internet

Dialup 'Free' Internet

There are several "free" dialup internet services available in the Galway area. "Free" means you are not required to pay a subscription fee. You will, however, pay for a local call. This is about 3 euros per hour during peak hours (08:00 - 18:00 weekdays) and approx 60 cents off-peak (18:00 - 08:00 weekdays, all day Saturday, Sunday and public holidays). Both services listed below work with analog phone lines (up to 56kbps) or single channel ISDN (64kpbs).

Oceanfree
Username: Oceanfree
Password: Oceanfree
Phone number: 1890 923 204 (local rate nationwide)

Eircom.net
Username: eircomnet
Password: eircomnet
Phone number: 703801 (local to Galway).

Wireless (WiFi) Hotspots

O2 Ireland have launched a wireless hotspot at the Westwood hotel. This service is not cheap, but it does offer broadband speeds. Vouchers (1 hour or 24 hour) can be purchased at the Westwood.

Other hotspots are available by private individuals and the GalwayWAN project. Currently there is only one known publically available hotspot. This is available in the Doughiska area on the east side of the city.

DSL

DSL was first introduced in Galway by EsatBT in October 2002. Eircom later introduced a package in early 2003. The service is available from Mervue, Galway City Centre, and Shantalla exchanges. Subscribers must be no further than 2-3km from the exchange. The EsatBT offering costs EUR 90 (excluding VAT) / month, has no useage level caps and offers a fixed IP address. Eircom's corresponding offering limits usage to 3GBytes/month and randomly changes IP address.

Other services

Subscription dialup access is available from serveral companies (eg Eircom.net and Ireland On-Line) which offer a slight reduction in call rates during peak hours.

In September 2002 UTV Internet announced a limited flat rate package offering unlimited unmetered internet access during off-peak hours for €30 / month. This is the only flat rate dialup package available in Ireland at this time.

It is expected that genuine flat rate internet access will be available in Ireland sometime in 2003.

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