EIR 4g home broadband

stenan

Anyone have some experience with EIR 4g home broadband for 29.99? It’s 750GB a month and you get a HUAWEI B818 modem.

Seems like a good deal and it’s cheaper and more data than the Vodafone option which is 300GB with the same modem but 40 a month.

If anyone has some experience or advice on my options it would be great. Can’t get a line to the house so has to be a 4g option

matsprea

Can you keep the modem at the end of the contract? Is it going to be locked on eir network?

Hackers

It appears the price is 29.99 for 12 months and then goes to 52.99 after that. This only becomes apparent once you go through the steps to order.

I’ve had Vodafone 4G for the last 2 years but evening speeds throttled to 1MB at times since start of March so it’s being cancelled. Read somewhere today that they are taking off their usage limits completely so that is not going to be good for download speeds I would think!

I have been testing EIR speeds for the last month via a prepay SIM card and an old unlocked router. Download speed in evenings never less than 15MB on WiFi so would be higher on a wired connection. Daytime speeds 25MB average, again on WiFi.

Key thing with 4G is consistent speed, needs to be 7-8MB minimum at peak times in the evening to be of any use for streaming etc. What works in my area may not work in yours so try and test before signing up if you can at all.

Mine arrived earlier today, 40MB download speed, over WIFI, with the new router in daytime hours.
It’s in or around 20MB all this evening so happy with that given I have no other options.

stenan wrote: »

Anyone have some experience with EIR 4g home broadband for 29.99? It’s 750GB a month and you get a HUAWEI B818 modem.

Seems like a good deal and it’s cheaper and more data than the Vodafone option which is 300GB with the same modem but 40 a month.

If anyone has some experience or advice on my options it would be great. Can’t get a line to the house so has to be a 4g option

-=al=-

In my experience Eir has always been the most consistent and probably the best mobile broadband option for home. I'm with 3 at the minute but it can be rubbish at peak times. To be fair 3 has not been bad lately, but trying to download stuff around Christmas time was no fun. It was torture at some points. Vodafone and 3 are pretty similar for my location.

Eir has almost always performed better and I might actually change back to Eir after I've seen this new offer, but not if it's €52 after 12 months. That's far too much for it! Definitely cancelled after the contract is up if that's the case.

I would be curious to see if Eir's service was affected by all these new GoMo users, but I've no idea at this point in time

ED E

Vodafone and Three have similar capacity. Eir(Meteor Mobile) have significantly less. If you're lucky to be in an area where Eir are less popular then the service is fine but overall its weaker than Three. Also three are pushing hard, carrier aggregation is popping up in more and more places.


[I run three SIMs, 2x 3 and 1x Gomo]

TSQ

I am thinking of switching to 4G broadband, but dont want to get tied to 12 month contract, in case the speeds are rubbish. Has anyone compared the performance and speeds of mobile/portable type 4G routers versus 4G LTE router like the Huawei B818 mentioned Stenan, mains powered and basically intended for a setting up in permanent location. Any of the 30 day payg plans only come with the cheaper portable router.

stenan

Hackers wrote: »

It appears the price is 29.99 for 12 months and then goes to 52.99 after that. This only becomes apparent once you go through the steps to order.

I’ve had Vodafone 4G for the last 2 years but evening speeds throttled to 1MB at times since start of March so it’s being cancelled. Read somewhere today that they are taking off their usage limits completely so that is not going to be good for download speeds I would think!

I have been testing EIR speeds for the last month via a prepay SIM card and an old unlocked router. Download speed in evenings never less than 15MB on WiFi so would be higher on a wired connection. Daytime speeds 25MB average, again on WiFi.

Key thing with 4G is consistent speed, needs to be 7-8MB minimum at peak times in the evening to be of any use for streaming etc. What works in my area may not work in yours so try and test before signing up if you can at all.

Mine arrived earlier today, 40MB download speed, over WIFI, with the new router in daytime hours.
It’s in or around 20MB all this evening so happy with that given I have no other options.

Thanks for the reply.

