unbelieveable statement from Phillip Nolan

MarVeL · 02-07-2003 9:49am #1

Just spotted this on ENN snipped from the Irish Times

The Irish Times reports that Eircom chief executive Philip Nolan has rejected accusations that the company is delaying the rollout of broadband Internet services. Addressing an Oireachtas sub-committee, Nolan dismissed suggestions by Labour TD Tommy Broughan that Eircom had sought to protect market position by creating a broadband "logjam." Nolan said Eircom was driving the development of high-speed Internet services through its recent launch of a fixed-rate product in the EUR50 per month bracket. He claimed the key challenge was not the expansion of broadband infrastructure but the creation of an appetite for high-speed Internet among the public.

Sorry but can this statement have gone unchallenged into Dail records. Surely the laughter at least has to have been recorded. Or if not that the snorts of derision. That someone who is either this deluded or this barefaced a liar can be in charge of a major section of the national infrastructure is very worrying and wrong in every sense of the word

MDR · 02-07-2003 10:35am

creation of an appetite for high-speed Internet among the public.

This god-damn demand side initative rubbish again, Phil don't worry the Minister and COMREG forced you to provide the demand creation tool, that if you had any business foresight at all you would have moved to provide yourselves ... FRIACO.

It will create the demand you have been chasing, of course Phil being a doctor of geology one never of learned one of the first basic tenants of economics.

"There will is never a demand for something that has never been provided" ....

If Phil had his way we would all be on high-speed dialup, and paying through the nose for the privilage ... eh Phil ... you would love that wouldn't you .... you would be laughing all the way to the bank ....

reasonable return on investment my arse ... milking us dry, for poor service .... in order to pay off Eircom's creditors ....

off into the loo now to scream, anyone passing sandyford industrail estate be warned.

Sorry peeps, but this 'demand-side initative' sh*te really burns my blood ... someone give me his postal address and I'll send him a copy of the polls MRBI did for the 'Future delivery of broadband in Ireland' consultation document .....

spongebob · 02-07-2003 10:48am

Phil Lied to Tommy. Are there any constituents of Tommy reading this BTW, you should hassle him straight away.

1. Eircom launched a Capped DSL Product in the €50 bracket. You break the cap and they will charge you extra. That is not fixed. Eircom have no other vaguely comparable product in the €50 bracket so Phil could not have been talking about anything else.

2. Eircom launced a wholesale product in the sub.€20 category. It has not made a retail version available to its own customers. This is the FRIACO product and IS fixed at the Eircom Wholesale end. Other carriers have made this available to their customers.

3. Eircom launced a wholesale product in the sub.€30 category. It has made a retail version available to its customers. This is the Residential DSL product product and IS fixed at the Wholesale end but NOT at the Retail end where it will be charged in excess of the Cap. Other carriers have chosen not to implementa Cap on their retail versons.

M

Paddy20 · 02-07-2003 10:59am

Phil,

Your bed in the psychiatric unit of Letterkenny Hospital is ready and waiting!.

Paddy20.

MDR · 02-07-2003 11:00am

ok gonna write a letter of edumication to Tommy ...

shinzon · 02-07-2003 11:06am

Tommy Broughan is one of the ministers im in contact with, ive already fired off an e-mail to him, Philip nolan has simply lied to a minsters face and cannot get away with it

Regards

Shin

SkepticOne · 02-07-2003 11:11am

Originally posted by shinzon
Tommy Broughan is one of the ministers im in contact with, ive already fired off an e-mail to him, Philip nolan has simply lied to a minsters face and cannot get away with it

/B]

He's not a minister.

shinzon · 02-07-2003 11:13am

Originally posted by SkepticOne
He's not a minister.

Bloody hell alright a labour TD is that better

Shin

flav0rflav · 02-07-2003 11:14am

Eh, isn't this just the normal way for political debates to go?

The Labour TD made his statements saying that he believes eircom as stalling, balling, and blocking. Phil rebutted. He was never going to admit such a thing.

I am impressed that at least the claim has been made by a TD that eircom are 'logjamming'.

Dangger · 02-07-2003 11:25am

I have written to Deputy Broughan today on the issue.

MarVeL · 02-07-2003 11:42am

Must say there does seem to be some recognition in political circles about the danger that eircom are putting the country in vis a vis the telecoms infrastructure. Kudos are due to TD Broughan for putting it so succinctly but I hope that the statement from Dr. Nolan was not let pass unchallenged.

I've written off to the comittee secretary requesting the transcripts and if/when they arrive I'll post further details

NIBBS · 02-07-2003 12:27pm

Don't think that Mr.Broughan is a standard TD - he does actually have a lot of clout and when he gets his teeth into something he's like a pitbull...........how much progress he can make - who knows, but if he hassles ComReg enough they'll push it harder and create a nice viscious circle.......

I'm in his constituency and can't get lovely Eircom BB, maybe I'll mention that and see if the whole crap about creating a demand while not having the product available to the majority of people who might actually create that demand is crap......

