Can anyone tell me what the best broadband service to get is?

stacksy

I know that a few of my mates have eircom broadband(home starter) and the speed is like dialup sometimes, i need to order this week but dont know who to order off, my line rental is through Smart Telecom

Infini

If you have the ability to get NTL BB you should get theirs. Their download limit is Officialy 30GB but unofficially its never been enforced. One thing to note about NTL is that their customer service is Bollocks and you may have difficulty getting their service. Avoid Digiweb as their contract is full of legal arsepains and they have a thing about P2P. Eircom isnt so bad but their download limits are crap and they're poor value for money. Irish Broadband seems to be the best one that i can think of for service. The only trouble can be with their wireless tranciever under certain circumstances.
Best bets: Either NTL or Irish Broadband.

Basq

It's hardly like dial-up anyways...

I have Eircom Home-Plus (8G a month) and i get about 50K / sec average.

In my opinion, while it's certainly not without flaws (price being the main flaw).. it has some positives: i've never experienced any downtime (unlike with some of the other BB ISP's). Unlimited uploading etc.

But then again, IOL BB offer 16GB a month for about €50.. so if you're looking for quantity rather than quality, go for them!

stacksy

quantity and quality are both important but i reckon quality is more of an issue, i used to work for eircom technical support and some of the techs in there dont know what TCP/IP is in all in anyways, i might go for the 2 month trial anyway, DSL has only become available in my area since monday

Basq

You get a free Wireless modem if you sign up now with that free trial with Eircom BB too!

I'm an existing customer but i bought it (for €49 off them) cos i got a new laptop there last month with a Wireless Adapter in it. Very handy!

fuse

stacksy wrote:

quantity and quality are both important but i reckon quality is more of an issue

SO esat offer twice as much quantity for the same price, and in my opinion they are much better quality than eircom. They also do the free trials and modems/webcam.

I would go with esat if I were you.

vishal

esat are the best bang for buck. there service for us has been imaculate for the last 5 months and the 16 gig cap is great. pings are always low to uk and french servers and i enjoy counterstrike source everynight. speeds are always in the 45-54 k/s. is it the best if you cannot get ntl.
ibb are not great. there customer support is atrocious and they have downtimes often (at least up until a couple of months ago, don't know how it currently is).
despite this they are cheap and offer 1 mb up/down for about €50 pm, i think.
eircom are well eircom
don't know about utv but i know they charge if you go over the cap or else they cut you off.

Infini

I not sure but i heard that to get ESAT BB you had to change phone lines.
Unless i'm thinking of UTV BB.

jonny68

Most of them are brutal as opposed to UK BB like Wannadoo,etc,not to mention waiting an eternity to get connected and paying through the nose for the service.............

dub45

jonny68 wrote:

Most of them are brutal as opposed to UK BB like Wannadoo,etc,not to mention waiting an eternity to get connected and paying through the nose for the service.............

Thats really not much use to him!

Ok here goes in my experience as a UTV user from the beginning:

UTV are the best for price and caps but probably have the worst record for reliability and pings although both of these have improved recently. You have to change your telephone over to their talktime product but this is no great hardship for most people as it will more than likely save you money.
UTV also seem quite anxious to come with ways to tie people into further 12 month contracts which may be a consideration if you are leading a mobile life style and 12 months can be an eternity in the one place.

Eircom are the dearest and have the lowest caps which may or may not be a concern but they appear to be the most consistent for speeds and reliablility

Esat seem a good compromise falling between UTV and Eircom on price and caps with very highly regarded quality of service overall - posters here have pointed out that some of their phone products combined with bb can offer better value than UTV.

However by common consent Esat have the worst accounts department in the known universe and maybe the unknown universe so that maybe a consideration if you value your financial sanity.

IBB's customer service seems to have deteriorated lately to judge by posts on boards.

NTL have the most lusted after service but there are reservations about their customer service so you pays your money and makes your choice and hope .............