Availability and cost issues are hampering Irish take-up of high-speed internet and are keeping usage at lowest rate in EU, head of internet pressure group tells Laura Slattery

The news that Vodafone is to offer laptop broadband over its 3G mobile network may come as some relief to Irish computer users frustrated by the fact that Estonia, Slovenia and Lithuania have higher rates of broadband penetration than the Republic.

The latest figures from the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) show that, by the end of March, there were 270,000 broadband subscribers - around 120,000 more than there were a year earlier.

But ComReg's last quarterly report also showed that broadband penetration here remains the lowest among EU countries, at 5.34 per cent.

While almost one-third of all internet users have now made their "fat pipe" dream a reality, two-thirds are still coping or struggling with the now old hat dial-up internet services that make podcasting, teleconferencing and video blogging next to impossible and downloading photographs, music and applications something of a waiting game.

"Availability and cost are the two most serious broadband issues," says John Timmons, vice-chairman of Ireland Offline, a pressure group that campaigns for the availability of affordable broadband internet access. "In Ireland, the majority of people need a telephone line to get broadband, which means they have to pay line rental," he points out.

So while the table above shows broadband products that cost €20 a month, the true cost of securing broadband from most of these providers is actually €19.99/€20 plus the €24.18 a month they pay to their landline operator - usually Eircom - for line rental. Landline rental is higher in the Republic than in any other EU country.

Broadband prices have fallen over the past couple of years, and several providers offer deals where access is limited to 20 hours a month for €9.99.

Providers such as BT Ireland include line rental with their broadband packages, starting at €35 a month, meaning it can be cost-efficient for consumers to have the same provider for their broadband and landline. Smart Telecom also advertises a 3 MB broadband plus line rental product for this price.

UTV internet customers must have an active Eircom landline, but it will include its calls package UTV Talk, which offers free evening and weekend telephone calls, with its broadband packages, which are discounted for the first three months.

Although broadband is more affordable now than ever, value for money is not as good as it is in other countries, Timmons says. "In other countries like the UK and Germany, the same amount of money would get you more in terms of speed and usage limits," he says.

All of the providers in the table above give download speeds of 1 MB per second for €20 a month, but there are still big differences between what is on offer. By limiting usage to 20 hours a month, Eircom Broadband Time does what some providers offer for €10 cheaper.

Among the other providers monthly usage limits, or data transfer allowances, range from 12 GB downloading with unlimited uploading from Imagine to just 2 GB a month at NTL. If NTL customers exceed their monthly usage limit, they are automatically upgraded to NTL's next package and charged more. But NTL has a good history of increasing its download speeds for existing customers, Timmons points out.

It also has a lower "contention ratio" than the other providers shown, meaning fewer customers have to share a fixed amount of bandwidth.

NTL also offers broadband through cable modems, meaning that customers have no need for a phone line, although additional charges will apply if they are not signed up to one of its television packages.

Apart from using existing telephone and cable lines, homes and offices can connect to broadband using fixed wireless or satellite signals. "For wireless broadband, you need to have line of sight of a mast. If there are any hills or trees in the way, you won't be able to get it," explains Timmons.

For those who can get it, there are good deals on offer. For example, Irish Broadband's Ripwave product, which uses wireless technology and offers unlimited usage, costs €18.95 a month. There is no connection fee, no contract and no need for a phone line.

Outside urban areas, satellite broadband is often the only option, but these services are prohibitively expensive to set up. "The monthly fees start at about €100 a month and then it costs around €1,000 to get it installed," he says.

The set-up costs lock users into one provider and deter people in rural areas - those most likely to want to avoid commuting - from working at home.

"If you are out in the middle of the Sahara desert, nothing else beats it. But for a supposed EU hub country to be advocating satellite broadband as a solution doesn't make any sense," Timmons says.

Ireland Offline is frustrated that the Government has left broadband for Eircom and the rest of the private sector to sort out, leaving people in many areas without the telecommunications infrastructure they need.

"It is consistently said that 90 per cent of the country is covered by broadband, but that only means that the telephone line is connected to a broadband exchange. It doesn't mean that broadband is available on all of those lines."

People who live more than a few miles away from an exchange often encounter problems, he adds.

The actual percentage of the country covered by broadband is 63-68 per cent, according to Ireland Offline - far short of the 99 per cent rate achieved in Northern Ireland, which has a similar population dispersal between towns and rural areas.

The organisation is adopting a wait and see approach to Vodafone's 3G broadband product for laptops. At about €50 a month, it could prove popular with users on the move, as long as they don't keep losing their network signal.

In the meantime, Ireland Offline believes it will be new technology like WiMAX, which brings high-speed wireless broadband access to places where DSL (broadband-enabled telephone lines) and cable do not reach, that will eventually solve the Republic's broadband problems.

The table above shows only a selection of the broadband products on offer. For information about broadband and details on all of the services available in your area visit www.broadband.gov.ie