Eurorunner · 02-07-2003 12:46pm

If someone would be so good as to furnish me with the good TDs snail mail, i will also write to him.

Trebor · 02-07-2003 12:57pm

Broughan, Thomas P. (Labour Party)
23 Riverside Road, Clonshaugh, Dublin 17

obtained from www.gov.ie

nahdoic · 02-07-2003 1:38pm

creation of an appetite for high-speed Internet among the public

Two quick questions for our good old friend philly.

a) In his view, could he please detail campaigns that he feels would create this appetite? And could he please rate the effectiveness of each campaign.

b) Once this appetitie has been created, what does he plan to do with it? Sell people ISDN?

nahdoic · 02-07-2003 2:11pm

c) Could you please explain why 42% of people who are interested in broadband, do not have it?

nahdoic · 02-07-2003 2:15pm

d) Could you please explain why although 43% of people are interested in broadband, only 17% would be interested in paying 55 a month with an install charge of 199. Are your charges too expensive?

MDR · 02-07-2003 2:19pm

hey,

Tommy is based quite close to me, I may drop up to see him ....

flav0rflav · 02-07-2003 2:19pm

I think the committee would not have fallen for the demand side argument, as they also had a presentation from Comreg where it was stated that 42% of the population has at least some interest in getting a broadband service.

It went on to say that 42% also were extremely uninterested in paying a subscription of 55e and install of 199e.

They also say that 44% of people have never heard of broadband, and only 35% could name a price they would accept. Their slightly peculiar concluding statement was "Hence, if consumers were more aware of the benefits of broadband, would they value the service more??"

My conslusion would be more on the lines of "CHEAPER!"

from http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0372.ppt

[edit]
ah reading from the same book as nahds

nahdoic · 02-07-2003 2:19pm

e) On average, a person would expect to pay E34 for an ADSL service. When are you going to drop your prices to hit the mass market?

ok so that's 5 questions instead of 2 ...

Eurorunner · 02-07-2003 3:47pm

Thanks for the address Trebor.

Trebor · 02-07-2003 3:59pm

Originally posted by Eurorunner
Thanks for the address Trebor.

no problem, that link also has the address for all TD's i believe.

so you can check and see who live's close and go knock on their door

Fallschirmjager · 02-07-2003 4:17pm

here his email from the labour party site

thomas.p.broughan@oireachtas.irlgov.ie

Fallschirmjager · 02-07-2003 5:44pm

just winged a long email off, here hoping...

SkepticOne · 02-07-2003 5:48pm

Originally posted by flav0rflav
They also say that 44% of people have never heard of broadband, and only 35% could name a price they would accept. Their slightly peculiar concluding statement was "Hence, if consumers were more aware of the benefits of broadband, would they value the service more??"

My conslusion would be more on the lines of "CHEAPER!"

You can't expect ComReg to come to the same common sense conclusion since they themselves approved the 55 euro retail and 37 euro wholesale price that Eircom is offering. The question would immediately be asked why they did not impose a lower wholesale price since that would have allowed competiting companies to offer services where there is demand.

ComReg also previously approved a 49 euro wholesale price back in Q1 2002. This forced any company wishing to provide services into the > 100 euro bracket, a price range for which there is effectively no demand according to the MRBI survey which ComReg themselves commissioned. This was in the absense of the current 27 euro wholesale.

Consequently ComReg are forced to spin the results of their own findings.

dahamsta · 02-07-2003 9:29pm

What committee was this statement made in front of?

adam

Dangger · 03-07-2003 12:11pm

Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. The same committe IOFFL recently presented to.

dahamsta · 03-07-2003 2:15pm

Was that the same day Dave?

adam

Mr_Man · 03-07-2003 2:30pm

Folks,

should the comments from Chairman Phil not be addressed in the medium in which they were reported ?

It would help raise awareness among the public of the issues if IOFFL were to pen a considered response to these claims and submit it to every paper/news organization which covered the original claim from Phil Nolan.

Just My 2c

M.

Dangger · 03-07-2003 2:48pm

No Adam, we presented on different days. I woul dlove to attended though, there is a public gallery.

Mr_Man thats a valid suggestion, but we should not loose sight of the fact that this is a sub committee compiling a report. The Minister holds the reigns right now, and appears to be just as much up to speed as the committee and has the added bonus of being able to flex his muscles in this space.

He can (and has) taken action to make a difference, and judging by his most recent comments on the splitting of the ESB (sure you can do it boys, but you can forget about taking the infrastructure with you!) the government has finally come to terms with the whole Eirocm mess and will continue to turn the screws.

spongebob · 03-07-2003 3:55pm

The sub-committee has a stack of members from all parst fo teh country.

click the link further up and find out if you local TD or Sanator is on it.

then go hassle them yourself, they should recall Phil to answer some more questions!

M

unbelieveable statement from Phillip Nolan

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