Living in Japan, South Korea or Sweden means you are living in a broadband paradise. (Japan’s line rental is cheaper than us too.)
Edit: Irish Prices for “higher speed” products
eircom broadband business plus – 4MB – €107.69 inc vat
eircom broadband business enhanced – 5MB – €204 inc vat
Digiweb Metro Plus – 5MB – €78.65
Digiweb Metro Xpress – 8Mb – €163.35
The important point to note is that the top 2 countries are dictatorships/quasi-dictatorships. Broadband by fiat might be nice. Do we vote PDs?
I can see it now: McDowell’s election spurns growth in party reach to on-line community. As he comprehends the issues that matter to the younger more tech savvy electorate. 😉
Broadband in Ireland is doomed because Fianna Fail gave Eircom away with no strings. Eircom can do what they like and the upshot is that we have no broadband.
Look at the tollbridge on the M50. Same deal, same result. Ireland is going backwards. We will have the same access as Iran or North Korea.
What are the comparable Irish figures?
Updated the post with Digiweb and eircom prices for their “high end” products.
Damien – what about countries with comparable populations?
Finland has a comparable population.
I don’t know if I’d call Japan and South Korea “dictatorships/quasi-dictatorships”. Ireland’s broadband roll-out has been a disaster, plain and simple.
South Korea in particular has been a great example of how to build a system that works. I was in a rural part of a small island off the coast of South Korea in March, and they had broadband running to every farm, even in very sparsely-populated areas. They have seen the investment needed, and put it in place.
[…] Broadband pricing compared Damien Mulley provides an interesting price comparison table with pricing in several countries compared to the “best” deals in Ireland […]
OK in South Africa thw highest speed we can get = 4MB (on trial only – normally 1MB) This costs me +- $163.00 per month. That’s what happens when you have a telecoms manopoly with a government that holds the majority of the share in the monopoly.
I think this is the perfect way to counter-strike at the manipulaed figures ComReg are putting out. If you can get enough eyeballs on tables like this you should be able to discredit them completely. That’s the real challenge…
[…] “Broadband” in Ireland: Damien Mulley has written some excellent pieces on broadband or the lack thereof in Ireland. His latest shows just how badly we’re being ripped off. You can get 52Mb broadband for the equivalent of €25. That’s insane!! The average for the top 15 speed wise is 18Mb with a cost of €34 or thereabouts. So why do we continue to be underserved and overcharged? […]
Actually, you can get 100mbit broadband in Sweden for about $46.
But only if you are connected to a LAN (i.e. a network outlet in your aparement) but the are hundreds of thousands of those in Sweden so its a bit odd that didnt show up on the list?
I myself have one of those 100mbit-connections.