ComReg falls short on broadband, states report

eircomtribunal

"ComReg falls short on broadband, states report


10.12.2004 - The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) is not meeting the terms of a Government broadband policy directive issued earlier this year, siliconrepublic.com has learned.
The telecoms regulator had been mandated to report to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on the progress of broadband rollout. In March of this year the previous minister, Dermot Ahern TD, had directed ComReg to use regulatory and enforcement tools where necessary to bring Irish end-user broadband usage and availability to at least the EU average excluding accession countries by the middle of next year.

However, according to documents obtained by the telecoms lobbyist Peter Weigl and seen by siliconrepublic.com, the regulator is supporting its case by using figures and definitions that differ from the terms set out in the directive. However, the figures remain well below the EU average.

In its submission to the Department dated 12 October ComReg reported: “Overall coverage levels for access to broadband now exceed 75pc and are in line with the European average as outlined in the March 2004 Policy Direction.” This statement, however, referred to broadband coverage, not end-user access to broadband, which the directive had specifically requested. Coverage implies a theoretical take-up as opposed to actual usage of DSL by consumers. Earlier this year it emerged that less than 50pc of the 1.7 million phone lines in the State are capable of carrying DSL, which is the main technology currently used for supplying broadband connections.

The ComReg submission also stated that the “present target of 100,000 by year end will be achieved. This will then represent around 6.25pc of lines”. Weigl claimed this does not meet the department’s directive either. The EU broadband penetration rate referred to in the department’s directive was based on broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. By that measure, 100,000 broadband connections translates to 2.5pc of the country’s inhabitants. The equivalent EU average in the middle of this year was 7.22 broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, Weigl pointed out. “This is no end-user broadband usage figure and should not have been used in this context at all,” he said.

Weigl also questioned why the figure of 100,000 became a target for ComReg when this was a figure first set out by Eircom. In fact the former state telco last month undertook a major publicity campaign highlighting the fact that it had reached 100,000 broadband subscribers ahead of its own schedule.

ComReg had no response to make when contacted for comment.

By Gordon Smith"

see http://www.comwreck.com/blog_34_dec9.html


P.

Slutmonkey57b

I'm SICK AND TIRED of people talking down Irealand... talking down Comreg in this forum. Comreg has met or exceeded ALL the targets Eircom have set it, and are investing in Eircom's shareholders at a rate far exceeding any other european regulator.
Who are we to complain?

RicardoSmith

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

I'm SICK AND TIRED of people talking down Irealand... talking down Comreg in this forum. Comreg has met or exceeded ALL the targets Eircom have set it, and are investing in Eircom's shareholders at a rate far exceeding any other european regulator.
Who are we to complain?

1. Why would Eircom set the targets for Comreg?
2. Why would Comreg invest in Eircom shareholders?
3. Does this make any sense at all?

SkepticOne

RicardoSmith wrote:

1. Why would Eircom set the targets for Comreg?
2. Why would Comreg invest in Eircom shareholders?
3. Does this make any sense at all?

There might be an element of satire in his post.

Slutmonkey57b

Satire:
taking the piss out of McRedmond's recent "interview"
1: eircom set the "target" of 100,000 lines that Comreg likes to boast about as an "achievement".
2: Comreg's decisions at times seem to have more to do with protecting eircom's monopoly, granting inflated wholesale and retail pricing structures, and generally lining eircom's pockets than anything else.
3: Oh and also that Comreg is funded out of eircom's gross revenues. So yes, what incentive does Comreg have to cut eircom's revenue? Nada. Quite the opposite in fact.

eircomtribunal

SkepticOne wrote:

There might be an element of satire in his post.

But again, reality beats satire hands down.

1. ComReg has totally made private company Eircom's goals its own: In its response to the Minister (about its progress to achieve the goal of lifting Irish end-user Broadband usage to at least the EU-15 average by mid 2005, i.e. achieve a penetration of above 8 bb subscriptions/100 inhabitants, or above 320 000 bb subscriptions by mid 2005) ComReg writes:

T h e present target of 100,000 by year end is achievable if...Reaching t h e target of 100,000 will take Ireland to... T h e present target of 100,000 by year end will be achieved..


2. ComReg seems eager to please Eircom on its demands to access into the mobile networks, when ComReg completely failed to open access of others into Eircom's network.
Good news for Eircom shareholders indeed:

See RTE business:

December 10, 2004 19:30
ComReg plan worth €150m to Eircom?

