NET RESULTS/Jamie Smyth: Finally it is here. Three years after Eircom signed contracts with two London-based companies, Future TV and Yes TV, to develop a high-speed broadband internet service, punters can at last sign up for cheap DSL.

Digital subscriber line (DSL) is a technology that is installed at telephone exchanges to upgrade ordinary telephone wires to enable them to carry internet traffic at much faster speeds than previously possible.

This means internet users who upgrade to a DSL connection won't have to wait for several minutes for a single Web page to download when they click on a new link. Neither will they find e-commerce such a struggle when using a DSL connection.

One of the most irritating experiences using a dial-up modem, which typically gives download speeds of 28-56 kilobytes per second, was clicking through a Web purchase only to find your screen freezing at the last step.

On several occasions I've found myself stuck in a lengthy call centre queue trying to find out if my transaction actually went through. Of course, this meant disconnecting from the internet to use the telephone.

Irish Web surfers - most of whom have spent the past three years tearing their hair out using a dial-up modem - will now have the luxury of fast and, crucially, unlimited access to the internet.

Unlike other high-speed options such as ISDN, DSL is an "always-on" technology, which enables consumers to stay connected to the internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So DSL users can wave goodbye to the frustrations of dialling up their internet service provider every time they want to use the Web.

The greater reliability offered by DSL will make teleworking a more attractive option.

It will also become a cheaper option. DSL users have the peace of mind of a monthly flat fee charged for high-speed internet use compared with costly per-second billing charged on dial-up.

Esat's €40.90 (excluding VAT) DSL product is aggressively priced and compares favourably with products in other states where DSL is more established. Eircom's decision to cut its monthly fee from above €100 to €45 (excluding VAT) is likely to vastly increase take-up of the internet technology, due to its advertising strengths and its billing relationship with almost every home in the Republic.

Both products offer speeds of up to 512 kilobytes per second - between 10 and 30 times faster than speeds offered by typical dial-up modems.

DSL is available on 700,000 Irish telephone lines but this figure will rise to about one million telephone lines, or about two-thirds of the total number of lines installed in the State, by January.

Eircom's new "rate adapt" DSL technology is also good news for the promotion of "broadband Ireland". This technology has widened the availability of DSL to consumers within 4.5 kilometres of a telephone exchange, from a current limit of 3.5 kilometres.

But the big question is will consumers sign up for DSL?

Despite the launch of DSL last May, Eircom and Esat have signed up less than 5,000 DSL subscribers. This poor performance caused the Republic to slip to 51st place in the World Economic Forum's global index on broadband availability, and ranked us with Tunisia, El Salvador and Namibia. Not exactly inspiring for the Government's plan to create a European e-hub!

But all is not yet lost if the strategic U-turn on broadband availability and price by the incumbent operator Eircom continues.

The rapid take-up of broadband services in Britain, since incumbent operator British Telecom slashed the price of is consumer DSL services, suggests consumers are price sensitive.

More than 750,000 people have signed up for DSL from British Telecom and the number of cable broadband customers is more than 800,000. Stiff competition between the cable industry and British Telecom is driving the industry forward.

NTL and Chorus's cash problems stifled their broadband plans in the Republic, a factor that probably delayed Eircom's introduction of DSL. But a host of new broadband wireless operators, such as Irish Wisp, Leap Broadband and National Toll Roads subsidiary Irish Broadband, could create a more competitive climate in the Republic. This can only be good news for Irish Web surfers.

jsmyth@irish-times.ie