Seanad Broadband Bill

AlmightyCushion

Stan 10 wrote: »

I also e-mailed Shane Ross and got one back today from him thanking me for my support

Ditto that. I really wasn't expecting to receive a reply.

zonEEE

Same with me. He seems like a very nice guy who knows his stuff about broadband.

thebman

Got a reply too. I don't know if its an automated email. It could be but even so, at least he would have gone to the bother of setting up an automated reply to everyone that emailed him

Shows he knows something If he replied to us all individually then he would have at least skimmed our emails which shows he is taken our points on board.

Anyway, I know we all wish Shane the best with his bill and I appreciate his efforts as I'm sure most people here do. If it doesn't make a difference, well at least we can say we tried and the government can't claim they were not notified about the issue so it'll hopefully come back to bite them in the arse if they continue to just sit on theirs over this issue.

AlmightyCushion

I don't think they are automated. He definitely read mine. He responded to a point I made in my email. Nice guy, hopefully he manages to get others on board and sorts things out.

long_b

I would encourage anyone who has 5 mins to spare to fire off a mail to this fella ~ it would be in all our interests.

I don't see anyone else doing anything for us for the forseeable ...

rav1410

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I don't think they are automated. He definitely read mine. He responded to a point I made in my email. Nice guy, hopefully he manages to get others on board and sorts things out.

Yup, He defo read mine also, Couldn't believe it when I saw it, I though it was getting bounced back at me or something but just thanking me for my support.

Zaphod

Sen. Ross was interviewed on Saturday by Eamon Dunphy and the issue of broadband was briefly mentioned (about 49 minutes in)
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-rte-conversationswitheamondunphy.smil

As he says, the Seanad can be used to raise issues which the Dáil neglects. Please also email one of the other Senators listed above to ensure the maximum amount of support for the bill.

pro_gnostic_8

Mylow wrote: »

Do we know who the 24 senators were? ......... these guys seem to have their heads stuck in the sand.

I do hope that any member of the Seanad that votes against this Bill is named. Any Senator that does not support the Bill is a impediment to the future economic well-being and prosperity of the country IMO. Who do they think they are -- denying me and thousands of my fellow-citizens a modern Broadband service. Such people are the enemies of Progress. Such people should be named-and-shamed .............. I think we should be told who they are if the Bill is defeated.

Shiny

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

I do hope that any member of the Seanad that votes against this Bill is named. Any Senator that does not support the Bill is a impediment to the future economic well-being and prosperity of the country IMO. Who do they think they are -- denying me and thousands of my fellow-citizens a modern Broadband service. Such people are the enemies of Progress. Such people should be named-and-shamed .............. I think we should be told who they are if the Bill is defeated.

In all fairness when Shane Ross said this:

Senator Shane Ross: I move:

That Seanad Éireann deplores the failure of the Government to ensure broadband access in every home and business in Ireland.

What did he expect the FF and the Green members of the Seanad to do?

Agree that they deplore the failure of the government that put them in the Seanad only last year? I dont think so.

Read it all here.

thebman

Shiny wrote: »

In all fairness when Shane Ross said this:

What did he expect the FF and the Green members of the Seanad to do?

Agree that they deplore the failure of the government that put them in the Seanad only last year? I dont think so.

Read it all here.

There is no nice way to say you've been sitting on your arse and not doing your job on broadband.

It is a failure of the government. What is he supposed to say? I think we should build on the past initiatives? You need an initiative first. This government has done almost nothing on broadband and in fact are responsible for creating the monopoly of eircom in the first place and the toothless regulator to ensure the situation doesn't get any better anytime soon.

How do you tell someone that nicely?

Shiny

brim4brim wrote: »

There is no nice way to say you've been sitting on your arse and not doing your job on broadband.

It is a failure of the government. What is he supposed to say? I think we should build on the past initiatives? You need an initiative first. This government has done almost nothing on broadband and in fact are responsible for creating the monopoly of eircom in the first place and the toothless regulator to ensure the situation doesn't get any better anytime soon.

