Setting up broadband when you move to Ireland

Your first 48 hours: a checklist

1. Prepay SIM on arrival. 48, GoMo, Clear Mobile, Lyca and Tesco Mobile sell online or in shops with no contract and no credit check; unlimited data is €12.99–€15 a month on the best-mobile ranking. Turn on the hotspot. That is the week’s internet and the Irish mobile number every other form asks for.
2. Find the Eircode. Every Irish address has a seven-character code (D02 X285). It is on the lease, on finder.eircode.ie, or ask the letting agent. Broadband availability in Ireland is checked per Eircode, not per street.
3. Run the Eircode through the checkers. Check broadband by Eircode walks through ComReg, SIRO, NBI and Virgin. The result is either “fibre or cable is here, order it” or “5G/Starlink until it is”.
4. Look for the box on the wall. An Open Eir or SIRO ONT (small white box, often with a green light), an NBI box, or a Virgin coaxial socket means a previous tenant had service and you are an activation, not an install. Photograph the label; the retailer may ask for the serial.
5. Decide how long you are staying (decision list): 30 days, 3 months, 12 or 24. If you need a real router this week, order Vodafone’s 3-month 5G today. Fibre takes weeks; 5G takes a courier.

What each retailer actually asks for

This is where arrivals burn time, so here is the verified version. Irish broadband is a consumer contract, not a state service. No retailer we checked in August 2026 asks for a PPS number, an Irish Residence Permit, a visa or a work permit. What they want is to know who you are, that you can occupy the address, and how you will pay.

The whole file, then: passport or EU ID card; Eircode; signed lease or a dated letter from the landlord or agent; a euro IBAN or a card that can take a recurring payment; an Irish mobile number and an email.

Bank account, IBAN and cards: what is actually accepted

The single biggest myth among arrivals is that you need an Irish bank account first. You do not, and the rule is not the retailer’s goodwill. Article 9 of the EU SEPA Regulation (260/2012) says a business collecting euro direct debits must accept a payment account from any SEPA country. Refusing a German, French, Lithuanian or Dutch IBAN for a euro direct debit is “IBAN discrimination”, and the Central Bank of Ireland wrote to Irish firms in June 2022 reminding them of exactly that.

• Any euro SEPA IBAN works in law. Revolut (LT or IE IBAN), N26 (DE), Wise euro account (BE), bunq (NL), your home-country euro bank. Vodafone’s stated process for a non-Irish account is a shop visit with photo ID and a euro bank statement under three months old — a hoop, not a refusal.
• Online forms can still choke. Some web checkouts only validate “IE” IBANs. That is a form bug, not policy: phone sales can usually key a foreign IBAN, or you start on a card and switch to direct debit later. If a retailer flatly refuses a SEPA IBAN, ask in writing and cite SEPA Regulation Article 9; the Central Bank is the national authority for complaints.
• Cards are the easy fallback. Eir’s terms let the mandatory direct debit sit on a debit or credit card; Sky accepts a continuous card payment; Vodafone has a recurring-card option. A non-EU card usually works — tell your bank so it does not block a recurring foreign merchant.
• Non-euro accounts do not. A sterling, dollar or złoty account cannot carry a SEPA euro direct debit. Use a card, or open a euro account: Revolut and N26 open from your phone with a passport; a high-street Irish account typically wants proof of Irish address, which the lease provides.

Arrivals on r/MoveToIreland and boards.ie report the same pattern (reports, not policy): Revolut direct debits go through with most telcos; the odd rejection is a web form, fixed on the phone; nobody has been asked for a PPS number by a broadband retailer.

Credit checks and deposits: what actually happens with no Irish history

Ireland has no consumer credit score the way the US does. What the telcos have is Credit Insights, a shared database run by Experian that lists bill-pay customers more than 90 days and €50 in arrears with a participating telecoms provider. Vodafone, Three and Eir participate. It is consulted only when you try to open a new contract. If you have never had an Irish phone or broadband account, you are not on it — and being absent is not a black mark.

• Eir reserves the right to ask for evidence of creditworthiness and to require “security or advance payment” (General Terms 6.4). In practice that means a deposit or first-bill-in-advance request for some applicants, not a refusal.
• Virgin Media says it may run an internal, partly automated credit check and will tell you the outcome, with a human review available. Arrivals report it is usually invisible.
• Vodafone and Three check Credit Insights and ID. Three’s is the one people notice: the order sits at “pending” until the documents are verified.
• Sky publishes no credit-check policy for Irish broadband that we could find; its contract cares that a direct debit or card is in place. Pure, Digiweb, Imagine, Starlink: no published policy. Starlink is card-paid and ships kit on the order.

Bottom line: a refusal for “no Irish history” is rare. The realistic worst case is being asked for a deposit or to pay the first month up front. If that happens and you would rather not, the 5G and prepay routes below have no such gate.

Renting: whose name goes on the contract

The contract belongs to the person who orders and pays, not to the property, and the landlord does not need to be on it. Eir’s terms make the one relevant demand explicit — it can reasonably ask for evidence of your entitlement to occupy the premises — and a signed lease or an agent’s letter is that evidence. Everyone else works from the Eircode and your ID.

• Existing ONT or Virgin socket: order in your name; it is an activation. Tell the landlord as a courtesy.
• New drop, external box or drilled wall: landlord’s permission in writing before the survey, or the engineer slot is wasted.
• Rent “includes broadband”: get network, speed and whose name is on the account in writing. A landlord’s 24-month contract you cannot change is not yours.
• House shares: one name carries the early-termination fee if everyone leaves. Pick the person staying longest. And never inherit the last tenant’s login.

