a small bit of info to compare

Dustaz

I just got back from Gran Canaria where i was on holiday for 2 weeks. While i was there a mate of mine from Dublin who now lives in Las Palmas (capital of gran canaria) came to visit us. Over a few beers he mentioned that he has DSL (1 meg/256 i think - hes not the most techie in the world) and he pays 30 euros a month for it.

Now its not the first time ive heard of other places having cheap dsl but there are two interesting facets about the whole thing. Number 1 is that Gran Canaria by and large is a tiny outpost of spain. Apart from tourism its basically just a big lump of volcanic rock in the atlantic that a tiny amount of people live on and yet they manage to have cheap and good quality domestic broadband.
The second is the way they are marketing DSL. Brian reckoned that they are pushing it very hard. When he moved into his appartment, he went to organise turning on the phone line. The telco (sorry, the name escapes me , but its the major Telco in spain apparently) informed him of DSL and altho hed never heard of it (he still calls it ASDL ), he ordered it because they pushed it so hard - They did a hard sell on it compared to 56k and ISDN. He doesnt know if a FRIACO deal is available because he was so impressed with the DSL he went for that. Now obviously the price was right for him, but i think it shows how a telco can push domestic broadband.

dahamsta

The telco (sorry, the name escapes me , but its the major Telco in spain apparently)

Telefonica?

adam

phreak

good holiday dustaz?

i was over in Gran Canaria in february and i noticed the same thing! How can a small island have way better technology for an affordable price whilst our small island is still back in the stone age?

pete

I'm no expert on comms or the canaries, but it might be because the majority of the population is quite centralised:

The Island has an area of 1532 sq km and a
population of 650,000 with 350,000 of those in the capital
city of Las Palmas.

So it'd be comparatively easy/economical/cost effective for a telco to roll out DSL to such a condensed population, compared to our situation. Or something

(Isn't the centre of the island pretty much a volcanic wasteland where nobody lives? A bit like leitrim, but with more volcanic ash..)

phreak

(Isn't the centre of the island pretty much a volcanic wasteland where nobody lives? A bit like leitrim, but with more volcanic ash..)

yes

PiE

Also, the Canary Islands are pretty damn rich due to the income from tourism.

SkepticOne

I don't think many people buy the economy of scale argument that Eircom sometimes use to excuse their high prices.

If you want another example closer to home, consider the city of Hull in England. Here the local phone company is not BT but Kingston Communications and actually started providing ADSL services prior to BT.

Urban areas are more cost effective than rural areas but, in Ireland we have plenty of Urban areas yet no competitive ADSL and at the same time, Eircom aren't making any commitment to provide ADSL outside urban areas. So why the high cost here?

TrickyKid

Originally posted by pete
I'm no expert on comms or the canaries, but it might be because the majority of the population is quite centralised:



So it'd be comparatively easy/economical/cost effective for a telco to roll out DSL to such a condensed population, compared to our situation. Or something

(Isn't the centre of the island pretty much a volcanic wasteland where nobody lives? A bit like leitrim, but with more volcanic ash..)

The point that this makes is that it should be a piece of cake to deal with Dublin then. Forgive my dublin bias, but the idea that Fianna Fail are now promising broadband to be subsidised for everywhere but Dublin just makes me laugh; If Eircom, NTL, Esat and Etain Doyle were forced to come up with a cheap (Circa 50 Euro) always on solution to be supplied to the vast majority of Dublin households they could do it within 6 months. Have grants available for upgrading lines (or make the charges tax deductible for end users) and the whole thing could be sorted.

At that point, then lets get cork, limerick, galway sorted. Then, lets move to smaller towns: By investing in Dublin, we get broadband moving towards critical mass; do it quickly, with a clear upgrade path in place, it'll dramatically restimulate the interest in the internet for both investment and comercial operations.

Where we are now is an awful place; where 6 months slide past without notice and where politicians make bland statements, and allow money to be chewed up by telecoms companies to provide leased lines... leased lines that are then charged astronomical rates for... god it's grim.

Mountjoy Mugger

Originally posted by TrickyKid

.. god it's grim.

It's more than grim - it's bloody frightening!