A one-day boycott of the Internet and the use of e-mail began today.
The boycott was called by Irelandoffline in protest at the price of Internet connections and what they say is the slow rate of upgrading telecom services.
"Ireland is behind the times when it comes to the Internet. Unlike Britain, France, Germany and most European countries - most countries worldwide in fact - Ireland doesn't have Internet products and services that will allow its residents to use the Internet to its maximum potential," its website says.
"Our current products and services are overpriced, the products and services we should have aren't available, and the people who should be fixing all of this don't understand how to go about it," the statement said.
Ireland offline is a lobby group set up earlier this year after Esat withdrew its unmetered "No Limits" service to about 2,000 subscribers after it said that users were using the service too much.
Unmetered services allow the user pay a fixed fee for unlimited use of the Internet. Esat calimed over-use by customers made the service unviable.
One of Ireland’s more celebrated and innovative websites, boards.ie, closed today in support of the boycott.
"We apologise for this but we feel that without decent infrastructure and charging, the Internet in Ireland will only ever be here to flog crud to you," a boards.ie statement said.