IrelandOffline Encouraged By Unbundling Announcement, Urges Continued Progress

dahamsta

###BEGINS###

[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

IRELANDOFFLINE ENCOURAGED BY UNBUNDLING ANNOUNCEMENT, URGES CONTINUED
PROGRESS

DUBLIN, IRELAND -- November 12, 2001 -- IrelandOffline, an independent
pressure group that garnered major media attention last week when it
scheduled a controversial "Blackout" protest for this Friday, said today
that it is encouraged by this weekend's announcement of a groundbreaking
agreement between Esat Telecom and eircom plc. The 150-page contract
between the rival telecommunications companies allows Esat to place
equipment in Eircom-owned exchanges, a key step in the Local Loop
Unbundling process that will eventually enable Esat to offer services on
eircom's telecommunications network.

"Our membership is very enthusiastic about the announcement," said Adam
Beecher, acting PRO of IrelandOffline, "particularly our Limerick members,
for obvious reasons," a reference to mention in the announcement that a
Limerick exchange will be the first to see Esat engineers and equipment.
"However they have demonstrated admirable understanding of the process,
with regular members of our busy community forum stepping forward to point
out that this is just the first tangible step in getting local loops
unbundled. It's absolutely a landmark step, but we still have some work to
do."

One cause for concern for the group is the apparent lack of progress in the
negotiations for wholesale bitstream pricing for eircom's i-Stream DSL
product, a standoff that has stalled the rollout of eircom's retail
product. Bitstream agreements, which require eircom to develop wholesale
versions of their retail product for resale, are seen by IrelandOffline as
a crucial ingredient in bringing competition to the marketplace, and have
proved highly succesful in the UK, with over 150 providers reselling
Britich Telecom's DSL products.

IrelandOffline also contends that a rapid rollout of retail and wholesale
unmetered dial-up products will be a key factor in raising Internet access
levels in Ireland, and that an added benefit of availability will be a
boost to the take-up of broadband services. To support this claim, the
group cites a recent report* by market research firm Analysys, which says
that in the UK, unmetered services "will have a significant market for at
least five years, and that [it] will not delay, but rather promote, the
spread of broadband, by effectively building up and preparing a user base
ready to take broadband services."

In response to comments made by the director of the Small Firms Association
on Thursday, Beecher said, "I was surprised and disappointed by the
director's failure to project the long-term results of the IrelandOffline
initiatives, particularly as I operate a small business myself. I'll be
taking my own business completely offline on Friday, with the objective of
sending a clear message to the telecommunications companies and the
government. However we're only asking companies who will not seriously
damage their businesses to take part. There are other ways to protest, as
outlined on our website."

He also stated that eircom's assertion that their "call charges are among
the cheapest in Europe" was probably factually correct, but that countries
like the UK, Germany and Spain now have flat-rate services, and no longer
charge per-second fees for Internet calls. "These services scale," said
Beecher, "and there is no technical reason why eircom couldn't roll out
flat-rate services tomorrow. IrelandOffline is not asking for miracles or
handouts, just fair products for fair prices, in-line with the rest of
Europe. But we do need these products made available soon. The delays are
holding the whole country up."

For more information on the IrelandOffline Blackout, please visit the
support website at http://blackout.irelandoffline.org.

* http://www.analysys.com/Articles/StandardArticle.asp?iLeftArticle=926

ABOUT IRELANDOFFLINE

The IrelandOffline users group, initially formed in response to Esat
Fusion's abrupt decision to cut off 2,000 subscribers of its "Surf
NoLimits" program, is campaigning for affordable flat-rate and high-speed
Internet access services for all of Ireland. As part of that initiative,
Ireland Offline has already had meetings with Esat Fusion, the ODTR,
Minister Mary O'Rourke, Eircom and other government members and telecoms
companies; and recently organised a seminar in Dublin with all of the key
parties involved - a first for any such organisation. The group currently
represents well over 1,000 Internet users, and this number continues to
rise daily. For more information on the organisation, please visit the
IrelandOffline website at http://www.irelandoffline.com/.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Adam Beecher
+353 (0)XX XXX-XXXX
xx@x.xxxxxxx.xxx

Elana Kehoe
xxxxx@xxx.xxx

###ENDS###

dahamsta

Extra points if you spot both the spelling and the grammatical error. Doh!

adam

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Two in the same paragraph.......

Bitstream agreements, which require eircom to develop wholesale
versions of their retail product for resale, are seen by IrelandOffline as
a crucial ingredient in bringing competition to the marketplace, and have
proved highly succesful in the UK, with over 150 providers reselling
Britich Telecom's DSL products.


Successful is spelt w/ 3 "s" and obviously it looks like you are calling British Telecom a female dog:p


Still lookin for the gramatical error:)

When am I bestowed w/ said points of browniness:p

oscarBravo

"Our membership is very enthusiastic about the announcement," said Adam Beecher, acting PRO of IrelandOffline, "particularly our Limerick members, for obvious reasons," a reference to mention in the announcement that a Limerick exchange will be the first to see Esat engineers and equipment.

Should be "a reference to a mention", surely?

I want brownies too!

MS

Nice one mate. Hey its great when you cant spell and know nothing about grammer. I understood all that perfectaly hehehe

Esat to place equipment in Eircom-owned exchanges

I wonder how Eircom are 'really' going to react to this ? hehehe



MS

dathi1

the irony of it all!! The Small Firms association had a massive 2 page comercial report in the Sunday Buisness Post this weekend. Topics included Tax, banking, SMe survival plans in the new economy. Low and behold who had sponsered this report....Eircon!! with a 1/4 size box in the corner explaining to SMEs how to use the ineternet to improve your buisness conectivity.