Examiner article profiling IrelandOffline's acting chairman and its history to date

LegacyUser

The following link is to an article in today's Irish Examiner with a profile of Martin Harran - IrelandOffline's acting chairman and a detailed history of IrelandOffline's brief but action packed past right up to ODTR meeting!

http://www.examiner.ie/nuapublish/np/NP/WPBTool/WPBWebPageH/sport/Full_Story?did =sgP5}162geqXs

The print copy has a picture and profiles Martin as Business man of the week for his involvement with the textiles industry, consultancy work and of course IrelandOffline. Congratulations Martin.



[This message has been edited by Dangger (edited 08-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

Congratulations Martin. This is not only great for IrelandOffline but also a great personal endorsement. Well Done.

P.S.- How ironic that Eircom has a square banner ad on the righ hand side of the page. You would have thought they'd have consulted you about that!!!!!

80p.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 80project.com:
You would have thought they'd have consulted you about that!!!!!

80p.</font>

Thx 80p <blush>

Haven't seen print copy as Examiner isn't circulated in Donegal (not my part anyway) but Dangger is scanning it and sending it to me

Martin

dahamsta

How ironic that Eircom has a square banner ad on the righ hand side of the page.

I know, I was laughing my ass off at that.

adam

LegacyUser

many congrats martin keep up the good work and all the best for the future.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dangger:
The following link is to an article in today's Irish Examiner with a profile of Martin Harran - IrelandOffline's acting chairman and a detailed history of IrelandOffline's brief but action packed past right up to ODTR meeting!

http://www.examiner.ie/nuapublish/np/NP/WPBTool/WPBWebPageH/sport/Full_Story?did =sgP5}162geqXs

The print copy has a picture and profiles Martin as Business man of the week for his involvement with the textiles industry and consultancy work. Congratulations Martin and well done for getting a mention of the campaign in there!

</font>

According to the newspaper one third of the 2000 got their Esat Nolimits Service restored.
Is this true?

LegacyUser

While complimenting Elena and Martin for to-days Irish Examiner article it is appropriate to adjust Danngers account of the profile context. Martin Harran as I understood the article was profiled primarily in his IrelandOffline role with his personal details included as befits any business person's profile.

A previous article on Thursday covered also IrelandOffline. The content in my opinion was somewhat misleading. As Elana will know a PR's credibility is vital in order to establish rapport and generate repeat publicity for a client. It is for this reason only that I am posting this message. Again congratulations to the IrelandOffline team

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by infomat:
According to the newspaper one third of the 2000 got their Esat Nolimits Service restored.
Is this true?

</font>

These were the people who phoned Customer Care and got onto the '75 Hour List'.

We never got an exact figure but we estimated it to be about 700.

Martin

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by murcielago:

A previous article on Thursday covered also IrelandOffline. The content in my opinion was somewhat misleading. </font>

Do you have a link to this article on Thursday? Was it in the Examiner or where?

LegacyUser

I foned customer care and got no joy on the 75hr side of things and im not aloud to connect to the no limits service again!...how nice is that like

Farls

LegacyUser

Congratulations Martin and well for the write up that you received.

Bard

Link added to news section on irelandoffline.com

-- Cheers, y'all!

---

Bard

---

First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by MyPerfectCousin:
Do you have a link to this article on Thursday? Was it in the Examiner or where?

</font>

'IrelandOffline representatives to meet Telecoms Regulator' by Gerard Cunningham appeared in the Business section (page 14)of the Irish Examiner on Thursday 05-07-2001.
Sorry, I am unable to locate a link but will see what I can do.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by murcielago:
'IrelandOffline representatives to meet Telecoms Regulator' by Gerard Cunningham appeared in the Business section (page 14)of the Irish Examiner on Thursday 05-07-2001.
Sorry, I am unable to locate a link but will see what I can do.

</font>

The article did not appear in online edition but here is the text:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
REPRESENTATIVES of consumer group IrelandOffline will today meet with Telecoms Regulator Etáin Doyle to press their case for affordable internet access in Ireland.

