Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Did you know ADSL is not for the people?
Options
-
23-04-2002 1:06pm#1After years of trailing with home users, Eircom are finally about to release ADSL. But this time they have a new spin on exactly who ADSL is for, and its not for the people.
Philip Nolan (Eircom chief executive) has gone on the record (speaking to the Irish Times) saying:
"I've been concerned about the negative way things have been portrayed in the Irish Media, especially the reports that showed Ireland 36th in the league for DSL services"
"We have quite a good broadband infrastructure, and the only hold-up has been a regulatory problem. Very shortly we will have 500,000 homes enabled for DSL services"
In the article same article in the Irish Times, he also says "We've split our retail and network arms into separate divisions and we see regulation as a facilitator to going forward, with co-operation and professionalism and recognising the needs of both sides."
Nolan was head hunted by Eircom's chairman John Hahn, who is also head of Eircom's largest shareholder Providence Equity. Mr. Nolan is no stranger to negotiating with regulators. In his previous role as chief executive of Lattice, the owner of the UK's natural gas network he was involved when Ofgem was negotiating proposals with Transco (owned by Lattice) for a five-year price control mechanism for the pipeline operator. Observers described Nolan's temperament during negotiations "a little too emotional" and Ofgem was supposedly "mystified" by his reaction to proposals, which were widely seen as fair. He has also previously been involved in telecommunications as the driving force behind Lattice's £450 million move into provide low capacity (186k) lines using its infrastructure.
In the aftermath of the fence mending between Eircom and the ODTR, Mr. Nolan has also stated that he had not ruled our introducing a consumer product in the future. But he said the firm already had a number of broadband technologies including the now ancient ISDN service, which Eircom have recently lowered the price of to entice consumers who may view the I-Stream service as too expensive.
What Eircom have effectively done is once again deny the Irish consumer access to reasonably priced "true broadband" products, by making this product a business product and in doing so getting away with over priced offerings. The high wholesale price puts ADSL in Ireland firmly in the business niche and therefore lower sales volumes will be achieved. This, in turn, means that economies of scale will not be achieved and therefore costs per subscriber will be high. It is bizarre to see Eircom suddenly cut its wholesale ADSL price by 40 per cent when months ago it said a price cut would hit its profits. In aiming at businesses and preventing mass consumer take up Eircom can once again come out with the "lack of demand" argument they repeat mantra like when tackled.
With all the happiness and sunshine beaming upon the ODTR and Eircom the lack of flat rate product offerings appears to continue unnoticed. Esat have run out of steam in negotiating with Eircom, and need to focus on preparing products which the bitstream resolution has cleared the way for.
EU legislation, which was passed last September and will not be taken up in Ireland for at least 12 months was cited by Minister O'Rourke in the Dáil in response to Jim Higgins' call for a flat rate empowering amendment. Other regulators have interpreted existing legislation in a manner which allows them to force flat rate. The ODTR have not. The say they are all for flat rate, but even if they had the power to force it they tell us that they do not believe a licensed operator would offer it as a product as there is not sufficient "demand profile" for it. The ODTR is responsible for implementing the laws on liberalising the telecoms market mainly adopted at EU level by way of Directives and transposed into Irish Law by Regulations of the Minister for Public Enterprise. Against the advice of Forfás and the IT industry this Minister is not willing to give Irish citizens flat rate yet. One can only wonder why.
Meanwhile Eircom's per minute tariffs are protected and they are now lined up to throw scorn at the Government's plan to invest 300 million euros in broadband infrastructure throughout the state. There argument is pretty weak citing "there is a danger it will be competing with existing network and discourage further investment from the private sector", but what about the Irish people and their needs?
This is not from a newspaper!
0
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
Thank you MoleMann, nice to see you living up to your name!
The article is by me, and is one of a series of articles, still being written (Dahamsta take note
) for the new IOFFL site, you see it really does exist! There are quotes from other sources in there that will be acknowledged on the site.
MoleMann managed to talk me into him posting it today, seeing as the I-Stream prices were released. We still need assistance in putting the finishing touches to the site. Thank you to those involved in the design who have given feedback on it to date.
Dave0 -
-
Advertisement