So we placed an order for the 4G mobile internet yesterday with EIR because of your post and then today we got a call from EIR saying that OPEN EIR approved the installation of fiber to the house. I have been talking to multiple people for weeks on this and got one nice individual whom really cared about helping whom was apart of the fulfillment team not the sales. There going to send out a guy next week to survey the area for the works. Delighted Not going to cancel the 4G yet as there is a 14 day cooling period and things can always go wrong but a little closer to getting fiber

Username here

Hackers wrote: »

Mine arrived earlier today, 40MB download speed, over WIFI, with the new router in daytime hours.
It’s in or around 20MB all this evening so happy with that given I have no other options.

Hi Hackers, those speeds sound decent - do you mind me asking where you're located? I'm considering the same offer myself, and am in Santry, Dublin 9. Thanks.

Hackers

Based in East Galway, close to Mountbellew.

Username here wrote: »

Hi Hackers, those speeds sound decent - do you mind me asking where you're located? I'm considering the same offer myself, and am in Santry, Dublin 9. Thanks.

Hackers

Nice one, where I am fibre might not be an option for the next decade!!

Keep an eye on the evening speeds over the 14 days, mine still holding well from a streaming viewpoint for Netflix. Buffering a thing of the past I hope!

stenan wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

So we placed an order for the 4G mobile internet yesterday with EIR because of your post and then today we got a call from EIR saying that OPEN EIR approved the installation of fiber to the house. I have been talking to multiple people for weeks on this and got one nice individual whom really cared about helping whom was apart of the fulfillment team not the sales. There going to send out a guy next week to survey the area for the works. Delighted Not going to cancel the 4G yet as there is a 14 day cooling period and things can always go wrong but a little closer to getting fiber

Anjunadeep

Hi
Now that you've had a few more weeks of use, could you provide an update on the speeds?
Thinking about getting this myself..

Cheers

Hackers wrote: »

It appears the price is 29.99 for 12 months and then goes to 52.99 after that. This only becomes apparent once you go through the steps to order.

I’ve had Vodafone 4G for the last 2 years but evening speeds throttled to 1MB at times since start of March so it’s being cancelled. Read somewhere today that they are taking off their usage limits completely so that is not going to be good for download speeds I would think!

I have been testing EIR speeds for the last month via a prepay SIM card and an old unlocked router. Download speed in evenings never less than 15MB on WiFi so would be higher on a wired connection. Daytime speeds 25MB average, again on WiFi.

Key thing with 4G is consistent speed, needs to be 7-8MB minimum at peak times in the evening to be of any use for streaming etc. What works in my area may not work in yours so try and test before signing up if you can at all.

Mine arrived earlier today, 40MB download speed, over WIFI, with the new router in daytime hours.
It’s in or around 20MB all this evening so happy with that given I have no other options.

Anjunadeep

Would anyone else who has this be able to share their experiences?
tnx

witnessmenow

Check comreg to see what masts are near you, that will give you a decent indication of who will have the best speeds. We recently moved and you can tell clearly from that link that there is a Eir mast much closer to the new house than 3 and running speed tests on both, I get 50Mb on gomo and only 20Mb on 3.

I previously used the 3 PAYG simcard in the old house for about 18 months as broadband and overall it was really good. 90Mb down, 20Mb up.

It's a E20 top up every 28 days (so about E22 a month). You can set up automatic top ups on the 3 website. This is for "unlimited" data, they have a FUP, but I was never throttled anyways.

You can also use this credit to buy things on the play store if you have an android phone where you can stick the sim card into.

I bought an unlocked second hand Huawei B520 from ebay, it was about E60 delivered.

So for an upfront cost of E60 plus topping up every 28days you can try it out. you could always sell the modem for basically what you paid for it if it didn't work out. It is against their terms of service but whats the worst they can do, it's a PAYG sim card.

I spent an afternoon looking for the place in the house that had the best reception, and there was one specific place in the attic even at a certain angle that seemed to get the best speeds. Like there was a difference of 60Mb between there and some places I tried.

At the time we had regular phone line broadband from Eir that was 7Mb down and 0.5Mb up (or something). We kept both, I used the 3 almost like a dedicated line for working from home and streaming, while everything else in the house was on the eir line. If the 3 every failed (rare enough) I could swap back to Eir. Funnily enough our phone line developed a fault and was down for two weeks, during this time we put the whole house on 3, it was fine.

