The advertising trap: fibre to the cabinet is still sold as broadband, and the word “fibre” still appears. Open Eir FTTC is typically around 100 Mb down with a thin upload. Open Eir FTTH, SIRO and NBI are the full-fibre products the ad made you picture. ComReg’s name for FTTC is “Part Fibre”.
Five ways Irish homes actually get online
Wholesale networks and retailers are a separate question — Open Eir vs SIRO vs NBI vs Virgin. This page is the physical path: what is in the ground (or in the air), what that means for download, upload and latency, and who is allowed to sell it.
- FTTH / FTTP — fibre to the home. Open Eir full fibre, SIRO, NBI, some Virgin fibre overlay.
- FTTC — fibre to the cabinet, copper last mile. Open Eir “Part Fibre” (EVDSL/CVDSL).
- Virgin HFC — hybrid fibre-coax. Virgin’s own urban cable network.
- 5G home — a router talking to a mobile mast. Three, Imagine, Vodafone, Eir.
- Satellite — Starlink (low-earth orbit). Last resort, or a genuine first choice for some one-off rural sites.
We do not invent lab Mbps. Figures below are typical advertised plan speeds and consumer planning ranges as of August 2026, not independent speed tests. Your Eircode decides which row you are even allowed to shop.
Typical download, upload, latency — and who sells it
| Technology | Typical download | Typical upload | Latency | Rural? | Who sells it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTTH (Open Eir / SIRO / NBI) | 500 Mb–1 Gb common; 2–5 Gb where upgraded | 100 Mb on some Open Eir 500s; often symmetrical on SIRO and NBI | Lowest — planning ~5–15 ms | NBI yes (intervention area). Open Eir some. SIRO mostly towns | Sky, Vodafone, Pure, Digiweb, Eir (Open Eir only), Imagine (SIRO/NBI) |
| FTTC (Open Eir Part Fibre) | ~100 Mb typical last-mile copper | A fraction of FTTH — planning ~20 Mb, not a gigabit up | Higher than FTTH; copper distance matters | Common where the cabinet is not upgraded | Eir, Sky, Vodafone, Pure Telecom |
| Virgin HFC (cable) | 500 Mb–1 Gb common; 2 Gb available | 50 Mb on 500/1 Gb plans; 100 Mb on 2 Gb | Low, with peak-time contention on a shared segment | No — urban / suburban footprint only | Virgin Media only |
| 5G home | Advertised up to 300–500 Mb; evening cell is the ceiling | Well below FTTH; mast- and indoor-dependent | Higher and more variable than wired (~20–40 ms+) | Where there is a mast — not a fibre substitute | Three, Imagine, Vodafone, Eir |
| Satellite (Starlink) | Plans 100 / 200 / 400 Mb; busy evening often 100–200 Mb | Advertised 15–30 Mb | ~25–50 ms LEO — not 600 ms old VSAT | Yes, if the dish sees the sky | Starlink (Digiweb still has leftover satellite) |
Latency numbers are typical consumer planning, not a matched.ie lab table. Technology at the house is the honest speed story until we instrument homes.
FTTH — the thing the word “fibre” should mean
Fibre to the home is a glass strand from the exchange or cabinet all the way into the premises. No copper on the last stretch. That is why upload and latency hold up, and why 500 Mb, 1 Gb and (where built) 2–5 Gb are actually the product.
- Open Eir FTTH — Eir’s wholesale full fibre. Sold by Eir retail, Sky, Vodafone, Pure Telecom and Digiweb. Coverage is the widest wired footprint in the State, but not every Open Eir cabinet is upgraded. Check FTTH vs FTTC at the Eircode before you order a 500 Mb plan.
- SIRO — Vodafone + ESB, full fibre on electricity poles. Often symmetrical upload. Towns and larger villages. Vodafone is the native retailer; Sky, Pure, Digiweb and Imagine sell it too. Eir does not. SIRO explained.
- NBI — state-backed rural FTTH. You never buy from NBI. Digiweb, Sky, Vodafone, Pure Telecom and Imagine retail it once the premises is Passed. NBI explained.
