IrelandOffline on Newstalk 106

Yoda

If I've got the information right, Xian will be interviewed on Newstalk 106 shortly. Time now is 13:41 on 20 September 2003. http://www.newstalk106.ie/

captainpat

Excellent work, Xian! Even the questions made sense!

Yoda

I got it on tape.

maxheadroom

Damn - missed it - anyone got it for download?

Paddy20

Xian,

Given the short amount of airtime allocated. You came over as very well informed, confident and literate on the subject. The questions, and the answers were excellent. A pity that the other people involved in the Telecoms business refused to participate. As that would have ensured more airtime and a proper debate. However, they are probably too frightened to sit in a live broadcast Radio station studio, with someone from IrelandOFFline!, I wonder why?....

You got your message over very clearly in a way that even a non-techie like me understood what you were getting at. Great.

P.;)

Dangger

Here here! Good work Christian! Very well conveyed, now if only someone would turn up in the studio and allow a debate!

dahamsta

If you have a recording of this interview, please email it to boards AT beecher DOT net and I'll put it on the server.

adam

Yoda

David Murphy interviews Christian Cooke, chairman of Ireland OffLine, on Newstalk 106, 2003-09-20, 13:45

DM: ...these internet services. I'm now joined here on Newstalk 106 by Christian Cooke from Ireland OffLine. Christian, is this good enough?

CC: Hi, David. The important thing about this recent statement is that the Minister has recognized that intervention is justified, considering the fact that we are so far behind in broadband rollout. The idea is to put exchanges beside Eircom's exchanges so that the competing operators don't have to go into the Eircom exchanges. The problem with this is that local-loop unbundling, which is the handing over of control of the phone lines to a competing operator, has been a complete failure. I mean, there's only a thousand out of 1.7 million lines unbundled to date, so we would have serious concerns about the viability of this plan. Now, the difficulty is the reluctance of Eircom to open up their network to competition, and...

DM: So just in terms of your own organization, I mean you're all about, really, ensuring that there's good internet access for consumers out there. What do you think is the most important step that should be taken to move things forward so we can all get better internet access, faster internet access, and cheaper internet access?

CC: The main thing that needs to happen, and it is happening now, with Dermot Ahern's statement, is the recognition that market forces of themselves will not solve our broadband problem. That's the important thing out of this. The difficulty of this plan is that we don't see it addressing the core issue, which is real competition. This plan would be giving other operators access over Eircom's network, but Eircom still control the network.

DM: Now do you think that Comreg, the regulator for this, is actually policing the market sufficiently and ensuring that there is sufficient competition between the operators out there?

CC: Comreg have a very difficult problem at them moment. Specifically, on local loop unbundling, there's a case in the High Court where Eircom and Comreg are in disagreement over the price of a line. Comreg say it should be 14 euros a month, which is high by European standards, and Eircom are looking for 27 euros per month. So that's a huge difference of opinion, as far as the value of the network is concerned. So the difficulty for Comreg is that at every step when they try to force competition, Eircom see that they have recourse to the High Court. Now in this particular case, Eircom have threatened to withdraw investment of €1 billion if they don't get their way. So that hamstrings the potential for Comreg to introduce real competition into the market.

DM: OK, Christian Cooke of Ireland OffLine, thanks very much for coming in to studio and joining us on "Down To Business" here on Newstalk 106.

shinzon

Sorry but was that the entire interview, raises a few points but nothing spectacular in there and way to short, why is it that these programmes invite people from ireland offline and other organisations and basically give them 2 minutes to present a case and thats it

Sorry but i aint impressed with newstalk at all, i know im gonna be blasted for saying it but there ye go

Shin

Paddy20

shinzon,

Try reading my post above, to Xian, It might help to clarify to you why what was going to be a longer debate involving others. Was reduced to a one man short interview on the issue.

One benefit for IrelandOFFlines ongoing campaign, was that Xian was the only person there, so he got a few minutes all to himself.

P.;)

Yoda

The interview was three minutes and seven seconds long.

What is important is that it was another opportunity for Ireland OffLine to show that Minister Ahern has it right -- that Government intervention is necessary if we are ever to achieve Ireland OffLine's aims (adequate internet access for everyone). At the same time it was important to be able to point out the shortcomings in this particular scheme. And it was another opportunity to help spread the word.

Short? Yes. A pity that it was short? Yes. But our chairman did well for us despite those limitations.

Eurorunner

Well done Xian. A little publicity is better than no publicity.

Just as a matter of interest, are there any newspapers/newsmedia out there that have failed to give you any exposure/or have proved difficult to crack?

b20uvkft6m5xwg

By Chance, I was listening on the web

Pity they didnt keep Carmel Foley (DCA) on for the discussion.
BB (or lack of) being the greatest crime in the history of Irish Consumption IMO :mad:

Well Done Christian.