IrelandOffline have, for years, been highlighting the lack of broadband in Ireland. It’s no secret that the biggest source of Broadband here is DSL, and the vast majority of that is supplied by eircom. Recently in the media eircom have been dishing out a lot of self praise, claiming that they’ve almost done all they have to do, and that the rest is down to the Government to finance.
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Today, our Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey (or “Dialup Dempsey has he’s commonly known, thanks to his inaction on Broadband rollout page), announced that the Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA) launched a new code of practice. Let’s look at it a little closer!
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Liberty Global‘s UPC who now own both Chorus Ireland and NTL Ireland, may have their work cut out for them, as Sky announce they now have 407,000 digital subscribers in Ireland.
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If you’ve been getting faxes (businesses primarily, I presume) from SuperCom offering “Low Cost Mobile & International Calls”, be sceptical.
5 times over the last 10 days, I’ve had a 2 page fax from a company claiming to be SuperComm Ireland Ltd. Basically they offer international calls through a national rate 0818 number, and access from a mobile via 1520 premium rate number.
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I’ve been doing Irish Broadband research for a new site for IrelandOffline to be announced shortly. I’ve come across some strange and bizarre details (and the detail is always in the small print!!), but one company struck me as completely off the wall.
OrbitLink are a partnership of Educom Ltd. (an Irish company) and a German satellite provider. They quote residential and business services for the Irish market, and are listed on the Government’s poor broadband availability site. All seems OK so far!
However, when you check out their offerings, you’ll see that they have a monthly rate far in excess of many other Irish satellite providers, who (like OrbitLink) are all resellers for European providers anyway. Generally, satellite speeds are lower than terrestial-based solutions, as are the transfer limits (satellite transponders are expensive, for sure).
Get this, though: for €149+VAT per month, you get a transfer limit of 100MB. Yes for €180/mo, you’ll get to keep your Windows Updates for most months, and that’s all!! With Digiweb satellite, you’ll get twice the upload speed and 20 times the transfer allowance. The government are always advising consumers to shop around, but it defies logic as to how OrbitLink expect to survive, now that even the Irish satellite broadband market has heated up. Hopefully they won’t, or at least they’ll radically rethink their business plans!
So folks, if you’re shopping for satellite broadband in Ireland, SHOP AROUND!
