Internet connections in Ireland

fro

Hi all,
I have a friend who was, nay, is going to move to Ireland, Dublin to be more specific and she wanted some help in finding our what kind of Internet connections there are available and also at what prices. So to help out I visited a few sites and checked prices and must say I am still a bit chocked. Is there basically only dial-up modem connections?? And is the price for the upcoming Eircom i-stream (ADSL) realy as high as nearly 100 Irish punts a month??

All help is appreciated.

Thank you for your time,
/Fro

rickoshea

Yes, it's really only dial-up in Ireland. There are free and subscription ISPs. Subscription ones have a lower call charge rate.

ADSL is up in the air (which is why this site exists) and ISDN is marketed as 'Hi-Speed' and is about £35 a month PLUS call charges.

Full list is here:
http://iiu.taint.org/details/index.html

nahdoic

If you want affordable and/or fast internet access don't even dream about coming to Ireland. Tell yout friend to go to Germany or Sweden. Cos she will be completely devastated if she comes to Ireland. Or tell her to wait, till about the year 2003 maybe 2002. We might have some good stuff by then.

Although that said, if she is able to choose where she will be living in Dublin, she might be able to move into one of the NTL selected areas of west dublin

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_cable.html

and get a cable modem for just £50 a month. Damn that's good, I wannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnttttttttt it

Whoever thought that internet access would be a push and pull factor for choosing where you live???

fro

Originally posted by nahdoic
If you want affordable and/or fast internet access don't even dream about coming to Ireland. Tell yout friend to go to Germany or Sweden. Cos she will be completely devastated if she comes to Ireland. Or tell her to wait, till about the year 2003 maybe 2002. We might have some good stuff by then.

Actually she is moving from Sweden. When I told her about the state/speed of the connections in Ireland she promissed never to complain about the cost of her ADSL here in sweden again:)

Thank you for you time and help,
/fro

Red Moose

I don't think you can even move to a place with cable net access from NTL. I was actually considering it but there is not guarantee I would be granted an account (NTL guy said basically it's no go at the moment).

ando

Originally posted by nahdoic
Whoever thought that internet access would be a push and pull factor for choosing where you live???

I'm at that time in my life when I have no tie-downs (bird, house of my own), and once I'm fully qualified in my area of work, its bye bye Eire if no broadband is available (early '03 to be precise)... and hello NY city

I've had enough of this $hit ...

nahdoic

Originally posted by ando
I'm at that time in my life when I have no tie-downs (bird, house of my own), and once I'm fully qualified in my area of work, its bye bye Eire if no broadband is available (early '03 to be precise)... and hello NY city

I'm in a very similar situation, and feel the same way. If you want to get really rich you have to go to the states anyway. I can very easily see myself working permently in the states. By the time we do eventually get affordable broadband in this country, technology will have moved on again, and we'll probably need even faster broadband, or who knows what we will be using/doing then? But you can nearly be sure this country will be last to get it again. I want to live in a country where you can always be on the cutting edge rather than trailing miserably behind.

ando

Originally posted by nahdoic
But you can nearly be sure this country will be last to get it again. I want to live in a country where you can always be on the cutting edge rather than trailing miserably behind.

and to make things worse, I work in IT.... Ireland is just so far behind in cheap & fast internet connectivity for small to medium sized businesses.

Boston

You dont want to move to NY its an ok place to visit but hell, if you moving for broadband id go nowere else but san fran on the west coast. ADSL connections are duirt cheap, and none of this pppoe crap either.

hudson806

Originally posted by «Bo§ton»
You dont want to move to NY its an ok place to visit but hell, if you moving for broadband id go nowere else but san fran on the west coast

Granted, Verizon's service in NYC leaves a lot to be desired (ie its usually crap), but at least you have a reasonable choice of D-CLEC-affilitated ISPs - usually cheaper than in SF and usually with better upstream connectivity (for some odd reason tier 1 connectivity is usually less expensive in NYC).

In SF, on the other hand, PacBell's ADSL service (which in fact does use PPPoE in the basic res. version) is generally reasonable. D-CLEC service is generally not up to NYC standards, however.

The problem with this is that IOffL types are unlikely to want to use Verizon or Pacbell service - its just not good enough for serious 'netheads, meaning that good D-CLEC service is what you should be after. Which is what you'll get in NYC (and most of the East coast)

jmason

Originally posted by ando


I'm at that time in my life when I have no tie-downs (bird, house of my own), and once I'm fully qualified in my area of work, its bye bye Eire if no broadband is available (early '03 to be precise)... and hello NY city

Hey Ando, you could always try Australia;
broadband's freely available over here, it's just getting sunny, and the food is great.

