Irish broadband routers compared: Eir F3000 vs Virgin Hub 5 vs Sky Hub vs Vodafone Ultra Hub

Every broadband hub currently shipped in Ireland

One row per device. “Fee” is the provider’s published non-return or lost-equipment charge. The last column is honest about sourcing: v = verified on a spec sheet, manual or the provider’s Irish site; u = user-reported on boards.ie or reddit, or inferred from the UK version of the same hub. Where a provider will not publish a figure we say so rather than invent one.

Two things jump out. First, Wi-Fi 7 in Ireland is a top-tier perk at Sky and Eir and a default at Vodafone, Digiweb (2 Gb) and Imagine. Second, the 5G boxes — Three, GigaCube, Eir 5G — are all decent Wi-Fi 6 but none of them has a bridge mode, so “your own router” on 5G means a second router behind the first.

Which hubs bottleneck a 1 Gb or 2 Gb line?

A router bottlenecks a line in two places: the Wi-Fi radio and the Ethernet port. Wi-Fi first, because that is where Irish houses lose their money.

• Wi-Fi 5 on a gig line — Eir F3000, Virgin Hub 4, Sky Broadband Hub, Vodafone’s original Gigabox. A 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 radio into a 2×2 phone typically lands around 300–600 Mb in the same room and a fraction of that upstairs. You are paying for 1,000 and seeing a third. Ethernet is still the full gig.
• 1 GbE ports on a 2 Gb or 5 Gb line — anything without a 2.5 or 10 GbE LAN port caps every single wired device at 1 Gb. Digiweb’s EE3301 (2.5 GbE), Vodafone’s Ultra Hub 7 (2 × 2.5 GbE), Virgin’s Hub 5 (1 × 2.5 GbE) and the Sky/Eir 10 GbE boxes are the only supplied hubs that let one cable carry more than a gig.
• Wi-Fi 6 dual-band on 2 Gb — Virgin Hub 5x, Sky Max Hub. Fine. No phone pulls 2 Gb over Wi-Fi anyway. The 5 Gb plans are marketing headroom, not a thing a laptop will ever see.
• Wi-Fi 7 without 6 GHz — Digiweb’s EE3301 is dual-band Wi-Fi 7. It gets the efficiency features (MLO, 4K-QAM) but not the clean 6 GHz band. Still a big step over Wi-Fi 5.

Rule of thumb: on 500 Mb, a Wi-Fi 6 hub is enough and Wi-Fi 5 is marginal. On 1 Gb, Wi-Fi 6 is the floor. On 2 Gb+, you want a 2.5 GbE or 10 GbE LAN port or the extra speed is theoretical. Sizing the plan itself is a separate question: what speed do I need?

Eir: F3000, F3500 and the fibre box 7

Eir has three generations in the field. The F3000 (Sagemcom, 2019) is dual-band Wi-Fi 5 — 3×3 on 2.4 GHz, 4×4 on 5 GHz — with a four-port gigabit switch and a DSL port for the FTTC days. It still works on a 500 Mb line. It is the wrong box for a gig line and Eir knows it: the Wi-Fi 7 page now labels Wi-Fi 6 as “for up to 1Gb speeds” and shows the F3500, a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 hub (160 MHz channels, WPA3) that new 500 Mb and 1 Gb orders get.

The fibre box 7 — Eir’s name for the Sagemcom F5000, launched March 2025 with the 2 Gb tier — is the one worth having: tri-band Wi-Fi 7 (2.4, 5 and 6 GHz), MLO, 320 MHz channels, a 10 GbE WAN port for the ONT, a 10 GbE LAN port, four gigabit ports and a USB 3 socket. Those port counts come from boards.ie owners rather than an Eir spec sheet, so treat the LAN detail as user-reported. Eir ships it on 2 Gb and 5 Gb only (the 5 Gb 24-month plan is €49.99 now, €89.99 thereafter). A matching WiFi 7 booster is €4.99 a month per unit.

The catch is the bill, not the box: Eir’s thereafters and its flat €4 April rise from 2027 mean you pay for that Wi-Fi 7 hub several times over. Lose the fibre box 7 and the non-return charge is €190, against €59.99 for the smaller boxes.

