OECD figures for 2004

Blaster99

Ireland lagged far behind there also. There was only Eircell and they wouldn't sponsor phones, a practice available practically everywhere else in Europe, and uptake was dismal. People in general also looked down on anyone who had a mobile phone.

Blaster99

3G is another example, talking about mobiles. That's been around for a couple of years in most countries. I believe of all "3"'s licenses (9 I think), Ireland is launching last. We're in the technological backwaters of Europe, that's just how it is.

eircomtribunal

Blaster99 wrote:

Is that Eircom's fault? I don't think so. Is that the government's fault? Don't know. Do I care? Not sure.
They've tried to drum up usage by doing free trials, free equipment, and free connections, and from what I know of what's available internationally, they've tried more than most. I see and hear an Eircom broadband ad roughly once a day. If people aren't biting, perhaps people aren't that into it?

On the risk of being seen as arrogant: Have to thank you for your posts, which painfully remind me about the mindset of many of the people in decision making positions, who are responsible for fecking up Ireland's entry into the IT future.
P.

Solair

On the mobile phones point.

The launch and uptake of mobile phone services in Ireland has never really lagged. Eircell did take a little longer than most to realise that they needed to subsidise handsets. The UK operators were a bit ahead in that regard as they'd had been competing head-to-head since the mid 1980s.

Ready to Go on 088 was one of the world's first prepaid cellular products and practically pioneered the whole idea of handing someone a phone nicely presented in a box with a charger, phone number and 20 quid credit.

When digifone went live, things got a lot more compeditive again.. particularly after SpeakEasy launched.

Eircell launched one of the earliest WAP services and certainly the first pre-pay wap and GPRS products.

3G is most certainly not late by any means either.

"3" launched very very early in a number of markets (the uk included) but had incrediably poor uptake until recently as their network and coverage was even worse than the early days of meteor. They only started making headway when they did a national roaming agreement with one of the big UK networks (O2 I think) the same way that Meteor did here!

Vodafone 3G has been the first serious 3G product to hit the market and that went live in Ireland at the same time as it went live in all of the first markets that vodafone launched it in.

3 Ireland's about to launch anytime soon and

3G mobile's no where near an everyday product in any country yet. It's still about 12 to 24 months off.

O2 has been playing it very safe with 3G generally in all of their markets.. They're likely to launch a 3G service in Ireland fairly soon and have also licenced iMode from DoCoMo... so you'll see a very fancy equivlant of Vodafone Live! on O2s handsets in the near future.

Meteor's also been sneekily investing in EDGE ([font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution)[/font] equipment which will allow them to provide almost 3G-like products over their network without a 3G licence. Edge connects at up to 384kbps
it's a LOT faster than GPRS, but slower than maxed out 3GSM UMTS connections. It'll still fast enough to basically stream video though which is all that really counts for a lot of the services.

---

On other telecommunications first (even though we might not be cutting edge now)

We were one of the first 4 countries to move to a fully digital telephone network (even if some of the local switches were still electromechanical the entire trunk system went digital and many of the local switches too at a time when most of the world was still using "step-by-step" switching)

We've more cable tv penitration than practically anyother country in western europe (Except holland)...
It's a crying shame that neither NTL nor Chorus had the ability to do anything with it though.

University College Cork's www.ucc.ie is one of the first pages to have ever gone on the internet!

So, we're not THAT much of a backwater...

damien

UCC was the 9th website to go online. Archive of first webpage here: http://imbolc.ucc.ie/oldmenu.html

The guy who put it up visits these parts nowand then, don't you Peter?

SkepticOne

eircomtribunal wrote:

Naturally.
The Broadband penetration rate is merely the proof of the pudding, or a measure of the result of the level of end-user bb availability and competitiveness of end-user bb offers and thus a valuable means for comparing the state of a country's broadband development.

I think take-up is becoming a goal to be achieved in its own right for which historical and current lack of availability is seen as only part of the problem. Some are also arguing that if demand can be raised then this might also increase availability.

Solair

There's no question that demand has to be raised. The mobile phone industry's a very good comparison.

It's not too long ago that no one could understand what anyone would want a mobile phone for. Now most of the population couldn't imagine life without one and don't know how they survived before they had one!

That dynamic doesn't exsist in the internet market in Ireland yet. We seem to have a small number of people who see the point of broadband and a large number of people who can't see the difference between a 56K modem and a 2mbit/s DSL line.

I think there's also an overplaying of "the evils of the interenet" to some extent too. I know several parents who are terrified to let a PC inside their home.

jwt

Solair wrote:

I think there's also an overplaying of "the evils of the interenet" to some extent too. I know several parents who are terrified to let a PC inside their home.

Agreed.

And for anyone who is wondering how to combat this or trying to help others there is ONE simple rule that cuts out 90% of worries.

It doesn't cost anything.

It doesn't require any technical knowledge.

It doesn't require draconian rules in the house.



Simply make sure that the PC is in a public part of the house, the kitchen, front room, hallway etc.

That way little johnny is far less likely to go "exploring" the bad lands

Once little johnny realises that Mammy or Daddy could walk in the door or glance up at the screen at any moment with zero notice, nasty little thoughts aren't acted on, chat rooms are more easily monitored etc.etc.

Email spam is another kettle of fish, but thats a different days topic.


John

lucernarian

Sorry for the off-topicness of this but the fact that many parents are so suspicious of computers and especially the internet is a crying shame considering the near-unlimited potential of the good these two things can do.

John, in the last post is 110% right as it's a simple and very effective idea yet not many people I imagine would think of doing that. If awareness was raised of ideas like that then many parents' concerns would be resolved.

I'd even go as far as to say, seeing how this seems to prevent many families from using the internet, that IrelandOffline itself could highlight this issue on an official level. Just my 2 c.

Blaster99

Little Johnny checking out Eastern Europe's finest is a fairly minor worry in comparison to Little Mary getting chatted up by the local paedophile... In fact, come to think of it, considering the lack of porn availability in Ireland (I'm refraining from the term "penetration"...) you'd think every male would get broadband...

I'd say if NTL/Merril Lynch Cable Ltd ever got their thumbs out and delivered on the bs and offered TV, cheap VoIP, and BB, then people could get into it. Is there anything other than pigheadedness that's preventing Eircom from doing a cable service over landlines? How much bandwidth does TV need?

jwt

It takes quite a while for a paedophile to "groom" a victim, typically several weeks to a few months.

If in that time Mammy and Daddy are keeping a benevolent eye on the PC they will be aware of developing relationships. However it is not particularly easy to spot a paedophile in conversation with a minor as they are very good at pretending to be the minors own age group.

But at least Mammy and daddy will know that person x is chatting with their child and if at all concerned can take steps to ensure that their child is warned, told that meetings with people online should only happen with adult supervision and if extremely worried can contact the authorities.

Some useful links

Hotline for reporting child porn and offers advice about chat rooms etc

Internet advisory board Ireland Offers good advice, offers loads of links and are known to be very helpful assisting people to contact the relevant department

Barnardos Need I say more

Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland offer some useful services and are receptive to concerned parents

And just not to be all negative some child friendly search engines

Yahooligans

Surfmonkey

And some filtering software

ICRAplus

CyberPatrol

Cybersitter

Net Nanny


john

Cryos

Blaster99 wrote:

How much bandwidth does TV need?

Just going on terms of streaming images from the web 1800kbps or there about's is what we would stream images at. However it entirely depends on what your going to stream as in the size and lenght.

Moriarty

I think sky use 2mbit mpeg4 streams for most of the channels on sky digital, with sky news, sky one, the movie channels and 2/3 others being sent at 4mbit.