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eircom price-sbp
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03-03-2002 5:38pm#1Another aritcal about eircons istream not as good as the times but its got the price wrong again!! do these people research what they write about or just read other peoples stories?
Technology
Get more internet bang for your buck
Adrian Weckler
Dublin, Ireland, 3 March, 2002
Will Ireland ever have mass market high speed internet? Maybe, maybe not.
Last week, British Telecom (BT) slashed the price it charges other operators for high speed Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections by 50 per cent, from stg£30 to stg£15. It had been under massive pressure to do so by the British telecoms regulator, the British government, other operators and internet customers.
Up to last week, BT said it couldn't afford to cut prices. Now it says it will make money out of the move. It also says that it is very important for a country like Britain to encourage high speed, broadband internet in the mass market.
Which puts some focus on Ireland. Is high speed internet important for us? Why don't we have mass market DSL yet?
There are two theories. One is that no one can make money out of DSL, which is 30 times faster than a normal internet connection and six times faster than ISDN.
The other is that Eircom is just trying to protect its other products, such as leased lines. DSL lines could undercut leased lines because they go a long way to meeting a broadband need for much less.
And Eircom controls the release of DSL because it owns all of the `local loop' -- the copper lines that connect residences to the main network. Although Eircom emphatically denies this charge, it unashamedly argues that it has a business to run.
It says that it is not in the business of losing money so that everyone else can have cheap and faster internet. But if BT can do it, why can't Eircom?
Eircom actually tried to launch a DSL product, iStream, before Christmas. However, the telecoms regulator, Etain Doyle, vetoed the move because she wasn't happy with Eircom's wholesale prices to other operators, which started at €85 per line. With iStream starting at €99 to Eircom's own customers, the regulator said the margins for other regulators were too tight. Three months later, despite `ongoing discussions', neither party will comment whether any progress at all has been made.
"Our concerns remain the same," said a spokesman for the regulator. "Eircom has not provided us with anything which would allay those concerns."
That leaves the wildcard option of wireless broadband. Doyle has publicly come out in favour of wireless broadband as a solution for the dearth of services on offer. But even if the service is launched, will consumers be willing to pay a minimum of €60 or €70 for the service?
Actually, there is one set of internet customers who may prove an unlikely saviour: pornography users. One thing about porn customers is that they will pay money for things over the internet. And it's a rock solid, guaranteed market. DSL or broadband gives them more bang for their buck. Video streaming is a good example. Gone are the tiny squares with stop-start motion. Hot tub images are bigger, faster and `live-cams' can keep up with the action (though I wouldn't know anything about this).
Until then, though, they'll have to keep getting their kicks on 56(k).
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