IOFFL's Chairman's Report

Dangger

Full report available at IrelandOffline site.



Chairman’s Report

When I stepped up to fill the former chairman Martin Harran’s IrelandOffline had already come far in establishing itself as a voice for the home and small business users of the Internet in Ireland. However after Christmas, statements made at our seminar last August began to haunt me, specifically that there was no reason why flat rate could not be available by Christmas. Well Christmas came and went and it was no surprise to most of us that nothing had changed. So after an admitted lull, we decided to ramp up our activity considerably and once again meet with all the involved parties including many we had not yet had an opportunity to meet.

Our strategy was simple and contained two strands:

· To raise awareness, politically, socially, in the media, and with industry.

· To hold detailed discussions with the telecommunication sector players to uncover barriers to our objectives, and to apply pressure.



Lobbying Group

I’d like to start with a synopsis of the work Howard Brittain did as head of the lobbying group. On March 15th Howard had a meeting with Jim Higgins of Fianna Gael. He was extremely receptive to our campaign issues and to the importance of flat rate dialup and broadband. Evidence of this was seen during the debate of the Telecommunications Bill 2002 when Jim Higgins and Brian O’Shea of Labour both tabled a flat rate amendment to the Bill. Howard also initiated early contact Nuala Ahern MEP, he provided information to her and asked her to raise specific questions at an EU Industry committee meeting, which she did. In later meetings she relayed the answers to her questions to Deutchse Telecom at the meeting, and told us she was offered a meeting with them to discuss it further. Howard also met contact with the Irish Chamber of Commerce to raise the issues. Myself and Howard met Forfás and the Small Firms association together to talk with Pat Delaney. After a tough start we won him over and he ended with an offer to IrelandOffline to speak at the Small Firms Association conference in November. Howard also spoke with the Lord Mayor who showed great interest, and he spoke out at the launch of the Dublin.ie community portal on the lack of a flat rate dial up product.


“New Connections Plan”

On the 21st of March this year we met with the Department of Communications to discuss the governments “New Connections” plan to investigate benefits for home users and small businesses. Our initial reading of it did not impress us much at all. Home connectivity appeared to be covered just with a hazy statement that 10mbit connections would be the norm in every home by 2005. Schools and libraries appeared to be the only community beneficiaries.

Local Authorities were approached by Forfás and invited to build fibre rings around their towns, which would be funded by the Department of Communications. Each towns ring will be connected into the national back bone and capacity will be sold at cost price by a “neutral operator”, which will buy capacity at bulk from National and International carriers and resell it to local authorities.

As these local networks (metropolitan area networks) are open access and licences should not be exclusive, any service company should be able to provide voice telephony and Internet access combined, on competing technology platforms. Fixed-line operators, mobile operators, cable service providers and wireless operators would all have access. This would permit the use of the rings by local ISPs or wireless operators allowing them to provide a service in the area, making LLU more viable. Although not directly mentioned in the report, the Department mentioned that such a set up would be possible.

The goal is to bring up the rest of the country to Dublin’s standards. But even in Dublin where we are encircled by fibre, service costs remain high, for example the DSL service that has been rolled out is the most expensive in Europe. Also Local Authorities are not happy to become telco’s themselves as we discovered from a Dun Laoghaire – Rathdown head engineer. We also learnt that a certain Dublin local has spent €80,000 on a feasibility study to determine if they actually need broadband in their area!



ODTR

We covered various issues with the ODTR on our April 9th meeting including subloop unbundling, digital television, bitstream ADSL (ADSL had not yet been released), and FRIACO. On the ADSL we said we felt that Eircom was aiming for a "business niche" in it's pricing. This would mean that they were limiting the volume of their sales and therefore economies of scale would not be achieved.

We were assured that Eircom would have to justify their wholesale prices on the basis of cost orientation and ensure that a 'margin squeeze' did not occur. The fact that Eircom's proposed pricing did not comply with both these principles is why the October launch was delayed. Well as many of you may be aware it has recently been reported that since Eircom’s I-Stream ADSL launch in May of this year they have only had 900 installations, and Esat around 100.

