When it comes to the information superhighway, Ireland has been stuck on the equivalent of the M50, but broadband subscription numbers are now growing quickly. An estimated 250,000 people have stumped up for the service and the prospect of virgin territory has attracted a plethora of would-be challengers to Eircom’s 80% market dominance.
Competition has brought lower prices, but there is a bewildering array of offerings available and, like mobile phone packages, usage will largely determine which one is the best for any particular individual.
“You have to think about what you will be using broadband for,” said Damien Mulley, chairman of Ireland Offline, a consumer lobby group. “If you are new to the internet, one of the cheaper introductory packages will suit you best. Contracts these days are often just six months, but it is also easy to upgrade if you are looking for more from your service.”
Advertisement
Location, location, location
Broadband delivered via a phoneline, or digital subscriber line (DSL), is now available to about 70% of the population. Eircom has “broadband-enabled” its exchanges for all towns with a population of more than 2,000. Most DSL services are offered through Eircom exchanges.
Customers in villages and rural areas may be restricted to other broadband platforms, such as wireless or satellite. “The most popular is DSL, but it’s not available everywhere. You need to be within a certain distance (usually a mile) of an enabled telephone exchange. You can do a line test with your telecoms provider to determine whether you are,” said Stephen Cawley, editor of the computer magazine PC Live! If you live in an urban area, you may also have the option of receiving broadband via cable.
The government’s broadband promotion website, Broadband.gov.ie, enables users to check which providers and platforms are available to them, and to check whether a phoneline will support DSL. Another useful site is Getbroadband.ie.
Advertisement
DSL
According to Mulley, the days of the free trial are over, although most DSL packages are now competitively priced, usually with six-month contracts. Eircom, which has the lion’s share of the DSL market, has three packages available. Its Home Starter package (€29.99) is a good introductory service with a sufficient monthly download limit (10Gb), although its small upload limit, which determines the amount of data a user can send to others, may affect the amount of music or video files he or she can share.
Advertisement
Eircom has more advanced packages for €39.99 and €54.45 a month.
Users who don’t already have a phone line will have to factor in the cost of line rental (€24.18), as Eircom — unlike some of its competitors — does not sell broadband/line rental “bundles”. The connection fee of €29.99 is being waived currently for customers who sign up before the end of March.
The cheapest DSL package is Imagine’s Always On package (€19.99) but the router, a networking device, costs €49.99, with the connection fee costing a similar sum.
Cheaper timed packages are also available from Imagine (€9.99) and Eircom (€19.99), both with 20-hour monthly limits. However, extra charges of more than €2 an hour apply after this limit and Mulley advises would-be customers to avoid such packages.
“It will work out more expensive than an ‘always on’ package if you go over 45 minutes a day. It will end up adding more to the bottom line of your bill.”
Advertisement
Karl Martini, founder of Tech-on-Time, a Dublin-based network support firm, said that Smart Telecom’s package (€35, no line rental) is one of the best around. “It’s great value and the speeds are excellent. The only drawback is that you lose your phone number, but most people these days use their mobiles to keep in touch, so unless you need to keep your number, then it shouldn’t be a big problem.”
BT Ireland also sells repackaged versions of the Eircom deals, but the advantage is that it bundles the monthly fee in with line rental.
Continued on page 2
()
Continued from page 1
Advertisement
Wireless
If DSL isn’t available or if a customer doesn’t want to pay line rental charges, then wireless broadband is the next best option, according to Mulley. Users need to have a line of sight with a mast and it isn’t available in many areas of the country.
Clearwire and Digiweb provide good packages, although installation costs can be relatively high and service can be patchy when compared with DSL. Irish Broadband has no installation fees, and its flagship Ripwave product (€18.95), which doesn’t require a contract, is easily installed by plugging a small box into the back of a computer. “It’s handy for a less than tech-savvy user. Service providers generally prefer it if you use a self-install system, which they don ’t have to send an engineer round to do,” said Cawley.
The main DSL providers also provide wireless modems, usually for an additional charge.
Cable
Broadband accessed via a cable network, such as NTL, isn’t widely available. “But as ‘triple-play’ (digital television, broadband and phone) infrastructure develops across the country, it will become an increasingly attractive option,” said Cawley. Cable broadband, as it is delivered through the existing television cable, eliminates the need for separate phone-line rental.
NTL’s broadband service is available in most parts of Dublin, and the company expects to roll availability out to about 100,000 homes countrywide over the next three years. Its basic package costs €25 a month, with no connection or modem rental fees. Chorus’s Cablenet packages, which provide services in Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny, also start at €25 a month, although a special offer is currently available at €19.95 for the first 10 months. Chorus also offers bundles including broadband, television and phone services.
If you are fortunate enough to live in a new estate around Dublin that has been specially fitted with broadband lines, then it is well worthwhile activating it.
“Magnet has also come in with fibre lines and is working with some property developers in the Dublin area. So if you have a house in these areas, you should check it out,” said Cawley.
Satellite
According to Martini, satellite broadband using a dish is expensive, poor quality and its sole advantage is that it is available anywhere.
“It’s a last resort. It can be really slow sometimes because of the latency which occurs in bouncing the signal around space,” he said.
The service is generally only used in very remote areas. Digiweb, which offers broadband services across all platforms, has three satellite packages, the cheapest of which is €99 a month, but with installation and equipment fees of €1,144.
Customer Service
As well as the actual broadband package, users are well advised to check out the after-sales and customer-help services before making a decision on which provider to plump for.
The Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) last week issued a warning about poor service from a wide range of broadband providers, citing particularly concerns over unanswered complaints and billing errors. The CAI estimates that almost one-third of the complaints made to its National Consumer Complaint Register in December referred to broadband operators.
Voip (voice over internet protocol)
In addition to faster internet speeds, broadband provides a means to access Voip services, which allow users to make cheaper phone calls using the internet instead of traditional telephone circuits.
VoIP Ireland offers local calls for around 2c per minute, with calls to mainland Europe costing between 20c and 32c a minute. Smart has also joined the Voip party, launching its 076 service over broadband, which allows customers make local, national and international calls for the price of a local phone call.
Free calls using Skype, a point-to-point Voip network owned by eBay, can also be made over broadband, although in contrast with other Voip services users have to nominate a particular number beforehand.
There are clearly more reasons than the dubious promise of further television adverts featuring the ubiquitous Ms Thomas for Irish subscribers to tune into broadband.