Money first, because that is what the search is for. Digiweb’s HyperPulse NBI 1000 is €44.95 for 12 months, €54.95 thereafter, free install, “No CPI Increase” printed on the plan. Eir’s 500 Mb is €34.99 for a year, then about €75.99, with a flat €4 every April from 2027 on top. Two years on Digiweb NBI 1000 is roughly €1,199; two years on Eir 500 is roughly €1,332 for half the download — before the April letter. Eir’s 1 Gb at €39.99 on 24 months is the only Eir line that beats Digiweb on price, and only for as long as the lock-in lasts — it lands on €85.99.
The honest split: NBI at the door means Digiweb. Open Eir FTTH at the door means price both — Digiweb sells that line too (TrueFibre 500 at €39.95→€49.95) — and Eir wins only on the 24-month gig. Open Eir FTTC at the door means nobody wins; take Eir or Digiweb DSL as a bridge and wait for the NBI date. Full ranking: best broadband for Ireland. Rural list: best rural broadband.
Quick comparison
Side by side from published August 2026 prices and contract terms — the same data behind our best-broadband ranking. Green highlights the better figure on that row. Speeds are advertised headlines, not lab results we invented. Availability is always by Eircode.
| Digiweb | Eir | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 8.7 | 8.3 |
| Intro from | €34.95 | €34.99 |
| Thereafter from | €49.95 | €75.99 |
| Headline speed | 1000 Mb | 500 Mb |
| Annual rise | No | Yes |
| Networks | Open Eir FTTH, SIRO, NBI, Fixed wireless, Satellite | Open Eir FTTH, Open Eir FTTC, NBI, 5G home |
| TV bundle | No | Yes |
Digiweb’s €54.95 thereafter vs Eir’s €75.99 plus €4 a year
Month one is Eir’s. €34.99 for 500 Mb beats Digiweb’s cheapest NBI sticker, which is €34.95 for six months on NBI Fibre 500 before it steps to €49.95 for the rest of the year and €54.95 after. That six-month teaser also carries a €49.95 once-off activation, so NBI 500 is the Digiweb plan to skip: HyperPulse NBI 1000 costs €5 less a month in year one, has free install, and lands on the same €54.95. NBI 2 Gigabit is €59.95→€69.95 with a Wi-Fi 7 router and a €49.95 fee.
Year two is where the sides swap. Eir’s 500 Mb goes to about €75.99 — and from April 2027 Eir adds a flat €4 each April, so a customer who signs in August 2026 is already looking at about €79.99 when the intro ends the following summer. Digiweb prints “No CPI Increase” on every fibre plan and its thereafter is a tenner, not a doubling. Eir’s 1 Gb at €39.99 on 24 months is the one Eir price that undercuts Digiweb for the full contract; it lands on €85.99 at month 25, and Eir charges a €149.99 install on the 12-month version of that gig. More intros: best broadband deals.
NBI specialist vs the company that owns the copper
Digiweb sells three wholesale fibres: NBI (500 Mb, 1 Gb, 2 Gb), SIRO (gigabit at €37.95, 2 Gb at €59.95) and Open Eir FTTH as “TrueFibre” (500 at €39.95→€49.95, 1000 at €44.95→€54.95, landline calls thrown in). It still lists DSL for addresses with nothing better. Eir sells its own Open Eir FTTH and FTTC, NBI, plus 5G home on its mobile network. Eir’s SIRO absence matters in regional towns; on NBI it is a genuine alternative retailer, just one that brings Eir’s thereafter and April letter to a network Digiweb sells without either.
The rural trap is the cabinet. An Eir checker that returns “fibre broadband up to 100 Mb” is FTTC: glass to the green box, copper to the house, speed falling with every hundred metres of lane. Open Eir is retiring that copper exchange by exchange with 12–18 months’ notice, so a 24-month FTTC contract can outlive the line it runs on. If the NBI map shows the premises as passed, the copper line is the thing you are leaving, not the thing you are buying. Network primer: FTTH vs FTTC vs cable. Checker: check your Eircode.
NBI 1 Gb for the money — and the upload figure nobody prints
Digiweb’s speed score is 8.6 to Eir’s 8.5, and the reason is the tier you get for the rural euro. On NBI, 1 Gb is the default at €44.95; on Eir, €34.99 buys 500 Mb and the gig is a 24-month commitment. Eir’s 5 Gb at €49.99 exists only where the Open Eir cabinet has had the XGS-PON upgrade — rarely the townland that is reading this page.
Now the figure the glossy tiles skip. Digiweb’s own NBI spec sheet reads 500 down / 50 up and 1000 down / 100 up; NBI’s residential 2 Gb is 2000/200. That is not symmetrical, whatever the rural forums say — it is a 10:1 ratio, the same shape as Open Eir FTTH, where Eir quotes 500/100 and 1 Gb/200. For a home worker pushing video calls and cloud backups, 100 Mb up on NBI 1000 is comfortable; FTTC’s 20 Mb up is not. If upload is the whole job, SIRO is the symmetrical network and Digiweb sells it in towns. Sizing: what speed do I need. WFH: working from home.
