Broadband Providers Ireland

See these articles about the Lowest Prices for pay as you go mobile broadband in Ireland.

Cheapest Prepay Mobile Broadband in Ireland

Unlimited broadband downloads  in Ireland

Having high speed broadband isn’t much good if you have to be careful about sticking to download and upload limits.
UPC are still advertising Unlimited broadband - but when you delve into the terms and conditions it says   " All Fibre Power Broadband services are subject to our acceptable usage policy.. The monthly data transfer allowance is 120GB for Fibre Power Broadband 10Mb and 250GB for Fibre Power Broadband 20Mb and 30Mb."
So - they are fairly high limits - but it’s not really unlimited

Magnet are offering unlimited broadband - on all their packages. They have a fair usage policy - but they say they have never had to restrict or cap any broadband user. Magnet offer both cable broadband and broadband down your phone line. Check out the prices and availability in your area on the Magnet Website

If you want larger data transfer limits - you could try Vodafone at Home (More widely available than UPC too) - Vodafone don’t offer unlimited - but they do offer 300Gb a month  limit on their Ultimate Broadband package - which also includes speeds of upto 24Mbps if your phone line can cope - and line rental , all offpeak calls to landlines and 200 minutes of calls to Vodafone mobiles a month. All for €62 a month
Vodafone at Home also allow additional usage for as little as 4c per GB (you need to buy an add-on)

For €48 a month you can get a data transfer limit of 120Gb , download speeds of upto 8Mb and free off peak landline calls . Check it out for yourself at the  Vodafone Website

On mobile broadband - the download  limits are usually lower - the biggest download limits at the moment are from  Meteor with a 30Gb  limit for €24.99 a month  and  Three  who also do a 30Gb “pro” mobile broadband – which is €26.24 a month

Broadband in a Box is the name that Vodafone have given to a combined package of fixed line and mobile broadband. You get broadband down your landline at home - but you also get a mobile broadband modem for use when you are out and about.
The mobile broadband is limited to 10Gb a month - which isn’t bad and the home broadband connection has speeds upto  8 Mbps.
You also get  free off-peak calls to landlines and 200 minutes a month of calls to any vodafone mobile numbers - all for €54.99 a month. See more about this and other packages available at Vodafone
It’s just about €5  cheaper than getting the vodafone mobile broadband and the landline/broadband separately - which would be €19.90 and €40 respectively - Total of €59.90 a  month.

With the Broadband in a Box package you get a special wireless modem (€19.99) which also can be used to share the mobile broadband connection. It also allows sharing of USB printers and has
an expandable memory card slot so you can store music etc.
   
Find out More at Vodafone

We have noticed that the www.Broadband.gov.ie website has been taken down - the home page says  "under construction" .  The list of broadband providers on Broadband.gov.ie - an Irish government website - is still available - but it seems to be still really out of date.
Many of the external  links that are supposedly to suppliers site  are either links to web sites full of adverts or just non working / dead links.
The Minister for Communication amazingly still refers people to the broadband.gov.ie site when answering Dail questions - he last referred to www.broadband.gov.ie on Jan 26th 2010. It was mentioned several times in written responses over recent months see here
The site is an embarrassment to Ireland .  Apparently broadband.gov.ie got 67 thousand unique visitors in 2009 - many of them were probably referred on to spam sites or a dead end.
The Irish Government seem to care more about their expenses and long holidays than they do about broadband in Ireland. Fianna Fail  keep going on about the Smart Economy and the Knowledge Economy - yet they don’t seem to be very smart or knowledgeable themselves.

Vodafone Ireland recently took over BT Ireland - and have just launched 24Mb speed broadband in a few areas in Ireland.
The 24Mb broadband and anytime calls package is a reasonable €67 Euro a month.
The next cheapest 24Mb broadband and anytime call package is from Eircom at €83.24 a month.

The Vodafone bundle includes
Free wireless modem when you buy here online
Free anytime local & national calls
Landline rental
Free connection
200 anytime minutes free to your favourite three Vodafone mobiles
100GB download limit
Up to 768 Kbps upload speeds
Unlimited upload limit
Free anytime local & national calls
Landline-to-mobile calls for only 20c per minute

See More at Vodafone Ireland

When moving house or buying a new house in Ireland it is a good time to look at cutting costs and saving money on your home phone and broadband. There are lots of providers of broadband oot there looking  for customers . Why pay more to one company if you can get the same thing cheaper from someone else. Most DSL broadband is basically the Eircom product resold at a lower price. Eircom isn’t the most expensive phone and broadband supplier in Ireland - but it isn’t the cheapest either.

If your line is good enough you can get bundles of broadband at speeds upto 3Mb along with all local and national calls at any time of the day or night.
Eircom charge €51.99 per month for such a package whilst Vodafone’s  bundle costs just €45 a month. That includes line rental , unlimited  local and national landline calls , 3Mb broadband with a 40Gb download limit . It also includes 200 minutes a month of free calls to 3 selected Vodafone Mobiles

You can sign up for the Vodafone Broadband here.