- Virgin fibre — a growing overlay on Virgin’s own urban network, still not Open Eir. Same closed footprint as the cable.
If FTTH is Passed at the door, it is the long-term default. Shop the contract (Sky’s year-one 500 Mb vs Pure’s thereafter vs Vodafone’s 500-and-1-Gb-same-price), not a different physics.
FTTC — fibre in the street, copper to the door
Fibre to the cabinet was the 2010s upgrade: glass as far as the green box, then the existing phone pair into the house (EVDSL / CVDSL). ComReg lists it as Part Fibre. Typical last-mile copper in Ireland is around 100 Mb down, with upload that will not look like a SIRO 500/500.
Eir, Sky, Vodafone and Pure still sell it, because a lot of premises are not on FTTH yet. That is legitimate broadband. It is not the 500 Mb or 1 Gb product in the TV ad. If the Open Eir checker says Part Fibre and the quote says Ultrafast 500, walk away or wait for the upgrade.
FTTC is also the product most likely to still involve a landline bundle. Full fibre usually does not.
Virgin HFC — cable, not Open Eir
Hybrid fibre-coax is Virgin’s historic urban network: fibre in the street, coaxial cable into the house, a shared segment with neighbours. On a passed street it is often the fastest advertised download we list — 1 Gb and 2 Gb — which is why Virgin scores as the fastest urban pick. It cannot serve an Eircode it never built, and it does not use Open Eir, SIRO or NBI.
The trade-off is upload and peak time. August 2026 plans we track: 500 Mb and 1 Gb advertised at 50 Mb up; 2 Gb at 100 Mb up. Fine for Netflix; thin next to SIRO if you send large files or sit on video calls. Contention on a busy node is the classic cable complaint. We do not invent evening Mbps to dress it up. Virgin Media review.
5G home — a mast, not a wire
5G home broadband is a self-install router on a mobile network. No Open Eir engineer, no NBI drop, no Virgin street cabinet. Three is the default specialist; Imagine, Vodafone and Eir also sell 5G home. Advertised downloads (300 Mb on Imagine, 500 Mb on Three) are ceilings. Real speed follows the mast, the walls, and the cell after tea.
Use it when wired checkers are empty, the house is a new-build waiting on a drop, or you are between lets. Do not use it to “beat fibre” on a SIRO street. Fair-use still applies on “unlimited”. Latency and upload lose to FTTH for WFH and gaming.
Satellite — coverage is the product
Starlink is nationwide if the dish sees the sky. Residential Ireland is a rolling monthly (from €35 in August 2026 on the plans we track). Latency is in a different league from 2000s geostationary VSAT (~600 ms); it is still satellite — trees, gables, weather, busy evening cells.
It is the honest last resort when fibre, cable, 5G and wireless are all no, and a genuine first choice for some farms, islands and holiday sites. It is the wrong product on a SIRO or Virgin estate. Cancel when NBI is Passed and the engineer is booked.
Which should you actually take?
- If FTTH is Passed (Open Eir full fibre, SIRO or NBI) — take it. Then compare retailers on that network: Sky for the cheap 500 intro, Vodafone on SIRO, Pure for year-two fairness, Digiweb on rural NBI. Ranking: best broadband in Ireland.
- If Virgin passes and FTTH does not — Virgin for raw download; know the 50 Mb upload and the thereafter jump.
- If both Virgin and FTTH pass — download vs upload. Gaming / WFH / backups usually prefer SIRO or Open Eir FTTH; streaming-heavy households may take Virgin’s gig intro.
- If only FTTC is live and FTTH is Planned — cheap FTTC or a rolling 5G bridge. Do not sign 24 months of copper because fibre is “coming”.
- If the wired checkers are empty — Three or Imagine 5G, then Starlink. Recheck NBI. Rural path: best rural broadband.
Confirm the technology with an Eircode before you compare a single euro: how to check broadband by Eircode. The brand on the van is not the line in the ground.