I’d like to quote Soula Evan from our Seminar last August when asked by Martin how she felt DSL would take off in Ireland: “How much is going to take off, I would like to see it taking off hugely, and this is the biggest thing that will happen between now (August) and Christmas in Ireland, with the Internet in Ireland.” No surprises here either I’m afraid, and to date they have just signed up about 900 customers, a large proportion of which were trialists.

Once again on the issue of flat rate we came up against a wall with the ODTR in this meeting. They repeated that they were all for flat rate but could not do anything until an operator made request and asked for intervention if their negotiations with the incumbent faltered. We had recently uncovered and had translated detailed technical and legal documents from AGCOM the Italian regulatory authority who had mandated a flat rate product because they felt the market demand was not being met. The ODTR said they would investigate this, but felt that an operator had made the first move in this case.

Then the ODTR offered a little advice, they suggested that IrelandOffline lobby the operators should they wish such a flat rate service to be introduced. So we began to do just that and try to discover what had caused such discussions to falter previously. We began with Esat.



Esat

With Esat on the 11th of April we learnt that they were reviewing the existing 18,000 customers on a monthly basis, and there was a potential for more or all to be cut still. Nevertheless, ESAT believe that there is demand for the product and that it is financially viable given the appropriate FRIACO deal from Eircom. FRIACO negotiations have never technically stopped although Eircom have consistently frustrated them to the extent that Esat cannot afford to keep resources on a project that does not appear to have an early conclusion in sight and where the timeframe is not in their control. I’d like to add here that as with all our meetings where we issue reports, the report is cleared first with the party involved so we can use these comments in our lobbying efforts.



The Communications (Regulation) Bill, 2002

Deputy Higgins commented during the debate on the 18th of April that his email was clogged and his fax jammed with people calling for a flat rate amendment to the bill. The proposed amendment read:

”The Commission may require an operator to provide other operators with bitstream services and flat-rate interconnection services and set prices for these services. The Commission may exercise this power at its own initiative, or at the request of an operator”.

The Minister proposed adding instead text in a different part of the bill about "encouraging access to the internet at reasonable cost to users".



National Digital Media Conference

After I spoke with the National Digital Media Conference on the 1st of May, I had an opportunity to speak with Les Harris CEO of Nevada Tele.Com on the issue of flat rate. He confirmed that if a wholesale product was to be made available he believed that the demand was sufficient for it to be economically viable. Nevada Tele.com are the network operators for UTV Internet.



Department of Communications

After we supplied what we call “The Italian Situation” translated documentation to the Department of Communication we were invited in for another discussion on the 3rd of May. We were told that they had been given a brief to investigate access models throughout Europe to see what had been done to introduce products where demand was evident but for whatever reason was not being met. We were also brought up to speed on the development of the Telecommunications Bill 2002 and we asked direct questions about the refusal of the then Minister to adopt a flat rate amendment to the bill. We’re also interested on getting a definition from somebody as to exactly what the Department consider to be “affordable Internet access”.

Dangger

continued from here

Community Groups

On the 15th of May of I attended a roundtable talk with community and voluntary organisations and their use of the Internet. It was an interesting insight into the difficulties faced by a wide range of community groups in using the Internet in their organisations. Cost of Internet access was deemed to be one of the inhibitors. The groups I had contact with were interested in the existence of IrelandOffline as many volunteers had come from countries where flat rate was the norm and could not understand why it was not available here. There is an opportunity for forging greater ties with these groups in the future, which could be of benefit in having IrelandOffline appeal to a wider audience.



UTV Internet

Myself and Michael Megan met with various ISP’s including Connect Ireland to hear of difficulties they face in their provision of services to customers in their dealings with the ODTR and the incumbent, and also to determine if they feel a viable market exists for a flat rate product. On the 12th of June I travelled to Belfast to meet with UTV Internet. They told me that they regard entry into the south as a potential gold mine for them, however they have limited resources and cannot engage in a lengthy battle with Eircom for the release of a flat rate product here. As has been shown in the past with Esat, even larger companies have run out of resources trying to get it released.



Brussels

IrelandOffline went to Brussels to attend the EU hearing jointly held by the competition commission and the information society commission on the 8th of July.

