One-in-three people say they may have to move to cities in Ireland get better broadband.
The Vodafone poll also revealed that that 70% of small Irish firms have rated their broadband infrastructure as poor.
A separate study from website Switcher.ie carried out 26,829 tests and found that a third of customers had speeds of less than five megabits per second (Mbs), leaving them unable to perform some basic online tasks.
Check out our infographic to see how your county ranks in terms of average broadband speed https://t.co/6iIvsRq0sP pic.twitter.com/NCvmp5uopD
— Switcher.ie (@Switcher_ie) November 15, 2016
The worst area is Legan in Longford, which has an average download speed of under 2Mbs, which is 36 times slower than parts of Dublin.
Our data showed Legan in Longford had speeds 36 times slower than Drimnagh in Dublin - 1.98 compared to 72.15Mbps https://t.co/6iIvsRq0sP pic.twitter.com/a65kGneoAl
— Switcher.ie (@Switcher_ie) November 15, 2016
“Our old telecommunications infrastructure was not originally designed to carry broadband,” says Nova Broadband CEO Dave Mc Donald.
“All broadband technologies are distance dependent, so you end up with a patchwork effect initially.”
“The real problem is that rural connections tend to be loss-making.
“Rural broadband is already subsidised by higher prices across the board. Ireland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe for broadband as a result of our rural population patterns.
“Even still, so many rural people have no proper broadband. It is imperative that the State pushes ahead with the National Broadband Plan on one hand and makes it easy for commercial operators to access infrastructure on the other, in order for Ireland to be able to compete on the world stage.”
A cyber security conference at the RDS later will hear that attacks on businesses have doubled since 2012.
A survey carried out by Dublin Info Sec has shown that 60% of businesses in Ireland expect a cyber attack to occur in the next year, and 45% have already experienced such an attack.
Cyber fraud is now costing an average of €1.7m per year.
