Ireland Mobile Broadband

[CaptainBob]

Later this year I'll move out of UK broadband coverage areas for the first time when I go to Ireland (East Coast). I've got Three and Vodafone dongles but I assume roaming with those will get very expensive? I use a lot of data - I work online. Any recommendations?

TY!

 

[davidgraham]

There are 4 mobile boradband providers in Ireland :

- Vodafone
-O2
-3
-eMobile

Details of their offerings are available on their websites.

Coverage on the East and South coasts is good but a little more patchy on the West coast.

All have the usual Prepay or Bill pay options, but with the later you would be locked into a 12 month contract.

With Prepay, there are limits data limits, which might be a problem if you are a heavy user ( typically 500mb per day, but 3 have a 30 day offer with 20GB for €35.

Dunlaoghaire Marina has wifi - while I do not have the current rates, it is likely to be expensive.

Hope this helps

 

[dt4134]

There are also a number of MVNOs (including eMobile who are an MVNO on Meteor's network albeit a brand of Meteor's owner Eircom). Examples are Tesco & anPost.

As elsewhere in Europe the EU data roaming directive applies to Ireland but it can still be quite expensive if you fall back onto the default rates when roaming. However with a bit of planning and care that shouldn't happen. So, it is worth checking what roaming packages your existing UK providers have for data roaming.

I presume it is just a short sailing trip to Ireland rather than work, so I guess you'll be looking for prepaid. Pretty much everyone has data offerings. Make sure you don't fall back onto the default per MB rate, so check that you get an offering that covers your needs. At least with prepaid you can keep your credit low so if you do accidentally fall back onto the default rate and it sucks your balance dry you won't have lost much.

Have a look around on the websites of the various operators & MVNOs for the deals they are doing at the moment.

An alternative is to go into a shop like Carphone Warehouse which will sell most brands. Depends where you arrive though as I don't know they have a shop near Kilmore Quay.

 

[CaptainBob]

Thank you! Exactly the sort of info I wanted.