Households in Ireland will soon have access to lightning-fast broadband. But is it needed?
If you have a need for speed then Virgin Media has got you covered!
One of the country’s biggest broadband providers has announced that it's going to start offering 5Gb (5,000Mb) pure fibre broadband in Ireland.
At the moment the top speed available to most households in Ireland is 1Gb but some providers including Virgin offer up to 2Gb in certain locations.
So this is much faster than anything that’s been available until now.
When will it launch?
Details are still a bit patchy at the moment.
But Virgin says it will start rolling out the new 5Gb service between April and June of this year.
Pricing is still to be confirmed.
However at the moment Virgin offers 500Mb broadband for €35 a month, 1Gb broadband for €45 a month, and 2Gb for €55 a month for the first year. These prices then increase to €70 a month, €80 a month and €90 a month respectively after the first year is up.
So its 5Gb service will likely cost around €65 a month for the first year, if not more, rising to €100 or more each month after that. So not necessarily cheap. But it is a premium service after all.
Virgin Media is responding to consumer trends, increasing data consumption and what our customers have told us in terms of their broadband services.
Paul Higgins, Virgin Media’s Vice President of Consumer
Benefits
Ireland’s first 5Gb fibre broadband service will provide significant benefits to both consumers and businesses throughout the country.
In an increasingly digital world, excellent-quality, fast fibre broadband is almost a necessity. So this new product will undoubtedly appeal to a wide range of companies, both big and small, in various industries and help boost the country's competitiveness.
Households will also benefit.
Our lives increasingly revolve around the internet. Whether it’s watching TV, listening to music, playing video games, working from home, or catching up with our favourite podcasts, we need fast broadband to do it.
The explosion in the popularity of smart devices and the ‘smart home’, where everything from our TVs, our lighting and heating, and even our kitchen appliances, are connected to the internet, also demands faster speeds and better connections.
A 5Gb service will help improve our day-to-day digital lives and will almost guarantee lag-free gaming, perfectly smooth streaming, instant access to cloud services and easier use of AI.
But should you rush out and sign up to the service when it becomes available?
Do I need 5Gb broadband?
5Gb broadband is lightning fast. And as outlined above it’s likely to be fairly expensive too.
But in most cases, households won’t need a speed as quick as this just yet.
If you live alone, 500Mb broadband should more than suffice for your needs. And if you have a small family, then 1Gb should be enough, even if you are all heavy data users.
If you live in a large family, with three or more kids, who all love to game, stream and download content, then 2Gb might be nice for the ultimate speed and comfort. But even then it will be superfluous to your requirements the majority of the time.
So 5Gb is very much for businesses and a niche selection of households. But in the years ahead, as more and more of what we do goes online, driven by increased use of AI, a product like this will become more important.
But remember, if you have an old computer or laptop, it may not even be able to attain a speed as fast as 5Gb. You will also likely need to upgrade your router to get speeds of 2Gb or more. So it’s important to ensure you don’t pay for a speed you can’t actually get.
In many cases, if you're struggling with poor broadband speeds, it could be due to where you've placed your router or even a virus on your computer. Or just the age of your computer itself.
Here are several ways to speed up your connection that don't involve upgrading to a new service.
Who can get the new service?
Virgin Media has significantly expanded its network in recent years and the company now provides broadband services to approximately 1.4 million premises across the country.
It offers services using its own infrastructure, which passes just over 1 million premises, and through partnerships with SIRO and National Broadband Ireland (NBI), which add around 450,000 and 255,000 premises respectively.
So lots of households should, in theory, be able to get the new service. But the higher speed service will take some time to roll out nationwide. Not all of the c. 1.4 million premises on Virgin's network may be able to get the service immediately.
When we have more details, you’ll be the first to know. Our broadband comparison service will tell you which speeds and services are available in your area.
