Would you take part in the proposed IrelandOffline BLACKOUT ?

FatTony

Great idea lads,

Can you post details on how it would be done exactly? I might be able to feature a piece in the Voice magazine. It's the Union of Students in Ireland's magazine and is distributed to all colleges in Ireland. I'm the Technology Correspondent and would be interested in maybe putting a news piece together on the blackout if and when it goes ahead. If anyone wants to send me details you can email me from the link in my profile. Good luck with it and I'll be checking in to see how it's going.

Seeya,

FatTony

Matfinn

Lo all, Apologies for the lateness, But ill stay offline for the blackout. Btw, could we put up a site on AERTEL. Have a talk with RTE or something. Just a thougt.

God bless

Matt

Terran

After what they did, the cheap-skates, they deserve to lose thousands of customers and pounds.

popinfresh

I think we should find out their e-mails,and start sending hate-mail to them! cheep bástards

Evil Phil

Right, I'm changing my vote to yes after their errorcom.com response :mad:

How do I get more involved with Irelandoffline?


[later]
Ok, I've been to the site and subscribed to the mail list. Linked from my site and started posting to this forum. That'll do for now
[/later]

MS

Count me in too.

When does it start ?

Ohhhh and can someone point out to errorcom that Caller ID is not available to ISDN users unless they get a Digital Phone from Eircom @ £120 :rolleyes:

Have to say i really love that Site

Giblet

The blackout will fail because in no way is it gonna make a difference. Eircom have always sucked, and theres no reason for them to do anything as long as there making money.
Stupid molesting Modem connection I HATE YOU.
A petition to BERTIE

Dear BERTIE
how ye
look man me and me mates want fast porno websites
the ol' granada men n' motors aint d best.
so get onto EIR-CON and ask them will yiz give us the ASSDIL
or DVDA or whatever
Schweeer!

ANTO

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Giblet
The blackout will fail because in no way is it gonna make a difference. Eircom have always sucked, and theres no reason for them to do anything as long as there making money.
Stupid molesting Modem connection I HATE YOU.

Error^H^H^H^H^HEircom are a very image concious company - look at the way they sponsor everything including the weather on RTE. I believe they do this mainly to stay on the good side of policy makers. What they don't want is a group, even a small group, questioning the quality of the services they provide and their almost total dominance of the marketplace.

I agree that Eircom don't care that they (allegedly) suck. What they care about is that people don't shout about it in public and that the attention of politicians might be drawn to the fact that we have basically sold the bulk of national communications infrastructure to a consortium of international financial interests. What has been protecting them up to this point is the 500,000 small shareholders. Politicians would have been reluctant to take action against this group for fear of losing votes.
I see signs of things changing, though. In today's Sunday Times we have a comment from Frank FitzGibbon about the rise in handset rental.

Laughable line from Eircom

EIRCOM has managed to deliver a final kick in the teeth to its customers before disappearing from the investment radar. The rental charge for handsets is being increased by a massive 34%, from IR£1.10 to £1.475 per month. The company says the price change is necessary, "to cover the associated costs of providing this service". This excuse is so laughable that whoever dreamt it up should ask for a job in RTE's comedy department.

Once a phone is delivered to a customer, that's it. The set spends the rest of its life on a table or desk. As far as we aware nobody from Eircom's customer service department ever makes a house call to find out how the phone is being treated or whether it needs to be cleaned or even upgraded. No, this is simply a ploy to add another £6 million or so to Eircom's profits. Because inertia means most people continue to rent rather than buy, this monopolistic dinosaur continues to take customers for a ride.

[Emphasis mine]
It is refreshing to see articles about Eircom that don't centre around shareholders or Dallas/Dynasty soap opera speculation about takeovers.

Digi_Tilmitt

Originally posted by popinfresh
I think we should find out their e-mails,and start sending hate-mail to them! cheep bástards

I have one of theie addresses, I'll post it up when I get back into my hotmail.

Giblet

hate mail this should be a larf

Bard

Originally posted by popinfresh
I think we should find out their e-mails,and start sending hate-mail to them! cheep bástards

whatever...

but don't do -THAT- on IrelandOFFLine's behalf!

Giblet

it's probably not recommended doing it on boards.ie 's behalf either it is :)

gandalf

Just to add my voice. I will not be using the internet or land line for calls that whole weekend.

BTW have Irelandoffline considered a common protest letter that people could download edit with their name and details to be sent to local TD's, councillors, the media regarding the issues and giving them the urls to the Ireland offline site etc. Just a thought but I reckon it would work quite well especially as TD's are now looking nervously at a Election in the new year.

Gandalf.

