Good and Bad

Stonemason

To little things happend in the last 2 days one i was reading that sterling tabloid sunday world and in the middle there was a 5 page pullout about bertie and how great he is it listed all the things that if he retained his job after the election he would be doing this that and the other you name it Job/Hospitals/Armed forces/farmers/rural development ect ect every thing appart from broadband and comunications very disapointing.Secondly this is second hand but my partner said gareth o callahan was on the radio talking about broadband and apparently the callers were coming think and fast mostly the question was If the UK can have broadband then why the hell cant we.My partner also said that he had requested anyone knowing about this situation could they please e-mail him so feel free to vent your spleen to said DJ.



Stone

gandalf

What I am doing is basing my voting intentions on what the political parties are saying about this issue and so far FF are at the bottom of the list. Believe it or not I am vering towards FG at the moment, something I would never have done before.

Gandalf.

sceptre

G O'Callaghan sometimes gets his wires crossed but he seems to have a genuine interest in all things internet. I rarely listen to the piece but think it may be of real interest to people interested in techy things who aren't actually involved in or too knowledgable in techy things.

Might be an asset in getting the word out to the people (not just about IOFFL - about the whole issues of broadband and flatrate - as well as the general crappiness of the Net services in Ireland)

dahamsta

Someone sent me an email about this yesterday, so I wrote to Gareth last night. This is a slightly edited version (I had to change one little thing, which I'll explain at a later date) of what I wrote:

Gareth,

One of your listeners emailed me this evening to tell me that you were
asking about Internet access in Ireland. He said that you were hoping
someone would send you an email explaining the state of Internet access in
Ireland. I'm the Press & Public Relations Officer of an organisation
called IrelandOffline, which is essentially a group of small businessmen and
consumers campaigning for affordable Internet access in Ireland, and I would
be happy to do so. I'll try and keep it simple for your listeners, and I'll
talk only about products and services that would be of interest to SME's and
consumers, because enterprise can look after themselves. I'm also going to
use the UK as a point of reference.

In the UK, there are a wide range of services, such as DSL, cable,
satellite, metered and unmetered dialup, wireless, etc. The most important
ones for consideration here are unmetered dialup, DSL, and cable: because
they're by far the most popular; and because we don't have them. You know
what dialup is, but unmetered dialup is slightly different, in that you pay
a fixed fee every month for unlimited (within reason) connectivity, with no
call charges. DSL and cable are known to most as "broadband", and the common
definition of broadband is an always-on, high-speed, flat-rate Internet
access product; i.e. it's available as soon as you turn on your computer,
it's about ten times as fast as dialup, and it costs a fixed fee every
month.

As I said, we essentially have none of these at the moment in Ireland, bar a
few tiny exceptions. (Partial) unmetered dialup is available only to the
18,000 customers left on Esat's "Surf NoLimits" offering, which is no longer
available for subscription; and to customers in NTL's franchise areas. Cable
is available to only a few thousand NTL customers, because they have stalled
their two-way cable rollouts. Chorus have not rolled out Internet access
over cable at all, which is to be expected given Tony O'Reilly's links to
both Chorus and Eircom. DSL is currently only available on trials, however
very shortly - this week in fact - a retail product will be released by
Eircom, limited to Dublin areas.

It will be one of the most expensive DSL products available in Europe, if
not the world. BT has tackled Esat Fusion hard over profitability concerns
(caused by bad management and marketing), so it's unlikely they will start
selling the product to consumers and SME's. And there are very few other
competitors in a position to take up Eircom's wholesale offering, so Eircom
retains their virtual monopoly. It's also important to point out that
broadband on it's own will absolutely not gain a large market in the short-
to medium-term, not least because of the high prices, but also because of
the lack of an unmetered product, which would serve as a stepping stone to
broadband services. There have been reports on this, I can cite them if
necessary.

The Irish Government has left this whole subject to rot, and they are still
unable to grasp the simple concepts and ideas that are needed to bring
Ireland up to the level of other European states. When Internet access is
mentioned, they immediately start wittering on about broadband, as if it was
the unqualified answer to all our problems. Even this is problematical,
because they believe broadband and leased lines are the same thing, and this
means that they are thinking only of enterprise, and not consumers and
SME's. Making the Internet available to consumers is essential to the
progression of our society, and making it available to SME's is mandatory to
tackle our economic viability. We can't rely on enterprise any more, and
SME's have to be able to compete.