12 months with no CPI line vs 24 months with a calendar
Contract scores: Digiweb 8.2, Eir 6.2. Digiweb’s fibre plans are 12-month terms with “No CPI Increase” on the tile and the order summary; the only step is the published thereafter when the intro ends. Set-up is free on HyperPulse NBI 1000, €49.95 on NBI 500 and NBI 2 Gigabit, €29.95 on SIRO — read the small line, it moves by plan. The Zyxel Wi-Fi 6 router is included and stays yours to use on the ONT.
Eir’s cheap gig is a 24-month sign-up and the 500 Mb intro is 12 months of a longer relationship; either way the April mechanism starts in 2027 and is a flat €4, which Eir can apply mid-contract. The lever is the Contract Change Notification — a penalty-free exit window when the rise is notified, provided you act inside it. Both have 14-day cooling-off on a distance sale. Leaving Eir early otherwise means the remaining months: early termination fees. The April letter in detail: April price rises.
Who can actually connect a one-off house in 2026
NBI’s own numbers at the time of writing: around 89% of the ~566,000 Intervention Area premises passed, more than 500,000 able to order, more than 183,000 connected, and the main build due to finish by the end of 2026. Take-up sits around 36%, which tells you most NBI-passed houses are still paying someone else — often Eir FTTC — for a worse line; Eir now sells the NBI line itself, so ask which one its checker is offering. Digiweb’s coverage score is 8.9; Eir’s 9.6 reflects that if any wire reaches a remote Eircode today, it is usually Open Eir’s.
Timelines differ. Digiweb quotes fibre orders completing in “4–6 days on average”, which is a fair guide for an Open Eir or SIRO retailer swap; an NBI first connection is slower because NBI, not Digiweb, books the engineer, surveys the drop and fits the ONT — a few weeks is normal, longer if a private lane needs a wayleave. Once NBI’s box is on the wall, moving retailer later is a paperwork change, and NBI pays the connection rewards (€50 voucher, GAA+ or a €95 IFA contribution) direct, whoever you bought from. Eir’s advantage is the opposite: an existing Eir line can be live in days. Map reading: when is NBI coming. Process: NBI explained.
NBI-passed farms vs Eir-only lanes — and what to do in the gap
Digiweb is for the house the NBI van has passed: a farm, a one-off bungalow, the edge of a village the cable companies will never dig. It is also the quiet pick in SIRO towns for a €37.95 gig, and on Open Eir FTTH for anyone who would rather €49.95 thereafter than €75.99. It is not for you if you want Sky Sports or an Eir mobile on the same bill, or if a Virgin street is an option.
Eir is for the lane where Open Eir is the only wire and NBI is “under construction”, for the household already on Eir mobile and TV, and for the gig-at-€39.99 buyer who will genuinely leave at month 24. In the waiting gap, Eir’s 5G home at around €40 on 12 months is the faster bridge than Digiweb’s DSL or wireless leftovers — but a 12-month 5G contract signed today can still be running when the NBI engineer arrives. Price the exit before you sign it. Bridges compared: fibre vs 5G vs Starlink. No lock-in: no-contract broadband.
A Dundalk helpdesk vs the incumbent’s call centre
Service scores: Digiweb 9.2, Eir 7.2, the widest gap on this page. Digiweb’s technical support is staffed in Dundalk, Co. Louth — 8am to 7pm weekdays, 10am to 5pm Saturday, on 1902 — and the company sits around 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from several thousand reviews at the time of writing. Eir’s Trustpilot score hovers near the bottom of the Irish telcos, with billing and call-handling the recurring complaint. None of that changes whose engineer fixes a cut fibre — on NBI it is NBI’s, on Open Eir it is Open Eir’s — but it changes how fast the ticket is raised.
The bundle column goes the other way. Eir offers TV and mobile on one bill; Digiweb sells broadband, a VoIP landline option on TrueFibre, and nothing else. If Eir TV is the reason you are here, read broadband and TV bundles first; if it is not, the Dundalk phone number is worth more than a set-top box. All head-to-heads: broadband comparisons.
Which should you choose?
It comes down to the line at the house, then the bill. Here’s the quick way to decide.
Choose Digiweb if
The NBI map says “ready to connect” at your Eircode, or SIRO is on the ESB poles in the town. You want 1 Gb at €44.95 with a €54.95 thereafter and no CPI clause, you would rather ring Dundalk than an incumbent queue, and you do not need TV or a mobile on the same bill. You are happy to wait for NBI’s engineer slot rather than take a copper line today.
Check Digiweb →
Choose Eir if
Open Eir fibre is the only wired line at the house and NBI is not on the map for this year. You will take the 24-month 1 Gb at €39.99 because it is cheaper than anything Digiweb has on the same socket, or you want Eir TV and an Eir mobile on one bill. You have checked the order says FTTH, not “up to 100 Mb”, and you will diary the April Contract Change Notification.
Check Eir →Advertiser disclosure: we earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. This never affects our scores or the winner of each round.
