Cheapest Broadband package

jozi

What at the moment is the cheapest broadband package?
We have iolbb plus at home but since my brother and me moved out and my sister started working evenings it doesnt get used as much.
Not really wanting to go back to dialup what options do my parents have on the bb front?
Based in cavan btw

Jozi

curiosity

If your folks have the rental plus bb deal for €50 its going to be hard to top. How about dropping down to the 1mb package for €40 (although I think there's a charge for this)?

Imagine offer 20 hours for €9.99 a month, although you have to rent a router for €2.99/month or buy it for €44.99. Plus their tech support is 33cent/min.
They also give a 10% discount on line rental if you switch over calls to them (€21.75 vs €24.70). If it was me, i'd go for BT, but if your folks are cool with 20hrs, imagine is pretty cheap. Hopefully someone can top that.

jozi

I remember reading some bad reviews about imagine, could be wrong thou.
I forgot about the phone and bb deals going wit iol, must mention it.
Thanks,

Jozi

curiosity

jozi wrote:

I remember reading some bad reviews about imagine, could be wrong thou.
I forgot about the phone and bb deals going wit iol, must mention it.
Thanks,

Jozi

Having no dealings with Imagine, I couldn't say if they are any good or not.
As i have just signed up to BT/iol (same thing?) I asked about cost of going up to 2mb package. The salesperson said upgrading cost nothing, but downgrading did. I can't find specifics on site though (devious of them!).

askcomreg.ie seems to list most bb isps in ireland (though not imagine). If your folks/you want to do some research.......

Digiweb metro is pretty competitive (€42), free 'line rental', although this entails getting calls wirelessly instead of using landline. You can then cancel landline. Plus only available in a half dozen areas at mo.

OfflerCrocGod

Move your phoneline to blueface.ie and stop paying the high costs of the carriers.

jozi

Metro looks good, pitty they arent in cavan
anyone any dealings with blueface.ie?

2003yaris

Has anyone done a table up recently comparing the offerings from all the ISPs ?

Factoring in Line Rental, connection charges and hardware costs ..

RuggieBear

2003yaris wrote:

Has anyone done a table up recently comparing the offerings from all the ISPs ?

Factoring in Line Rental, connection charges and hardware costs ..

good on you for volluteering;)

curiosity

2003yaris wrote:

Has anyone done a table up recently comparing the offerings from all the ISPs ?

Factoring in Line Rental, connection charges and hardware costs ..

Yikes, thats a fair bit of work! Given the speed at which things are changing in the BB service provider area, any such table would be outdated in a few months. Also, it depends on your personal requirements & location. Plus other factors come into play, how long it takes to get set up, caps, customer service etc.

I would suggest that a good starting point would be to see whats available in your area (askcomreg.ie seems to have a reasonably comprehensive listing of BB ISPs) , and work out what a years BB and telephone would cost you from each of those. I am including telephone because bundle discounts are becoming more common. Also some people are just getting rid of their landlines and taking up a wireless offer. €25/month is a hefty chunk of change!

bk

I did the original comparison that is on the IOFFL site and I also did a slightly more recent one a few months ago.

However it has become increasingly complicated due to all the various combinations.

For instance BT Ireland only looks ok if you only look at the BB price, however if you look at the combination with line rental then they are one of the best.

I've been meaning to create a new comparison table, but I won't have it anytime soon.

In generally I tell people to get one of the following in order of preference:

1) NTL cable BB (1m = €25, 2m = €35, 3m = €45)
(Blueface VoIP for unlimited local and national calls for €15 if you need calls)
2) Smart Telecom (2m + line rental = €35)
3) BT Ireland (1m + line rental = €40)

Other honourable mentions:
Digiweb Metro Wireless (3m/512k + line rental = €42)
Clearwire

Leatherbelly

Where is smart bb available? Thought they were having problems unbundling exchanges? Does anyone have it and is it good?

curiosity

bk wrote:

I did the original comparison that is on the IOFFL site and I also did a slightly more recent one a few months ago.

However it has become increasingly complicated due to all the various combinations.

For instance BT Ireland only looks ok if you only look at the BB price, however if you look at the combination with line rental then they are one of the best.

I've been meaning to create a new comparison table, but I won't have it anytime soon.

In generally I tell people to get one of the following in order of preference:

1) NTL cable BB (1m = €25, 2m = €35, 3m = €45)
(Blueface VoIP for unlimited local and national calls for €15 if you need calls)
2) Smart Telecom (2m + line rental = €35)
3) BT Ireland (1m + line rental = €40)

Other honourable mentions:
Digiweb Metro Wireless (3m/512k + line rental = €42)
Clearwire

Fair play to you bk! I'd agree with you, having done a lot of looking recently. It's really only possible to compare similar services, eg ordinary DSL 1-2m with 'standard line' rental, cable, wireless etc. See what you can get and the pick the best.

OfflerCrocGod

jozi wrote:

Metro looks good, pitty they arent in cavan
anyone any dealings with blueface.ie?

The majority of people on the VOIP forum have nothing but good things to say about them (Next to Broadband forum). I am seriously considering going for them it's just that I want to wait until I get 256 up.

conorgriff

Click here for getbroadband.ie, they compare all the packages for you

jozi

Imagine is the cheapest, thanks for that site

bk

jozi wrote:

Imagine is the cheapest, thanks for that site

Cheap doesn't mean best, most people are fairly sceptical about Imagine. Any of the other companies above would be a btter choice.

BTW don't get caught by the crappy time based BB products that both Eircom and Imagine have.

pizzahead77

I have Smart's 2MB broadband package. It's great apart from the Aolynx router that they supply. If you are going to do any serious downloading the router crashes (apparently it runs out of memory) due to having a large number of open connections.

I'd recommend getting another ADSL 2+ router.

The standard 2MB down/128kb up package is great value at €35 inc free line rental if you are one of the first 100,000 to sign up. They also offer 256kb upload speed for an extra €5 per month.

In terms of the LLU (local loop unbundling) something should hopefully start shortly as eircom presented their market definition document to comreg and industry on Monday.

EDIT - Looks like I spoke too soon on LLU - Eircom claims that there isn't a need for LLU and that it will take them 18 months and €13 million to implement it.

jozi

bk wrote:

Cheap doesn't mean best, most people are fairly sceptical about Imagine. Any of the other companies above would be a btter choice.

BTW don't get caught by the crappy time based BB products that both Eircom and Imagine have.

I think once it work my folks will be happy.
I dunno about imagine tbh and not a chance am i going to tell them to go for the time based bb, defeats the whole purpose of it doesnt it??

Anyway cheers for the responses

Jozi

Btw, bt: aka "the bk" from gamecon (if so) hope on to the uie servers some time or you still without the game?

5500

pizzahead77 wrote:

I have Smart's 2MB broadband package. It's great apart from the Aolynx router that they supply.
.

How are you finding your phoneline?(i presume your switched to the smart prefix?)

Mine is rotten,constant voice feedback and call dropping for nearly 4months now since i went live

pizzahead77

eireal wrote:

How are you finding your phoneline?(i presume your switched to the smart prefix?)

Mine is rotten,constant voice feedback and call dropping for nearly 4months now since i went live

I have absolutely no call quality problems on the line. I'm on an 01 number (not a 076 VoIP one)