Virgin Media: Hub 4, Hub 5 and Hub 5x

On the cable network Virgin’s current hub is the Hub 5: Wi-Fi 6, one 2.5 GbE port plus three 1 GbE, and a real modem mode that turns off routing and Wi-Fi so your own router takes over cleanly. It is the best cable hub in the country and the 2.5 GbE port is why Virgin’s 1 Gb wired test actually shows more than 940 Mb. Older accounts still on the Wi-Fi 5 Hub 4 can ask for a swap; out of contract, the ask usually works as part of a renewal.

In Virgin’s fibre areas (its own FTTH build and the 2 Gb service it sells on SIRO), the kit is the Hub 5x. Unlike every other Irish fibre install there is no separate ONT on the wall — the XGS-PON optic is inside the hub, and it has a 10 GbE port. The complaint on boards.ie is that the Hub 5x does not offer modem mode, so anyone running their own firewall lives with double NAT. A handful of people have bypassed it with an SFP+ ONT module; that is not something Virgin supports.

Wi-Fi extension is the Smart WiFi Pod. Take 1 Gb or 2 Gb and the WiFi Guarantee includes a pod plus up to two more at no charge. Outside the guarantee each pod carries a €99 activation fee. Virgin’s 1 Gb intro is €35 against €80 thereafter — the Virgin Media review has the full sum.

Sky: Broadband Hub, Max Hub and Gigafast+ Hub

Sky Ireland now sells 2 Gb and 5 Gb, and its full-fibre page is blunt that those tiers need the Gigafast+ Hub and that “older Sky Hubs will need upgrading”. The Gigafast+ is the best-specified hub any Irish retailer posts out: tri-band Wi-Fi 7 across 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz, a 10 GbE WAN, a 10 GbE LAN and three gigabit ports, with all antennas internal. WiFi Max — Sky’s “guaranteed speeds in every room or money back” service, with parental controls and device priority in the app — is free with Gigafast+ speeds.

Below that the picture is murkier. Sky’s Irish WiFi Max page names the Sky Max Hub (dual-band Wi-Fi 6, 4×4, gigabit ports only). But 2025 boards.ie threads from 500 Mb and 1 Gb customers describe installs that still received the older Wi-Fi 5 Sky Broadband Hub, with Ireland lagging the UK roll-out. Our read for August 2026: expect the Max Hub, ask on the order call, and do not take a Wi-Fi 5 box on a 1 Gb line. Sky Max Pods are Wi-Fi 5 extenders loaned with the service. None of the Sky hubs has a bridge mode; running your own router means the WAN-and-VLAN method in use your own router.

Sky’s prices are the reason to care: 500 Mb at €30 for 12 months is the cheapest gig-class fibre in Ireland, then €67.50. The hub is good; the year two is not. See the Sky review.

Vodafone: Gigabox to Ultra Hub 7

Vodafone Ireland has moved from the Gigabox (2018, Wi-Fi 5) and Gigabox+ to the Ultra Hub 7, which its Irish support pages now document: red WAN port, yellow Ethernet, two green phone ports, and a warning not to reboot it in the first 15–20 minutes while it updates. The hardware is Sercomm’s FG4278VF — tri-band Wi-Fi 7 with 4×4 radios on 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz, two 2.5 GbE LAN ports and two gigabit ports. UK testers found it held full plan speed across a whole house. We have not seen an Irish spec sheet, so the port list is from the UK version of the same unit.

Two add-ons matter. Super WiFi is a mesh booster at €5 a month per unit on a 30-day rolling basis, with free installation on some packages. Always Connected is a USB 4G dongle that takes over when the fibre drops entirely (not when it is merely slow); Vodafone’s Irish support page describes it as a Gigabox accessory, so confirm it pairs with the Ultra Hub 7 before you count on it. Bridge mode is limited on Vodafone hubs; most people who want their own router put it behind the Vodafone box.

This is the combination that wins our verdict: a genuine Wi-Fi 7 hub on the €25-for-six-months 500 Mb or the €35 1 Gb plan, a €40 / €50 standing price with no thereafter cliff, and a fixed €3.50 April rise. Detail in the Vodafone review.

Pure Telecom, Digiweb and Imagine

Pure Telecom ships a Zyxel combo unit with a grey DSL port, a blue WAN port for Open Eir or SIRO fibre and a green phone socket. Pure publishes a bridge-mode walkthrough for it (“change the Type to bridge”), which is more than the big four manage. The exact model is not published; reports point to a DX3301-class Wi-Fi 6 dual-band box with four gigabit ports, and older accounts still have Huawei F2000s or FRITZ!Box 7530s. Adequate for 500 Mb, marginal for Pure Fibre 1000 over Wi-Fi. Pure’s no-hike pricing is the draw, not the hub.

