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If you live in any of the cities or towns then you should be able to get ADSL Broadband from any of the suppliers such as Eircom, Digiweb, BT, etc. (check the links for a comprehensive list of suppliers).  You can check your telephone line on the suppliers website to see if broadband is available to you.

If you live outside the major population centres, ie rural areas, then it's a different story!

Your local telephone exchange must be 'broadband enabled'.

You must be within 4 Km of the exchange.

You must not be on a 'Splitter/Shared Line'.

Even if you meet these conditions you might still not get broadband!  I've seen several instances of two houses side by side where one can get broadband and the next door neighbour can't!  It can all be dependent on the quality of your 'phone line.

Fixed Wireless Access systems usually work well but require a clear line of sight between the transmitter and the receiving aerial.  Wireless enabled areas are still not too plentiful.  Eircom had an FWA service which, peculiarly, died a quiet death after an even quieter birth.  It was only a 512kbs download speed with a hefty install fee.  There are several FWA providers who supply very localised services.

Mobile Broadband is the releatively new kid on the block and has caught on bigtime with all the notebook users, especially since the advent of 3G services.  However, a lot of areas still can't get 3G speeds and have to rely on GPRS or Edge speeds which are supposed to be a lot faster than dial-up. Check out your mobile speed here.

Contention ratios with mobile services seem to be quite high (how many users can connect, or are connected, to one mast at any given time?) and as a result speeds definitely slow down.

Three.ie have been awarded the contract to provide all the areas that don't yet have broadband under the National Broadband Scheme.  Check here to see if your area is covered.  Even though it's called the National Broadband Scheme there seems to be a lot of areas that still won't be covered!

Now we're getting down to the wire! 

If you can't get ADSL, Cable, FWA or Mobile Broadband then your last option is  - SATELLITE!

If you are in a rural area, no matter whether you are on top of a mountain or in a remote glen, there's only one feasible sytem that will work for you and that's SATELLITE!

As you read earlier there are two satellite systems - one way and two way.  Let's say it straight off - a two way system is quite expensive and it's usually only a business that could afford it.  Home User systems are generally, low download speeds with no download limit or higher speeds with limits capped and expensive equipment costs.

This leaves us with only one affordable and practical option - a one - way satellite broadband system!