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How fast are Irish internet service providers? Here's what Netflix says

The online movie and TV series streaming service has published data on Irish ISPs and how they rank according to streaming speeds for Netflix content.

THE ONLINE MOVIE and TV series streaming service, Netflix, has published new statistics which rank the fastest internet service providers in the country based on how quickly they stream Netflix content.

The company, which claims to have 30 million members worldwide, has published details of ISP speeds in both the UK and Ireland and how they ranked based on their performance across all Netflix streams in November.

UPC tops the list averaging speeds for Netflix streams of 2.22 megabits per second (Mbps) followed by Magnet on 2 Mbps. Imagine broadband, Eircom, Digiweb and Vodafone all follow with speeds under 1.7 Mbps.

The data also includes streaming speeds for mobile providers including Vodafone, Meteor, O2 and 3:

Click here if you cannot see the table clearly

Compared to speeds in the UK, Irish ISPs do not come out well with all UK ISPs faster than most Irish ISPs when it comes to streaming Netflix content:

Click here if you cannot see this table clearly

According to Greg Peters, Netflix’s vice president of product development, the average performance in Ireland and the UK is “well below” the peak performance.

He says this is due to number of factors including “home Wi-Fi, a wide variety of devices with different capabilities, and a variety of encodes that Netflix uses for streaming TV shows and movies”.

“The relative ranking, however, is an accurate indicator of the quality and consistency of internet access typically experienced across all users, homes, and applications,” he adds in a blog posted to Netflix’s website.

Netflix launched in Ireland at the beginning of this year having, at that stage, already attracted over 23 million customers worldwide with it offering a range of films and television shows for download and streaming for a monthly subscription fee.

In September it claimed to have a user base of over one million people in the UK and Ireland.

Read: Netflix launches in Ireland: but how does it compare?

Read: Netflix faces US penalty for CEO Facebook comments

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71 Comments
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    Mute Eoin Hyland
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    Dec 27th 2012, 7:34 AM

    The selection in the Irish version of Netflix is like a bad video shop in Tullamore from 1984.

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    Mute Joe Shaw
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:25 AM

    Thats why I changed the DNS settings on my router & Pc to trick Netflix into thinking I’m in the U.S. The U.S version is great…they add “proper” films every week too, and have- I’d say, around 3-4 times the amount of content..

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    Mute Stuart Hyland
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:26 AM

    Without the porn under the counter !!!

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    Mute Dave O'Shea
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:29 AM

    Durty Hyland..Durty ;-) happy new year mate

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    Mute Stuart Hyland
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:18 PM

    Happy new year to ya too mate. Hope its a good one for ya.

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    Mute Gav Butler
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    Dec 27th 2012, 7:18 AM

    They need to update their movies and tv , the u.s. version has triple the amount of content . It’s a great service though .

    375
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    Mute Darran Murray
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:44 AM

    Check out unblock-us.com tis 4 euro a month and let’s you watch American/ Canadian netflix

    67
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    Mute Darragh Flynn
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    Dec 27th 2012, 3:02 PM

    Definitely agree, but I’m guessing there’s licensing issues and what not. I use unblock-us and it works an absolute treat on all devices, and comes in handy for more things than just Netflix!

    11
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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Dec 27th 2012, 7:32 AM

    I must say that Eircom has been horrible. Not abysmal, but utterly freaking unrelentingly absolutely over-the-top-and-hand-me-a-hatchet horrible. Lure you in with a decent price for 8mb/sec service, deliver 3mb/sec. “It’s the phone lines in Howth, ” they claim.
    And whose phone lines are they? Hmmm?
    I couldn’t use Nexflix if I wanted to. The Eircom connection won’t support it I’m sure. Sad, sad. Still, living in Howth has other compensations. Like when they run herds of goats down from the hills to market, I can usually nick a couple…

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    Mute Nigel O'Neill
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:41 AM

    Seamus, get on twitter or facebook and have your rant at them on there, sending it to theit twitter/fb address.. Theyl soon have you sorted!

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    Mute Colm O'Leary
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:05 AM

    Eircom have been hiding behind the fact that they are only required by law to provide lines capable of carrying a voice call. And since they still own the lines, that’s all their competitors using those lines can supply either. They are holding back the progress of this country purely for their own greed! One of the reasons I’ll NEVER, EVER go back to Eircom. That and their stroppy attitude if you have a problem.

