Two thirds of Irish households have a higher broadband speed than the minimum standard of government, according to new research.
A survey of 1,000 people conducted by consumer association Switcher.ie shows that 67 percent of Irish households receive less than 30 million points, the cut-off point used by authorities to determine whether broadband is good enough.
The 30 Mbs limit is the level at which the government decides whether a building is adequately served by providers or is eligible for government intervention via the national broadband plan.
However, Switcher research data is based on Wi-Fi speeds in households, which are usually only about 60% of the speed that is directly available via the wired connection.
The study showed that while wireless speeds averaged 27 Mb, those on directly wired connections averaged 45 Mb.
Despite the modest speed, a separate poll from iReach claims that three in five Irish say they are "satisfied" with their broadband. The online survey also claims that three-quarters of Irish consumers say their broadband speeds in the house are "the same" or "worse" than last year.
And a gap between city and countryside in broadband is still present, according to the survey, where one third of respondents in Connacht and Ulster were not satisfied with their broadband speeds at home, while only 16% of Dublin-based broadband users showed similar sentiment .
In the meantime, almost one in five people think that the national broadband plan will have no effect on their broadband situation.
"Although we hear a lot about superfast broadband, there are still a significant number that are not satisfied with their speeds and many people who feel that things will not improve quickly despite the promises of the national broadband plan," said Eoin Clarke, managing Director of Switcher.ie.
"For people struggling with slow speeds, simple things like streaming content, working from home and keeping in touch with friends and family can be a real problem."
The investigation is because the government maintains that the National Broadband Plan, which has promised to roll out high-speed broadband to 540,000 country houses and businesses, remains on track, despite the recent departure of SSE, major power supply of the shortlisted consortium by Enet.
The government plans to announce the winner of the National Broadband Plan winner on September 16th so that construction work on the network can start early in the year 2023.
Irish Independent
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