The Government's latest solution, which you may have heard of, is an
initiative to build fibre rings around most towns in Ireland, but all this
serves as so far is a demonstration of the ignorance of national and local
government. National, because there is no provision for how to get
connectivity from the fibre rings to homes and businesses, which makes the
entire project akin to flushing hundreds of millions of pounds down the
toilet; and local, because out of all the towns in Ireland with a population
of 1500 or more, only EIGHTEEN local managers replied to a consultation on
the project. The towns in the first phase of the project are there not
because they are the most viable, but because they are the only ones who
showed any interest.

All we are receiving is lies, deceipt and ignorance. Telecommunications
companies are lying to the press and so the public, telling them that they
are waiting for the Regulator to do something about the situation, when the
Regulator has made it quite clear that she does not believe it is within her
remit to do something about it. The Regulator is taking a reactive approach
to the marketplace, which is frankly ludicrous with the vast chasm of
competition we are faced with. And the Government wanders around clueless,
scratching their head and asking exactly the wrong people for advice. All
this time, George Soros sits on his vast wealth and lets his monopoly eat
into our society, and claw it's own throat out in the process.

You wanted to know about Internet access in Ireland, that's about it. It's a
shambles, and it shifts closer and closer to an unrecoverable position every
day. Unless something is done now, and I mean right now, this minute,
Ireland is going to find itself the poor relation in Europe in a few years
time. We're already been laughed at -- in five years we won't even be
noticed.

This is not hypothesis. It is fact.

adam

EDIT: Spot the spelling mistake and win a prize.

adam

b20uvkft6m5xwg

In terms of general cognisance of the issues, Fine gael (grandfather turning in grave as I write) have impressed in any dealings the committe has had with them. But having said that its always very easy to be very eager about about issues from the opposition side of the Dail.

As I said elsewhere, Olivia Mitchell amazed me at her understanding of things. Still wont vote for her though.

And yes Gandy, FF do seem to have the whole thing fairly waay up their árseholes.

sikes

deceipt thats not how you spel it!!!!!!!!!

whats my prize?

please say free dsl??

aidan_dunne

Adam, I heard Gareth O' Callaghan talking about this today on the radio as well and I e-mailed him this evening, basically saying much of what you said and also giving Ireland Offline a plug.

I'm sure IOFFL is bound to get a mention on his show if he receives both our e-mails, which certainly can't be bad to spread the message about Ireland Offline.

timod

Originally posted by dahamsta

.....which is essentially a group of small businessmen and
consumers....

[/B]

What about the business women?

(BTW, I really hate being the one to notice this....)

Tim

Dustaz

Great email adam, but i cant help wondering what the 'little thing' you edited out was:)

Mthor5

gareth o 'callaghan show.....where & when please....?

sceptre

Originally posted by Mthor5
gareth o 'callaghan show.....where & when please....?

Afternoons on 2FM. After Larry Gogan I guess, which would make it between 2 and 5?

Can't remember what time he usually runs his Net stories though

aidan_dunne

He does his "Net News" section at about ten to 4 every day. Sometimes a bit earlier so listen in at about 3.45 every day to catch it. And, who knows, he might read out either Adam's e-mail or mine in the next few days so listen out for it, folks. Should be interesting.

dahamsta

sikes said: deceipt thats not how you spel it

Well spotted sikes. I only noticed it after I'd sent it, which annoys the hell out of me.

And: whats my prize?

The prize is the honour of buying me a pint the next time IrelandOffline meets up. Cool, huh?

timod said: What about the business women?

I had a feeling someone would pick that up. As it happens, I was referring to the committee.

And: BTW, I really hate being the one to notice this

Keep fighting the good fight Tim, power to the females! Right on!

Dustaz, you should know better...

adam

drrnwbb

i didnt hear the bit on 2fm myself, my lazy mate who is *still* in college heard it. he told me that gareth mentioned that eircom have downsized their broadband dept. from 20 to 3.

dw

Dangger

IOFFL have had contact with 2FM and gareth o 'callaghan in relation to the show and his comments.

sikes

The prize is the honour of buying me a pint the next time IrelandOffline meets up. Cool, huh?

man i am honoured

the_corpo

"called IrelandOffline, which is essentially a group of small businessmen "


how small exactly? under 5 feet?

sorry 8)


good mails, btw

Dangger

Garteth continued the discussion today and laid down a challenge to Eircom http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48466