will eircom spoil the internet party ? irish times bus. supplement

ednwireland

Flat rate internet access should be here by July if the timetable decided by the commission for communications this week is met.
The commissions decision to force Eircom to allow rivals to offer a service – which it has consistently opposed as uneconomic was a good one, if long overdue.
The success of lobby groups like Ireland Offline and Eircomtribunal.com demonstrate that there is a public appetite for the service.

And the intervention of the minister for communications has clearly strengthened the commissions resolve to force eircom to offer flat-rate Internet to it’s rivals.
But don’t bank on a summer of unlimited Internet surfing just yet.
The honeymoon period enjoyed by Eircom and the commission since Dr Phil Nolan took over may come to a grisly end in the courts over the issue.
Eircom believes the Commission may not have the legal power to force it to offer rivals a service it does not want to introduce itself.
And just last year the office of the director of telecoms regulator didn’t believe it either.
The commissioners will be banking on the interpretation of new EU directives due to come into force in July to beat a potential legal challenge by Eircom


guess it aint over till the fat lady sings nice to see ioffl and eircomtribunal getting some recognition though

pork99

We need to see Ahern and the dept of Fish and Telephones taking more robust lets say "bully boy" attitude towards Eircom.

A govt that give a toss about the greater good would be giving ultimatums at this stage - no fecking around in the courts - do this OR ELSE YOU LOSE YOUR LICENSE. No arguments. Even if that requires legislation to be pushed trough the Dail

The objective should be to squeeze Eircom until Valentia get fed up and want to cut their losses and sell out. They are squeezing us, if the govt is on our side then they should squeeze back harder. The state should then buy it back, set up a non-profit state organisation to run the infrastructure and sell off the service provision side.

Not trying to say what they will do, just what I would do if I ran the world

spongebob

Originally posted by ednwireland

Flat rate internet access should be here by July if the timetable decided by the commission for communications this week is met.

The commissioners will be banking on the interpretation of new EU directives due to come into force in July to beat a potential legal challenge by Eircom

This is what I was afraid of, someone asked the question over on the DCMNR website and was told that EXISTING legislation is sufficient and that Comreg can Direct that FRIACO be made available now, see this Comment here.

M

SkepticOne

I would go with what DCMNR say rather than what is in this article. Points of law are laid out in the ComRegs document and refer to 1997 and 1998 legislation.

byte

Originally posted by pork99
The objective should be to squeeze Eircom until Valentia get fed up and want to cut their losses and sell out. They are squeezing us, if the govt is on our side then they should squeeze back harder. The state should then buy it back, set up a non-profit state organisation to run the infrastructure and sell off the service provision side.

That would be nice if it were to happen!

mechanima

Just thinking out loud in the small hours, but surely as long as Eircon maintain this stance they are effectively announcing to the business world that they are dependent on metering internet access to break even?

(Bit weird when in the days before the split from An Post, when there was NO SUCH THING as the Internet, they were making an OBSCENE profit with call charges only on par with the rest of Europe.)

This gets interesting if shareholders begin to ask WHY this is so when even third world telecoms are in better and more viable shape, and might lead to a serious vote of "no confidence" in the current executive board and heirarchy?

It gets even MORE interesting in the event that eircon find a way to get away with this for ANOTHER 3 or 4 years...

Until somebody finds a way to offer flat rate internet access independent of eircon...(cable, satellite...wasn't there some "super high speed" experimantal access through the ESB lines in Dundalk at one time? WHATever happened to THAT technology?)

...and the "People of the Mouse" find themselves in receivership?

Hmmmm...

Is it time to consider breaking up Eircon and selling it in blocks to folk who can prove SOME aptitude for running a Telecom?

Or at LEAST a p*ss up in a brewery?

G

pork99

This gets interesting if shareholders begin to ask WHY this is so when even third world telecoms are in better and more viable shape, and might lead to a serious vote of "no confidence" in the current executive board and heirarchy?

Another way they take the p1ss;

Government projected image - "Ireland is the ecommerce hub of Europe and the Internet and IT are central to our future economic development"

Eircom - "Nobody in Ireland wants to use the Internet, there's no 'compelling content' like 'the Late Late show' does be on the oul telly. Yep thats what we like in this country. Pat Kenny and the Evening Herald. Call us simpletons, call us slack jawed yokels but thats the way we like it."

Surely a Government that stakes so much of its reputation and has based so much of its planning on attracting high-tech sector jobs should take cr*p like this as a direct challenge. The rat is giving you the finger, gov.ie! Are you going to take insults like this lying down! Are you men or mice? (sorry)