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up-to-date articles on flat rate??

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  • 27-02-2002 11:42pm
    #1
    R_Tribesman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 221 ✭✭


    i type keywords into the search engine in yahoo and i get list of stupid out of date articles from like 3 years ago about iol no limits
    can anyone give me some links to articles about flat rate and broadband in ireland instead of those rubbish 3 year old articles


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    #2
    Xian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 301 ✭✭Xian


    As ever, Karlin Lilington in the Irish Times is the only place to look for informed opinion. From the beginning of the month:
    http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2002/0201/3774550802BWNET1.html
    For many - consumers and small to medium-sized businesses that don't need a big "pipe" for sending data - simple unmetered access would transform their use of the Net.

    An interesting fact that emerges in the FT article noted above is that 40 per cent of the British internet user market pay for unmetered access. Forty per cent! That's a significant slice of the total market and demonstrates strong demand for such an offering.

    British regulator Oftel believes this is an important service (indeed, it is the norm in the US) and appears ready to force BT to change its wholesale pricing structures to make it more attractive for competitor ISPs to offer always- on access to consumers as well.

    The Republic is sorely in need of a similar offering and regulatory approach. Perhaps nothing would better address our market's shortcomings in the immediate term than to introduce a flat-rate offering (once we were very near being the first European state to offer unmetered access but, alas, Eircom lost its nerve and backed away, only weeks short of introducing it).

    But pushing for unmetered access is slightly tricky. Proponents, which include many senior technology industry figures here, are cautious about having the Government and telecoms companies seize on the notion that a flat-rate offering could be a replacement for driving broadband access forward.

    However, I think flat-rate access should be an immediate priority for two reasons.

    One, it at least begins to address the ridiculous situation we have, where staying online for any length of time begins to inflate one's phone bills to daunting levels. Offer flat-rate access and people's ability to make full use of the Net will begin to soar.

    Introducing flat-rate access also helps create the consumer and small business broadband market that Eircom keeps arguing isn't there.

    Flat-rate take-up in Britain surely indicates a potential interest in higher-priced, always-on broadband services - if only they were available.

    And for many people, flat-rate access at a reasonable price for provider and user will be perfectly satisfactory, at least in the short to medium term. Supplying flat-rate access to the market is a positive step that could happen immediately and would bring some air back into the current stifling situation.
    Who are the "senior technology industry figures", though?


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