The short answer: less than the gigabit plans suggest. The things an ordinary Irish household does at once, streaming, a video call, a game, a couple of cameras, add up to a few tens of megabits per second, not hundreds. A 100 to 500 Mbps plan covers almost everyone. What usually decides whether broadband feels fast is not the number on the plan but two things the plan does not fix: how much upload you have, and whether the Wi-Fi in your house actually carries the speed to the room you are in.
What each thing actually uses
Here is what the companies themselves publish for each use, per stream or per person:
| Use | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix, HD (720p) | 3 Mbps | Very little |
| Netflix, Full HD (1080p) | 5 Mbps | Very little |
| Netflix, 4K (Ultra HD) | 15 Mbps | Very little |
| Teams video meeting | 4 Mbps | 2.5 Mbps |
| Zoom 1080p group call | 3 Mbps | 3.8 Mbps |
| Online gaming | 0.25 Mbps | 0.5 Mbps |
| Ring camera, 1080p | Very little | 2 Mbps each |
| Browsing and email | A few Mbps | Very little |
Streaming figures are Netflix's, per stream; Teams is Microsoft's recommended level for a meeting, Zoom's its 1080p group call, gaming is ComReg's own estimate, and the camera figure is Ring's for a 1080p camera, which it says to add together. The striking thing is how small they are. A single 4K film, the heaviest thing on the list, wants 15 Mbps.
Adding up a whole household
The way to size a plan is to add up what the house does at its busiest, which for most homes is a weekday evening. Take a full one:
- One TV on Netflix in 4K: 15 Mbps down.
- A second TV on Full HD: 5 Mbps down.
- Someone finishing a Teams meeting: 4 Mbps down and 2.5 Mbps up.
- A teenager gaming: very little bandwidth, but it wants low delay.
- Two 1080p cameras: 2 Mbps of upload each, so 4 Mbps up.
- Phones backing up photos in the background.
That is roughly 25 Mbps of download and 6.5 Mbps of upload before the backups. A 100 Mbps plan has plenty of download headroom for it. ComReg makes the related point that the more devices are active at once, the more the line is asked to carry, and that speeds can be noticeably slower at peak times, so it is worth leaving room rather than sizing a plan to the exact total.
Why upload matters more than people think
Plans are sold on the download number, the big one on the poster. But video calls, every clip a camera or doorbell sends, cloud backups and sending large files all use upload, and on many connections the upload is a fraction of the download. Full fibre tends to give generous upload; part-fibre and cable give much less. ComReg requires your contract to state the upload speeds as well as the download, so you can check before you sign.
A home with a few cameras and someone on calls can run its upload close to full while the download sits almost idle, and when the upload fills, everything else queues behind it and calls start to stutter. If that is your house, a plan with more upload helps where a bigger download number would not.
What you can get in Ireland
Before choosing a number, find out what your address can actually get. ComReg's Broadband Checker at comreg.ie/broadbandchecker lists the connections available by address or Eircode. ComReg describes full fibre as typically delivering up to 2 Gbps and cable up to 1 Gbps, while part-fibre speeds depend on how far you are from the street cabinet. In practice most plans are sold around 100, 500 and 1,000 Mbps.
Whatever you pick, the contract has to state the minimum, normally available, maximum and advertised speeds. The minimum and normally available figures, not the advertised one, are what to hold a cabled test against once you are connected.
The catch: the plan is not what reaches the room
This is where most of the disappointment comes from. The speed on the plan is measured at the router. What you actually get in the back bedroom, the home office or the kitchen at the end of an extension is whatever the Wi-Fi carries there, and that can be a small fraction of it. A 1,000 Mbps plan that puts 40 Mbps into the far room is not a plan problem; it is a Wi-Fi problem, and upgrading the plan will not touch it.
The way to see the difference is to test twice: once by cable at the router, once on Wi-Fi in the room. Our guides to telling the line from the Wi-Fi and to testing room by room show how, and why the signal fades on the way through an Irish house. The free Wi-Fi check runs both tests and tells you the gap.
So how much should you pay for?
In order of what actually changes how fast broadband feels:
- Enough upload for the calls, cameras and backups that run at once. This is the one most households feel first.
- A line that delivers its contract. Test it by cable; if it is well below the minimum in your contract, that is worth a call to the provider before paying for a bigger plan.
- Wi-Fi that reaches every room. For most homes this does far more than extra megabits, because the far rooms are where the speed is being lost.
- Then the download number. 100 to 500 Mbps suits almost everyone. Gigabit is worth it only if you regularly move very large files or have many heavy users at once, and only if your Wi-Fi and wiring can carry it to where you sit.
At the end of a contract you are entitled to Best Tariff Advice from your provider, which tells you whether a cheaper plan would suit the way you actually use it.
If a room never gets near what you pay for, that is the part we measure. Our home network assessment tests the broadband at the router by cable, measures every floor, and leaves a working powerline and access point trial on the floor that struggles for three days, with the figures in a written report. It is €395, credited in full against any work, in Dublin and the rest of Leinster.
Frequently asked questions
Is 100 Mbps enough for a family in Ireland?
For most families, yes. Even two 4K streams, a video call and a game at the same time add up to well under 100 Mbps of download. When a 100 Mbps plan feels slow, the cause is usually the Wi-Fi failing to carry it to the far rooms, or too little upload, rather than the size of the plan.
Do I really need gigabit broadband?
Rarely. Gigabit earns its keep if you regularly move very large files, or have several heavy users going at once, and only if your Wi-Fi and in-house wiring can actually carry that speed to where you sit. For most homes the money does more good spent getting the existing speed to every room.
How much upload speed do I need?
Enough for everything that uploads at the same time. Microsoft suggests about 2.5 Mbps for a Teams meeting, Ring asks for 2 Mbps for each 1080p camera, and cloud photo backups add more. Many Irish homes feel the upload running short before the download.
Why is my broadband slow when I pay for a fast plan?
Usually it is the Wi-Fi, not the plan. Plug a laptop into the router by cable and run a speed test: if the cabled result is fast and a room is slow, the plan is fine and the Wi-Fi is losing it on the way. If the cabled result itself is slow, that is the line, and your provider's to fix.
What broadband speed do I need to work from home?
Not a large one. A video call needs only a few megabits each way, but it needs them steadily and with enough upload, which a busy house or weak Wi-Fi can take away. Our working-from-home guide goes through what Teams and Zoom actually need.