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What is broadband?
Broadband is the term used to describe a digital high speed internet connection. Its an upgrade from a dial up connection or isdn by being on 24 hours a day. This means more information can be transmitted faster and usually means a flat rate monthly as opposed to costly dial up charges
How is broadband connected to your home? - Most home users will receive broadband by one of the following methods:
ADSL - (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) this converts your analogue telephone line into an ADSL via a modem at your home and at the ADSL enabled phone exchange.
ADSL2+ - Next Generation DSL(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) this converts your analogue telephone line into an ADSL via a modem at your home and at the ADSL2+ enabled phone exchange. Faster speeds than ADSL.
Cable - Broadband is delivered via a high speed cable modem using a cable network, usually coaxial, to your computer.
Wireless - Broadband is delivered over the air from the nearest wireless basestation, usually within 3-5km. An antenna is mounted on the roof and a cable is run into your house. You will need direct line of sight to the provider's basestation.
WiMax - Broadband delivered over the air from a basestation, usually within 2-3 km. A small modem is placed beside the computer and does not require a phoneline or an antenna on the roof. You will not need line of sight to the basestation.
Whether you use any of these technologies you will still need to live in a broadband enabled area.
Satellite 2-way
Broadband delivered via Satellite to dish mounted on the roof and cable brought into the house. Available to every part of Ireland
Satellite 1-way
The connection with the satellite is unidirectional. The satellite dish is only able to receive data. Data or requests cannot be sent directly to the satellite, but use your phoneline back via the Internet. High speed download with dialup upload speeds
Do I need a separate phone line?
No, you do not need a separate phone line.
Is broadband expensive?
There are so many broadband packages currently available there should be something for everyone. Most broadband packages will offer a fixed monthly price so no matter how much you use the internet you won't receive a large, unexpected bill at the end of the month.
Some broadband providers will charge you more up front for your modem and set-up costs but will have lower monthly payments. The simplest way to find out is to use Switch4's broadband comparison service.
What equipment do I need?
Most broadband provides will supply the modem, filters and installation software you need. Some providers will supply this free whilst others will charge you for this equipment. Each broadband provider will have their own PC and Mac requirements.
Is broadband available in my area?
To find out if broadband is available in your area insert your county and area into the Switch4 broadband search engine.
Download and Upload Speed
The download and upload speeds refer to the maximum speeds you can expect to get from your internet connection. The most important, due to the nature of most households useage of the internet, is download speeds. Most of what we do on-line is receiving rather than sending out large files. The higher the download speed the more we can view.
Download limits are the maximum amounts of data that can be downloaded, before your provider will ask you to pay per Gigabit. It's usually quite small and is there to protect against abuse. It is also important to note each provider has a fair usage policy that asks users to bear in mind they are on a shared service-So don't hog it!
Contention
When you subscribe to a broadband service, you more than likely will be on a contended or shared connection. If for example you subscribe to a service of 2Mbps, your Internet Service Provider (ISP), will share that capacity with a number of other subscribers. The thinking behind it, is that not everyone is using the service at the same time and even if they were, the likelihood that everyone would click to download or upload data at the same time is extremely low. So rather than paying for the 2Mbps all by yourself , you are paying for a shared service with other users in your area. The higher the contention, then the more likely that it will have a negative effect on your connection during busy times.
Deregulation of the Electricity Market in Ireland
Since 2005, all electricity customers, regardless of consumption levels, are free to choose their own electricity supplier.
Green Electricity
In November 1997, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Kyoto the EU committed itself to an 8% reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases. The EU target is to reduce emissions by 8% below 1990 emission levels in the period 2008-2012, CO2 being one of the key targets.
There are now suppliers to the Irish Market who are committed to making the maximum positive effort to the environment through the reduction of CO2 gases and extending customer choice to include purchase of electricity from renewable and environmentally friendly sources - energy from the sun, the wind and the waves.
Price of Electricity
The cost of electricity comprises the cost of generating the electricity, transmitting it through the network, distributing and supplying this energy to end customers (including billing, answering customer queries etc).
During the 90s, electricity prices were stable and relatively cheap. Since then, prices have increased due to a required investment of over ˆ2.7 billion to upgrade the electricity network to meet the growing demand for electricity and increased costs for generating fuels, primarily oil and gas.
It is therefore more important than ever for eligible customers to shop around for the best deal.
How do I change supplier
Once you fill out the form, we will reply with a quotation. Should you sign up, your new Supplier will register your details so that they are responsible for you within about ten working days. The new Supplier will then send all future bills to you as agreed in your supply contract.
Choice of electricity Supplier is entirely up to each eligible customer. If you decide that you do not wish to change Supplier or wish to revert to ESB Customer Supply at any point, you can seamlessly revert to them at any time. ESB Customer Supply charges are published tariffs regulated by the CER.