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    Mute Dexter Gordon
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:23 AM

    Never fear. I’m sure all will be hunky dory when Sky enter the Irish market in the New Year. Not!

    20
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    Mute Dexter Gordon
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:44 AM

    The reason being that Sky will just be picky-backing on the Eircom service.

    26
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    Mute GuyMx
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    Jan 12th 2013, 9:19 AM

    Seamus
    I’m also in Howth and have terrible speeds, usually less than 1 Mbps. Did you have any luck in talking to eircom?

    3
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    Mute marcuuze11
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:09 AM

    It’s about as fast as waiting for the journal app to load articles on my phone.

    99
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    Mute Barry Ryan
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    Dec 27th 2012, 7:58 AM

    Its only great if you have unlimited broadband/data. I got screwed with a big bill back in March. As I went over my 20gb allowance per month, from watching Hd stream from Netflix. I had to get rid of Netflix after that. It does need more new movies and tv series on its service. Try have unlimited broadband to use Netflix though, or you’ll get cought out like I did.

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    Mute Joe Shaw
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:29 AM

    You can adjust the streaming quality in the settings page though…like turn off HD, that makes a massive difference. But I agree, its better to have a unlimited broadband plan .

    40
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    Mute Sold_off
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:22 AM

    Upc is gone very slow the past few weeks. I signed up to the 50mb and I barely make 17mb on a speedtest.

    55
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    Mute James Connolly
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:31 AM

    17MB?! Blimey I’m averaging 2! Thank you eircom, the only Service Provider we can get!

    86
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    Mute Richard Keogh
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:35 AM

    Are you using a wired connection to your router or wifi. I get between 90 and 100 when I connect directly to the router but that takes a big drop when I’m on wifi. I haven’t seen any drop off in speeds on my connection, touch wood. I can’t fault upc for broadband at all, now if they could only fix the freezing on some of my tv channels.

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:46 AM

    Spot on! My 16yo advised me to do that!

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    Mute Gavin O'Brien
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:12 PM

    More than likely because your using wireless G. Upgrade you whole network to full N (if even one device is left at G, your whole network will stay G) and you’ll easily get full speed over wireless ;)

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    Mute sparky
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:27 PM

    Eircom is a disgrace I’ve 0.8 MBps. I rang them and they said its because you’re too far away from the server and it won’t be sorted until the put in fiber powered lines, I asked them when they were going doing this your man replies ohh I don’t know I think it might be in the next 5 years

    13
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    Mute Terry O'Dowd
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:36 AM

    “UPC tops the list averaging speeds for Netflix streams of 2.22 megabytes per second (Mbps)”

    That’s Megabits, not Megabytes (note the lower case “b”). There is a big difference.
    Those speeds would be a lot more impressive if they were Megabytes per second (MBps).

    I have to agree with everyone on Eircom though. The speeds they offer are nowhere near what you actually get.
    Going back to UPC as soon as my current contract with Eircom is up. They put in fibre optic cables the week after I signed up for 18 months with Eircom. Only a year left, but I’ll wait it out.

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    Mute stefanovich
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:01 AM

    Yes, the article has a mistake! Megabits megabits megabits per second. You always measure speed in bits per second. Also, if you are talking throughput (rather than memory) a Megabit is 1000 x 1000 bits (rather than 1024×1024). So for total accuracy your megabits throughput to megabytes on disk conversion would be ((x*1000*1000)/8)/(1024*1024)

    For memory you really should use the name mebibyte (but noone really does) :)

    Surprised by the low average speed for UPC, probably people streaming over wireless to the ps3.

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    Mute Stuart Hyland
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:23 PM

    I agree. For gaming /streaming always go wired.

    4
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    Mute fizi_water
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:38 AM

    Netflix is awesome, but as other posters I agree please update movies like in American version, why sub standard treatment for same standard money?

    Love Breaking Bad on it though so they are little bit forgiven :-)

    41
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    Mute Darran Murray
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:50 AM

    At the minute sky tv bought the film rights for TV the contract with them doesn’t end for another year so will be a while before netflix can start bidding on better shows

    6
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    Mute Colin Bond
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:06 AM

    Vodafone are at the foot of the table, and there is a good reason for that, you can’t even stream youtube properly videos never mind Netflix. Internet speed is shocking and if you ring them to complain about it, it’s never anything to do with their end.