Only a company called Homevision beat that price on 3Mb broadband and anytime landline calls - but that is only available in some parts of Dublin for €44.99 a month.

Mobile broadband is broadband through a mobile phone sim card. The Sim card is located inside the broadband USB stick or "dongle" and connects to each operator’s 3G mobile phone network

The main benefits of mobile broadband are obviously - mobility and probably . A modem  plugged into a laptop can be brought almost anywhere in a town or city in a car or on a train. Rural coverage is a bit patchy though - so the connection will not be consistent. All the mobile phone operators now offer mobile internet access via a mobile usb modem. Meteor was the last company to launch it - and at the moment Meteor broadband " to go"  is only available in Dublin and Cork.

With prices ranging from  €20-€30 a month, it is generally cheaper than the cost of fixed line broadband because there is no landline rental fee. With better networks and modems - speeds available over mobile broadband have increased from a maximum of 1Mbs - to speeds that promise 7Mbs. (Many do not deliver these speeds though)

So which mobile broadband  operator has the the fastest speeds?
According to limited tests carried out in August 2008 by the Sunday Buisiness Post - in just  three Dublin locations. - O2 had the top speeds  with download speeds of up to 3 megabits per second (Mbs) and upload speeds of up to 1.2Mbs. Get O2 Mobile Broadband here

Vodafone Mobile Broadband did slightly better than 3 Ireland, though both were significantly slower than O2.

However, the service was not consistent . As with any mobile Sim-based product, reception can vary from street to street and building to building. For example, while the  O2 service recorded an impressive 1.2Mbs in a cafe in Drumcondra, it collapsed to a dial-up speed of 51kbs (0.05Mbs) in an office in Harcourt Street  Dublin .

How the speed tests were  carried out:
Speed tests were set in three locations across Dublin city, using the internet speed website IrishISPtest.com. At each sitting, three consecutive speed tests were run on Vodafone, O2 and 3 broadband modems. The reason for three speed tests per sitting is that results can fluctuate by as much 50 per cent from one minute to the next.

Vodafone, for example, went from a 487kbs download speed to 1.54Mbs (1,540kbs) within the space of two minutes in one sitting.
Similarly, while O2’s faster modem speed returned download speeds of 2.6Mbs and 2.97Mbs at the first two attempts in one sitting. A subsequent effort resulted in a speed of 1.65Mbs,a drop of almost half from its peak. 3’s scores did not fluctuate as much.

What they charge

O2 -  Cost: €19.99 per month plus €29 for the modem at  O2online.ie  18 -month contract applies. Data limit: 10GB.

Vodafone Pay Monthly Mobile Broadband
Cost: €19.99 per month  free modem. 12 month contract
Data limit: 10GB.
Out of bundle charge: 2 cents per megabyte

3 Ireland Details
Post-pay 18 month contract
Cost: €20 per month plus free modem 
Data limit: 15GB.
Out of bundle charge: 5 cents per megabyte.

3 Pay-as-you-go
Cost: €100 modem charge plus €5 per day (0.5GB data limit), €10 per week (2GB data limit) or €25 per month (10GB data limit). 49 cents per megabyte out of bundle charge.

Meteor Mobile Broadband were not included in this limited test,

Meteor have launched a  mobile broadband service in Dublin and Cork . It will be rolled out across Ireland later in the year.
Meteor mobile broadband pricing 

Pre-pay
- Price of modem = €29
- Pre Pay  €16.99 until May 2009  Limit  5Gb

Pay As You Go : Per day = €2.99 (500Mb cap) or €19.99 for 30 days (5gb cap)
- Price of modem = €79(in store) €69(online)

Chorus / NTL UPC
Address: Building P2, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3, Ireland

Standalone Cable Broadband service for €28  (Add TV service for total monthly price €42)

Download/Upload Speed: 3 Mb/256 Kb
Download limit:     20Gb per month 
Contention Ratio:     17:1
Technical Support Phone Number:     1908

10Mb Speed for an extra €10 Euro a month (No Cap)
20Mb Speed for an extra €20 Euro a month on top of the 3Mb price. (No download or data cap)

 

BT
Address: Residential Offices, Grand Canal Plaza, Ballsbridge, Dublin, 4, Ireland
Phone:     1904
Email:     customer.care@btireland.ie

BT Broadband & Talk Option 1
Monthly Fee :       €39.16
Access Type:     DSL
Download/Upload Speeds    1 Mb/128 Kb
Connection fee:     €45.00
Download limit:     10 Gb per month
Excess Download Charge:     €0.030 per Mb
Contention Ratio:     48:1
Contract Min 12 Months

Broadband and BT Talk  2  3Mb 30Gb Limit  Cost €46.19 a month