Most reliable broadband provider?

vastudent

I realize this was probably asked before, but the search engine is timing out for me at the moment. I am going to be over in Ireland for only a couple months, at an apartment in Dublin 2, and my work requires the use of the internet so I would like to get this right the first time. I will be using the connection mainly for VoIP. What I am looking for is a provider that has reasonable rates (less than 150 per month, including installation and termination fee at end of 3 months), consistent speeds of at least 512 download/128 upload, and good uptime.

My past experience has led me to believe that cable is the most reliable, and there for I am looking into NTL. However, should I not be able to get this for some reason, do some of the DSL providers rank better than others in terms of uptime and consistency of speeds? The ones I have found include Esat BT, Clicksilver, Digiweb, Smart Telecom, and eircom. The irish broadband breeze wireless service might also be an option as well.

Infini

If you can't get NTL then IBB is probably the next best ISP. They also have synchronous upload and download speeds too.

Blaster99

Esat BT is to my knowledge the only ISP to offer a one month minimum contract for residential customers, so they're the obvious choice. You can probably expect anything from two weeks to a month to get it setup, but that's the same with all of them.

WillieFlynn

Firstly welcome to Ireland and hope you enjoy your stay.

Netsource offer a two month rolling contract on their 2Mb/128kb product. Most other providers offer a six month contract.

I find them very reliable and helpful. For example one time when they were doing work on their authentication server they phoned me advising me not to log off until it was fixed.

I find no problems with VoIP (blueface.ie) over my connection.

Willie.

kasintahan

In fairness, most DSL products in this country are very reliable.

Netsource, Esat and Eircom being almost flawless.

Most of our complaints are about the price and terms of use.

julius

For the timeframe you I give....BT would be the best choice.

Others like netsource offer short contract trms also but you'll end up paying for multiples of 2 months with them...so if you want 3months then you'll pay for at least 4 months with netsource.

BT do a month at a time system so go to them for DSL.

Im unsure at what NTL/IBB offer though.

bk

Hi, welcome to Ireland.

For the time period you are talking about then either BT Ireland or Eircom are your best bet.

BT has no minimum contract.

Eircom has a 6 month contract.

Eircom would probably work out cheaper over 6 months as they give the first two months free and free install, BT don't offer this.

While Netsource offer a two months rolling contract, I wouldn't touch them, I was a Netsource customer previously and they are a complete ripoff, much more expensive then BT and Eircom for the same service.

As for IBB and NTL, I believe they both have 12 month contracts, however I believe NTL only charge about €65 for ending the contract early and I have heard others say that they often leave people off without paying this, but of course that is at your own risk.

JNive

so, assuming 3 months on eircom thats 4x€40 = €120 with free install and wi-fi modem/router. of course you would need a connected phone line, which accounts for line rental of about €20 or so / month.

That would be the home starter package at 1Mbit/128K 48:1 8GB/1GB RADSL

bk

JNive wrote:

so, assuming 3 months on eircom thats 4x€40 = €120 with free install and wi-fi modem/router. of course you would need a connected phone line, which accounts for line rental of about €20 or so / month.

Small correction there:
4 x €40 = €160

Then line rental would be 6 x €25 = €150

Eircom total = €310

BT Ireland 6 x €47 = €282 (includes line rental)
€282 + €40 (install price if ordered over the web) = €322

BT Ireland total = €322

One thing to keep in mind, BT's billing department are awful, in my own experience they contain to try to charge you for months after you cancel the service. They also have a lot of sneaky things like paying a few months up front. This may make things more diifficult for you when you are leaving the country.

masterK

If you have a telephone line why not just sign up for one of the free trials that the various providers are running.

vastudent

It looks like I am stuck with DSL. Does anyone know what the upload speed is for the ESAT BT "Broadband Plus" package? If it is 256k as opposed to 128k, than that would be the obvious choice as all of the others seem limited to 128k.

edit: Never mind, it appears that BB+ is in fact 128k. So I will have to go with one of the esat/eircom business plans, or netsource. I can see that netsource has a 2 month contract, eircom has a 6 month contract, and esat bt doesn't really say. Adding to my confusion are the "credits" offered by netsource and eircom, because I would guess there are certain conditions attached to those.

Jilm

vastudent wrote:

It looks like I am stuck with DSL. Does anyone know what the upload speed is for the ESAT BT "Broadband Plus" package? If it is 256k as opposed to 128k, than that would be the obvious choice as all of the others seem limited to 128k.

ESAT BT Broadband Plus is 128k upload.