Slow broadband deprives web users of online gaming

THE MAJORITY of Irish web users are unable to take full advantage of online gaming and phone services as rates of broadband responsiveness are too slow, a new report has found.

Internet gamers in Ireland must deal with average ping speeds - the time it takes for data to be sent, replied to and then received - which are only about half the speed seen as the maximum for game programmes, the report by internet monitor Epitiro states.

Epitiro has monitored internet service providers in the UK since 2003 and the report was based on over five million tests, conducted between August and October of this year, of services offered by nine providers.

"With no under the 100msec preference, gaming capabilities in Ireland remain a concern . . . The average ping time for Ireland is 194 milliseconds," it says.

The study of broadband services available in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway also found that consumers with fixed lines are achieving, on average, just 60.2 per cent of the speeds advertised by Irish internet service providers.

Communications industry analyst John Strand, of Strand Consult, said that continued underinvestment in the broadband network was the root cause of these problems.