The short version: plug a laptop into the router. If that test is fast and the upstairs phone is not, you have a coverage problem — Wi-Fi dead zones. If the cable is slow too, you have a line, a plan, or a technology that cannot do what the ad implied — not getting advertised speed.
We do not invent lab Mbps. Figures below are typical advertised plans and consumer planning ranges, not a matched.ie test bench.
Wi-Fi vs the line — start here
The router in the understairs press can deliver 500 Mb on the WAN port and 40 Mb on the landing. Those are different faults. Retailers, ComReg complaints and early-termination arguments all care about the wired result. Your Netflix in the back bedroom cares about Wi-Fi.
Irish houses make this worse: thick block and stone, two storeys, foil-backed plasterboard, a router dumped where the engineer could reach the ONT. None of that is an Open Eir outage. Switching Sky to Vodafone on the same full-fibre socket will not punch radio through a chimney breast.
How to test, in order
- Speed-test on Ethernet, not Wi-Fi. Laptop into the router’s LAN (or the ONT via the router). Close other devices, VPN off. Note download, upload, ping, time and “wired”.
- Repeat on Wi-Fi in the room that feels slow. Same machine if you can. A large wired-to-wireless gap is the house. A slow wired result is the service.
- Do 10am and after 8pm. Cable, 5G and Starlink often sag at peak. FTTH should not fall off a cliff. Two times of day beat one screenshot.
- Read the order. FTTH, Part Fibre (FTTC), Virgin cable, 5G or satellite — plus the advertised down/up. Labels: FTTH vs FTTC vs cable.
- Then pick a fix. Mesh, a fault ticket, or a real network change. See switch vs mesh vs call the ISP.
Use a laptop with a gigabit Ethernet port if you are on 500 Mb or 1 Gb. A 100 Mb NIC, a phone, or a test through a travel VPN will lie.
Likely causes — what the numbers usually mean
| What you see | Likely cause | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Wired test near the plan; Wi-Fi awful upstairs / in the extension | Coverage: walls, placement, old extender, provider router radio | Move the router into the open; then mesh — not a new ISP. Dead zones. |
| Wired test stuck around 40–100 Mb on a “fibre 500” quote | Open Eir FTTC (ComReg Part Fibre) — copper to the door | Confirm on the checker. Wait for FTTH or switch to a network that is actually glass. FTTH vs FTTC. |
| Virgin looks fast at noon, crawls after 8pm; upload stuck ~50 Mb | Cable contention on a shared HFC segment (upload is the plan, not a fault) | Log evening wired tests. Ticket if below the contract minimum; otherwise consider FTTH if it passes. |
| 5G hub fine at 11am, unusable at 9pm, or dies when you walk to the back kitchen | Cell congestion and indoor signal | Window placement; morning vs evening log; switch when wired FTTH/NBI is Passed. |
| Starlink 200 Mb plan sitting at ~100 Mb most evenings | Satellite cell load — expected on residential LEO, not a unique Irish bug | Check obstruction app; do not treat it as fibre. Cancel when the pole is live. |
| Wired FTTH well below typical at all hours, lights synced | Line/ONT/router fault, wrong profile, or a 100 Mb laptop port | Another cable and another device, then a fault ticket with timestamps. |
| One smart TV buffers; wired laptop is fine | The TV’s Wi-Fi, a 2.4 GHz dongle, or the app — not the ISP | Ethernet to the TV or a mesh node nearby. Do not upgrade the plan. |
| Everything slow including Ethernet, but only when a VPN is on | The VPN path | Retest with it off before you blame Open Eir or Virgin. |
Peak-time cable contention
Virgin’s hybrid fibre-coax is fibre in the street and coaxial cable into the house. The last stretch is shared with the neighbours. Daytime a 1 Gb plan can look like the ad. After tea the node fills up and download sags. That is contention, not you “using it wrong”.
Upload is a separate honesty check. August 2026 plans we track: Virgin 500 Mb and 1 Gb advertised at 50 Mb up; 2 Gb at 100 Mb. If video calls pixelate while the download test still looks decent, you may be hitting the upload cap, not a mysterious slowdown. Full fibre (especially SIRO/NBI symmetry) is the usual fix where it passes — not a different Virgin speed tier.