As a customer of an independent supplier, the continuity and quality of your electricity supply is as secure as if you are a customer of ESB Customer Supply. Should your supplier leave the market at any stage, your supply of electricity will remain secure.
The only change is the size of your bill
Carrier Pre-Select
(CPS) enables you to achieve significantly lower costs for all your outbound calls without the need to change your existing telephone numbers or install any additional equipment. There is no disruption involved with CPS, or manual prefixing. The call is routed at the exchange. You keep your existing numbers and continue to make telephone calls as usual. The result is a significant cost reduction when calling local, national, international and mobile phones.
Single Billing
Your phone number remains the same when you switch and now you will receive a single bill for call charges and line rental. This means no more bills from one provider for calls and from another for line rental.
Extra Services
Most companies will automatically transfer over all of your call management, forwarding, voice mail and other services.
VoIP
With VoIP you can call any number you want. You can even use VoIP to call other people who use the traditional Telephony network and mobiles, not just other people who use VoIP. Call charges vary between providers, this can start at nothing. Most providers offer free calls to other VoIP customers using the same service. Subscription charges also vary between providers with some charging one off setup and monthly costs in addition to call charges. Payment for your service works in a Pay-As-You-Go type system for the majority of providers, where users purchase top up credit online using a debit or credit card and make calls till their credit runs out. As most service providers utilise online account management it is possible to view your bill online, which summarises and breaks down all of your call information.
Requirements and equipment
With VoIP you can use any broadband package. However it would be recommended to sign up to a high-speed package with a large service restriction. In terms of equipment if you wish to use the service through your computer then you will need a set of headphones and a microphone or headset with some additional VoIP software that you can usually download for free from your chosen provider. Some providers also sell special VoIP handsets and a simple device called an ATA, Analogue Telephone Adaptor which allows you you to use your existing telephony equipment.
Reliability
Because VoIP uses broadband technology to work there can be service problems, especially if your Internet Provider is experiencing technical difficulties or if there is a high amount of Internet traffic. If you use VoIP on your computer then it must be constantly switched on or you will not be able to receive phone calls, and in the event of a power outage service can be completely lost. Additionally the vast majority of VoIP products do not allow you to make emergency 999 calls, and for this reason we would recommend that VoIP should be used as a secondary line or at least be sure that there is a device such as a mobile phone available instead.
HDTV - High Definition Television
Resolution, or picture detail, is the main reason why HDTV programs look so good. The standard-definition programming most of us watch today has at most 480 visible lines of detail, whereas HDTV has as many as 1,080. HDTV looks sharper and clearer than regular TV by a wide margin, especially on big-screen televisions.
An analog TV cannot display HDTV. It can show only standard-definition programs such as those found on regular TV, cable, or satellite, including digital cable.
In order to receive pictures in HDTV format, your TV must be HDTV ready.
Some service providers are actually connecting consumers. In order to receive HDTV can simply buy a new STB (Set Top Box) which currently retails at approx ˆ450 and plug it into your HDTV. You will also pay a monthly subscription on top of your channels package. Check out our Digital TV pages to see if you can receive it.
DTTV - Digital Terrestrial Television
is an implementation of digital technology to provide a greater number of channels and/or better quality of picture (HDTV) and sound through a conventional antenna (or aerial) instead of a satellite dish or cable connection.
Under EU legislation, all anaolgue tv channels must be shut down before 2012, this will mean that digital terrestrial television will be the industry standard with 6 years. There are trials beginning in Co. Louth and Co. Dublin to run for the next 2 years, so it may be at least until then that there a DTTV service available.
FTA
Free To Air satellite is a term used to describe satellite channel you can legally receive without a subscription. Unlike Satellite and Cable, users pay a once off fee for the set top box and dish if they do not already have one.
MMDS is a line-of-sight service, so it won't work well around mountains, but it will work in rural areas, where copper lines are not available. As with all Line-of-Sight services, you must be able to physically see the local base station from your home.
Video on Demand
VOD is a technology that allows the consumer to in effect, order 1 movie at a time without subscribing to more expensive movie packages from TV Service Providers.
Triple Play
Triple Play is the way forward in terms of billing, choices and savings through a single service provider. The ability to send TV, Telephone and Bandwidth through a single broadband connection into your home via dsl (Digital Subscriber Line).
FTTH - Fibre to the Home
Some industry experts claim bringing fibre optic directly to your home will eventually replace traditional copper phone lines. The ability to bring up to 100 mb of uncontended bandwidth leads to unlimited potential and will include services such as the aforementioned tv, and phones, wired and internet calling as well as alarm services similar to those of Eircom phone watch. Who knows what the future will bringbut the transport system to deliver these services may well be FTTH.
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