The hearing was to hear from the both the incumbent operators and the new entrants or OLO’s as to what were the problem’s with local loop unbundling, as to date in most EU states it has had a very low rate of success. The overall tone of the hearing was bleak with the new entrants giving evidence in each of their markets as to tactics employed by incumbents making it impossible in some cases for them to compete against them.

Only 900,000 lines have been unbundled across the EU, 200,000 of them in the last 5 months. There is a 100% difference in the monthly unbundling fees charged with a charge of €8 in Denmark against a €16 charge in the UK. The once off fee has a 400% difference across the EU with a charge of €20 in Spain and €80 in Italy.

Overall the message from the OLO’s was that the challenge is to neutralize dominance and promote innovation. All incumbents must be forced to treat all operators the same by means of intrusive regulation. Light touch has proven to be useless, with all operators being equally disadvantaged. The OLO’s all agree that local loop stripping is the only way to go, it would mean that regulatory withdrawal would become a realistic goal.

I did not make any public statements at the hearing itself however I had arranged to meet separately with many of the key speakers the following day. I did introduce myself and my cause to some speakers on the day.

On speaking to Christian Hocepied of the EU Competition Commission he was aware that there was movement on FRIACO in Ireland and that he knew I was meeting with Peter Rodford of the EU Information Society Commission. He told me to start with the with Mr. Rodford of the Information Society Commission I should start with him, and if things had not progressed by September he has offered IrelandOffline a meeting with the Competition Commission in the Autumn.

My meeting with the EU Information Society Commission coincidentally occurred on the same day that IrelandOffline, the Department of Communications and Esat made presentations to the Irish Information Society Commission. Peter Rodford and Maria Stafilidou who were present at the meeting were travelling to Dublin the following day to investigate for themselves how Ireland was progressing, so it was good timing to meet with them and have a word in their ear from the consumers point of view.

At the beginning of the meeting it was stressed to me that the Commission due not intervene in the regulation by the States but do examine problems on a case-by-case nature to investigate bottlenecks. During the meeting the importance of the greater co-operation between the ODTR and the Competition Authority was covered. Both attended a workshop in Brussels last March covering working together in the future to tackle problems in the regulation of the telecom sector. The ISC were extremely interested to hear the points of view of the consumer as ultimately regulation was intended to provide a better deal for the consumer. I informed the ISC of the FRIACO movement and suggested they could investigate on their arrival in Dublin the following day.

We also discussed the implementation of the 5 new frameworks which are to be introduced by July 2003. The are based on competition law and “non-discrimination” is an important element. Non discrimination is how OFTEL mandated the release of FRIACO in the UK. Come July 2003, the ODTR will have a far greater range of remedies to apply to the market when it sees fit. In his speech at the hearing, Peter Rodford spoke openly about the failure by National Regulatory bodies to act on their own initiative. He flagged it as something to improve upon in the future. He stated that “NRA’s should be able to intervene and ready to intervene in cases”.



Recent Events

During my trip to Brussels I had an opportunity to speak with the ODTR and Esat about the recently announced FRIACO meeting, which was signalled in the press top take place on the 9th of July.

IrelandOffline have learned that two operators have recently requested FRIACO from Eircom.

Esat on the other hand have assured us that they are serious this time about getting FRIACO released.

Since the first meeting I have received a message from Etain Doyle confirming that the ODTR is facilitating exploratory discussions between OLO’s and Eircom regarding their requests for interconnection for a FRIACO type service. It is our understanding that Eircom had until last Wednesday to respond to the request, and we shall shortly learn if FRIACO is to become a reality of if we are to see the negotiations move to the legal sphere.



Wireless rumblings

Finally, being listed as the contact for IrelandOffline I have of late received more and more emails from companies talking of a wireless roll out plan. It has gathered momentum with two companies in particular very close (one in four weeks) to launching a residential service for in or around €40 a month for 512access with low latency (suitable for gaming). We have been sceptical of these companies and our dealings with them in the past however, I’m confident we are about to see offerings from them very shortly. One company in particular has given me detailed plans of its planned roll out, and it looks promising.

Dangger

Um thanks for that...... what was I thinking!