Esat Fusion had been offering unmetered access to the internet, where instead of paying for phone calls by the minute surfers could stay online as long as they liked for a fixed monthly fee.

But on April 26 the company sent out a letter to about 2000 customers telling them that they were “using the service excessively”. The decision signalled the end of unmetered internet access for home users in Ireland.

Web surfers set up IrelandOffline to campaign for unmetered access and high-speed access, which is up to ten times faster than the speed of a typical modem over a normal phone line.

The group draws inspiration from the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT), a British-based group whose campaign was so successful it disbanded, having achieved its aims in full.

The delays in deregulating the Irish internet market are frustrating, according to director of marketing and products with Esat Fusion Andrew Conlan-Trant.

“Esat has always pushed the boundaries for internet access in Ireland,” he said. “We were the first to introduce free internet access through oceanfree.net, and the first to introduce a flat-rate (unmetered) internet access product.”

Mr. Andrew Conlan-Trant said Eircom must offer an affordable wholesale package to its competitors in order to make unmetered internet access feasible.

The Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation has set up numbers for unmetered access, but they still have to negotiate an acceptable charge with Eircom.

“Cheap access is important to me,” Martin Harran, a business consultant and co-founder of IrelandOffline, said. “The internet is important for my work, using e-mail and preparing business plans for clients. There is a lot of market research information on the net. I’d been watching the British campaign last year, and I thought this was a chance of doing something.”

“I can’t see myself sitting at home in Castlefinn anytime soon with broadband access, but unmetered access should be available throughout the country.”
</font>

I don't know what Murcielago meant when he said

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The content in my opinion was somewhat misleading</font>

- perhaps he would explain.

BTW, there was also a follow up article on our ODTR meeting in Fridays's edition but I haven't seen it, perhaps someone else would post it.

Martin Harran


[This message has been edited by o_donnel_abu (edited 08-07-2001).]

dahamsta

We were the first to introduce free internet access through oceanfree.net

I don't think that's true, is it?

adam

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
We were the first to introduce free internet access through oceanfree.net

I don't think that's true, is it?

adam</font>

Okay, where are all the 'net historians' ?

There are a couple of other small errors in the article, e.g. he says that "surfers could stay online as long as they liked " whereas it was restricted to Off Peak and "The decision signalled the end of unmetered internet access for home users in Ireland" is not *exactly* right as it only affected 2000 users at this stage.

IMO these are not significant in the context of the article and I certainly wouldn't describe it as "misleading".

Martin

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
We were the first to introduce free internet access through oceanfree.net

I don't think that's true, is it?

adam</font>

As far as I'm aware Oceanfree.net were the first ISP to offer subscription-free Internet access in Ireland. The rest followed suit pretty quickly.

Esat also bought EUNet Ireland, which was the first commercial ISP in the country... and allowed Esat to claim to be "Ireland's first Internet providers" - now claiming to be "10 years as Ireland's leading ISP"... which is purely through purchasing EUNet and IOL... otherwise they're latecomers to the market...

---

Bard

---

First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

dahamsta

As far as I'm aware Oceanfree.net were the first ISP to offer subscription-free Internet access in Ireland. The rest followed suit pretty quickly.

Not doubting you for a second, but I could have sworn it was someone else. I had an idea it was Eircom actually, but that doesn't sound right. (I'm really not doubting you Bard, I'm just thinking out loud.)

Esat also bought EUNet Ireland, which was the first commercial ISP in the country... and allowed Esat to claim to be "Ireland's first Internet providers" - now claiming to be "10 years as Ireland's leading ISP"... which is purely through purchasing EUNet and IOL... otherwise they're latecomers to the market...

Yeah, I think that that kind of thing should be stomped on by the advertising standards people, it's really very misleading. Again though, I'm confused - I was very much under the impression that IOL was the first Irish ISP, made possible through their backbone provider, the name of whom escapes me now.

adam

[This message has been edited by dahamsta (edited 08-07-2001).]

jd

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
As far as I'm aware Oceanfree.net were the first ISP to offer subscription-free Internet access in Ireland. The rest followed suit pretty quickly.