A week of wired tests at 10am and 9pm is what you take to a ticket. One Friday-night phone screenshot is what they bounce. If the evening floor is below the minimum in the contract, that becomes an advertised-speed complaint — not getting advertised speed.
FTTC copper is not “slow full fibre”
Fibre to the cabinet is glass to the green box and the old phone pair into the house. ComReg calls it Part Fibre. Typical Irish last-mile is around 100 Mb down with a thin upload. Retailers still sell it, because a lot of doors are not on FTTH yet. That is legitimate broadband. It is not the 500 Mb TV ad.
If the wired test is 70–100 Mb on an FTTC order, the line is often doing its job. Shopping a new logo on the same Open Eir cabinet will not magic a gigabit. The upgrade is waiting until Open Eir FTTH, SIRO or NBI is Passed, then switching under ComReg rules — how to switch broadband. Confirm the technology with the Eircode first: check broadband by Eircode.
5G cell congestion
5G home is a mast and a radio. Advertised 300–500 Mb is a ceiling. After tea the cell is a shared pipe: every house on that sector streaming, every phone on the same carrier. Indoor Irish walls eat 3.6 GHz. A hub in a press at the back of a bungalow will look like “slow broadband” even when the mast is fine.
Put the hub in a window that faces the mast, retest wired (yes — Ethernet out of the 5G router) at two times of day, and treat large evening drops as the product. Use 5G as a bridge or a no-engineer option, not as a way to beat SIRO on a SIRO street. Three 5G home and Imagine are the names people actually buy; the rural shortlist is on best rural broadband.
Starlink evening slowdown
Low-earth-orbit satellite is nationwide if the dish sees the sky. It is still a shared cell in space. Residential Ireland plans we list (100 / 200 / 400 Mb) often sit in the 100–200 Mb band on a busy evening. Latency is typically tens of milliseconds — not 2000s VSAT — but it will not match FTTH for upload or consistency.
Obstructions (trees, gables), weather and a dirty dish make it worse. None of that is a reason to keep Starlink once NBI or other fibre is live and cheaper. Rolling monthly is the point: cancel when the ONT is booked. Detail: Starlink review.
When to switch vs mesh vs call the ISP
| Situation | Do this | Do not do this |
|---|---|---|
| Wired test is at typical speed; one or two rooms are dead | Move the router; then a mesh (Ethernet backhaul if you can). Wi-Fi dead zones. | Switch ISP. Same glass, same walls. Do not buy 2 Gb to paper over radio. |
| Wired FTTH/cable well below the contract typical/minimum, all day | Fault ticket with a wired log (dates, times, Ethernet). Escalate; ComReg if they stall. | Quietly eat an ETF to flee before they have had a chance to fix a real fault. |
| FTTC ~100 Mb and FTTH is now Passed | Switch to full fibre. New physics, not a new logo on copper. | Re-sign 24 months of Part Fibre because the current retailer offered €5 off. |
| Virgin evenings sag and SIRO or Open Eir FTTH passes the door | Compare upload and year-two price, then switch networks if the maths works. | Assume a different Virgin tier will unsaturate a busy node. |
| 5G or Starlink, and NBI/FTTH is Passed | Order fibre, keep the wireless until the ONT is live, then cease. | Buy a second 5G hub “for upstairs”. That is two slow cells, not a mesh. |
| You are inside a 12- or 24-month term | Get the ETF in writing. A Contract Change Notification can be a penalty-free window. | Switch on impulse for Wi-Fi. Mesh is cheaper than leftover months. ETFs. |
Same wholesale socket, new retailer is a contract and a router swap. It can help if the old hub is ancient. It cannot add megabits the cabinet does not have. The ranking for when you should change shop is best broadband in Ireland; the process is how to switch.
Next
- Not getting advertised speed — ComReg typical vs “up to”, how to evidence a complaint, when you can leave.
- Wi-Fi dead zones — Irish walls, mesh vs extender, do not buy a new ISP for a dead bedroom.
- FTTH vs FTTC vs cable — what the word “fibre” is hiding.
- How to switch broadband — gaining-provider-led, no 30 days’ notice.
- What speed do I need? — 100 Mb, 500 Mb, 1 Gb or 2 Gb.
