Esat taking millions of euro, nothing rolled out?

MadsL

Err...
Can anyone tell me that I am wrong and that Esat BT have actually rolled out the nine wireless local loop broadband connections in Thurles, Navan, Roscommon, Portlaoise, Killarney,
Mallow, Ballina, Castlebar and Longford announced in Jan 2001.

From a press release of 27th Nov 2001...
Esat Business is a division of the Esat Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Ignite. It is the leading provider of broadband data and corporate Internet solutions in Ireland and has 2,900 kms of national broadband fibre cable with metropolitan networks in over thirty urban areas including Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Shannon and Galway. This network also links into the BT Ignite backbone network. The company is in the process of rolling out Broadband Wireless Local Loop technology.

When can we claim our 1,000,000 euros back for failing to deliver on a project that we all contributed to?? Anyone know?

MadsL

Hmmm...

Spoke to Esat this morning, it now appears that there are NO wireless local loop facilities in these towns. None of them. Not one. Nada. Zip.

However, if you live within say 5km of Sligo, Athlone, Galway, Limerick, Tralee, Cork, Clonmel, Waterford, Wexford Town, Kilkenny, Carlow, Bray, Dublin, Drogheda or Dundalk. Then you can pay a jolly 1200 euro install and around 4000 a year for a 64k leased line.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this funding allocated under
these terms to provide rural/regional development. How can esat pick and choose where it will spend regional development funds. Galway, Limerick, Dublin!!! Rural development???


What do we think of this people? Would anyone be able to help confirm that Esat BT are substantially in breach of the terms of this grant of funds and have not as yet been made accountable.

Ronan|Raven

Well considering that ESAT refuse to confirm that they have fiber running along the train line to the West anything is possible....

spongebob

Originally posted by MadsL
How can esat pick and choose where it will spend regional development funds.

The Comptroller checks Government spending and have to ensure that money spent is spent according to the rules. I suspect that where expenditure DID occur the rules were followed. You are a victim of the (New Mary O'Rourke Variant) Multiple Parallel Pimping Syndrome or MPPS. MPPS is defined as a condition where Mary will make one decision to fund one project and will then pimp it on as many occasions as possible. The infection has gone fairly native in the Comms bit of the department, see her sucessor and his MPPS fibre rings problem. Fortunately one doesn't smell and can go out in bright sunlight.

Might I point out MaDSL that much of the funding listed in the press release from the dept of Comms was never drawn down.

On that list is Formus (went bankrupt no money drawn down for any project) and also Chorus ( who never did a tap and did not receive any money as a direct consequence).

Lets have a look at the rest of the projects then.. All figures in Millions of Punts

Wireless Local Loop for Broadband Services
Esat Telecom
Project Cost 2.82
Funding sought 1.13

This never went ahead so no funding was drawn down.

National Fibre Optic Network
ESBI
49.2
Funding sought 16.6

This is the ESB National Figure of 8 Fibre. It will be fully installed by end September 2003.

Accelerated xDSL
Esat Telecom
Cost 25.18
Funding sought 10.1

This was the 40 Exchange ADSL project which was recently completed. Having tapped the government for 10.1 Million PUNTS ESAT then promptly connected 30 resintial users nationwide. In other words, the government spend OVER IR£300,000 per household connected to that subsidised fibre around €400,000 per connection as a matter of fact.

SW Cork Digital Link
Esat Telecom
Cost 6.63
Funding sought 2.65

Some of this was done (Cork-Clonakilty) theres no way that cost 6.6 Million . I think the project was partially completed.

Broadband Infrastructure – Longford
Crossan Cable
Cost 0.73
Funding sought 0.29

Dunno about this project. I suspect nothing happened or that they stopped at Limerick or something.

Regional e-Commerce hubs
Nevada telecom
Cost 10.9
Funding sought 4.34

Dunno about this project. I suspect nothing happened.

Broadband transmission + ADSL
eircom
36.7
Funding sought 12.4

Eircom GOT the money they asked for in order to do this and then WITHDREW a few months later, this was round when they really started to bleat that there was no interest in Broadband etc etc. No money drawn down, the horse had bolted foaming wildly at the mouth. Here is some detail on that piece of Treachery by Alfie Kane and his cohorts a mere 2 years ago.

