Whats the cheapest BB out there?

fred funk }{

Just asking for a friend of mine who's looking for BB but will be a very small user of it. Is there a package that will give you a certain amount of hours a month for a reletively cheap price? Thanks

blobert

There are a number of options for limited use users, most offer 20 hours a month for about €10-20. I think these guys are the cheapest, whether they are any good or not I have no idea:

http://www.imagine.ie/broadband.php

UberNewb

There's a few choice out there but the only one I can think of is Imagine I know of one other company but I just can't bring myself to name them.

bk

NTL 1m for €25
Smart 2m + Line Rental for €35
BT Ireland 1m + Line Rental for €40

Don't bother with any of the timed products they are s*%t and aren't worth it.

mikeruurds

Yeah... I must agree with the previous poster.

1. Smart - €35 including line rental is trhe dogs' (2MB)
2. BT 1MB - €40 including line rental (if Smart isn't available in your area)
3. NTL - it's supposed to be really good, but remember that you have to have basic cable at approx €15 + digital at €10 extra before adding the €25 broadband cost = total cost of approximately €50

I just wish I could get Smart!

If your friend is already forking out €25 a month for line rental then it's only €10 extra for Smart or €15 for BT. At least with these packages you can leave your modem and/or router on 24 hours a day without worrying about getting billed extra for running over your time limit. I wouldn't touch any of those timed broadband products... they go totally against the whole concept of broadband being a quick, always-on product.

bk

mikeruurds wrote:

3. NTL - it's supposed to be really good, but remember that you have to have basic cable at approx €15 + digital at €10 extra before adding the €25 broadband cost = total cost of approximately €50

Just a small correction, you only need to have the NTL analogue TV service, you don't need to have Digital (however you most be in a Digital enabled area). In fact NTL gave me analogue TV free for 12 months when we signed up for BB, however someone else mentioned that this offer is no longer available

IMHO needing NTL analgoue TV service is hardly a burden, it is actually quiet good value for money compared to line rental from Eircom. Specially if you are living in rented accomodation, we have about 6 TV's running off NTL, very good value.

Cungi

Irish Broadband sell their Ripwave service for €25 (no line rental, no obtrusive aerials) but you might want to read others users comments here on Boards first. A lot of people have had bad experiences.

mikeruurds

Ah... I stand corrected. That does change things :P So NTL definitely comes second then after Smart on price, but first on quality of product. BT slips to third.

layke

NTL is great if you are fortunate enough to be ina cabled area, most are not.

IBB do the best deals imo. you get 2mb up/down with a better contention ratio then any other providers and the cost is €48 inc vat.

I for one went with them but during the dummr I had the horrible experience of being blocked by some leafy trees. I had to change provider in the end.

Good service for me, I am an avid gamer and the latency on the line was 3 times lower then eircom. I was pinging 7-9ms to my game server in tallght.

As for download speeds, many sites are capped to a 512 upload so I wouldn't worry about it that much, i'd rather have a decent upload then download.

(they do cheaper packages check out their webby).

ROVER

I am currently with UTV XL Lite dial up at @ Euro 9.99 pm for 30 hours.

However today I got a letter from NTL offering broadband starting with "NTL Broad band Value" 1mb speed Monthly usage of 250mb cost Euro 15.00pm.

This seems like a better deal for only Euro 5.00 more.

Can anyone tell me how fast you would go through 250mb if my usage consists of about 30 hours browsing per month and the odd software update download.

I phoned NTL and they could not tell me however she suggested that I take up the Euro 25.00 offer which is free for 3 months and then downgrade to the Euro 15.00 service.

jor el

A 250MB limit? That's possibly the worst thing I've ever heard of. At 1Mb download spead you could go through that in about 30 minutes. Even for websites and pictures I can't see 250M lasting a month. The memory card in my camera holds more than that.

NTL are taking the piss with that one. Do they charge or disconnect when you hit the limit?

Broadband shouldn't have any restrictions (time or download limit) to be useable.

To the OP looking into the timed packages, Imagine's €9.99 a month is probably the cheapest, but you also have line rental on top remember, making it about €34 a month. For €25 a month (€15 broadband and €10 line rental) you could get always on 1Mb from BT. Plus, you may not think you'll use any more than 20 hours in a month, but when you get that BB connected you could quickly find yourself online for a lot more.

Even if you *konw* you won't spend more than the 20 hours online, it's still not good value for money in my opinion.

bk

ROVER wrote:

However today I got a letter from NTL offering broadband starting with "NTL Broad band Value" 1mb speed Monthly usage of 250mb cost Euro 15.00pm.

That's interesting, I knew this product existed but this is the first time I've heard it being advertised.

ROVER wrote:

Can anyone tell me how fast you would go through 250mb if my usage consists of about 30 hours browsing per month and the odd software update download.

If you just browse and email you should stay under the 250mb limit, however when you get BB you tend to make much greater use of it, which would push you over.

However I'd say even if you went over the limit they would probably only ask you to upgrade to the €25 product, which is well worth it by the way and which has a much bigger cap.

BTW NTL actually give you the 3mb (€45) product free for three months, this is very dangerous, because once you have experienced it, you won't want to give it up

I'd highly recommend NTL, you won't understand how you ever used dial-up once you move to it.