"new" Eircom's head in the sand

probe

Queen Victoria is still calling the shots at eircom!

The following appears in eircom’s latest official price list:

‘“telecommunications line” includes a telegraphic line, a telegraph, as such terms are defined in the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to date, and includes all lines including auxiliary lines, circuits, apparatus and installations used for telecommunications services ….’

A quick check here http://www.acts.ie/en.act.2002.0020.8.html#sched2 reveals that this 1863 act was repealed by the Communications Regulation Act, 2002

How many people still use morse code to send text messages or surf the internet?

probe


http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/pending.pdf

juliuspret

watty

You can get a Java app for some phones to do morse. If you are proficient it slightly beats texting key input (The SMS is still sent as text though!).

Such is the perverse human nature, that in the Countries where Morse (CW) has been abolished as a licence requirement for Amateur HF transmission, the number of people learning has gone up!

It is a long time since I even saw the keyboard replacement of Morse Telegraph, the Telex machine (75 baud, 5 bit coded text), I think in 1991 or 1996 at Shannon Airport in Frieght office.

How many years is it since An Post and Royal Mail abolished their Telegram service? I last got what looked like a Telegram in 1987 I think.

The 1863 act and its 1922 updates made an Intercom wire for baby monitoring between two properties illegal without Ministerial Permission as the P&T had a monopoly on laying communication cables. Only when LLU is finnaly sorted and Geographic number porting swift & easy do we see the end of that legacy.

probe

watty wrote:

The 1863 act and its 1922 updates made an Intercom wire for baby monitoring between two properties illegal without Ministerial Permission as the P&T had a monopoly on laying communication cables. Only when LLU is finaly sorted and Geographic number porting swift & easy do we see the end of that legacy.

Absolutely. Not so long back one had to get a license from "the Minister" to fit an answering machine to your phone line. Needless to say the machine cost a fortune (about €4000 at today's values) because you had to use the government "approved" supplier (eg Robofone). Today one expects voicemail type products to be free or almost free as part of the phone you buy or the line service you subscribe to.

LLU in Ireland hasn't even reached the Robofone stage in 2006.

TV audiences are at an all time low in the US and many other countries. Broadcasting, where you have to watch/listen to a programme when they want to show it is rapidly becoming antiquated. I find myself spending more time listening to podcasts than I do the radio of late.

High Def and video on demand will very rapidly combine to be the media of choice. Watch what you want, when you want. Highly specialised stuff or the latest movie - at 3 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon. This implies a widespread fibre / ADSL2+ bb infrastructure. And this type of content is only a fraction of what ubiquitous high speed IP networks can deliver.

Any country without widely available LLU (which will drive FTTH competition) will rapidly become obsolete from an entertainment and infrastructure perspective.

probe

lucernarian

LLU is simply not a long term fix. It is a more of a step in the right direction. LLU will be great in the short term (shame I can't talk about my own country regarding this) as it will drive competition and consequently demand as more people will want to get broadband, with lower prices.

More demand for broadband might make Fibre investments worthwhile. The growth in bandwidth requirements by consumers can only be satisfied by fibre. Even if 100 mbits is all we will ever need at home, copper pairs cannot do that without the large use of fibre.

I fear that in the future, if/when 100 mbits is the standard for broadband, without the same attitude that we had in 1979 - 1984, much of Ireland faces some very serious problems. For the long term, LLU and pairgains and poor BT billing is only a means to an end (To get people interested in connectivity). As time goes on, while we have to battle for trifles, the world will be moving on and sooner or later Ireland will not be able to cope with the communication requirements of its people, like 30 years ago.

Unless the global economy turns its focus away from IT, Ireland will eventually have to pay the price for its fibre deficit.

Sorry for sounding so melodramatic but certain people (The government) need to see things for what they are and at least do some futureproofing instead of baking half-assed policies for today's needs. I'm not even in my 20s yet and it will be my generation who have to put up with Dáil sessions dedicated to fibre install waiting times.

aaronc

probe wrote:

Any country without widely available LLU (which will drive FTTH competition) will rapidly become obsolete from an entertainment and infrastructure perspective.

You never know the slowness in LLU may drive FTTH more then if LLU was quick and easy.

I'm sure the likes I've Smart and Magnet et.al. find the expense of FTTH easier to bear when faced with the streamlined LLU process that goes something like: locate bug expensive switch in Eircom exchange and then placing work order and wait for twisted pairs to be moved and then explain the inability to port the line's old number and then pay Eircom wholesale line rental for the pleasure of it all .

Aaron