Broadband speeds in Offaly slower than neighbours

Offaly has some of the slowest broadband speeds in the country, according to a recently published report.

The new study from independent price comparison website Swithcher.ie has revealed that the average broadband speed in Offaly is only 13.95Mbps, making it the eighth slowest county and significantly behind neighbours Westmeath (21.41Mbps), Galway (20.24Mbps) and Laois (20.18 Mbps).

The report shows that broadband speeds still vary hugely across Ireland, and some areas are being left with speeds up to 36 times slower than those in the fastest parts of the country.

The data, based on almost 27,000 consumer speed tests run by broadband users between 1 August 2015 and 31 July 2016, found that Legan in Longford has the slowest broadband in the country with an average speed of 7.25Mbps.

Unsurprisingly Dublin has the highest average speed, followed by Waterford, Kildare, Meath and Westmeath. The county with the slowest average speed is Longford, with Leitrim, Roscommon, Monaghan and Mayo making up the bottom five.

The National Broadband Plan sets out that, at a minimum, broadband with speeds of 30Mbps should be available to all. The data shows that, of all tests collected throughout the period, only 25% of tests had speeds of 30Mbps or more.

However, it’s not all bad news as there were ‘lightning’ speeds recorded, too. The highest speed out of all the tests was 989.15Mbps, which was recorded in Ballon in Carlow.

Speaking this week, Deputy Barry Cowen said that the government is failing rural communities by not sticking to the National Broadband Plan's delivery deadlines

“It’s simply not acceptable that homeowners and business owners in Offaly are being forced to accept sub-standard broadband speeds, when users in Dublin are accessing broadband well in excess of 30 or 40Mbps,” said Deputy Cowen.

“The average connection across the country was recorded at 24Mbps – this is still 20% below the minimum level set as part of the National Broadband Plan.

“Our average figures wouldn’t even meet the US standard for what constitutes broadband. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has previously said that speeds below 25Mbps should not be referred to as broadband.

“The Government has a long way to go to ensure that rural communities can access decent, high-speed broadband services.

“The current commitments made by Minister Naughten to achieve 30Mbps are in complete contrast to what the European Commission believe communities should be able to access. They believe, quite rightly, that 100Mbps is the minimum standard. This is what we should be aiming towards, and not a sub-par standard that is already out of date.

“Two things have happened under the current Minister – the timetable for rolling out the National Broadband Plan has been pushed out, and out, until what looks like mid-2023, and the actual quality of what’s proposed to be rolled out is light-years behind what’s needed by communities.

'The Minister needs to outline what measures he will take to speed up the roll out of the National Plan, and whether he will commit to increasing the standards as set by the European Commission,” concluded Cowen.