Broadband blast-off

Perhaps spurred by Smart Telecom's promise of a 2Mbps connection (and free line rental), Eircom has stepped up to the plate and pledged to double all new and existing broadband customers' speeds to 1Mbps (or 2Mbps for existing premium 512Kbps customers).

Esat BT quickly followed suit on the back of Eircom's accompanying wholesale deal and no doubt UTV will also get on board.

Esat customers will be automatically upgraded on April 4, Eircom's by April 8.

What hasn't changed is the monthly charge (in Esat's case €39 or €33 with phone service; Eircom €40 or €55 for premium service), nor, sadly, the upload speed - which will still be stuck at a measly 128Kbps.

There is some suggestion but no confirmation that the download cap will be raised. At 1Mbps, reaching Eircom's monthly download cap of 4GB has suddenly got a whole lot easier. That said, very few customers of any company have been charged for breaching their cap.

Without being ungrateful, however, not everyone needs 1Mbps, so Eircom should really have cut the price of the existing 512Kbps service, but this speed is not an option any more.

So though Eircom has been quick to trumpet how its starter product is now among the fastest in Europe, it conveniently ignores the fact that the price of that product is still higher than that of many of our neighbours.