ComReg slams OECD broadband claims

thebman

The Commission for Communications (ComReg) has hit back at claims that Ireland fares as badly in broadband access as the latest OECD Communication Outlook 2007 report represents.
ComReg argues that the OECD figures were compiled as much as two years ago and do not reflect the present situation.

According to the latest ComReg quarterly report the broadband penetration rate in Ireland was in fact at 14.2pc, with 602,000 broadband subscribers as of March 2007, in comparison with the 9.2pc in the July 12th report by the OECD.

A spokesman for ComReg said that the OECD figures were “historic, dating as far back as two years.”

However the most recent OECD broadband figures (as of December 2006), which were not included in the Communications Outlook report, still showed Ireland to be among those countries with the lowest broadband access per 100 of the population.

These OECD statistics showed that only 12.4 out of every 100 people in Ireland are broadband subscribers, placing Ireland at 23rd in the list of 30 countries surveyed, with Turkey and Mexico coming in last.

According to the OECD report, the fastest broadband download speeds available from Eircom as of October 2006 is around 15,000Kbps, placing our incumbent broadband provider’s speeds among the slowest.

Luxembourg and Austria are also among the OECD’s reported slowest, with the Slovak Republic’s incumbent broadband provider offering the lowest speeds at 11,000 Kbps according to the report published last week.

In contrast Japan and Korea are leading the way with over 100,000 Kpbs in download speeds.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single8801

Keep saying everythings fine Comreg, maybe one day we'll all wake up from this nightmare and it'll be true.

Sponge Bob

brim4brim wrote:

Keep saying everythings fine Comreg,

Had anyone checked they would note that Comreg reports Ripwave and 3g as BB. The OECD excludes them. The OECD is correct. Comreg is also lying to the OECD when they say eircom provides 15mbit BB as its top end.

watty

If anything the "realistic comparative" situation is worse than the OECD report.

Blazer

Comreg are even worse than Eircom..at least Eircom are just greedy..fair enough.
Comreg is a complete waste of space which is far worse in my opinion.

Liam Byrne

Sponge Bob wrote:

Had anyone checked they would note that Comreg reports Ripwave and 3g as BB. The OECD excludes them. The OECD is correct. Comreg is also lying to the OECD when they say eircom provides 15mbit BB as its top end.

To be fair, I did see one of the countries listed as having "entry level broadband" as 256K, so ComReg aren't the only ones bending the definition of broadband.....

Mind you, should IBB be rapped on the wrist for false advertising of "broadband in a box", so ?

I used to think that ComReg are usually a proverbial ostrich.......drop the head in the sand, saying nothing, and hope everything goes away....but if they're actively contesting the results of this survey, then it's worse than I thought....

Maybe they've been told to, in case companies/people relocating here get put off, but it's long past the time where they need to start bloody well doing something......

ComReg's new powers will be worth SFA if they don't acknowledge the problem to start with....

watty

If the minimum speed is 250k, and latency OK (< 50ms average) I'd accept it is Broadband. Lots of people ripwave is 60k to 220K. 3G/HSDPA has NOT good latency (110ms to 350ms).

Sponge Bob

Liam Byrne wrote:

To be fair, I did see one of the countries listed as having "entry level broadband" as 256K, so ComReg aren't the only ones bending the definition of broadband.....

Its the Czech republic where a 3g bb product is a unit OUTSIDE the house on the wall . The Czechs had the manners to ask for this product to be defined as BB. The OECD GRANTED them this permission

Comreg never sought permission permission to report ripwave as BB. They arrogantly did so anyway . In other words Comreg lied to the OECD while the OECD did not knowingly lie to anyone.

I used to think that ComReg are usually a proverbial ostrich.......drop the head in the sand, saying nothing, and hope everything goes away....but if they're actively contesting the results of this survey, then it's worse than I thought....

Ah no. its typical Comreg sleeveenery .

ComReg's new powers will be worth SFA if they don't acknowledge the problem to start with....

this is the Comreg that believes we have a smooth functioning LLU system nowadays. If they admit anything is wrong they may come under pressure to do something about it. Best not really.

They are not a regulator merely an overpaid coconut shy for the sentient.

I do dislike this lying though

thebman

Can't we just report this to the OECD though so that they are at least aware they've been misled?

I know it'd probably do nothing but you never know, OECD might not take too kindly to having their survey's manipulated.

Sponge Bob

We can if we read it first and look at claimed FWA stats aka 'other' , see below , you may click the statslink url if you see it to get an excel of a specific table but not the notes on that table . Therefore I refer to a page number in the PDF which is here.

http://213.253.134.43/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9307021E.PDF

the authors are listed on page 4 . email to all and sundry will be in order but couple of things to check first

1. LLU price given as 15.68, is this correct ??? page 31 of 319

2. have LLU charges dropped since 2004 , especially full metallic path rental ???? page 56 of 319

2. BB subs per 100 inhabitants page 136 . This is for June 2006 not for now. This is for every country not just us .T

The figure unfortunately includes misreported ripwaves from the comreg quarterly survey q2 06 published in sept 06 under fwa/other BB access. The czech exemption is explicitly outlined....the exemption comreg never sought for the inferior ripwave.

They may not have been reporting 3g in June 2006 as hsdpa was not launched but I hear they are now.

4. 94% of households are cabled in Ireland , I think NOT . page 187

5. call baskets start page , did not find line rental on its own 227

6. breakdown of bb total which shows suspiciously high number of OTHER page 150 again look at comreg quarterly stats showing a leap in 'other'in the period 2005 2006 when they started reporting ripwaves. Note teh control total of 372k bb connections and correlate with quareterly report from Comreg

7 leased line prices are an outright lie, tail costs are excluded and only port costs are mentioned , you cannot get a 2mbit leased line for US$16k page 249

Once these are all checked we have our facts straight ...unlike Comreg .

We need to ensure the OECD gets accurate stats for the public record , they are trying to do their job and do not need disinformation peddlers like Comreg distorting their figures.

BB penetration in Ireland has indeed improved a lot but

1. the OECD figures are a year old , not 2 years as comreg asserted . OECD said they were 1 year old all along .
2. They were incorrect anyway and should be even lower at that time
3. Comreg lied about the figures then and are still lying today , this must stop .

lucernarian

It was probably out of tiredness and a drink or two, but I laughed when I read the title. ComReg couldn't slam a paperweight on the commissioner's desk. Sadly, SiliconRepublic couldn't be counted on to point out something resembling reality.

And what about the penetration figures in the article?? Were the oecd figures stating 9.6% or 12.4%???

I'm suprised they give that much of a ****e about the damn penetration figures. One would think they would be embarassed at the state of LLU in this country, and how a minister had to tell them to get eircom to offer time packages for dialup.

Whatever sort of penetration goes on in this country, it certainly isn't going into Comreg's head...

Sponge Bob

here is the report that the OECD relied upon to get June 2006 BB penetration figures.

http://www.comreg.ie/publications/irish_communications_market__quarterly_key_data_-_september_2006.597.102445.p.html

372600 BB connections including 42000 FWA .

Now how many FWA were Ripwaves. Look at the jumps in 2005 .

Qtr Q1 05 Q2 05	Q3 05 Q4 05 Q1 06 Q2 06  Q3 06	Q4 06	Q1 07		
DSL 128,000 141,000 167,300 202,300 239,000 275,000 319,400 379,100 436,000  
FWA 12,500	18,000	24,600	40,000 47,500 53,000 62,600 75,200  94,100 

Digiweb are not counted am I right TBC ???