Pure Telecom has launched 1,000Mbps broadband across 19 regions in Ireland and joins eir as providers of Ireland's fastest home broadband.
The rate at which broadband speed has increased in some parts of Ireland has been nothing short of extraordinary. Just five years ago, you were lucky to have a 24Mbps connection. Today 100Mbps is standard across much of the country, and even 360Mbps is possible if you’re in a Virgin Media service area.
And if that wasn’t enough, last September eir became the first company to offer 1,000Mbps broadband to Irish households. It was an extraordinary milestone, tripled top speeds in Ireland, and gave some lucky neighbourhoods a broadband option that’s 40 times faster than regular DSL.
And now Pure Telecom has joined the “Grand” broadband club of top speed providers. The Dublin based company has just announced that it has started offering 1,000Mbps in select areas across the Ireland.
“A few years ago people might not have believed this to be possible”, said Pure Telecom boss Paul Connell while launching 1,000Mbps broadband.
And well, he’s right isn’t he? When I got my first broadband connection it was just over 1Mbps and I was delighted – it was 20 times faster than I was used to and at the time I thought “how could you need more speed than this?”. Now there are homes in Ennis and Douglas and Drogheda that can get hooked up with 1,000Mbps. And even Letterkenny now has access to this incredible service… as well it should!
Pure Telecom’s announcement is the result of a huge €20 million deal the company has done with eir’s wholesale division which gives Pure access to the eir high-speed infrastructure. So where 1,000Mbps is available from eir, it will be available from Pure Telecom now too. The service is still pretty limited though. The 1,000Mbps is only available in 19 regions across the country, but as eir rolls out more locations, Pure will be able offer service there too.
1,000Mbps Lightning broadband
Pure is calling their service “Lightning” and eir calls theirs “Extreme”. Both names seem pretty apt too. I mean, it is 1,000Mbps broadband after all. Sure how else would you describe it? And what’s it actually like to have that sort of bandwidth in your home? Is everything just whap! Instant! Want a movie? There you go! Need a massive file? Wallop! And there it lands on your desktop like a phonebook falling from the sky.
If you’re in one of the areas where the service is available, Pure’s 1,000Mbps broadband product will cost €85 per month, which is a few shekels more than most of us are used to, but then I suppose it is 10 times faster than their 100Mbps offering at only slightly more than twice the price.
There are other high speed options available too. Pure Telecom is offering 300Mbps broadband for €75 per month and 150Mbps broadband for €65 per month. And they are throwing in unlimited mobile and landline calls with these products too.
And of course there's Pure Telecom's most popular product "Purely Broadband" offering a very acceptable 100Mbps unlimited broadband without any add-ons for just €39 per month - and you can see more details and sign up here.
National Broadband Plan
The launch of 1,000Mbps broadband is certainly good news, but there are still plenty of households and businesses across the country that would be more than happy with a service that offered a fraction of that. And there are households where broadband service still isn’t available at all.
And sadly, we are now looking at delays and confusion over the National Broadband Plan which was initially tasked with providing high-speed broadband to every premises in the country by 2020.
But as Paul Connell from Pure Telecom said: “The internet of things is becoming an essential part of everyday life, and consumers and businesses need more bandwidth as devices and appliances require permanent internet connections.”
And that’s it really. While 1,000Mbps broadband would be terrific, what most of us want is just a decent, reliable, permanent internet connection to run our devices and appliances – and most important of all – to stay connected.
