IrelandOffline to meet Noel Dempsey and the DCMNR

damien

IrelandOffline got confirmation this evening that we are meeting Noel Dempsey and the DCMNR on Fri December 17th. We only have 30-45 mins with him but it's a start.

Will keep you posted with more details.

eircomtribunal

damien.m wrote:

Will keep you posted with more details.

P.

damien

My report is almost ready to send out. I just need some facts rechecked. Overall though I think we all felt it was a very productive meeting and the Dept are very keen to hear the opinions of the consumer. It's amazing really that we were able to meet the Minister for Communications and yet we still haven't met a ComReg Commissioner.

damien

Meeting with Noel Dempsey and the DCMNR, Fri Dec 17th 2004

Present were:
Minister Noel Dempsey (DCMNR)
Tony Barrett (DCMNR)
Jennifer O'Hora (DCMNR)
Damien Mulley (IOFFL)
John Timmons (IOFFL)
Gareth Pelly (IOFFL)

We began with an a brief history of IrelandOffline and where we are now. We spoke of the progress in communications since IrelandOffline started and we then spoke about the current issues: problems with broadband coverage, the poor eircom targets , the deficit compared with other countries, the rural divide and how we cannot rely on eircom solely to provide for the country's communications needs.

We raised the matter of consumer problems such as pricing and the 12 month contract lock-in. We also pointed out that the uptake for broadband worldwide in the past 12 months was 54% (according to a Point Topic report) so the high uptake figures being touted for Ireland are not that unusual.

We spoke about LLU being the way forward and that prices needed to fall further and that the number of steps in the LLU process also needed to be reduced. We stated that LLU is broken and it needs to be fixed. All the assets are there and can be used if LLU works.

On ComReg, we informed the Minister that they had no formal complaints structure in place which meant that there were no complaints being upheld. We pointed out that ComReg (from what we could gather from our FOI requests) had never fined eircom or others for any complaint from a telco that was upheld. Even with the platry 3500 euros fine, the symbolic gesture of fining for a breah and for using their powers to the maximum never occured.

We continued by stating that the ESRI report that was due out on Tuesday 20th December which we had an advanced copy of stated that regulation in Ireland was failing. The Minister spoke about proposed new legislation to be implemented in the new year which would address the lack of powers ComReg had.

We also talked about the lack of openess from ComReg and the serious difficulties IrelandOffline has had with getting information from them. We highlighted how we managed to get a meeting with the DCMNR and the Minister easily and contrasted with ComReg who did not send their commissioners to meet us. We stated how it took months to get answers to our queries from ComReg and so we went the FOI route where we were guaranteed info within 4 weeks.

We raised the matter of FIA and the lack of a definition for it. On VSAT we clearly stated that it was not an alternative way of getting broadband. It was not any good for VPN and other business applications. We stressed that it should be a last straw type alternative. The DCMNR stated that it was an EU initiative to push VSAT so their sat network could be used to it's full potential and be another method of providing broadband.

At the end of the meeting we invited Noel to our next seminar too, whenever we get round to planning it.

oscarBravo

damien.m wrote:

We spoke about LLU being the way forward

One way forward, surely?

damien

Ooops yes. I wrote that badly. I did tell the DCMNR that it was one way forward though. LLU is not the only way, no one solution is.

Paddy20

Congratulations to you all. Excellent example of pro-active intelligent campaigning. Only good can come from that meeting .

P.

SkepticOne

Well done. Sounds like a very productive meeting.

LFCFan

Was the issue of Ducting in new estates brought up?

damien

LFCFan wrote:

Was the issue of Ducting in new estates brought up?

Nope. We might have to meet with Dick Roche about that. I think Moriarty or someone from the commmitte is looking into this issue about ducting.

Judge

You've provided a lot of detail as to what you said and while it's great that you got this opportunity and made the most of it, I think we would all be more interested in what Dempsey said in reply to each of your points. Did he say anything at all of interest? If he didn't/couldn't give a reply while you were there did he undertake to revert at a later date?

jwt

That’s a good question but hard to answer


The meeting was scheduled as 30-45 min long it ended up being just short of an hour because of the positive dialogue.

It was a meet and greet meeting getting to know faces sort of stuff and laying out of respective positions.
So I for one wasn't expecting the Minister to be asking for group hugs after every astounding revelation we made about telecoms in Ireland

For a lot of the stuff listed above such as our history etc. there wasn't much need for a comment from anyone it was a statement of facts.

Unfortunately a lot of the depts comments were off the record, and it would be unethical and unprofessional of us to divulge them but they were mostly positive from our perspective.


For a lot of the points we made there was much nodding and note taking but no comment per se. But there again no one got all defensive and pouty.

There is an initiative starting mid January, we are being asked to get involved/comment etc but again that is for the Dept to make public. Once they do which I expect to be over Christmas New Year then we'll probably start a new thread for that.

I know this isn't the kind of info you are all looking for but take our word for it, this was a positive meeting, some bridges were built and we hope to capitalise on this in the future.

But while I'm here, I'm going to have a rant.

Damien, Gareth and I took time off work, travelled into Dublin at our own expense. We spent time preparing for this meeting. I spent time arguing against VSAT and when I got home I read on boards comments made about the man whom I have been talking to. Thanks guys, that really really helps.

Some of us are making serious time; money and family sacrifices to get IOFFL recognised and treated as a mature professional body that people take seriously.

Then you read boards and feel like a complete fool.
Please read the charter stickied at the top of the forum.
If you can't make your point without calling people names, don't bother making the post. Otherwise there’s no point in us meeting people and departments trying to get stuff done.

I personally felt like a complete TIT! afterwards. To be honest if it was me the sitting in the top chair I would have said F**K them! And blown us off till hell froze over.

This is not aimed at any one individual, it is aimed at everyone, me included. Either we do this in a professional courteous and mannerly fashion or I for one will not bother my backside dragging myself out of bed at 6:30 on a Friday morning to help people who don’t want to be helped.


John

Judge

jwt wrote:

That’s a good question but hard to answer

The meeting was scheduled as 30-45 min long it ended up being just short of an hour because of the positive dialogue.

It was a meet and greet meeting getting to know faces sort of stuff and laying out of respective positions.
So I for one wasn't expecting the Minister to be asking for group hugs after every astounding revelation we made about telecoms in Ireland

For a lot of the stuff listed above such as our history etc. there wasn't much need for a comment from anyone it was a statement of facts.

Unfortunately a lot of the depts comments were off the record, and it would be unethical and unprofessional of us to divulge them but they were mostly positive from our perspective.


For a lot of the points we made there was much nodding and note taking but no comment per se. But there again no one got all defensive and pouty.

There is an initiative starting mid January, we are being asked to get involved/comment etc but again that is for the Dept to make public. Once they do which I expect to be over Christmas New Year then we'll probably start a new thread for that.

I know this isn't the kind of info you are all looking for but take our word for it, this was a positive meeting, some bridges were built and we hope to capitalise on this in the future.

Thanks. I can fully understand that you don't want to reveal information given in confidence - you want to build a relationship with these people after all. The original post though gave an impression that all the dialogue was one-way traffic - it's good to know that they at least indicated that they were listening and it wasn't going in one ear and out the other. Do you think this might increase your chances of getting a hearing with ComReg?

jwt

we've already met ComReg, just haven't met a commissioner yet

We had agreed with ComReg to continue with another meeting sometime in the new year and we are keen to continue a dialogue with ComReg.

John