    35
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    Mute Colin Bond
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:48 AM

    Can’t fault Vodafone mobile internet on phone though, usually the 3g is nearly as fast as my wifi connection at home!

    5
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    Mute Tim Collins
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:38 AM

    I keep losing my wi-fi connection on my I pad every half hour with Eircom , sad

    33
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    Mute B Collins
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:25 AM

    Did they give you one of those crappy Zycel routers? The modem in the family home was replaced with one of them a few months ago and the signal is absolutely rubbish. If you move more that six metres away from it you lose wifi completely. When we complained about it, instead of accepting that they kitted us out with a piece of s**t, they basically told us to go and buy a repeater. Plods.

    25
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    Mute John F
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:44 AM

    I believe that’s a documented problem with apple devices my friend, either that or your router!

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    Mute Kevin Devereux
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:56 AM

    If you want to boost shit wifi range, get an old metal coffee can, clean it out, make vertical cuts down it about an inch wide the whole way around and fan it out, drill a hole in the bottom of it and put over the antenna of your router, spray it black aswell so it doesn’t look as bad……my wifi range tripled and I can pick it up from the end of the street now

    12
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    Mute Stuart Hyland
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:28 AM

    I will wait 4gee.

    31
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    Mute Colin Tyrrell
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:09 AM

    Start saving. Judging by their UK pricing, they ain’t cheap

    13
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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:45 AM

    Durty again Hyland :)

    33
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    Mute John F
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:38 AM

    4 gees? Ya duty fooker!

    22
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    Mute Philip Cavanagh
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    Feb 14th 2013, 6:33 PM

    Ya won’t get that on nextflix ye durty fecker

    2
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    Mute Eoj McGovern
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:03 AM

    Rang Vodafone over a week ago about a new business line…..very poor call handling and was told the sales team had probably gone home….at 2:30pm……still waiting for a call back….inspiring along with this speed result

    25
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    Mute Thomas W Cooke
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:30 AM

    I thought I had a reasonably good internet speed until my teenage son explained to me the difference between MB per second and mb per second!! 8 bits in a byte or 3000 kilobits per second sounded great until I realised its .375 MB.
    MB = megabyte
    mb = megabit

    24
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    Mute Gavin O'Brien
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:05 PM

    Just been a bit of a pedant, but you’re slightly wrong.

    MB = MegaByte
    Mb = Megabit

    7
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    Mute Mike Synnott
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:28 PM

    Just being a bit of a pedant, but it’s ‘being.’

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    Mute Gus Lynch
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    Dec 27th 2012, 2:56 PM

    Touché.

    20
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    Mute Philip Cavanagh
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    Feb 14th 2013, 6:32 PM

    BOOM

    3
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    Mute Jill :D
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:48 AM

    People think “This is great only X? a month to stream all these movies on Netflix” yes well wait until you go over your bandwidth and then you have A second larger internet bill to go along with your Netflix one.

    19
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    Mute Colm Quinn
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:25 AM

    Digiweb are terrible. I’m paying for 24mb but I’ve done a lot of speed tests and it’s never been over 10. And even that seems to be a lot slower than other company’s 8mb services. And if you want to talk to their customer service be willing to set aside about half a day.

    19
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    Mute Mary Mc Carthy
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:27 AM

    I use Digiweb as well and my connection keeps dropping …… Intend to change next week

    10
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    Mute United Farmers
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:17 AM

    Forget about the big players, I use a company in the west of Ireland who can deliver decent speeds at ordinary prices! Fixed wireless is the way to go. I’m on 20mb with a telephone also.

    18
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    Mute Dexter Gordon
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:29 AM

    With a name like that, United Farmers, you’re gonna get a lotta red thumbs no matter what you post ..

    17
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    Mute United Farmers
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    Dec 28th 2012, 1:51 PM

    bbnet broadband deliver hi speed broadband in the mid west.

    1
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    Mute Karen Reidy
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:20 AM

    That picture is funny because Madmen is not available on Irish netflix

    15
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    Mute Mac Ready
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:47 AM

    The problem for Netflix over here is that Sky have bought up all the broadcast rights for most of the latest movies and they run their own streaming service so this is always going to limit Netflix’s selection!

    13
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    Mute United Farmers
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:20 AM

    Forget the big players, I use a small fixed wireless company in the west of Ireland. I have 20mb and a telephone also. I’m not dependent on line quality, people need to look around at other options.