Not doubting you for a second, but I could have sworn it was someone else. I had an idea it was Eircom actually, but that doesn't sound right. (I'm really not doubting you Bard, I'm just thinking out loud.)

</font>

Indigo originally charged £15 for reg and software when they first startes, but when Shay Moran took over he put a stop to it, as it was burning too much cash..Maybe thats what you are thinking of?
jd

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by o_donnel_abu:
These were the people who phoned Customer Care and got onto the '75 Hour List'.

We never got an exact figure but we estimated it to be about 700.

Martin</font>

I missed out on this ... I thought that the 75 hour list was a work of fiction.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by infomat:
I thought that the 75 hour list was a work of fiction.

</font>

Here we go again

It 'sorta' was a work of fiction.

What happened was that 75 hours was figure Esat used to determine heaviest users. In the furore that broke out after the letter, Customer Care in Esat told lot of people who phoned up that if they agreed to keep their usage under 75 hours they could have their accounts reinstated and a list of people who agreed to do so was compiled by Customer Care.

When we met Esat, they said that this was never meant to be but they would stand over the promises given by Customer Care so accounts for people on the list didn't get cancelled.

Martin

jd

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by o_donnel_abu:
Here we go again

When we met Esat, they said that this was never meant to be but they would stand over the promises given by Customer Care so accounts for people on the list didn't get cancelled.

Martin</font>

He Must have had an interesting discussion with his colleague the Customer services manager, cos I doubt the reps did it off there own bat
jd

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by o_donnel_abu:
I don't know what Murcielago meant when he said

The content in my opinion was somewhat misleading</font>

- perhaps he would explain.

BTW, there was also a follow up article on our ODTR meeting in Fridays's edition but I haven't seen it, perhaps someone else would post it.

Martin Harran


I don't know what Murcielago meant when he said

quote:

---

The content in my opinion was somewhat misleading

---

- perhaps he would explain.
BTW, there was also a follow up article on our ODTR meeting in Fridays's edition but I haven't seen it, perhaps someone else would post it.

Martin Harran


A person not au fait with the nitty gritty of IrelandOffline glanced through the Irish Examiner article of Thursday 05-07-2001. She relayed and observed as follows.

"There was this fellow - some kind of a consultant - whose work brought him to live in Donegal. He was from from N.I. and was accustomed to the English telephones situation where the customers had come together in a group to protect themselves from the BT and government bodies. He found here that we were terrible goms altogether without anybody to talk-up for us. So, using the English customer group as a model he co-founded with somebody else an Irish equivalent and called it IrelandOffline. And to-day they are meeting the official government crowd that has been doing nothing up until now.

I find it difficult to understand how the English can have anything to teach us. The last time I spent a month in England my relatives and their friends never stopped giving out about the phones, trains, water, electricity, schools, hospitals and even their roads. So the situation here must be really bad if we have to copy England. Why not learn from the Germans, French or Americans? Mind you there is no criticism of Esat. Presumably, as Esat is now owned by BT they think BT will sort it out. Going from the frying pan into the fire, surely! A lot of people (in England) were complaining to their MPs and expected action from Tony Blair, especially with an election due. So, if things have improved over there they can thank their MPs, the election and Tony Blair"

Would anybody like to comment? Was the above a reasonable second-hand account of the Examiner article? Was it a misleading account? And was the original story that led to the cursory second-hand account itself misleading? Marketing communications are not always about what is technically accurate or almost correct. Marketers must take account of likely and even possible perceptions and interpretations.

The Examiner Friday story also by Gerrard Cunningham was headed "Group fears fight for low internet charges will take time" and appeared in the Business section on page 16. It was a good report that quoted Martin Harran and also Brighid Smyth of ODTR. If one were to quibble it would be with the lead in to the second paragraph that read "Ireland Offline formed to push Telecoms Regulator Etain Doyle for flat-rate internet charges"... But, it is impossible to qualify and direct every word written by a journalist. A Journalist does his/her best within short deadlines and often an incomplete knowledge of issues and details.

LegacyUser

I'm not even going to try to reply to that, I'll leave it to other people if they have the energy and interest

Martin