Galway rural broadband customers to face price hikes

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Broadband customers in rural areas of Galway could face price hikes of up to 180 euro. This is due to end of a Government subsidy to provide broadband in isolated areas, under the National Broadband Scheme. According to today's Irish Independent, 3 Ireland has been paid over 80 million euro to operate the National Broadband Scheme over the past 5 years. Now that the Government funding is due to expire, it's expected that 3 will raise the price of broadband by as much as 75 per cent for around 45 thousand customers. This means that homeowners and businesses in rural parts of Galway, Mayo, Cork and Kerry could have to pay an extra 178 euro to keep their service. Parts of Donegal, Clare, Tipperary and Limerick will also be affected. Even if you downgrade your package you will still be paying 20 euro more and the company says minimum speeds cannot be guaranteed. The Government is planning a new National Broadband Plan to bring fibre broadband to small towns and villages but this has yet to be brought before the European Commission for approval and is unlikely to be rolled out before 2016.