The average fixed-line broadband connection in Ireland runs at three-quarters of the advertised speed that customers pay for, according to a study by the European Commission.
The report, which compared the advertised download speed of cable and xDSL (phone line) connections with what was actually available, found that the average connection achieved 73% of what it was supposed to.
The European average in only slightly better, with the customers in the bloc likely to receive 74% of the advertised headline speeds paid for.
The advertised headline figure relates to the speed providers claim their connection can go "up to".
According to the report there is also a significant difference between the average speeds achieved by cable and xDSL connections.
In Ireland, the average xDSL connection achieved around 60% of the advertised download speed.
Cable, meanwhile, fared better with an average speed that was 84.7% of the maximum advertised – though this was 5.3% below the European average for cable connections.
Overall the average download speed in Europe, during peak hours, was 19.47 Mbps. The average cable speed was 33.10Mbps, while the average xDSL speed was 7.2 Mbps.
The results of this survey were taken in March 2012 from a panel of 9,104 participants with the study due to run until the end of 2014.
