Policy on Internet Access and Broadband in Ireland

ciderandhavoc

Hello,

Its been a while since I've made comments in regards (or to) IrelandOffLine, since an "incident" which put me right off IOFFL.

Anyways, less of that.

I'm a member of fairly active member of a the Young Progressive Democrats (yes wow 8 seats - yes wow Mary O'Rourke losing her seat, she shoulda given us FRIACO!). I'm currently developing a proposed Progressive Democrats Policy Document on Flat Rate Internet Access and Broadband (as stage one and stage two steps currently.), (the two major issues I am currently thinking about are cost and availability).

I believe the PDs lack a direction in regards IT and Communications (unless it involves business really), but I hope to force a change, lowering the cost of internet access will encourage use, and would support the e-hub concept, and also the iminent e-government projects.

Anyways, as an informal request to IrelandOFFLine and Members of the forum as a whole, I would like some input from anyone interested. Any comments or suggestions you may have in regards this would be most welcome, I would have my own ideas too, but I would like to keep proposals as open as possible.

You can email me dave@youngPDs.org - I look forward to, and welcome your input. Perhaps post comments here too, so others can comment on them.

Regards
Dave Cochrane
dave@youngPDs.org
Young Progressive Democrats /
PD National Executive Delegate

carbsy

Dont be lazy and just expect people to email you. Have a good read through the various threads as all the information you need is there.

P.S. Excuse my rudeness , been a bad day

ciderandhavoc

I need to follow a particular procedure if the Policy Document is the be reflective of the views of those who CHOOSE to take part in submissions, I may need to follow up comments people make for clarification and get permission to quote from them etc.

So this sort of request seems appropriate. If you disagree, fine.

Really, I believe this is the best way. You dont have to email me or reply to this if you don't want to. I just want to get a wider view (beyond my own , and a handful of others already inputting).

Regards
Dave

dahamsta

Hi Dave,

I'd love to help out, but it would be a help if you could be more specific. I have no doubt that you have developed some ideas of your own, and I tend to work much better when I'm bouncing off someone else's ideas. Could you give us an idea of what you have in mind already, perhaps ask us some questions?

(I hope I wasn't involved in "the incident"? )

Thanks,
adam

ciderandhavoc

OK.

Well these are my own thoughts. I've not really fully worked out a "Terms of Reference" (ie; what the goal of the document should be).

But essentially I think that:

a) Government should actively take steps to promote the Internet in Ireland for citizens at large, rather than just school children (broadband in schools already) or business. As the Internet is a tool that needs to be available to all.

b) Local Loop Unbundling is an issue which needs to be dealt with immediately for the benefit of consumers, LLU is good for consumers by allowing proper choice in telecommunications and promoting proper, effective competition.

- the absense of the above puts Ireland at a competitive disadvantage in terms of access of essential resources for our citizens, and also attracting inward investment (remember Microsoft locating their callcentre in the UK, because Eircom could not serve their requirments).

this should be done by

- immediately mandate ODTR to deal with these issues as a priority, and empower (if necessary) them to deal with these matters with immedaite priority.
- dealing with the problems of delivering unmetered Internet access at reasonable cost in Ireland
- having a definite strategy for the availability of COST EFFECTIVE broadband accross the state by a specific (soon) date [certainly within the next 3-5 years.

the aims involved need to be dealt with by legislative means to make the telcos comply with the requirements of the irish of today, we can obviously see that they certainly won't do it themselves.

The government has already commited funds to the development of broadband, and also to e-goverment strategies - no proper idea of how this money should be spent exists (yet!).

The Communications Bill failed to deliver on this, so perhaps an amendment can be implemented (but really that will be up to the legislators).


So these are my 2am ramblings at the moment, I'm only starting to think about it this evening (first night off since election madness) and would welcome the input from anyone who is interested.

sceptre

I'd be interested in putting some input in. It'll be another week before I'm even willing to think about it (as I'm supposed to be studying)

topgold

You need to harvest the threads in the IrelandOFFLine forum and include them in the body of your evidence.

The government is taking steps to promote the Internet for its citizenry. The government also recognises that its population consists of a headstrong 30% that will not use the internet unless it infiltrates their lives at their points of interest. That means if internet functionality is on their phones, they might use their phones over the internet.

I believe the government should have dynamic fonts of information that describe how to draw down money for the provision of internet services. That would mean trawling places like boards.ie to plant helpful URLs that announce submission dates and information sessions.

It might be too late to pursue the fight for unbundling the local loop. Several regional authorities are building their own local loops by putting down ducting and fibre. Others are paying to install fixed wireless access. The government has put money into these initiatives. We need more of them, alongside first-person case studies that explain lessons learned.

dahamsta

[I'm writing this offline, so I can't reference your original post. Apologies if I duplicate previous commentary.]

Well these are my own thoughts. I've not really fully worked out a "Terms of Reference" (ie; what the goal of the document should be).

Surely the goal of the document should be to act as a party policy document for Information Technology? That would mean broadening the scope to include general economic and quality of life factors, but that's a good thing surely? No half-assed allusions and hints, but a detailed IT manifesto? The PD's would be the first to do so, unless FG finally see the light and redraft Ivan Yates' policy document of 2000.

a) Government should actively take steps to promote the Internet in Ireland for citizens at large, rather than just school children (broadband in schools already) or business. As the Internet is a tool that needs to be available to all.

I agree with you, but that's a goal, what about implementation? It's a tricky area: How does Government promote the Internet in Ireland? Does it head direct to market, and run advertising itself? I don't think so, the Government isn't particularly good at this, tending as they do to run over budget and often miss the point entirely. Or does it subsidise the operators and ISP's to do it for them? If you take that route, questions will - and should - be asked as to /why/ the Government would subsidise the promotion of a profitable industry? That leaves Regulation, but how to you Regulate something like this? Ok, I'm being Devil's Advocate, but this is the response you're going to get. Like I said, tricky.

b) Local Loop Unbundling is an issue which needs to be dealt with immediately for the benefit of consumers, LLU is good for consumers by allowing proper choice in telecommunications and promoting proper, effective competition.

Local Loop Unbundling is a long-term solution, and we should not be overly concerning ourselves with it. The Regulation appears to be well drafted, and the only important outstanding issues are sub-loop unbundling and pricing. We need to concentrate on short-term solutions. Those are: a) mandating flat-rate Internet access; and b) carrot and stick treatment of Eircom with regard to wholesale pricing. The first is obvious, the latter is necessitated by Eircom's local loop monopoly status.

Of course, that brings us full circle, back to LLU, but we have to look at the wider picture, and other markets: The UK has proven that LLU is going to take a long time to come to fruition, and I'm pretty confident that Ireland will actually outstrip the UK's unbundling program in the near future. Therefore I believe we should concentrate on tackling Eircom on their pricing of bitstream ADSL, and flat-rate when it is rolled out. Eircom's wholesale products are not cost-oriented, the rollout plan was finally facilitated by backroom dealing. Cost-orientation must be addressed.

The backroom dealing also needs to be addressed. We need to address problems in the marketplace with authority, not deals. With that, we come to the Commission, and I've stated my opinion on this before: Unless two hard-line Regulators are appointed to balance Etain Doyle's hands-off approach, nothing will change, because the Communications Bill hasn't provided direct authority. How likely that is I don't know, but if it doesn't happen, we need to come at tackling Eircom the hard way: with antitrust.

I believe I've covered the rest of your comments with the above, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

adam