ENN: At long last, broadband hits Ireland

dahamsta

http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=7204018

Wednesday, April 17 2002
by Matthew Clark

After more than six months in regulatory limbo, Eircom's i-stream ADSL product will finally become available, it was announced on Wednesday.

ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) technology from Eircom will let users connect to the Internet through an "always-on" connection, at a substantially higher speed than what is available through ISDN or normal dial-up connections.

Eircom's service was originally set to launch in September 2001 but within days of the official roll out of the product, the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation held up the service, claiming that the company's wholesale rate was too high. Originally Eircom wanted to charge a one-time activation fee of EUR125. The monthly consumer rental for a single connection was EUR99 and wholesale rental was EUR75 for the 512kb/s service.

After months of negotiation with the ODTR and other telecoms, Eircom has now agreed to launch the service at a much lower wholesale monthly cost of EUR49. But the once-off connection cost has gone up to EUR350. For a 1Mb/s connection, Eircom will charge other operators EUR79 per month with a connection fee of EUR350.

"We are very pleased to have found a solution that is workable both from our perspective and from the ODTR's perspective," explained Majella Fitzpatrick, public relations manager with Eircom. Fitzpatrick said that prices for its i-stream retail DSL product will be announced next week.

Eircom claims that over the next two years it will make ADSL available to 1 million consumers in Ireland. Initially, the service will be available to 500,000 customers in Dublin through 35 unbundled exchanges. The company says that over the next few months, it will unbundle a further eight exchanges in large cities and towns including Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Tralee, Killarney and Westport, making ADSL available there before the end of the year.

Fifty-seven more exchanges are set to be opened up to Eircom's competitors by the end of 2003 and in total Eircom says that its investment in ADSL in Ireland will amount to EUR125 million.

In a separate announcement on Wednesday, the ODTR also said that its other long-standing disputes with Eircom had been resolved. Most significantly, the ODTR said that Eircom intends to discontinue legal proceedings launched in 2001 against the regulator's office in relation to the reference interconnect offer (RIO) and local loop unbundling.

Eircom and Etain Doyle's office have been in the midst of a bitter dispute over unbundling for months. In this dispute, similar to the ADSL dispute, Eircom was accused of charging prices to other operators that were too high for them to offer competitive services.

But now the two combatants have come to an agreement whereby some LLU prices will rise and others will fall, and according to the ODTR "overall, they represent a reduction on the current charges offered by Eircom." These new rates are retroactive to 31 March 2001 and on average they are 13 percent below current levels.

The basic wholesale line rental charge will rise from EUR13.53 per month currently, to EUR16.81 and Eircom says the new price is a vindication of its position on LLU all along. "We would still be of the view that it is too low and we still question the validity of the whole unbundling strategy," Fitzpatrick explained. "After all, the loops have been unbundling for well over a year and there has been very little demand."

And although the price for line rental has gone up, other fees have been dramatically reduced, such as site surveys, which has led to the 13 percent reduction in overall LLU charges.

"I am very pleased by these developments which I believe may indicate a more open approach on the part of Eircom's new management," Etain Doyle said, referring to Philip Nolan, the new chief executive of Eircom. "With these old items out of the way, all industry participants can now concentrate on the real business of serving the consumers, both business and residential in 2002 and beyond," Doyle said.

dahamsta

"We would still be of the view that it is too low and we still question the validity of the whole unbundling strategy," [Majella] Fitzpatrick [public relations manager with Eircom] explained. "After all, the loops have been unbundling for well over a year and there has been very little demand."

Unbundled for well over a year my arse.

adam

chernobyl

€350 connection fee....doesnt that make Educom look cheap?

dahamsta

Uh, no? Have you seen Educom's security deposit? Sure, you get it back when you terminate service, but you still have to lash it out to get started. Anyway, that's a wholesale price, the OLO's will probably absorb/subsidise it.

adam