    9
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    Mute Patrick McEneaney
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:09 AM

    whats the name of the company you get 20 mb from. I living in rural ireland too and max I can get is 5mb

    14
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    Mute Bunny Johnson
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:39 AM

    Yes, who are they? I am in the west of Ireland and agree 5mb is roughly what you can get. I get 18gb through satellite (tooway) which is great for streaming but capped at 26gb per month. No good for gaming as the latency is high (time it takes for the signal to get to the satellite and back is v slow around 800ms compared to around 10ms for a decent link or 100ms for crappy 3) but not bad overall.

    8
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    Mute Mark Power
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:12 AM

    Netflix would want to get their own house in order before passing judgment over other services. Their European ‘Netflix’ service is an absolute disgrace when impaired to their far superior American service. Glass houses Netflix…

    8
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    Mute Mac Ready
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:41 PM

    Seey post above limiting factor here is Sky have the rights to everything decent! Also look at the other European offerings in Sweden etc a lot better selection. The head Netflix guy did talk about trying to outbid sky on rights the next time they come up, let’s hope so, in the mean time unblockus unlocks a whole new Netflix world!

    8
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    Mute Ciaran J Ward
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:46 AM

    Qsat it’s the dogs bollox for fast Internet

    8
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    Mute Michael O' Riordan
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    Dec 27th 2012, 8:56 AM

    Excuse my ignorance but is that good or bad!

    23
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    Mute Ciaran J Ward
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    Dec 27th 2012, 9:08 AM

    Better than good

    16
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    Mute Timmy O Toole
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:05 PM

    You must work for them. Their prices are ridiculous. 3mb speeds and 6gb data allowance for 35 euro a month.

    28
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    Mute Ellis Bell
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:02 AM

    Woah on our connection (pure) in the north west we only get 0.8 per minute!!

    7
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    Mute Cornelius Crow
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:07 AM

    Am using vodafone 8meg landline broadband with no problems. Speedtest always shows up around 7ish meg. Have wired the neighbour back to my house so we share the bill per year, between both houses we 14 devices. Never really have any problems. Anytime i did have a problem vodafone helpdesk sorted it straight away.

    4
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    Mute Colin Bond
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:24 AM

    To the person who has no problem with Vodafone internet… What are you doing right that i’m doing wrong because with 3/4 devices connected the speed drops from about 5mbps to 1.5/2mbps and even though we are paying for 8 we rarely speedtest more then 6. Also depends on the area I suppose and how many people are connected to the exchange etc etc.

    6
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    Mute Cornelius Crow
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    Dec 27th 2012, 11:40 AM

    Well i’m in a village about a mile from the exchange, I’m an I.T. Technician so my first job was to get the line to the house that was 100%, This was done by ordering a new line to the house. I didn’t have to get the new line in the end cause when the technicians came I got them to fix the line that was already there. I’ve 3 routers and a repeater bouncing around the signal. An example of how good things work would be last night, I’d a HD movie streaming, the liverpool match streaming and the son was on the xbox all at the one time. Make sure your not uploading anything cause that kills your speeds. Also go to your main router and connect to a device, do a speed test, then start turning on devices around the house one by one and do the speed test each time, you’ll eventually find out where your’re loosing your speed.

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    Mute Colin Bond
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:14 PM

    Thanks for the Advice

    6
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    Mute Johnny Reynolds
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    Dec 27th 2012, 10:22 AM

    I’m with the 3 network on my phone. Can Set it up as a power point and stream all the sports/films I want on the laptop, no freezing even when other people are using the net from my phone. Can’t fault it :)

    4
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    Mute Colin Deane
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:16 PM

    portal tv fcuk netflix

    3
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    Mute Mac Ready
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    Dec 27th 2012, 12:36 PM

    Ip logged and reported to Sean Sherlock lol!

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    Mute Josh Loewen
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    Mar 9th 2013, 12:37 AM

    If you’re trying to figure out what’s available via Netflix UK and/or Ireland, I’ve created a couple sites/blogs that give complete lists of everything available, as well as everything available in other regions like US and Canada, so you know what you’re missing :-(

    uk.istreamguide.com
    netflixukcompletelist.blogspot.com
    netflixirelandcompletelist.blogspot.com

    I’ve also got a blog post that explains how to get access to Netflix USA content, as well as other regions.

    http://netflixcanadacompletelist.blogspot.ca/2012/09/watch-american-netflix-from-anywhere.html

    1
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