Anjunadeep

thanks for the tips.
I actually have a gomo sim card.
Could I expect the same speeds on EIR's 4g home broadband or would it be configured differently?

cheers

westyIrl

Anjunadeep wrote: »

thanks for the tips.
I actually have a gomo sim card.
Could I expect the same speeds on EIR's 4g home broadband or would it be configured differently?

cheers

I think you'll find that Eir's 4G will be in line with your GoMo experience. Not guaranteed but I found GoMo and Eir sims appear to share the same profile. Just read up on the cooling off period, FUP, etc. on Eir's deal if it's contract so you have no nasty surprises if things go sideways. They can be painful to deal with in such instances but I can also fully understand getting into contract with them if they're the only viable option. https://editorsean.com/articles/large-4g-plans-home-broadband-ireland/ is a great resource to check out.

Jim

dar_cool

I didn't want to start another new eir 4g thread so will put my questions in here. We have had eir 4g for about 3 months now. So far it has been fine. Speeds in the evenings dropped down to 1-6mb . I have an aerial in the attic pointing towards the tower which is a good distance away.
Here's where it takes a turn, the past few days I have been getting speeds of 40-50mb all day. It turns out I'm connected to a different tower but I can't find the tower ID on open signal to determine where it actually is. I've checked comreg aswell but tower numbers are different to what it's saying cell ID on my Huawei router settings
I'm obviously not complaining at all but my antenna might be pointing in the wrong direction now and I'd like to find out so I can point my antenna the correct way
Cheers

westyIrl

I had the same problem. The only way I got around it was using cellmapper app(www.cellmapper.net) on an old phone and driving around for a bit so as it would identify all the various Cell IDs in the area. Then upload to site to process and a few hours later you get a good idea of what's what. It gets 4G sites pretty bang on (geographical location wise) but 3G sites can be less so. Either way, great way to sort you out. (IIRC Three 3G data is shown as o2 as in digifone)

Check the website, as maybe someone has done the work for you and already uploaded data for your area/provider. If not, it at least gives you a way forward.


Jim

KildareP

dar_cool wrote: »

I didn't want to start another new eir 4g thread so will put my questions in here. We have had eir 4g for about 3 months now. So far it has been fine. Speeds in the evenings dropped down to 1-6mb . I have an aerial in the attic pointing towards the tower which is a good distance away.
Here's where it takes a turn, the past few days I have been getting speeds of 40-50mb all day. It turns out I'm connected to a different tower but I can't find the tower ID on open signal to determine where it actually is. I've checked comreg aswell but tower numbers are different to what it's saying cell ID on my Huawei router settings
I'm obviously not complaining at all but my antenna might be pointing in the wrong direction now and I'd like to find out so I can point my antenna the correct way
Cheers

Eir are both adding new towers and enabling 4G+ on existing ones.

Both scenarios could contribute to better speeds and if it only happened in recent days it has likely not been updated on the various mapping services.

-=al=-

Does anyone know if this eir service allow 4g+ ?

I just signed up for it to give it a go since it’s a newer router and matches 3 for the price. It’s also a 4g+ router so would imagine it does 4g+ ?

I currently have a 3 mobile broadband package and router (b525) setup with an external antenna and it’s getting 4g+ and decent speeds.

Just have the eir (b818) setup in the kitchen at the minute and only has 4g but full signal.

I’m waiting for some ts9 antenna adapters to come in for the new eir router so I can test it out properly with the external antenna, but if it doesn’t get 4g+ I’ll stick with 3.

So yeah anyone know if it’s 4g+ ?

KildareP

-=al=- wrote: »

Does anyone know if this eir service allow 4g+ ?

I just signed up for it to give it a go since it’s a newer router and matches 3 for the price. It’s also a 4g+ router so would imagine it does 4g+ ?

I currently have a 3 mobile broadband package and router (b525) setup with an external antenna and it’s getting 4g+ and decent speeds.

Just have the eir (b818) setup in the kitchen at the minute and only has 4g but full signal.

I’m waiting for some ts9 antenna adapters to come in for the new eir router so I can test it out properly with the external antenna, but if it doesn’t get 4g+ I’ll stick with 3.

So yeah anyone know if it’s 4g+ ?

They do have 4G+ but it tends to be mostly in cities and built-up areas.

Very little deployed in more rural areas.

