BT tells eircom stuff it at LLU Negotiations

damien

BT WITHDRAWS FROM BROADBAND NEGOTIATIONS WITH EIRCOM

Dublin, Tuesday 25th April 2006: BT has today reluctantly withdrawn from industry negotiations with eircom on improving wholesale broadband provision to alternative operators. The negotiations sought to put in place seamless, automated processes for eircom's competitors to offer broadband services using Local Loop Unbundling (LLU).

According to Danny McLaughlin, CEO BT Ireland "It is with great reluctance that we withdraw from this industry forum. However, eircom continues to frustrate the progress of LLU and we do not see positive indications that a future change of ownership at the monopoly provider will bring a more progressive approach."

"We believe that eircom's stance will jeopardise industry investment and impact on Ireland's competitiveness. It is evident that ComReg does not have sufficient powers to improve this situation. BT will therefore explore all options available to us in order to ensure that the right market conditions exist to drive true competition."

LLU fcked for another decade.

damien

and here comes ALTO

25 April 2006. ALTO, the body representing new entrant operators in Ireland’s telecoms market today expressed its frustration at the lack of progress in local loop unbundling.

“The working group established by ComReg, which our members joined in good faith, has failed to make any impact. Eircom continues to abuse its dominant position in the market and has failed to make any real effort to progress local loop unbundling”, said Tom Hickey, Chairman of ALTO. “In the meantime consumers and businesses suffer”.

“This process has been ongoing since December 2004 with little or no movement from eircom. We understand BT’s frustration in withdrawing from the working group and it is a frustration shared by other members of ALTO”.

A report for ALTO by Analysis Consultants issued in March showed that in terms of broadband development Ireland is underperforming against countries with similar GDP per capita by a factor of 2 to 3 times and that Local Loop Unbundling is critical if Ireland is to catch up. The report shows that Irish consumers and businesses are loosing out because of the lack of competition and this is ultimately damaging to the Irish economy.

“Irish Consumers are being denied access to the kind of services that are commonly available in countries where unbundling has been successful,” said Hickey, “and eircom’s position puts an end to unbundling for the foreseeable future”.

Sponge Bob

Not one word out of Comreg. They should call for their own abolition if they had any principles.

“This process has been ongoing since December 2004 with little or no movement from eircom. We understand BT’s frustration in withdrawing from the working group and it is a frustration shared by other members of ALTO”.

Jeez

eircomtribunal

Sponge Bob wrote:

Not one word out of Comreg.(

Not quite so: See RTE business on the issue:

ComReg said that since a clear obligation exists in law regarding the issue, it will now treat it as a matter for enforcement.

Commissioner John Doherty said that it was 'totally unacceptable' that telecoms users do not have the freedom to keep their existing number when choosing to change service providers. He said: 'this right clearly exists and will be enforced by ComReg.'

The question is what action ComReg will take, or be able to take, and how quick. In the end Eircom knows that it is a matter of time before LLU has to happen. But the longer the time stretches, the more profitable it is for Eircom. It is ironic, that the LLU subscription prices set by ComReg for the foreseeable future are the second highest in the EU. In other words, LLU, even if it happens, will not be ideal here.

P.

kaizersoze

The new prospective owners aren't too hot on LLU either.
From Robert Topfer, one of the bosses at B&B:

....<snip> there are clear advantages here for ComReg, which represents the interests of consumers. A wholesale company, whose board and management would be completely separate from the retailer, would offer transparent pricing and equal access to the network for all.

But for this to work, the objective of opening the local loop that embraces the "last mile" of the network would have to be dropped. Topfer agrees that that would involve a change of policy, but insists that this is not a case of an Australian flying into Dublin from London to dictate policy to the Government. <snip>...

viking

BT ends broadband talks with Eircom

Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent

BT has withdrawn from talks with Eircom over broadband access to its network and will consider taking legal action here or in Europe. It will also consider approaching the European regulator. The telecom group believes the Irish regulator, Comreg, does not have the powers necessary to deal with the issue.

