Rough Guide To E-Hubs (ATTN: Bertie)

dahamsta

How to embarrass the country:

German chamber slams Eircom

How to improve the country:

UK Treasury provides €39m windfall

adam

nahdoic

An excellent little article there adam. Mr. Lissek, sums up a lot that is being discussed on this forum.

He added that it is also ironic that Ireland is continuously being pitched by politicians as an e-commerce hub yet no broadband facility is available in the country.

"And if the prices being proposed by Eircom are accepted by the Office of the Director of Telecommunications (ODTR), nobody will be willing to pay them," he said.

"Maybe the Government should forget about Stadium Ireland and focus on issues like the provision of broadband technology at a reasonable price," Mr Lissek said.

ObeyGiant

...while Eircom said it will take [the ODTR] office to court if she tries to impose a pricing regime on the DSL services.

Now.. forgive my ignorance, but surely the point of having a "Director of Telecommunications Regulation" is so she can.. regulate.. telecommunications.
Can they really take her to court for doing her (government-appointed) job?
Or did they word this badly?
Or am I an idiot?
Or all of the above?

dahamsta

An excellent little article there adam. Mr. Lissek, sums up a lot that is being discussed on this forum.

Word for word IMHO nahdoic. Everything Mr. Lissek says has been said on this forum time and time again. Yet the media, who visit this forum, have spectacularly failed to investigate the issues and present them to the public.

Is it because we're not figures of public note? What's the difference between Mr. Lissek and Elena Kehoe pray tell, aside from obvious, uh, biological differences? I never even heard of Mr. Lissek before today, but lo and behold, when he opens his gob, the press listen. Why? The facts remain the same.

Is it because the figures can't be backed up? No, the prices for DSL Europe-wide are available with a few clicks of the mouse. And if anything, the percentage differences quoted by Mr. Lissek erred on the side of caution. For example, I know for a fact that Eircom Solo is almost exactly double the price of BT's equivalent product in the UK for the first year (IEP£1500 V IEP£750). And that was before Eircom put the prices up.

Is it because the topic isn't of interest to the public? I don't see why - the DSL farce is only a small part of Eircom's continuing bid to screw the Irish public out of hard-earned cash, but even sticking with that, anyone paying more than £20 a month for their Internet connectivity is being bitten by Eircom, because of their ongoing resistance to supply flat-rate or DSL access, wholesale or retail. That's not news?

I don't get it. I know of one reporter in particular who visits this forum and knows all the facts. And they are facts. So tell us Karlin, why aren't we reading about this in great detail in the Times? Or for that matter, on Wired? Is it your editors fault, do they not think it's interesting enough? Because I can make it interesting...

adam

P R O F A N I T Y

i just like to make note, this is the first time ive actually seen the true, vat included prices in print.
they forgot to mention eircom will soon increase those prices by around 10 euros.

the wholesale price doesnt include vat btw, i think that what they meant when they said eircom was charging the same for retail as wholesale.

basically they are saying make you money out of the vat, which is total bolox.

NB for those that dont know, companies dont pay vat

seamus

Armed with something like that, there is absolutely no comeback/excuses for eircom

PiE

Maybe we should contact Mr. Lissek and let him know there are others who feel the same way, if he doesn't already know about IoffL like?

Having Germany backing "The Cause™" would be pretty good

Bard

IrelandOFFLine ... supported by... this company... that company... these individuals... oh yeah... and the nation of Germany...

sounds good to me!