-=al=-

Thx for the reply, I posted to soon! I moved the router position to see if I could use a mast I know does 4g+/5g (same one the current 3 one connects to) and it is indeed 4 bars of 4g+ On meteor/eir without even being hooked up to the external antenna yet

Getting faster pings, stable connection, and double the 3 download speed on eir, so happy days. I presume when it’s hooked up to the external antenna it will be enhanced again, so hopefully that’s the case when the ts9 connectors are sorted.

Speaking of sma (f) to ts9 antenna connectors, anyone know where to get them on Ireland? I can use amazon/eBay, but if I can pick them up it would be quicker and handier. Checked a few electrical places in Dublin, but having a hard time finding them

WiFi signal not as strong from the b818 and I think my other b525 router is locked to three. I’ll do some investigating later.

On a side note I can’t get the b818 to power on while powering it from an extension lead for some reason? Some more investigation needed

stenan

-=al=- wrote: »

Thx for the reply, I posted to soon! I moved the router position to see if I could use a mast I know does 4g+/5g (same one the current 3 one connects to) and it is indeed 4 bars of 4g+ On meteor/eir without even being hooked up to the external antenna yet

Getting faster pings, stable connection, and double the 3 download speed on eir, so happy days. I presume when it’s hooked up to the external antenna it will be enhanced again, so hopefully that’s the case when the ts9 connectors are sorted.

Speaking of sma (f) to ts9 antenna connectors, anyone know where to get them on Ireland? I can use amazon/eBay, but if I can pick them up it would be quicker and handier. Checked a few electrical places in Dublin, but having a hard time finding them

WiFi signal not as strong from the b818 and I think my other b525 router is locked to three. I’ll do some investigating later.

On a side note I can’t get the b818 to power on while powering it from an extension lead for some reason? Some more investigation needed

You ever get an answer on this? I have the b818 and max speeds I get is 30mbs. What you getting with your B818 and B525 ?

-=al=-

I just got an unlock code today for the three B525 so I can test that out later in the week with the eir sim and external antennas. I have the B818 all set up and spread over two routers and it seems to do the job so far

The B818 seems to do a good job with the internal antenna tbh but an external seems to add a bit of a faster ping and a fair few more Mb. I managed to get 100Mbps download at crazy o clock in the morning, which is probably the best speed I've ever had, but it's pretty solid at peak times too (which 3 never ever was) with a few devices connected over wifi, so I'd definitely recommend an external antenna for a stable faster connection. Probably getting around 30-60Mbps during the day with a 16-18ms ping so so over wifi. Even better when hooked up with a ethernet cable or on 5GHz WiFi.

I got the SMA > TS9 adapters from ebay from a UK seller for about €10 and it does the trick. A new antenna might come with the adapters included. It would cost about €60 or so for a decent antenna and they're simple to install. I have a full 5 bars 4g+ compared to maybe 3/4 bars 4g+ with the internal antenna indoors.

I might get a new Tenda wifi extender since my current 2nd router is like 10 years old but it's still troopering along! I'd imagine the speeds would be better again, but yeah, so far so good

Happy_Harry

-=al=- wrote: »

I just got an unlock code today for the three B525 so I can test that out later in the week with the eir sim and external antennas. I have the B818 all set up and spread over two routers and it seems to do the job so far

The B818 seems to do a good job with the internal antenna tbh but an external seems to add a bit of a faster ping and a fair few more Mb. I managed to get 100Mbps download at crazy o clock in the morning, which is probably the best speed I've ever had, but it's pretty solid at peak times too (which 3 never ever was) with a few devices connected over wifi, so I'd definitely recommend an external antenna for a stable faster connection. Probably getting around 30-60Mbps during the day with a 16-18ms ping so so over wifi. Even better when hooked up with a ethernet cable or on 5GHz WiFi.

I got the SMA > TS9 adapters from ebay from a UK seller for about €10 and it does the trick. A new antenna might come with the adapters included. It would cost about €60 or so for a decent antenna and they're simple to install. I have a full 5 bars 4g+ compared to maybe 3/4 bars 4g+ with the internal antenna indoors.

