless 2Mb “Breeze”.
   Am near Moycullen, Co. Galway.
   Has anybody had any recent experiences?
   Cheers

10. Eamonn Leahy says:

    February 21, 2007 at 9:33 pm

    Have you heard of a new provider in Cork, amcom they call themselves, are they fly-bys or are they genuine…. They claim no download/upload limits apply..

11. cesar says:

    March 3, 2007 at 11:55 am

    Any positive or negtive experiences with imagine / imag!ne? Their packages seem attractive at first glance. Are they new to the market?

12. Gerard says:

    March 3, 2007 at 3:59 pm

    Hi. great article. Thanks. Was thinking of going with Digiweb but was wondering what others think of them. Is the wireless service good. They look for year payment in advance and I’m worried about doing that and then getting stuck with a bad service provider. All opinions are welcome.

13. DB says:

    March 6, 2007 at 3:51 pm

    Hi Damien,

    Am planning to get broadband but bambuzzled with all the info. Came across this site on the net. Liked the list but still not able to make a choice.

    Am a technophobe so don’t undertsand the jargon but need reliable broadband with landline at home. Am currently with Eircom for my landline but want to investigate what is out there. As I’m usually out at work during the day I was looking at an ‘evening & weekend landine with always on 2MB broadband’ bundle from BT or Eircom. I ring friends in UK so BT looked good value as they include UK calls in their free list but Eircom don’t.

    However, reliability is really important as I won’t know what’s wrong if things don’t work! Looks like some of the contributors to this list weren’t very happy with their BB choices and I recall Smart Telecom had some operational problems last year.

    Would be delighted with some advice / guidance before I sign my hard earned cash away…..

    Thanks,
    D

14. Cathy says:

    March 8, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    UTV have several Broadband packages, they also have a phone deal with it.
    Free evening and week-end calls provided not more than 60 minutes long, you can hang up and call same number and talk for another 60 minutes immediately after.
    These free calls can be land-lines in Ireland or UK.
    I use this and call England regularly.

15. Niamh says:

    March 9, 2007 at 3:14 pm

    i ordderd IRISH BROADBAND 2 months ago & they never delivered, even after i rang them twice, they still took my money from my visa, even after loadsa emails & letter they havent refunded my money….wouldnt remcomend them.

16. Conor says:

    March 12, 2007 at 11:33 am

    Great site Damien. With all this interest in and discussion of download speeds, I have one technophobe question – is it really relevant for a customer who, for example, just uses the web for emailing, chatting, reading newspapers, ebay etc. Would Irish Broadband or Clearwire’s 512 packages be enough for such a customer? Is download speed only really relevant for downloading movies etc – or at peak times, is 512 going to mean that even waiting for the next page of the paper to load is going to be slow?

    Thanks a million.

17. Nick says:

    March 19, 2007 at 1:01 pm

    I’ve had Magnet supply my broadband, tv and telephone for the last 5 months. I would strongly advise that nobody use their service. The whole service seems to die for prolonged periods on an almost daily basis. The television freezes whenever I open my front door and then has to be reset. The charges are all quoted excluding VAT, so don’t forget to add on an extra 21% when you’re looking at them. While they claim to have a 24/7 helpline, if you call outside office hours it acts only as an answering service. ”I’m sorry I can’t help with your problem as I have no technical knowledge of the systems, but I’ll get someone to call you back tomorrow/next week”.
    They do appear at first to be super value for what they provide, but I have been disappointed over and over again.

18. Paul Vince says:

    March 22, 2007 at 7:24 pm

    Hi Damien, great list all the info you could want. Quick question please – just bought an apartment in Ongar, a BROADWORKS connection is already installed there – how do you rate these guys please?

19. Eugene Malone says:

    March 30, 2007 at 10:57 am

    Damien, I’vegot eircom 150 have had no problems. I’m not very experienced with Internet but I have been offered what seems a very good deal by CROSS COUNTRY BROADBAND what do tou know of this system thanks in advance

20. Maryrose Lyons says:

    April 3, 2007 at 11:57 am

    Hi Damien

    I thought you might be interested to hear the responses of the political parties to the question about their specific policies re. broadband at this morning’s Dublin Chamber of Commerce event.