M

MadsL

Why does nothing suprise me anymore

Thanks Muck, insightful and educated as ever.

The gulf between 'say' and 'do' got me there, big time. Where the hell can you go to find any of this stuff. Have you seen the NDP website recently - a shambles...

A question - what happens to these funds if they are not drawn down? Are the EU portions just lost? If so it seems the govt wasted a huge amount of potential EU investment in Broadband.

spongebob

Originally posted by MadsL
Why does nothing suprise me anymore

Where the hell can you go to find any of this stuff. Have you seen the NDP website recently - a shambles...

A question - what happens to these funds if they are not drawn down? Are the EU portions just lost? If so it seems the govt wasted a huge amount of potential EU investment in Broadband.

I believe that the Telecomms portion of the NDP was supervised by Norcontel. Their website is Here and they should be able to give straight answers to your questions on where the money went.

Unused EU money is frequently handed back by the Government, It must be spent specifically and not thrown into a kitty so that the farmers can get more money for their turkeys at christmas.

The NDP site is not searchable anymore, the search function , interestingly enough, leads you Here . It is a links page with a full list of the many self deprecating witticisms and the many many profound achievements of Mary O'Rourkes long political career as a TD and Minister.

M

pete

The NDP site is not searchable anymore, the search function , interestingly enough, leads you Here . It is a links page with a full list of the many self deprecating witticisms and the many many profound achievements of Mary O'Rourkes long political career as a TD and Minister.

arf


http://www.google.ie/search?q=site%3Awww.ndp.ie+broadband&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

MadsL

Ahh...another 55m euro being spent on broadbandhere apparantly 31 submissions for this funding...no details as to who got the contracts - anyone know? Muck?

De Rebel

Originally posted by MadsL
Would anyone be able to help confirm that Esat BT are substantially in breach of the terms of this grant of funds and have not as yet been made accountable.

Whatever about breaching the terms of that specific agreement, they have on may occasions breached the trust placed in them when they were put in the privileged position as the country's number two telecoms operator.

ESAT are in many ways a greater problem and hindrance to development than Eircom. At least Eircom have 80 years of baggage to help explain their malaise. ESAT started with a clean sheet 10 years ago. They have squandered many opportunities and given the appearance of action and competition while doing little to change the status quo and using every opportunity to milk the system along the way. LLU is a particular case in point, as Muck so graphically illustrates, but there are many other examples, from Digifone (operating as a duopoly with Eircell) right through to their voice charges which did little to instigate real change.

Their greatest achievements have been making €230m for the people who invested in them first day and prolonging the agony of telecomms users in this country by moving us from an eircom monopoly to a eircom/esat duopoly.

They have from the very outset been strong on marketing hype and sales, and poor on everything else from infrastructure to pricing to innovation.

Swiftcall/Century Home et al. have done far far more for the consumer in this country than ESAT.

The first thing the judge(s) appointed to the Eircom.Tribunal (TM) will do is to seek to have their terms of reference extended to include ESAT in their remit.

MadsL

Hence the BT interest in esat...

hey look, another monopoly/duopoly situation to exploit..cf the UK about 10 years ago! and the govt gives free money too!

flav0rflav

Eh, is there funding available at the moment for these sorts of projects? I only need maybe a few thousand.

(no seriously, where do you apply for funding?)

spongebob

Originally posted by MadsL
Ahh...another 55m euro being spent on broadbandhere apparantly 31 submissions for this funding...no details as to who got the contracts - anyone know? Muck?

Dermot Ahern removed almost EVERY SINGLE reference to Mary O'Rourke(peace and blessings be upon it) that was to be found on the Dept of Comms website. Seamus Brennan was much kinder to her. Dermot has uninvented Mary as Minister of Communications for 5 years

One finds the information via the central government website where Dermot Ahern Couldn't get rid of it. The ACTUAL page is on the Department Of Transport website as you can see if you Click Here . Thats because Marys department was split between Séamus and Dermot last year. Séamus had no problem admitting that Mary O'Rourke existed (once) and that is why the Department of Transport is where one looks for information on E-Commerce and Telecommunications Infrastructure 1997-2002.

I hope this helps

M