IOFFL to meet Minister Ahern

Dangger

IrelandOffline will be meeting the Minster for Communications, Natural Resources and the Marine, Dermot Ahern on the 30th of October.

Perhaps this thread could be used to compile questions for submission or discussion on the day in combination with our usual message.

De Rebel

Was there ever a report on that last meeting with Mary Hannafin ? I know that there was a post like this in advance of that meeting, and a number of people requested feedback afterwards. The post seems to have expired.

De Rebel

What I would take with me is a copy of the first post in the thread "Broadband Britain 'must follow Korea path'", hand it to the Minister, ask him to read it and explain why is Irealnd different.


As a matter of interest which which civil servants will be present do you know?

Dangger

There was no officially released report on the meeting. It was agreed that we would be in with her fairly soon before we parted.

I do have an overview of topics discussed which I will dig out and post. I will warn you that it was us doing most of the talking on a variety of issues. She was receptive to several key points and a senior advisor responsible for Infocomms policy Colm Butler was also in attendance during the meeting.

Now that the Dáil is back in session and the Nice Treaty is soon to be behind us we have several points of contact to raise our issues for discussion in the Dáil. We also have an option in the future to do a presentation to the TD's before a Dáil sitting.

Since January 1999 Colm Butler has been with the Department of an Taoiseach heading up the Information Society Policy Division, which was put in place to push the agenda set out in the Government’s Action Plan for the Information Society.

More info here....

Dustaz

Thread stickied.

Wow, an actual minister

I cant think of anything other than the obvious to ask tbh.

Apart from the normal ones, it would be nice to get an idea if the minister actually has any idea how far behind we are or how much the E-tub has fallen behind. I have this vision of the upper echelons of government being quite badly informed on the subject judging by the amout of inaction we see.

yellum

Are there going to be any more useful funding schemes like the last WLan fund ? Judging by all the interest in that they should be encouraged to do more.

yellum

Ask them about their plan for giving us all 5mb connections by 2005 ? Hows that working out for them ?

J@ck Chri5tie

Minister O'Rourke promised 5Mb connections in three years, can he speed this development up?

Lack of affordable Broadband is a major competitive issue for Irish Industry. Some of our competitors (Korea Telecom.pdf - slide 21
)will be rolling out 20Mb connection in 2005. What steps is he taking to catch up and exceed these developments?

Please ask the Minister when will he 'RailTrack' Eircom, that is, seperate the infrastructure from the service company, into a not for profit company?

The split the network from Eircom argument isn't as daft as some would make out. The country needs a Digital TV transmission network, no one wants to build it. If he allows TV over IP, but only if the network is taken away from Eircom, it could be the carrot needed to attract investors into rolling out fibre.

Its taken English MP's some time to come to similar conclusion (split BT
). How will long will it take for the Gov to wake up and smell the roses.

Last week the head of Esat said he would spend an additional ?400m rolling out broadband if the climate was right (indo biz 101002)


My 2c

JC

jd

Originally posted by J@ck Chri5tie
Please ask the Minister when will he 'RailTrack' Eircom, that is, seperate the infrastructure from the service company, into a not for profit company?

The split the network from Eircom argument isn't as daft as some would make out.

Plenty of people have suggested this would be the most sensible arrangement. How feasible it would be to do at this stage is another question-it is no longer a semi state.

De Rebel

You could take this along as well

For the UK, committed to being the most competitive place for broadband in the western world by 2005.........

its from this, 6th paragraph its an old stunt, but nothing gets an FFer going like a mention of the evil Brits

OHP

A new government programme will see 50,000 kilometres of high-speed fibre-optic cable provide broadband internet access to 123 towns and cities in Ireland over the next five years. The cost will be €300 million.
In a statement issued by the Department of Public Enterprise, the government has also set out its broadband targets, which include putting Ireland within the top 10 per cent of OECD countries for broadband connectivity within three years.
In addition, the government wants to establish a minimum broadband access speed of 5Mbit/s to the home user, and substantially higher for business users.
"We will aim for Ireland to be the first country in Europe to have this level of broadband service widely available," said Niall Donnchú of the Department of Public Enterprise.

