Best Broadband packages

paulisagayboy

Just moved into a house in Navan and I am trying to price broadband only packages- what is the best provider out there- I have tried eircom, Vodafone and imagine. So far I'm thinking imagine but am open to suggestions!

Also what speed would I be looking for. It's just me and my gf with laptops and iPhones- with standard usage- watch live stream matches on occasion and was thinking about maybe (but not if it's gonna be too dear) goin live with my Xbox?

Thoughts and feedback welcome!

paulisagayboy

Sorry, also to add, I rang chorus and UPC is not available!

tipperary

Hi

saw your post on the nett and comms forum which led me to here. I used to have imagine 3mb broadband. I found the 3mb was a bit slow, most noticeable when trying to watch rte player, a lot of stopping and buffering. I presume streaming football would be the same.

I cancelled imagine about 2 1/2 years ago, and yet received another bill from them 2 months ago:(. I would suggest staying well away. On vodafone now (8mb), and no problems, even watching football/rte player on 40" TV!

paulisagayboy

thanks tipp! and on your 8 MB line what do you actually get when u speed test?

More i read, more tempted i am to get a 02 or 3 mobile thing. gonna borrow a mates and speed test it in the gaff- prob not as good as vodafone but half the price

tipperary

Hi

Have never got a result less than 5MB, although I think that's more dependent on where you are than which provider you are with.

jor el

paulisagayboy wrote: »

thanks tipp! and on your 8 MB line what do you actually get when u speed test?

More i read, more tempted i am to get a 02 or 3 mobile thing. gonna borrow a mates and speed test it in the gaff- prob not as good as vodafone but half the price

tipperary wrote: »

Hi

Have never got a result less than 5MB, although I think that's more dependent on where you are than which provider you are with.

@paulisagayboy, you're talking about mobile broadband, where as tipperary is talking about DSL on a phone line (as 8Mbps is a DSL product). You're both talking about completely different things, and they are in no way comparable.

In terms of your original request, to play games on Xbox live, forget mobile, it's not something you should consider unless there are no other options available.

paulisagayboy

jor el wrote: »

paulisagayboy wrote: »

thanks tipp! and on your 8 MB line what do you actually get when u speed test?

More i read, more tempted i am to get a 02 or 3 mobile thing. gonna borrow a mates and speed test it in the gaff- prob not as good as vodafone but half the price

tipperary wrote: »

Hi

Have never got a result less than 5MB, although I think that's more dependent on where you are than which provider you are with.

@paulisagayboy, you're talking about mobile broadband, where as tipperary is talking about DSL on a phone line (as 8Mbps is a DSL product). You're both talking about completely different things, and they are in no way comparable.

In terms of your original request, to play games on Xbox live, forget mobile, it's not something you should consider unless there are no other options available.

I understand the difference but surely the line speed is the speed is it not? If I get a 5/ 0.8 speed test on mobile and the same on DSL, then they are the same speed- I would imagine that the mobile is just a little more inconsistent?

bealtine

paulisagayboy wrote: »

I understand the difference but surely the line speed is the speed is it not? If I get a 5/ 0.8 speed test on mobile and the same on DSL, then they are the same speed- I would imagine that the mobile is just a little more inconsistent?

The problem with mobile is the inability to control congestion/contention. This means that one second you could have 5Mbs and then a few users move into the same cell as you and poof your speed is now 1Mbs or even disconnected.
That's one of the reasons midband is unreliable and inconsistent, the speed can be anything so can't really be measured with accuracy.

So attempting to compare fixed broadband and mobile midband is futile and pointless as fixed gives you a reasonable guarantee of speed mobile does not give any guarantees or even a connection.

joseph brand

I have digiweb which is fine (phone inc). It's satellite BB with rolling 30 day usage of 30GB, which isn't enough for me. Might have to upgrade.

I would love UPC but it's not in my estate yet. (Navan)

I can get close to 800kb/s d/l, but I've seen UPC top 2mb/s (Tallaght).

Digiweb are easy to deal with and I've never had problems with them, only in relation to usage cap. (they slow your speeds until you go back under cap), never heard of this from UPC.

vibe666

paulisagayboy wrote: »

I understand the difference but surely the line speed is the speed is it not? If I get a 5/ 0.8 speed test on mobile and the same on DSL, then they are the same speed- I would imagine that the mobile is just a little more inconsistent?

with mobile broadband, if you are thinking of gaming you also have to think about the ping time between yourself and whatever server you are connecting to at the far end and compared to DSL or cable, it's going to be very ugly with mobile broadband and even if it's working at it's best it will still be far too unreliable to play online games.

mobile broadband compares so badly with fixed broadband that most people (outside of ISP marketing departments) don't even consider it to be proper broadband. there's even a 'midband' forum here specifically for them.

and then there's significanty lower download limits compared to fixed line broadband packages and hefty penalties for going over, again compared to fixed line BB.