    It’s on my blog: http://www.brightspark-consulting.com/latest_blog

21. Cathal Garvey says:

    April 21, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    Hi Damien,

    Thanks for all the useful info. Are you still answering on this site? The last reply seems to have been on Jan 14th.

    I’ve decided to go for either Eircom or BT Broadband but am torn between the two. Apart from the normal stuff I want to be able to download video clips from sites such as YouTube quickly and without any hassle. Both companies have told me I’m compatible and have bombarded me with offers. BT offer a 2 meg download with free Irish and UK landline calls for 54 EURO a month but this still seems a little expensive.

    What do you think?

    Cathal

22. Peter Q says:

    April 30, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    Have had Irishbroadband(Ripwave) for over a year now,the speeds are truly brutal and one the reasons for this is alot of IBB’rs use those P2P file downloading torrents and leave em on 24/7. Slows whole network down.

    Also if your stuck with IBB (like myself)than ONSPEED is fairly decent way to slightly improve your connection..roughly doubled my own.

    Peter

23. Seamus says:

    May 1, 2007 at 4:14 pm

    Do not go with BT, I have been totally messed about and lied to by them. I had to wait 8 weeks and endless phone calls to get them (via eircom) to install a phone line. I live in Dublin city center both my neighbours have broadband yet BT told me yesterday that I can’t get broadband on my phone line – no proper explanation just lies and more lies, I am very angry.

    It seems depending on the donut you talk to at BT, that my phone line was connected to an unenabled exchange, nobody seemed to think that this was totally ridiculous, instead I got spun the line “It’s not us It’s Eircom who own the phone lines”.

    So Tuff- I live in Dublin city center, everybody in my apartment block has broadband yet because an eircom engineer decided to connect me to the wrong exchange, I may as well be living in 1995.

    Why can’t BT insist (by contract) that when eircom install phone lines that they connect the lines to exchanges that are enabled/able to handle broadband?.

    It’s a bit like my neigbours having piped water and me cos I’m connected to the wrong resevoir getting thick sludge!

    Gombeenism is alive and kicking

    God help any politicans who come near my door!

24. Dónall says:

    May 11, 2007 at 10:58 am

    I’ll be moving back to Ireland soon and I’m looking for a semi-decent broadband provider, so thanks for the comprehensive list… But it’s kind of depressing to see that all the available options are shit.
    At the moment, I’m in Barcelona and I have a package which includes 20Mb connection, line rental, free national calls, and no download cap (what’s the point of having broadband with a cap???). It costs 40 per month and there is no installation fee, and it comes with a wireless router. This is not an extraordinary service in Spain. In fact, there are at least 2 other companies who offer similar value (some also throw in TV over IP). So why is Ireland so incredibly, inexplicably shit? I know people in third world nations who have better broadband than a lot of the Irish options!

25. Yvonne says:

    May 15, 2007 at 8:56 am

    Hi, I am moving to East Clare shortly from London (8mb bb for £15 per month – no limits). Will be living 5 miles from an enabled exchange but cannot get broadband from it. Also there are no wireless providers in the area. I work from home so need broadband urgently. If I order a phoneline from Eircom, can they ensure that it is capable of picking up the signal from the exchange? Otherwise, it seems satellite is the only option, but the prices are ridiculous. Any suggestions?

26. Steve Whittingham says:

    May 18, 2007 at 11:37 am

    Hi Damien

    Recently moved over to West Cork from the UK, so looking through this site and info is a great help, thanks. Eircom have told me that my phone line is not useable for broadband as it is ‘too far’ from the exchange and I’m struggling to find a realistically priced alternative. Can you or anyone else reading this, point me in the direction of an ISP who covers the Waterfall/Corran/Crossbarry area. It’s hard to understand why I’m struggling to get broadband where I am, I live no more than 8 miles from Cork City. Why Ireland is so primitive when it comes this type of thing? Anyway, whinge over, I’d be grateful for any advice.

27. dhomi says:

    May 20, 2007 at 10:24 am

    Same here,

    I’m moving to Ireland next month, I’m french. I’m a bit disappointed the celtic tiger can’t get proper broadband. France is starting to offer broadband via optical fibre, therefore offering 50Mb down/upload.
    Not that I’d need that, but TV & phone over IP make your bills so much cheaper that you take it for granted…
    I think there’s no point for Ireland trying to catch up on regular broadband, you might as well go for optical fibre.