You can get the full story here:
http://www.thepost.ie/story.jsp?story=WCContent;id-41759

Has work on this already been started and if not where has the €300 million gone?

OHP

De Rebel

Originally posted by OHP
....... 50,000 kilometres of high-speed fibre-optic cable........

sounds like its 300 million squids to do eircom/esats backbone work and deliver it on a plate to said telcos. doesn't mention dslams or getting dsl down my last mile of copper

still, would be worth asking for an update, specially as the secretary general of the department was a member of the "five-strong advisory panel to oversee the implementation of the programme"

The Department of Public Enterprise has put in place a five-strong advisory panel to oversee the implementation of the programme, including Chris Horn of Iona Technologies, Kevin Dillon of Microsoft, Martin Murphy of Hewlitt Packard, Dr Alastair Glass of Science Foundation Ireland and Brendan Tuohy of the Department of Public Enterprise.

Obviously it was considered important at the time, though that was six months ago and they usually seem to have a short attention span. They appear to be more interested in fooling around with wireless stuff now.

dahamsta

- Put two documents in front of him, the ALTO press release of a few weeks ago and the article about South Korea V Britain a few days ago.

- Sit there while he reads them.

- Say: "Well?"

adam

Kevok

AFAIK, the infrastrucure development money stated above was about the fibre trunks going from town to town.

This is a redundant point as far as broadband in ireland is concerned as the biggest and most expensive hurdle is the last mile.

Digging up roads and laying fibre in front of every house in ireland, or eircom going through each and every line to make sure its ADSL capable, would cost hundreds of millions of euros. Money that is not available in the current economic climate.

Also with the state the government is currently in (Looking at a defecit of close to €1 billlion) the government is not in a position to fund any last mile project.

In the end......cable/adsl will be the way to go in towns and cities, but in rural Ireland, wireless would be the perfect answer to coverage.

It would be good to come up with some kind of plan including these points, and the 'possibility' of providing funding for this in the future. In any case don't expect any promises from him

spongebob

......don't tell him that the knackers stole (pulled out) 20 miles or so of the Western Digital Corridor during the horse fair in Ballinasloe and that nobody noticed it until yesterday.

In fact don't mention the Western Digital Corridor at all.

M

ednwireland

from a previous post i want real timescales i am currentley pring a 256k leased line for a company in donegal that would be adequately provided by with SDSL (at about a tenth of the price) when will this gov. really give business (outside the major cities )what it needs

How about these two press releases
75m in funding for broadband for bmw regions http://www.irlgov.ie/tec/press01/jan16th01.htm
http://www.idaireland.com/news/show...asp?storyid=118

what ever happened to this stuff and the companies


let me quote
"It is also one of the aims of the fund that the barriers to conducting business over the internet are levelled across the country and that geographical location would no longer be an impediment to locating and conducting e-business anywhere in Ireland. "

and

'Commenting on the projects, the Minister said: "This is the first instalment of the single biggest allocation of public funds to the development of advanced communications networks. I anticipate that this funding, allied to private monies, will ultimately yield a total investment of over €750 million in e-commerce infrastructure over the coming years. '

this was on the 16th jan 2001 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yellum

Ask them how the implementaion of the EU eEurope 2005 plan is going...

timod

Originally posted by Dangger

Perhaps this thread could be used to compile questions for submission or discussion on the day in combination with our usual message.

I think the opportunity should be used to influence policy rather than asking questions that will likely be fobbed off.

* The communications bill has a clause that the commission should encourage internet use at reasonable cost to users (can't recall the specific wording) Ask can this clause be used to madate a FRIACO product from Eircom.

* Similiarly, madating Esat and Eircom to target DSL at residential users - at residential prices.