The negotiations concern processes to allow Eircom's competitors to offer broadband services over Eircom infrastructure. "Eircom continues to frustrate the process and we do not see positive indications that a future change of ownership at the monopoly provider will bring a more progressive approach," said BT chief executive Danny McLaughlin.

Eircom's commercial director David McRedmond said he was very surprised by BT's decision "to derail the process". "We urge Comreg to get everyone back into the room."

Comreg, in a statement, said it had facilitated discussions with a view towards certain objectives but the talks had now broken down. Comreg would proceed by way of enforcement, it said.

Alto, representing new entrant operators, said Eircom was abusing its dominant market position.

© The Irish Times

viking

Broadband blow as BT quits talks over 'delays'

BT Ireland, one of the country's main alternative broadband providers, has pulled out of negotiations with Eircom over delays in automating local exchanges.

Automation makes the exchanges more accessible to alternative operators.

It is also understood that telecoms watchdog ComReg was last night seeking legal advice in relation to the enforcement of automation, which would allow customers switching from Eircom to alternative operators to use their original telephone number.

Danny McLoughlin, chief executive at BT Ireland, said yesterday: "It is with great reluctance that we withdraw from this industry forum (which also involved a number of other alternative operators).

"However, Eircom continues to frustrate the progress of LLU and we do not see positive indications that a future change of ownership at the monopoly provider will bring a more progressive approach."

Decision

The decision is a blow to Ireland's broadband market and comes as Eircom opens its books to Australian bank Babcock & Brown ahead of an expected €2.36bn offer for the Irish telecommunications operator.

LLU is the process of allowing telecommunications operators use Eircom's connections from the telephone exchange's central office to the customer premises and is necessary for the provision of fixed-line broadband services like DSL by alternative operators such as BT and Smart Telecom.

Mr McLoughlin said that Eircom's stance will jeopardise industry investment and impact on Ireland's competitiveness.

According to David McRedmond, commercial director at Eircom, negotiations are 90pc there. "We urge ComReg to get everybody back into the room. It is a ComReg process."

Entrants

Ireland's performance in the broadband stakes has lagged well behind European averages, with many of the new entrant countries now overtaking the country in terms of broadband penetration.

A recent Analysis Consultants report showed Ireland's broadband development is underperforming against countries with similar GDP per capita by a factor of 2 to 3 times and that Local Loop Unbundling is critical if Ireland is to catch up.

Mr McLoughlin added that the situation has been frustrated further by the fact that telecoms regulator ComReg does not have sufficient powers to improve the situation.

To date, BT Ireland, which has about 35,000 broadband customers, has unbundled about 40 of Eircom's exchanges, while the incumbent has opened up a further 100 with an eventual target of 220. There are over 1,000 exchanges around the country.

A number of other providers, like Digiweb and Magnet, offer alternative services to DSL through a variety of satellite and wireless services - but their scope, although growing, can be restricted geographically.

Ailish O'Hora

jwt

B&B weren't going to encourage LLU so I can see BTIrelands reasoning, even if the timing is rather tactical.

On this thread I said

Quote: Irish Times
Still, Topfer says the "rather more sensible" alternative is to separate the wholesale from the retail and treat the wholesale as a piece of infrastructure akin to a rail or electricity network or a water system. Thus the network would be run by Babcock & Brown's infrastructure funds, which manages billions of Australian dollars for the continent's booming pension funds. The retail arm would be run by the fund's corporate finance arm.


Quote:
But for this to work, the objective of opening the local loop that embraces the "last mile" of the network would have to be dropped.


Quote:
"The regulator is sitting in a position where it's currently fighting with Eircom, constantly and losing... The solution for the regulator is to say 'let's accept that there isn't going to be any network competition and that the competition is going to be at the retail level'


Quote:
The advantage for the Government would lie in the withdrawal from the loss-making Metropolitan Area Networks scheme, which was designed to compensate for under-investment by Eircom. "We expect nobody's going to invest in networking because we're going to do it."




So

Spilt eircom into retail and network

Let the retail fend for itself.



The network side generate profits. Kill off MANS, LLU basically any network competition.

Yep that’ll definitely generate profits alright.

8track

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9683045.html