BoneCollector

Nicely detailed Report:
Well documented and Lottss!! of Nice Info!
But i`m sure you left a comma out some where? I`ll have to go back and check!
Lets keep up the pressure!

jd

Originally posted by Dangger
I’d like to start with a synopsis of the work Howard Brittain did as head of the lobbying group. On March 15th Howard had a meeting with Jim Higgins of Fianna Fáil

Fine Gael actually

Dangger

YIKES, glaring error, now fixed thanks jd. Would he have spoken otherwise?

aidan_dunne

IrelandOffline have learned that two operators have recently requested FRIACO from Eircom.

Well, I hope this will open Eircom's eyes and make them realise that FRIACO is wanted and needed in this country. Surely if two operators have now requested FRIACO Eircom will not be able to fob them off with excuses for much longer, I hope, and realise that they are going to have to offer it.

Esat on the other hand have assured us that they are serious this time about getting FRIACO released.

They'd bloody better be! They've pi$$ed away too much time on these stalled negotiations with Eircom so they'd better get their $hit together and really push for it this time. To this day I still can't understand why they continued with these negotiations when it was obvious they were getting nowhwere when all they had to do was go to the ODTR and make a request from them when it was clear Eircom weren't going to give in. I really hope they've realised this now and are going to use every available weapon they can, the ODTR, EU regulations, whatever, to force Eircom to introduce FRIACO.

Since the first meeting I have received a message from Etain Doyle confirming that the ODTR is facilitating exploratory discussions between OLO’s and Eircom regarding their requests for interconnection for a FRIACO type service.

About bloody time Etain Doyle did something! She's been sitting on her ar$e letting the whole situation get out of hand for too long. Time to get the finger out, Etain, and team up with the OLO's to get Eircom to offer FRIACO.

It is our understanding that Eircom had until last Wednesday to respond to the request, and we shall shortly learn if FRIACO is to become a reality of if we are to see the negotiations move to the legal sphere.

Good! Maybe Eircom will finally decide to offer FRIACO rather than risking legal action. I've said all along that if they didn't offer FRIACO their ar$es should be dragged through the courts and that might teach them a lesson, that they can't dictate what happens. They've had this attitude of "We'll do what we want and offer FRIACO whenever the hell we feel like it!" No Eircom, you bloody won't! The market is open to competition now and, whether you like it or not, you will have to play by the same rules and regulations the other operators do. You will learn to do what you are f**king told, either the easy way or the hard way! The sooner you realise this, the better!

Knowing Eircom, though, they'd probably risk a lengthy court battle rather than give in to FRIACO requests. Personally, I'd love to see them taken down in court and disgraced and shown to be the shower of **** that they are in full public glare.

crawler

excellent report - nice one.

I know I keep harping on about this but a FRIACO "TYPE" service is NOT FRIACO. FRIACO is so important in this market place. People need a completely un-metered service to get them "into" the whole Internet thing ( what's that?) and increase awareness etc.

It is simply not good enough to offer FRIACO type stuff.

Some of the predictions on WWW usage per head from the UK makes interesting reading , such as http://www.electricnews.ie/news.html?code=8238331 . This will never happen here without true real crisp FRIACO.

Now dont get me wrong a flavour of FRIACO is better than no FRIACO at all - and may be ok as an interim solution.

FRIACO will lead to a demand for faster speeds , faster speed requirements will lead to a demand for DSL , Cable Modem etc...this will force the prices down , will increase the pressure for propoer LLU and sub LLU and will facilitate new entrants....

Anyway , well done on the report , food for thought!

SkepticOne

Originally posted by crawler
I know I keep harping on about this but a FRIACO "TYPE" service is NOT FRIACO.

Although the meaning is changing, "FRIACO" has tended in the past to mean the specific wholesale deal available to companies in the UK. This meaning is changing, however, and tends to be used more and more to refer to a general wholesale flat-rate service. Right now, it may be safer to refer to a FRIACO 'type' deal to avoid getting caught up in the UK situation as many of the circumstances there don't apply here.

Even true FRIACO does not necessarily lead to a true flat-rate retail product, but something like the UK FRIACO is probably needed as a prerequisite in the Irish context.