* Stripping companies of Licenses if not used: Cable Companys, FWA license holders etc, unless services are made available. If current legislation does not permit this, say we need new legislation.

* If the above is not likely, mention the possibility of funding of community groups (eg www.corkwan.org) who will provide at-cost broadband access to the community for a fraction of the cost of what the government has put into Ericom's and Esat's DSL offerings - which has resulted in a product that is out of people's reach. (both in geography and price)

Outline and back stuff up with facts and figures: mention 10 times the cost for a tenth of the speed for internet in Derry Vs. Donegal. Mention Eur108 for DSL in Dublin Vs Eur25 in France
Other than that, I'd keep the statistics off the agenda.

As we've seen, the DCMNR and the ODTR are very hands off with the telcos, so I guess that we should be focusing on shaping and changing the overall policy.

Being overly critical of past goverment action (although justified) is probably not going to get us anywhere. My impressions of Minister Ahern is that he is a very capable man, and could be influenced by sensible ideas on how to solve the problems.

Oh, Dave, best of luck

stormkeeper

I know this probably doesn't belong here, but I'm staying in The Netherlands atm, and I was asking the guy I was staying with about internet access there.

I'm talking to him now about ADSL, and he says that it gives everyone easy and fast access to the net, at a fair cost (not a concept that we're aware of, sad to say ) and also helps home businesses out. So, it is obvous ADSL is a boon to a country. Can I add that DSL is only out between 1-2 years here, and that anyone/everyone can have access to it? Also, because of the Dutch Govts. dedication to getting net access to everyone, they can choose from DSL or cable. Perhaps our governemt could learn from their Dutch counterparts?

PS: My friend is after telling me that he has a 1536/384 line, which as you can guess is really fast. I know this may sound like boasting, but my point is: if The Netherlands can get this speed, and over in around a year, what's there to say that we can't get at least half (or a quarter, if you want to be more realistic) that, or more in a year?

LoBo

good post timod, I agree with your suggestions re: the meeting with the minister. Good luck IOFFL

Slutmonkey57b

Ask him what the likelyhood is that he will follow the british example and actually institute a regulator that

a) has some power over the industry
b) is prepared to use it, and
c) has clear policy objectives to be completed.

Remind him that Britain used to have the same problems we are currently experiencing but that the situation changed purely as a result of pressure from the public - show him this is an opportunity to lead rather than to follow. This could actually make the government look good - something they're desperate for.

hmmm

On a similar note to uhm monkey <grin> I'd like to know how the government assesses whether the regulator is performing it's office to an adequate standard. Even if it is independent, it has to be accountable to the state ultimately.

I'd like to know whether roles and responsibilities re the internet/ecommerce/access have been clearly defined. It appears to be a bit of a mess.

I'd like to know what the governments opinion is on the importance of broadband and flat rate internet.

I'd like to know whether he has seen the economic justifications for what we want. If not, we can pass them to him.

Fallschirmjager

good job for getting in there forist and i agree with TIMOD's excellent post. if we blast and are not specifi we will get the 'fibre cable' story again as a fob off

i would like to add that a few months ago one member here had a post comparing us to New Zealand (which i believe the governemt do ona number of issues) -- that might raise some probs.
if i might also be so bold as to try and do it online...goto the pricing websites live...cant see him moving out of his chair tho LOL

good luck...

Cork

IrelandOffline will be meeting the Minster for Communications, Natural Resources and the Marine, Dermot Ahern on the 30th of October

The scope of directive needs to be looked at together with the time scale for the start up of this new commission.

A lot has happened since the Communications bill - but we need to look forward.

I think LLU is still an issue - but we should be specific such as the interview in this mornings Morning Ireland.

Cork

he is to publish a new directive to the Telecommunications Regulator to have flat rate internet access introduced to the Irish market

When is he going to publish this directive?

This is very encouraging news. Ministers do not really give directives to regulators. This is very welcome.

Well done, Minister.

DannyD

tis tomorrow, will you be recording the conversation ?