Davy Stockbrokers has predicted that Eircom stands to benefit from communications regulator ComReg's plans to trigger more competition in the Irish mobile phone market.
ComReg*said on Thursday it was planning to open the networks of Vodafone and O2 to outside competition in a bid to give better value to consumers.
In a note on Friday, Davy analyst Jack Gorman said it had proven difficult for Eircom to re-enter the mobile market so far through an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) deal. An MVNO piggybacks on an existing network to offer mobile services.
Gorman said that if Eircom captured a 10% share of the market - as had happened with MVNOs in other countries - and prices fell by 25%, this would equate to revenues of around €150m.
The analyst said this would add 9% to Davy's existing forecasts for Eircom. But he pointed out that this understated the potential impact, as an MVNO presence would also enable Eircom to manage the switch from fixed to mobile phones more effectively.

P.

RicardoSmith

SkepticOne wrote:

There might be an element of satire in his post.

Bit to abstract for me!

eircomtribunal

"Press Release for ComWreck.com 12 December 2004

Regulator ComReg deliberately and substantially mislead the Minister for Communications in its formal response of June and September 2004 under the March 2004 Policy Direction.
In March 2004 Minister D. Ahern directed ComReg to use regulatory means to increase Ireland’s enduser Broadband usage and availability to at least the EU-15 average by mid 2005 and to report back on the progress end of June and end of September.
Documents, received under FOI, clearly show how ComReg, who is completely failing to achieve the modest goals of the ministerial Direction, gave false and misleading information about its (lack of) progress in three ways:

1. In its responses about end-user Broadband usage ComReg does not compare the Irish end-user Broadband usage with the equivalent EU-15 figures. ComReg instead tries to divert attention from its regulatory failure by supplying misleading sets of figures.
In the June reply ComReg merely (wrongly) states that “Reaching the target of 100,000 will take Ireland to a penetration rate of around 3%.”
Correctly they should have stated: “Ireland has currently a Broadband penetration (“Broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants”) of 1.59, compared to the EU-15 average of 7.22. If not more than incumbent Eircom’s goal of 100 000 subscriptions are achieved by year end, then this will give us merely a Broadband penetration of 2.5, which would see Ireland firmly stay at second last place in the EU-15 league table.
In the September reply ComReg states: “The present target of 100,000 by year end will be achieved. This will then represent around 6.25% of lines.”
Correctly they should have stated: “By reaching 100 000 Broadband subscriptions by year end 2004 Ireland will have a Broadband penetration of 2.5, which is way below the EU-15 average of over 8.”
ComReg’s use of the “6.25% of lines” figure, which is no end-user figure, can only be regarded as a desperate trick to confuse the Minister about the lack of progress to reach the goal of the March 2004 directive.

2. In its response about end-user Broadband availability ComReg states: “Overall coverage levels for access to Broadband now exceed 75% and are in line with the European average as outlined in the March 2004 Policy Direction.”
This is a twofold misrepresentation of the facts (a big straightforward lie).
Broadband (end-user) availability in Ireland is below 60% of population. Average (end-user) Broadband availability in the EU is above 80%. It is 100% in NI.

3. In both responses ComReg refers to the proclaimed broadband goal of private company Eircom as t*h*e* goal! To have 100 000 broadband end-users by end 2004 is not t*h*e goal for ComReg set in the March 2004 Directive. To reach the EU-15 average end-user Broadband usage, the goal set for ComReg, Ireland needs to have in excess of 320 000 broadband users by mid 2005.

Conclusion: ComReg is in contempt of the March 2004 Policy Directive. ComReg does not successfully use its regulatory means to bring Ireland up to the EU-15 broadband average. And ComReg deliberately misinforms the Department of Communications about its failure.

---

Read the complete story and see the FOI documents on ComWreck.com, direct link to the article “Three Blind Mice” is here: http://www.comwreck.com/blog_34_dec9.html
We have included a table to use for ComReg’s next feedback to the Minister about progress with regards to the March 2004 Policy Direction. This table comes in handy for TD’s and journalists to ask the Department of Communications about Ireland’s Broadband progress.
See the Siliconrepublic article on our findings here: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news4a.nv?storyid=single4184

More about why Communications regulator ComReg is the main cause for Ireland’s Internet and Broadband failure on “It’s the Regulator, Stupid”, direct link is here http://www.comwreck.com/blog_35_dec10.html
This is a must read if you want to understand the situation we are in. You will look differently at ComReg after reading this article. And it has nothing to do with playing the blame game, but all to do with getting the basics right when planning the future.


Peter Weigl for ComWreck.com
tel. 094 96 30867
email: johndoherty@comwreck.com"

P.