Mind you, I'll be back. Ireland's much more copped-on w.r.t. technology -- all it needs is decent broadband infrastructure and decent connections to the rest of the world, and it could really take off as a tech leader.

--j.

dahamsta

Ireland's much more copped-on w.r.t. technology -- all it needs is decent broadband infrastructure and decent connections to the rest of the world, and it could really take off as a tech leader.

Try telling that to a politician Justin. Honestly, you wouldn't believe the absolute base-level misunderstanding and naive ignorance involved. As far as I can see, all politicians have actually disussed between themselves is the distribution of high level services, i.e. getting fibre outside the pale, so "mini CityWest's" - that's a direct quote - can be built.

Which of course you and I, and most on this board, know is absolutely the wrong approach to take. Sure, technology parks are a good idea, but why concentrate it all in one area? With DSL, cable and other broadband products - and even flat-rate narrowband - you'll distribute businesses even more widely, and more importantly, you'll level the playing field for small businesses.

Of course I'm probably biased, but I honestly believe that that's the way forward. Ireland's reliance on big business is in my opinion ill-advised, if not plain dangerous. Giant oaks grow out of small acorns, and all that. And when they do grow up to be giant oaks, well, there's a hell of a lot of dark fibre just waiting to be lit up.

But of course, that's what we're trying to do, educate the people involved. It just makes me wonder who's actually been advising the government all these years. If it was the telco's, how could the government not recognise the vested interests involved? If it wasn't, who the hell was it? They need to be sent to bed without any supper. Or investigated...

adam

Boston

Originally posted by hudson806


Granted, Verizon's service in NYC leaves a lot to be desired (ie its usually crap), but at least you have a reasonable choice of D-CLEC-affilitated ISPs - usually cheaper than in SF and usually with better upstream connectivity (for some odd reason tier 1 connectivity is usually less expensive in NYC).

In SF, on the other hand, PacBell's ADSL service (which in fact does use PPPoE in the basic res. version) is generally reasonable. D-CLEC service is generally not up to NYC standards, however.

The problem with this is that IOffL types are unlikely to want to use Verizon or Pacbell service - its just not good enough for serious 'netheads, meaning that good D-CLEC service is what you should be after. Which is what you'll get in NYC (and most of the East coast)

Still a t-1 going to set you back alot of money in the NYC.
i really was saying that you dont want to moce to new york, because everything tends to be more expensive in nyc, then else were. Also as a wee irish boy it can be very very strange to get used to.

hudson806

Originally posted by «Bo§ton»


Still a t-1 going to set you back alot of money in the NYC.

I wasn't talking about buying a T-1 - I was talking about OLO/CLEC SDSL service, which is of a very high standard (compared to the incumbent, anyway) and pretty cheap in NYC (about 70-90USD/month for residential users).

With the ILECs you pay very little, and they in turn deliver very little - dead slow authentication, high overbooking, PPPoE, poor tech support, low availability. Certainly the idea that BB costs USD40/month is a total myth - 'nethead quality DSL costs about 70-100USD/month. (Please don't all jump in and tell me about your friend who has great quality incumbent telco DSL in the US - quite a lot of people are pretty happy with them, I know, but I still reckon the extra 20-30 bucks for decent service is a bargain.) Of course, you could always get a dirt-cheap cable connection, they're invariably pretty good in the States.

On a more general level, I'm curious to see how the DSL market evolves in Ireland: Will there be similar, largely awful cheap DSL as provided by the Incumbents in the US, or will it be more like the OLO/CLEC services in the US where you pay USD75/month but get a pretty good service? I guess I'm hoping for a more european style - CLEC quality but US prices due to subsidies etc.

i really was saying that you dont want to moce to new york, because everything tends to be more expensive in nyc, then else were. Also as a wee irish boy it can be very very strange to get used to.

Granted, if you visit NYC. Try working there - most techie jobs pay far more than in most of the country (or used to before last year...).

Boston

i just dont like new york, not the type of place id like to settle down in. He could allways settle in upstate newyork .

If you dont mind me asking, what job have you. ive read alot of what you post here and it seems to lack the mindless drivel most people come out with.

one question, when someone says they are getting Two concurrent T-3 lines what do they mean. I know what a T-3 line is.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

one question, when someone says they are getting Two concurrent T-3 lines what do they mean. I know what a T-3 line is.

It's probably load balancing. You can connect two lines of the same type to a router and load balance over them to give you double the bandwidth - 90Mbps.