28. Michael says:

    May 22, 2007 at 1:13 pm

    Congrats…great site!!

    I live less then 20 miles north of Dublin city and can not get broadband.

    Now that Net1.ie have come into my area I am thinking of joining uo for a year.
    I would be gratefull if you have any ideas/comments that you would like to share regarding this. Thanks again for a great site.
    Michael.

29. Dympna Brennan says:

    May 23, 2007 at 2:17 pm

    Why are Perlico not mentioned on this site ? are they any good for broadband ?

30. Dmitri says:

    May 29, 2007 at 11:04 pm

    Hi Damien,
    On of my friends recently recieved a 3500 per month bill, from vodafone, he was downloading movies and didn’t knew about the 5gig limit, which came in only after 15th of january 2007. Is there anybody you know who has a similer
    problem, because I heard a lot of people were billed like that. Any info would be helpful. And if anybody was able to get out of it how did they do it, thanks
    Dmitri

31. donal says:

    June 1, 2007 at 10:11 pm

    hi Dympa
    Ihad Perlico phone and broadband package last year i would not recommend them to my worst enemy The first problem I had my connection to my phone was lost. these things happen I was promised it would be fixed in 5 working days.14 days later still no phone so i changed back to eircom.I decided to keep my broadband with Perlico because it was cheap I came home from work to day (1-6-2007)no broadband perlico disconnected me.They decided they were not doing anymore broadband on its own.you must get there phone package.They did not send me a letter or did they phone me to warn me.My warning to anyone thinking of joining them DONT Cheap and NASTY UNRELIABLE.I am on dial up tonight.
    Donal

32. Brian in Swords says:

    June 10, 2007 at 6:51 pm

    Has anybody tried the “3” Huawei E220 data card?
    It is supposed to be identical to the Vodafone 3G Data Card.
    http://www.three.ie charge €129 for the card and €19.99/month.
    Its a 12 month contract.
    Up to 3.6 Gbps, 10 GB limit, 5c/MB out of bundle.

    http://www.three.ie/handsets_new/datacards_e220.htm

    I’ve only spoken to one man today who has it and says its great.

33. Brian in Swords says:

    June 10, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    Sorry,
    that should be 3.6Mbps, not 3.6Gbps for the “3″ Huawei E220 data card.

34. David says:

    June 12, 2007 at 2:38 pm

    new one for you https://www.icebroadband.com/ice/Order/OrderReview.php

    they seem like a good company

35. Bill in Sligo says:

    June 19, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    I am looking for the best broadband connection for a new house with no phone connection installed.
    Can you tell me if I need to get a phone line installed first by Eircom and then I can pick a broadband provider.
    Who give the most reliable service, I have heard BT are good.

    Can you recommend my best option to get the best broadband service in and be able to make landline calls also, have any of you used Blue Face for voip for land line calls

36. Donal says:

    June 23, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    A few days ago i got Irish Broadbands 3mb wireless connection installed. Its supposed to be both 3mb up and down. But the average down is about 2mb and up is usually 1mb. I live right in the middle of cork city and have a perfectly clear line of sight. Oh, and the ping is about 300 on average.

    Although it does peak at about 2.7mb symmetrically it also falls as low as 3kb/s every now and then.

    Just a word of warning.

37. Joe says:

    June 26, 2007 at 10:07 pm

    Why is Sky Broadband not available in ireland?

38. steve says:

    July 1, 2007 at 9:02 am

    went for the Digiweb metrolite pack.
    After installation i immediatly had broadband and decided to download a few movies.after my 10 Gbs were up broadband speed decreases to almost dialup speed slow slow slow.Why do we have these caps on the amount we can download?is this the same in other countries or are these companies just playing with the Irish consumers again?I want Freedom on my internet not to be held ransom my Nazi Broadband providers.will we ever have a cap free internet here?

39. aidan says:

    July 3, 2007 at 3:40 pm

    Hi, can anyone advise on whether the NTL provided wi-fi router for €50 is any good or not? What make is it? Is it better to buy/choose your own from an electronics shop. Where is a good spot to buy one? Thanks!

40. Therese Morgan-Mckenzie says:

    July 9, 2007 at 10:02 am

    Hi Damien,
    I am delighted I came across your list as we’re trying to decide on who to go with for telephone & broadband package.