I might get a new Tenda wifi extender since my current 2nd router is like 10 years old but it's still troopering along! I'd imagine the speeds would be better again, but yeah, so far so good

What antenna are you using ? I got a Poynting omni directional off Amazon and it literally made no difference whatsoever. Not in speed and not in pings.
Not a big issue as I typically get 4 bars of 4G+- so I sent back, but I would like to have the full 5 bars ..

In case anyone is looking for the SMA>TS9 adapters- I have a set- and no antenna

Lewis_Benson

I ordered a 4g service e from eir last month.
I am in rural Co roscommon, I regularly get over 100mb down 50up.

The service has been pretty much rock solid for the last month.
2 of us working from home, heavy streaming and file transfers over the WAN.

I do intend to purchase the external antennas and place the router in a coms cabinet in the attic, connected to a mesh system eventually.

The one drawback for me, working in a technical field, is that you are stuck behind a carrier grade NAT.
Which means you don't get a real public ip address, and cannot forward ports to internal network devices.

-=al=-

Sometimes the carriers will offer a public ip address for users if you get in touch with them. I believe three used to offer this, but maybe eir can too if you ask? With many people working from home now they may be more familiar or open to issuing public ip addresses

I'd rather have one myself but don't particularly need it at this point in time

Vorenus400

Just wondering, did people buy this in the shop or have it delivered.
If anyone got the router and sim card delivered, how long did it take for delivery.

brcwatters

Just wondering about the trial period for this...

Back in late May, early June - when things were starting to open up a bit I think - I went in to sign up for this but the guy in the local Eir shop said there was no 14 day trial period during lockdown so I left it. Not willing to get stuck in a year's contract and no way of testing at that stage.

Today I chatted to someone on the website and they told me that I could get a 14 day trial so pottered off into the local shop after work only to be told the trial is only if you order online, not in store - it's basically the internet "cooling-off" period. So that was a wasted trip. Was going to order online tonight but am a bit wary now - previous dealings with Eir and now this - would prefer to do it over the phone tomorrow and get it straight from the horse's mouth. Or do it online and get a screenshot of another chat conversation verifying it.

Currently with RuralWifi. Three's own broadband was crap, which I was surprised at since I thouight RuralWifi was basically Three. Have had Imagine out but no joy but they are opening another mast in the area towards the end of the month which would be another option but wanted to give Eir the option first, as it's cheaper and less wires through the house.

westyIrl

brcwatters wrote: »

Just wondering about the trial period for this...

Back in late May, early June - when things were starting to open up a bit I think - I went in to sign up for this but the guy in the local Eir shop said there was no 14 day trial period during lockdown so I left it. Not willing to get stuck in a year's contract and no way of testing at that stage.

Today I chatted to someone on the website and they told me that I could get a 14 day trial so pottered off into the local shop after work only to be told the trial is only if you order online, not in store - it's basically the internet "cooling-off" period. So that was a wasted trip. Was going to order online tonight but am a bit wary now - previous dealings with Eir and now this - would prefer to do it over the phone tomorrow and get it straight from the horse's mouth. Or do it online and get a screenshot of another chat conversation verifying it.

Currently with RuralWifi. Three's own broadband was crap, which I was surprised at since I thouight RuralWifi was basically Three. Have had Imagine out but no joy but they are opening another mast in the area towards the end of the month which would be another option but wanted to give Eir the option first, as it's cheaper and less wires through the house.

See the first page of this link https://www.eir.ie/opencms/export/sites/default/.content/pdf/terms/eir-cooling-off-period-text.pdf

What you have been told is correct and so if you wish to get the 14 days no questions return, certainly order online/phone. It's not an Eir policy but an EU consumer protection regulation that applies to all 'distance selling'.

See this page for the cancellation procedure if you decide to go that route; https://www.eir.ie/switching/

Jim

Happy_Harry

Vorenus400 wrote: »

Just wondering, did people buy this in the shop or have it delivered.
If anyone got the router and sim card delivered, how long did it take for delivery.

I think it was about 5 working days- quicker than I expected.

I also remember the need for all sorts of ID documents. At first they make you believe to upload ID and proof of address. That then actually never happens, but instead you are told you need to show this to the courier.
Courier came , put package on door step, rang the bell and left..

brcwatters

Thanks westyIrl - I signed up with them yesterday, hopefully it will work for us.