Chorus sue government for €100 Million and get nothing.

spongebob

In the Times today , about deflectors.

Its not all bad news. Now they can restructure quickly and start installing Cable BB in Cork and Limerick before the end of next year. This was the biggest hindrance to doing that since they went under in February but now its gone .

Only Chorus' legendary ineptitude could stop the rollout now !

M

BrianD

They are also getting some competition. South Coast TV, a former deflector operator in Cork, has now got a licence to provide a 60 channel digital TV and radio platform for Munster. Interesting to see what other areas will get one. While very noble in its orgins the TV deflectors are ultimately a bankrupt idea (as were exclusive licences for MMDS operators) and have held up the development of our own indigenous digital delivery platforms. One wonders would we be further down the road with broadband delivery if this sector had been more competitive and allowed to develop.

spongebob

anybody can enter the cable TV and MMDS markets now (the latter dependng on spectrum around 2600Mhz - 2.6Ghz being available ) . The exclusve licences are gone.

thats why Magnet have come in with their offering . FM radio spectrum is a different ballgame though, nést pas Brian

M

BrianD

Certainly is Muck, mainly because it is used by radio stations and not much use for the provision of broadband or digital television services. It does however come under ComReg's jurisiction though. BTW who are Magnet and where do they operate? I understand that the SCTV licence is in the 12 Ghz band ... this may cause some consternation from Sky Digital who operate in the 10 Ghz band.

Moriarty

Magnet are a new company providing tv, phone and internet over FTTH to new housing developments (only in dublin I think?).

flamegrill

Moriarty wrote:

Magnet are a new company providing tv, phone and internet over FTTH to new housing developments (only in dublin I think?).

Pretty much magnet in a nutshell. They are looking at cork aswell atm I hear.

They seem to be quite forward thinking in their way of doing business. Instead of dealing with 1 infrastructure and looking at huge rental costs for colo in exchanges, why not just deploy your own fibre in association with building contractors. It makes sense.

Paul

Slutmonkey57b

Exactly the kind of competition we need.

BrianD

Did a google and found this article

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9567888.html

Looks like a good idea in theory but is it competition? You are tied to this operator for phone, bb and TV unless other providers are allowed lay their cables in the ducting as well. I have seen new apartment blocks in the city that have a group Sky Digital scheme - which means you are stuck with a high cost service. Having said that it is no more of a monopoly than other operators have enjoyed in the past.

thegills

Now they can restructure quickly and start installing Cable BB in Cork and Limerick before the end of next year

This has started already regardless of the decision. It will happen a lot sooner too methinks.

Slutmonkey57b

The prospect of losing line rental for entire new housing estates will at least give eircom an incentive to wire up new estates quickly. Horror stories of people waiting 9-12 months to have lines laid into their new build houses are not uncommon. And certainly there's no excuse for a new estate not to have perfect bb availability. As to whether it's "real" competition, you have a point. Still, it's better than waiting for LLU.