    Are you going to upload details about Perlico as I see they’re not mentioned on the list. My parents have it and there don’t seem to be any issues with it. They only have their broadband package.

    Any advice on their level of service for telephone & broadband would be brilliant.
    Thanks,

41. michelle says:

    July 14, 2007 at 12:40 am

    I am currently trialing the 3 usb mobile modem (19.99 per month offer) in Dublin 7 area. It’s really slow. Someone told me that the datacard version works in a different way with better results. Any one know about this?

42. Felipe says:

    July 14, 2007 at 11:15 pm

    Hi, great info, thanks a lot. We have been using Irish Broadband for more than a year now and recently upgraded our Ripwave to the 1MB/256k speeds. I have to say that when it works it is quite good without reaching the spec speeds though; unfortunately several days a week it is painfully slow and even the most basic stuff such as e-mail wouldn’t work. I am currently looking for an option to replace them. The thing is that I don’t want to pay for phone line and don’t want any antennas installed in my rented accommodation, therefore I may try some of the mobile broadbands.

    Does anyone knows the download/upload speed of the new O2 broadband?

    Cheers,
    Felipe

43. Barry says:

    July 15, 2007 at 10:15 pm

    Does anybody know where to get a detailed schedule of eircom’s upgrading of exchanges?

44. Damien says:

    July 15, 2007 at 10:19 pm

    There is no schedule released yet. Work was meant to start this month but maybe with a pending strike, this might not happen. The 100 in the list above will be completed by the end of the year, I’ve been assured.

45. Jean says:

    July 17, 2007 at 11:40 am

    HI ! Great site…. am thinking of opening a cyber/internet cafe…. any information or contacts would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks !

46. simon says:

    July 19, 2007 at 1:53 am

    i got ibb breeze a year ago, i live in scarriff in co. clare, middle of nowhere, original package was 1m up/down. i was regularly getting 150 up and down speeds. just before christmas 2006, they upgraded me to 2mb up/down for free which was nice. now im getting 250 up and down almost all the time. for a while however, my speeds were all messed up, couldnt get it to work at all properly. its fine now, and its because i got rid of vista and put xp back on my pcs. all the time i had vista running, it was crap, but now with xp its brilliant again. i have never had any real problems with ibb, that couldnt be put down to an issue at my end.

    god knows what the other23 people on my contention do, but theyre not interfering with me.

    ibb now have a talk package for a tenner a month which gives you a landline number with free calls to al landlines in ireland and uk, and you can put credit on it to call mobiles international etc. most call rates are the same as skype, or near enough. i can get rid of eircom, and still have the sky multiroom connected to a phoneline. ideal.

    anyway, nice blog, together we can drag ireland out of the iron age.

47. keith(Carlow) says:

    July 24, 2007 at 5:28 pm

    I agree with Michelle. I’ve just got the 3 usb modem and the signal is terrible. Its very slow. I live in the centre of town so it should be strong shouldn’t it. What’s the deal?

48. Aisling says:

    July 28, 2007 at 10:54 am

    Good work, though I wouldn’t go as far as describing 3’s mobile package as broadband. The problem is that they’ve sold so many of the modems that the contention in many places has gone through the roof and it’s as bad (if not worse) than dial-up in the evening time. It works fine during the daytime (presumably when all the reviewing journos were testing it out and writing glowing reviews) but let’s face it, most people go online in the evenings.

49. Donald says:

    July 29, 2007 at 10:03 am

    I live for most of the year in Belgium where we have had ADSL Broadband for 7 years or more, we have unlimited up and downloads at a fixed rate so why is it taking so long to reach Ireland. I have just signed up with Vodafone and get a GPRS signal where I live, the speed is desperate I can make a cup of tea while waiting for a website to download. If I drive 2 miles down the road I get a 3G signal which is far better but still slow compared with Belgium.

50. john (Cork) says:

    August 1, 2007 at 11:10 am

    Hi Damien – Great resource, and congrats on keeping it up to date in a quickly changing environment – 2 quick questions –

    1. Any idea why vodafone 3G is slower than 3 and O2?
    2. I’m currently on a wireless product from Nova Networks in Cork – why no mention for these guys? the product is great and service is very responsive compared with some of the bigger players