Giblet

THAT is a great idea, good thinking

but we have to get the right people to send it too
no use sending it to a low end TD who has no say
and is the lapdog of satan

we should try to get the letter out to as many irish people as possible for them all to join in

now to create a big hotmail mailing list of irish members and...............SPAM

gandalf

No it should be sent to your local TD by post (you know that thing that you have to put in a letterbox), the more he recieves the more it starts playing on his mind, remember election coming up. Yes everyone should snailmail it to Mary O'Rourke, Bertie Ahern, Michael Noonan, Ruiri Quinn, Mary Harney as well. Don't forget local and nationwide media organisations as well. I have no problem spending a few quid on stamps (well as I spend a fortune on internet access a few quid more makes no difference).

So any1 on the Committee want to get a letter together ? I would do it but I think someone that is closer to the action will be able to convey what the goals are better.

Gandalf.

The Sweeper

How about sending a letter to eircom and cc-ing said letter to Mary O'Rourke and your local TD. Something like:

[eircom address details]


TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I am writing to confirm that I will be participating in the Ireland OffLine telecommunications blackout from [start date] to [end date].

I am participating in the blackout to express my frustration at the standard of telecommunications in Ireland. We are positioned as the e-commerce hub of Europe, yet I do not have access to telecommunications technology of the standard that is readily available in other countries throughout Europe and in the United States. It is my opinion that the reasons for the lack of quality telecommunications in Ireland are purely political and this lack of service is simply unacceptable.

I will refrain from using my telephone line for voice or data communications during the above specified time period. I wish that my refusal to avail of your service be noted as a vote of no-confidence in its standard of provision.

Regards



[name]

cc: Mary O'Rourke
cc: [Your Local TD]

And then it should have a bit here on the end saying 'for more information on the IrelandOFfline blackout please access blah blah blah...'




So there you go, that's my tuppence worth of suggest wording, any comments?

Ronan|Raven

Count me in definitly im sure that if enough people do this it can bring some major coverage etc etc

Ill also post a few signs up aout it in my college and talk to a few mates into going for it as well.

Bard

Originally posted by Ronan|Raven

Ill also post a few signs up aout it in my college and talk to a few mates into going for it as well.

Wait a sec...

before posting any signs up, wait until it's actually 'announced' as an IOFFL event...

with the proposed date of the Blackout 2 weeks away, this announcement should be coming fairly soon...

(oi, Adam!) :cool:


What college are you attending, by the way, Ronan?

Lucifer

I'm In

dahamsta

(oi, Adam!)

Funny, this one just passed me by. Unusual that. Anyway, myself and Dave discussed this last night...

First of all, my apologies for the lack of info, and my apologies on the committee's behalf for the recent lack of input on the forums. We all have various, legitimate reasons, but I won't go into any but my own - I've just been too busy with work, and because of the lack of availability of other committee members, I had to prioritise IrelandOffline down.

But like I said, I had a chat with Dave last night, and we cleared a few bits and pieces up. We'll have an annoucement on the date for you shortly, but I should point out pre-emptively that it's unlikely to be the date I originally suggested, for various reasons, including the unavoidable availability problems with the committee. When we announce the date, we'll clarify the details.

And as it happens, I'm working on the IrelandOffline BLACKOUT website as I write this. Just putting the finishing touches to a first draft, and then I'm going to fill in the content, much of which I already have prepared. I'm even using Dreamweaver to accelerate the process, ok?

adam

dathi1

Hi Bard,
As you can see from my posts I`m involved with Pirate Radio. If you wish we can advertise the blackout across the whole spectrum of pirates as i have good contacts with most of them. Let me know what you think anyway. Dathi.

dahamsta

Jeez, wish I'd thought of that. Talk about hitting your target market! That'd be really cool dathi, I have no doubt we'll be getting back to you on that one.

adam

Bard

Originally posted by dahamsta
(oi, Adam!)

I'm even using Dreamweaver to accelerate the process, ok?

Well done that man! Good choice!

Originally posted by dathi1
Hi Bard,
As you can see from my posts I`m involved with Pirate Radio. If you wish we can advertise the blackout across the whole spectrum of pirates as i have good contacts with most of them. Let me know what you think anyway. Dathi.

Brilliant, Dathi... very helpful- thanks.

Send one of us an email ( niall@irelandoffline.net or adam@irelandoffline.net ) to discuss this further...

Mossy Monk

great idea. maybe those idiots may start to see some sense in all of this. i am in. woohoo!!!!!!!!

MS

And as it happens, I'm working on the IrelandOffline BLACKOUT website as I write this. Just putting the finishing touches to a first draft, and then I'm going to fill in the content, much of which I already have prepared. I'm even using Dreamweaver to accelerate the process, ok?

Adam

Cheers Adam....Nice One. Can u also let us all know as soon as it is up. As i said b 4 if i can help i will but i mainly like to just hang around in the background. So if u publish ways that people can help i will try my best ok

Regards,

MS