How do you tell someone that nicely?

Man I totally agree with Shane 100%. I was just trying to explain to
pro_gnostic_8 that it was going to get rejected by the Seanad as the
government has a majority there with the Green and FF members
combined.

pro_gnostic_8

Shiny,

I am aware that some Seanad members are Taoiseach appointees (around eleven if memory serves) and I also appreciate that they -- the likes of Dan Boyle et al -- are not going to bite the hand ............. etc., etc.

That does not exonerate ANY of them from not following their consciences and "Doing The Right Thing" for the future of this country! Let 'em stand up for the correct thing , exhibit a bit of back-bone, and not be a prostitute in return for a Seanad seat. The Moral Man should be prepared to forsake any blandishments of reward, and do what his heart tells him is correct.

Anyway, more to the point, I did say in an earlier post that the previous case was a "Motion For Debate", and that this instance this week is "A Different Class Of Animal" in that it is a Private Members Bill. Whatever excuses those that voted against last time around, there is no excuse acceptable this week. No hiding place this time around.

pro_gnostic_8

And you will note that I did NOT in any previous post condemn any of the 24 that voted against the motion last month.......... I do realise they were "Under The Whip"

This time it is somewhat different .............. there is no criticism of the FF/GreenParty Government in the Bill. Just a genuine call to get things moving once-and-for-all in the matter of proper Broadband provision in this country

Bros123

The whole problem regarding broadband including eircoms monopoly in this country is the politicians who's attitude is,sure what do they be wanting that oul internet for,sure they'd only be watching porn and why would we be wanting to pay for that when they can get it over the phoneline,tis grand as it is.
I asked at the door when politicians came a calling before the last election and the ignorance on the subject matter on all sides was astounding!

rav1410

Has anything happened with this? Wasn't it supposed to start this week maybe?

pro_gnostic_8

According to Shane Ross's blog ( www.shane-ross.ie) of yesterday, this is the state-of-play at the mo' :

"In advance of the publication of my Broadband Bill in the Seanad, I have learned that several telecoms operators intend to make major announcements in the coming days. It is thought that areas with speeds currently in the region of 2-3Mb broadband will soon have services offered in the region of 7-8Mb.
This may be proof that our campaign to improve broadband is having tangible results. But it is not reason for complacency. Thank you for all your emails and responses thus far, and keep them coming here or to shane.ross@oireachtas.ie. Your stories and suggestions have been hugely helpful.

Mylow

Well I got a response from Dominic Hannigan (Meath East)


Hi M**********

Thanks for your email.

I haven't seen the detail of the Bill yet, but I would imagine that it will be one that I support. Shane had a motion down on Broadband in December which I supported. You can view my contribution here:.....

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DZoom.aspx?F=SEN20071212.xml&pid=DominicHannigan


I hope that this is helpful.

Best wishes
Dominic


Senator Dominic Hannigan
Leinster House
Kildare St, Dublin 2
www.dominichannigan.com
01 618 ****

pro_gnostic_8

Well, fair effin' play to him. He seems a clued-up kinda guy.

Some excerpts from Senator Hannigan's contribution to the recent Broadband motionn in the Seanad:

"As a country, we are failing to keep up with the challenges of changing technology.

Half of all businesses in rural areas do not have access to broadband, not because it is not wanted, but because it is just not available................ It is not fair that we should discriminate against people or businesses in rural areas.

Some of the Minister’s response beggars belief. ................. It is a sure sign we have a dial-up Minister in a broadband age.

While we are moving slowly to provide DSL access to people and businesses in Ireland, in other countries the talk is about ADSL2 or fibre optic broadband. In Japan, 36% of subscribers are using fibre optics to get on to the broadband network. As a result, Japan has the best and most advanced high-speed access to the Internet in the world. The transfer rate in Japan is 100 megabytes per second, which compares to the best in Ireland of 5 megabytes per second. That is a twentyfold increase in the speed available for businesses in Japan. It is shockingly low in Ireland.