Per-network landlord specifics (NBI wayleaves, Starlink dishes) are on moving house, the page for people already in Ireland changing Eircode.

Online on day one: the no-install options

None of these needs an engineer, a survey or a landlord. Prices below are from our August 2026 dataset. For the cheapest bridge, the phone-hotspot SIM (48, GoMo, Clear) is on the mobile ranking — it is not “home broadband”, but for a week or a month it is all most people need.

Which one: the Vodafone 3-month plan is the arrival’s default — short term, quick courier, a real return window, and the router moves house with you inside the Republic. Eir 5G 30-day is cheaper per month but the €99 activation makes it dearer than Vodafone unless you keep it past month five. Three is the cheapest 5G if you are genuinely staying two years; it is a 24-month contract with a €3 April rise, not a stopgap. Starlink is for the cottage with no mast. The three-way fight is on Three 5G vs GigaCube vs Eir 5G. Whichever you pick, test a phone hotspot on the same network by the window first — 5G indoors is a per-flat lottery.

The fibre route: Eircode, new connection, install wait

Fibre or cable is the proper answer for anyone staying a year or more. Order it the day you have a lease. Three things trip arrivals up.

“New connection” versus “switch”. An existing Irish customer changing retailer is a switch: the new retailer takes over a live line under ComReg’s gaining-provider process and the wait is short. You are a new connection at an address that may have been dormant since the last tenant left. That means a provisioning order to Open Eir, SIRO, NBI or Virgin, sometimes an engineer, and typically one to three weeks from order to live — a few working days if an ONT is already on the wall, longer on a rural NBI drop. Nobody can promise a date until the wholesale network accepts the order.

Which network is at the Eircode decides who can sell to you. Open Eir fibre is sold by Eir, Sky, Vodafone, Pure and Digiweb. SIRO is sold by Vodafone, Digiweb, Pure, Sky and others — not Eir. NBI (rural, state-subsidised) is sold by Eir, Vodafone, Sky, Digiweb, Pure and more. Virgin’s cable is Virgin only — though Virgin itself also resells SIRO and NBI at some addresses (pricing we have not verified), never Open Eir. The Eircode result narrows your shortlist before price does; the explainer is Open Eir vs SIRO vs NBI vs Virgin.

Read the “then” column before the intro. Sky’s €30 becomes €67.50; Eir’s €34.99 becomes about €75.99 with a flat €4 added each April from 2027. Vodafone’s €25 is six months only, but its €40 standing price does not jump when the contract ends — the calmest bill for someone who will not be here to haggle in month 13. Pure is Irish-owned, €35 then €50, with no built-in April rise. The full list and the Eircode filter are on best broadband in Ireland; the 12-month-cliff maths is on prices after 12 months.

Cooling-off is real but short. Online and phone orders carry a 14-day cooling-off period under Irish consumer law. Cancel before activation and it costs nothing; once live you may owe for the days used. It is a safety net for a collapsed lease, not a trial.

Dublin apartments: Virgin, SIRO and the managed building

Most arrivals land in a Dublin flat, and Dublin has its own rules of thumb.

• Virgin Media cable is the city incumbent. Much of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway has a Virgin coaxial socket. If the flat has one, Virgin is usually the fastest activation — no drilling — at €35 for 1 Gb, then €80. Nobody else sells on its cable; see the Virgin Media review.
• Newer blocks are often SIRO. Post-2016 developments in the docklands, Sandyford, Cherrywood and the commuter belt were frequently wired for SIRO (ESB’s fibre). Symmetrical speeds; sold by Vodafone, Digiweb, Pure and Sky, not Eir. The best SIRO provider page picks the retailer.
• Managed buildings. Purpose-built rental and student schemes often bundle a managed broadband provider into the rent. You cannot switch it, and the brochure speed is the building’s, not the flat’s. Ask before you sign the lease.
• Georgian and Victorian conversions may still be Open Eir FTTC copper. If the Eircode says “up to 100 Mb” over copper, a 5G router by the window will often beat it (FTTH vs FTTC vs cable). And 5G indoors varies floor by floor — docklands glass and deep concrete kill it, which is what Vodafone’s 14-day return is for.

Staying 6 months, 2 years or for good

If you might leave the country mid-contract, the fee is the remaining monthly charges, sometimes with a discount, plus any unreturned equipment. Retailers do not waive it for emigration. The detail is on early termination fees; do the maths before choosing 24 months over 12.

Support in English, and the bits that are not

• Sales, contracts, bills and support are English only. We found no Irish broadband retailer with a Ukrainian, Portuguese, Polish or Hindi line. Web chat plus a translator works; a friend on speakerphone is faster.
• The apps (My Eir, My Vodafone, My Sky, My Virgin Media, My3) are where account changes actually get done. Phone queues at 5 pm are long.
• ComReg, the regulator, takes a complaint only after the retailer has had ten working days. The CCPC covers consumer rights.
• Vocabulary: “Eir” is pronounced “air”; an Eircode is the postcode; “the ESB” is the electricity company whose fibre is SIRO; NBI is the rural state fibre.

Start with find your broadband for a 30-second shortlist, then the Eircode check. If fibre is not there yet, fibre vs 5G vs Starlink decides the stopgap.

About the author

Darragh Murphy

Broadband & Fixed-Line Specialist

Darragh Murphy has tested and compared Irish broadband services since 2018. He runs matched.ie’s real-world speed and reliability tests across fibre, cable and rural fixed-wireless connections.

8+ years analysing Irish broadband performanceTested 50+ providers including Eir, Virgin Media, Sky and SIROCertified in Cisco Networking and Openreach fibre standardsBased in Galway, regularly covers rural rollout issues