One day in early 2020, telecoms engineer David Murphy and Paul Cahill, of Cahill Aerials, met while working on a broadband job together. On their way home, they stopped for a cup of tea and Paul asked a question that would change not only their lives, but the lives of many people living in rural Ireland. ‘Could we do this broadband thing ourselves?’
Four years later, ebroadband is now the largest local provider of fibre broadband in Westmeath and Longford, priding itself on fixed-price-for-life services and exemplary customer service.
The owners, who still work in their company as field engineers, have installed and provided broadband services to happy customers all over rural Ireland – from Louth to Galway and Cork to Donegal. Recently they made a decision to concentrate their focus where they feel they can make the most difference -locally.
“We set up ebroadband because there was a real need,” Ballynacargy native Paul told Topic. “I was doing TV aerials and satellites for 20 years and every rural house I went to asked me if I had a solution for broadband in rural Ireland. Then, when I met David, I brought the aerial side and David brought the broadband side, having worked for Three for 15 years. We realised we could actually supply the whole broadband package ourselves and that was that.”
Human connections
Right from the beginning, providing an in-person service was a non-negotiable for the men, who had now become friends and business partners.
“It was so important to us from the start,” David explained. “If someone rings with a problem, we’ll go out to them ourselves. We are rural and we understand. That’s why we want to stay local, because we can get in the van, drive to the house and fix the issue.”
Paul agreed, noting that their personal support has helped grow the business.
“Our business is largely word of mouth. A lot of times, if we do a good job for a customer, they’ll pass that news on to a family member or friend or sometimes all their friends, and they’ll contact us. That’s happened a number of times at this stage.”
Progress
At first, ebroadband went into areas where customers had no other choice and were crying out for broadband. This was during Covid and people were working from home but had no proper internet access. It was a problem and they had the solution – wireless broadband. The business grew steadily and shifted to fibre broadband two years ago. Now people in those same areas, who never had good broadband, can get high-speed, reliable fibre broadband and ebroadband can supply it.
“Setting up our fibre broadband was a huge undertaking,” Paul recalled. “For a small company like us to go against the big lads was a great achievement. The speed, quality and reliability is far better with fibre – with wireless you can have drop off but it rarely happens with fibre.”
Customers
That reliability is great comfort for David when doing a service call.
“I know I’ll walk into the house and the speed will be exactly as it’s meant to be. You know then it must be another problem, and then we try to figure that out. Then we find a solution one way or another.”
Another benefit, according to Paul, in choosing ebroadband, is their guaranteed fixed price for life, nothing hidden and no changes.
“A lot of our competitors have an indexed linked price-for-life service, but ours is genuine. There are no hidden extras – what you see is what you get. People know what they will pay; it’s important for our customers, especially in today’s climate. ”
The challenge
That passion for a happy customer has driven the company forward but has made accepting customers departing a bitter pill to swallow.
“It was so hard at first when potential customers would tell us they could get a better deal,” David recalled. “We wanted to tell them all the reasons they should come with us, but their minds were made up and we had to learn to let them go, that every customer is not for us. That was hard. We’re the small guy, we believe in our service and every customer is important to us,” Paul said.
“Then, we actually started to lose customers. We had a certain number of people coming out of contract and, even though they were happy with the service, went elsewhere. Until then it was a steady growth but suddenly we were losing as we were gaining and it was an issue.”
The problem stumped the team until they realised, like with the service, the solution was in their hands.
Listening
“We learned how to listen to customers and they started to come back. The girls in the office were fantastic. Erin identified that recognising our customer’s loyalty was huge, maybe with a free month on signing a new contract, and it made such a difference.”
When Paul and David undertook 18 months of sales training to learn how to communicate best with their customers, a further shift occurred.
“It made a huge difference. We were two engineers passionate about our service, but we had no training in sales. We’d be like, this is what we do and this is why it’s so good. Now, we’re using what we learned every day, talking to people but mostly listening. Before we were right in there telling them why they needed us but now we pause, let the customer talk and they tell us what they want.”
Local lads
Both men are heavily involved in their communities. Paul, a father of three, is the treasurer in Ballynacargy GAA club and trainer for Inny FC. ebroadband support Inny FC, sponsoring jerseys and tops for Ballynacargy GAA.
“We’re not just in it for ourselves, we want to give back to our communities too. It’s important because our customers are local but it’s actually lovely to see the name on your own team’s jersey too,” he said.
David’s wife Ciara moved jobs to work with him and they have a little boy together. He was heavily involved in the conversion of the Old Ulster Bank building in Edgeworthstown into a co-working space.
“That was a good project. We rent an office space there and also provide broadband. These are our communities and it’s important we support them.”
The future
Next year, National Broadband Ireland will expand through Westmeath and Longford, targeting people who don’t have broadband yet.
Paul, who along with David, farms part-time on top of his busy schedule, is closely monitoring that development.
“We’re really focused on those areas, to get in there and let people know we’re around and get them to sign up with us. We live, work, play, support and farm locally. We’ll always be local because we are local. We know firsthand the struggles of people trying to get broadband.”
‘Save yourself a headache and call ebroadband first’
Vincent’s Furniture Shop on Harbour Street were at the end of their tether recently. Then they called ebroadband…
“After being let down time and again by a market leader for over two months, Paul from ebroadband came to our rescue,” said manager Damian Hanlon.
“He called to us the day after I phoned him to inspect our premises and installed a temporary wireless solution, while he scheduled works for fibre installation.”
Within a week, Paul had installed fibre broadband, meaning the new shop could open in time.
“Save yourself the headache of indifferent call centres, which are hard to contact and call ebroadband first. Erin and Ciara were always at the end of the phone when I called with any queries and they saved me so much time, which is important when setting up a new business.
“ebroadband is a thoroughly professional customer focused service, which, in my experience, is unique. My only regret is not contacting them sooner and saving all the time wasted.”
To contact ebroadband see ebroadband.ie or call 044 935 7473