Senator Walsh stated earlier that things were great, but we are now 28th in the European league table for speed.

Broadband must reach people in many rural areas, but also in areas that are close to Dublin. Broadband was turned on only six weeks ago in Stamullen, which is a village only 20 miles up the road. Last year, I led a successful campaign to introduce broadband in Stamullen, County Meath. We were told initially by Eircom it would not have made economic sense for the company to introduce broadband.
Broadband is not just an economic equation about whether it is justifiable for Eircom. It brings other social benefits. ....................... It is like water and electricity. Until we treat it like that, we will not realise the benefits of broadband to the nation."


Heh heh .......... "We have a dial-up Minister in a broadband age"

AlmightyCushion

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

The transfer rate in Japan is 100 megabytes per second, which compares to the best in Ireland of 5 megabytes per second.

I'm pretty sure that's megabits per second. Big difference. Anyways they should be comparing on price not just speeds. Compare a €20 a month package here to what a €20 a month package is in Japan.

tullachBuí

I sent an email of support to Senator Ross and just got back a response. It feels good to know that it was read and he made a comment regarding something I had suggested, fair play to him for reading what must be a right heap of stuff.

galwaytt

did that, and got an email looking for more info on my contribution, too, so he's definately reading them.........

fwiw, I wrote to every member (30?) of Galway Co Co last June by email (via the co co website), and got 1 acknowledgement, and ZERO replies. 4 members had no email, so I posted hard copies. Of the 30-odd sent, 13 were bounced back as 'undeliverable'........so I printed and posted those, too.........

I then repeated the excercise approx.......3? months later.

Zero response. Nothing. From anyone, or any party.

They are a complete waste of time, and more importantly, tax payer's money.

Furthermore, some time after my 2nd missive, one of the councillors (Mr O'Tuairisc) I did write to, bemoaned in the Connacht Tribune on the lack of broadband in his area.

He should start by reading his post.......and responding to it.

thebman

The reality of the situation is the government is too arrogant to listen to the opposition and too incompetent to deal with the issue.

Anyone that would raise the issue that is in government seems to be keeping quiet in order to stay in FF's good books.

FF won't spend time on the issue because if they do, it'll be a temporary fix before people want more speed and even if they had a permanant fix, it would only fixing the problem they created in the first place by creating the monopoly that is eircom. There is no benefit to the current government sorting this issue out until everybody forgets it was their fault in the first place, then they could look like heroes, until then they'll just keep ignoring the issue and hope it goes away.

Of course its not going to go away, its only going to get worse as we fall further behind and companies have to pull out or not enter Ireland to do business because they can't communicate effectively without proper broadband coverage at a reasonable cost.

Irish consumers can't buy online from Irish Businesses and Irish business can't cheaply attract International customer bases without proper broadband coverage but this doesn't seem to upset the government. Maybe they are just happy we can't buy online as customs isn't catching everyone and they don't want to miss out on taxes.

Zaphod

If anyone needed an incentive to support Ross, then the Minister for Bebo and Facebook provides it in spades during this interview on Morning Ireland

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0211/morningireland_av.html?2335463,null,209

gmb

I see the Bill has now been published.....

http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/300/read-my-broadband-infrastructure-bill-2008-here/

BarryM

Zaphod wrote: »

If anyone needed an incentive to support Ross, then the Minister for Bebo and Facebook provides it in spades during this interview on Morning Ireland

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0211/morningireland_av.html?2335463,null,209

... and what about his performance last night on PrimeT? in the face of chapter and verse in the report before and almost aggressive questions from Little and with Shane Ross across the table?? He just waffled. Docherty from ComReg clearly indicated where they stand (alongside Eircon....) and the only interesting bit was Ryan saying TE shouldn't have been sold.... but nobody thought to ask him why he continues the mistake......

