According to Damien Mulley from Ireland Offline, a report was released by the Oireachtas Committee on Communications three years ago that recommended that the Eircom network be upgraded so that everyone gets a broadband signal. By the end of the year, Eircom promises it will enable 500 more exchanges (bringing the number to 1,100) which will cover 85% of the population, "but not all of that 85% can get broadband because the lines just aren't good enough", said Mulley.

When housing was expanding rapidly across Ireland in the '80s and '90s, instead of running say 100 phonelines into an estate of 100 houses, developers and engineers saved time and money by running in 80, for example, and splitting the rest of the lines to make up the remaining 20%. But broadband cannot be received on a split line.

"Eircom says it would cost upwards of Euro200m to get the split lines fixed, " Mulley said. In the next few months, the government will release a tender for the remaining 20-25% of the country that can't get broadband at all.

The group broadband project - where an estate or village would apply to the Department of Communications to build a community broadband scheme has been abandoned by the department. "That was the one way of people getting broadband a lot more quickly, and now it's gone, " Mulley said.