Digiweb is the quiet winner among the smaller retailers. Its 2 Gb plans (SIRO 2 Gigabit €59.95, NBI 2 Gigabit €59.95) include the Zyxel EE3301: dual-band Wi-Fi 7, BE7200, 4×4 on both bands, MLO, and a 2.5 GbE WAN plus a 2.5 GbE LAN port — with EasyMesh-compliant MPro Mesh if you add nodes. Digiweb also sells it outright at €169.95 to anyone, which is the clearest replacement-cost figure in this guide. Lower tiers get Wi-Fi 6 Zyxels (DX3301 / EX5601 are the names users report). Bridge mode is in the Zyxel menus.

Imagine says every plan — 5G and fibre, 500 Mb to 2 Gb — includes a Wi-Fi 7 router, with prices frozen to December 2030. It does not publish the model, bands or ports; support pages mention a Zyxel for fibre and an orange-button unit for fixed wireless, and some customers report a Huawei Wi-Fi 7 box. Good on paper, unverifiable on detail. The Imagine review covers the service wrap-up charge.

The 5G and Starlink kit

None of these has a bridge mode, and the SIM lives in the box, so “use your own router” means a second router behind it with double NAT. Placement by a window is most of the performance.

• Three — ZTE MC801A: Wi-Fi 6 dual-band, two gigabit LAN ports, and TS9 sockets for an external antenna. The tech-install option fits the MC7010 outdoor unit on the wall (PoE down to the house) paired with the T3000, a Wi-Fi 6 router with four gigabit ports (two WAN, two LAN) and EasyMesh. See Three review.
• Vodafone GigaCube — Huawei H155-383 (5G CPE 5): Wi-Fi 6, two LAN ports (third-party listings show one as 2.5 GbE), no antenna sockets. Free on every term, including 3 months. Super WiFi works with it.
• Eir 5G — Huawei 5G CPE Pro 5: Wi-Fi 6, two gigabit Ethernet, no antenna sockets. €149 if you do not return it within 30 days.
• Starlink — Gen 3 router: Wi-Fi 6, tri-band 4×4 MU-MIMO, two gigabit LAN ports, WPA2 only, and explicitly not compatible with third-party mesh — Starlink mesh nodes or nothing. It does have a bypass mode, which makes it the friendliest of the wireless boxes for your own router. You buy the kit, so there is no non-return fee.

Choosing between them is a coverage question before it is a router question: Three vs GigaCube vs Eir 5G and fibre vs 5G vs Starlink.

What you pay if you do not give it back

Photograph the kit and the courier label when you leave. Eir customers on boards.ie have been billed €59.99 for modems they say they posted back. Unreturned kit is the classic final-bill surprise — see how to switch.

Where the hub goes, and when to add mesh instead

The engineer leaves the ONT where the fibre came in: utility, garage, understairs press. That is the worst radio position in the house. Every hub in the table above is consumer-grade; none of them pushes 5 GHz through two block walls. Move it before you judge it: on a fibre install the ONT and the hub do not have to sit together — a 10 m Cat 6 lead from the ONT to a hall or landing shelf costs €8 and is the single biggest Wi-Fi upgrade in an Irish semi.

• Replace the router when it is Wi-Fi 5 and the house is compact. One modern router will out-cover an F3000 or Hub 4 in every room.
• Add the provider’s pod when it is cheap and you want one phone number: Eir €4.99, Vodafone €5, Virgin free on 1 Gb/2 Gb, Sky Max Pods on loan.
• Buy third-party mesh when the house is two-storey stone or long, and run Ethernet backhaul if you can. Keep the provider hub as modem where it allows it.

Test Ethernet first. If a wired laptop beside the hub is slow, the router is not the problem — go to slow broadband. If wired is fine and the back bedroom is not, the full mesh-vs-extender decision is in Wi-Fi dead zones.

Verdict: best supplied router in Ireland 2026

Do not pick a provider on the router alone. The hub is a €60–€190 object; the contract is €600–€1,000 a year. Start with the best broadband in Ireland ranking, check the Eircode, then use this page to make sure the box in the parcel is not the weak link.

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