Here - http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0816.pdf

you'll find the 'justification' for Ryan/Docherty's waffle and why Shane's efforts will be in vain. Viz. 'the results of ComReg surveys, undertaken by independent researchers, show that 58% of respondents using Internet have broadband....' just wait for that quote....in your local meja from a ComReg press release.

Now, what we need is ACTUAL data that shows the surveys are WRONG!! without it were pissing in the wind, the meja are already confused by the data and last night's 'red areas' stuff won't have helped. Again the only interesting bit about red areas on the BB map is, according to Ryan, it will be updated by actual on the ground tests..... WHEN?? Even Mark Little asked how could the areas with supposed BB be right when their interviews showed they were wrong....

Can we organise a proper survey.... have we already some data, we need to go to war on this, otherwise it will continue to be a shambles, despite the best efforts of Shane R.

Bye, Barry

thebman

I don't think they could have given us a better example of why we need Ireland Offline to be restarted.

We need someone with the time and dedication Damian was able to give to the project to get involved so that we can actually have a non-fud representation of the truth on these matters.

So Comreg actually showed up to Prime Time did they? That makes a change as when Ireland Offline was around they refused to show becuase they'd be challenged.

This is pure propaganda by the government and it must be stopped because average Joe doesn't understand this stuff and thinks all is well while our "knowledge economy" goes down the toilet because the government thinks that we can use Transport 21 to transport data. Even if we could, the trucks would still hit the bridges somehow.

BarryM

I don't think, in fact I'm sure that Damien won't be 'resurrected' but is there somebody?? I'd be happy for one to roll in alongside any effort but don't think my expertise is enough to run the show.

What about the idea of the survey? I copied it over to another thread on here, but as yet nobody has reacted.

I'm convinced there are enough people on here who would be willing to react and provide the data and that the date would be more realistic than anything ComReg produces. The main thing is that it must be real, i.e. as comprehensive as we can make it, and no rants..... Just the truth.....

As I said, I lack the tech know-how to set it up but will be happy to publicise it everywhere I can so that we get the best response.

Bye, Barry

long_b

Had a very nice mail from Mr. Ross saying how this was defeated on the 22nd IIRC.
Not surprising given the current climate, but definitely disappointing.

jor el

I got that email too. He's not giving up though, and he's going to re-submit it.

Sponge Bob

Mentioned elsewhere on Boards last week including

1. Who said what
2. Who voted against it
3. Their email addresses

A few others like Joe O Toole and Fergal Quinn are praiseworthy for their comments .

see

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055404929

Ryan, what a complete moron Eamonn Ryan is as a minister of communications

.ryan. To give an example of how one must sometimes be careful around the statistics in this area, I will pick up one of the threads of the Bill. The definition of the broadband penetration rate is set out as the number of subscribers per 100,000 members of the population, the common statistical analysis used in the OECD and EU reports within which we are compared internationally.

The OECD does not recognise that 3G is Broadband ( too flakey) is broadband and it would disallow Clearwire and Ripwave too if told what they were and what they fail to deliver. Anyway it is clear, 3G is OUT in OECD stats .

These platforms , together, account for 270k subscriptions in Ireland , over a quarter of what Comreg recently announced.

Back to Ryan who ' knows' what OECD stats are.

.ryan. I will give some background information on how one must be careful with the reality behind statistics. We have a population of 4.339 million and the latest figures for the end of quarter two of 2008 show we had 1.054 million subscribers.

The OECD stats do not include 3G connections Eamonn. It is not allowed.

You just deliberately LIED to the Seanad by including 3G subscription stats in that figure of 1.054m subscribers and the link below is where you got that figure of 1.054m subscribers

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/PR100908.pdf

Let me finally quote Senator Dan Boyle ( Green) for you

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is sufficiently energised in pointing his Department in the right direction in fulfilling this policy goal. He has enough commitment and knowledge of the subject to ensure the goals are met. It is not facetious to say that he knows in computing terms the plural of “mouse” is “mouses”. He is the one Cabinet member with a knowledge of how particular technology choices in this area work.

I ****ing hate Greens