The Minister Wears Our Clothes

De Rebel

This is the first half of a speech given by Dermot Ahern (Minister for Communications) on Friday night last at a Dinner in Dublin.

Little did I think when I first posted here (just over 6 months ago) that I would be posting a Minister's speech verbatum and agreeing with every word. Well done to IOFFL who must take a large chunk of the credit for influencing this change. And due credit to the Minister for clear thinking and action to date and an apparant determination to drive on.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’ve been working with the Industry for a year now.

It has been an eventful year;

With the establishment of a new Commission for Communications Regulations. The drop in DSL pricing.The Policy Directions on FRIACO and Broadband.And the first real signs of commercially viable wireless broadband.

The year ahead must be equally eventful and this evening I would like to spell out a number of the issues I would like tackled in the year ahead.

My top priority for the year ahead is to kill the myth that Ireland can’t support profitable broadband – because it can.

I also want the cost of backhaul to fall. The days of paying more to get data to Dublin than to the US and Europe has to end.

The cost of broadband also has to be reduced.With all the talk of broadband stimulation mechanisms I don’t want us to loose sight of one thing – price will be greatest broadband driver. I look forward to wireless presenting a real broadband alternative in the coming months – because I feel cross-platform competition will really shake the market up. Especially for someone like me who lives too far from a DSL enabled exchange!

One area I am particularly eager to drive is all-island telecoms market.

I want to see all-island tariffs for voice, data and mobile communications and all-island telephone numbering ranges. My officials have already been in contact with ComReg on these issues and tonight I would urge you, the telecoms industry to work with the regulator for the speedy implementation of these measures.

In the year ahead I also want to see FRIACO products marketed aggressively. Flat-Rate will get people online and drive demand for higher bandwidth.

I want companies to understand that broadband is coming – that every house in Ireland will eventually have broadband. So stop thinking in terms of short-term investment. Think long term – cut prices - play a volume game – you will make a return.

The full speech can be found here

Stonemason

IF he can transform these fine words into action Irleland may be able to stop the rot.

I only wish i had more faith in Dermot Ahern,s will and ability to acheive what he has said.But strong words wont defeat the likes of Eircom.

Heres hopeing though

STaN

Originally posted by Stonemason
I only wish i had more faith in Dermot Ahern,s will and ability to acheive what he has said.But strong words wont defeat the likes of Eircom.

Heres hopeing though

I don't see why there should be an attitude of its everyone against Eircom. If we concentrated on improving it we would all be better off. Businesses could get connectivity at half or quarter of the cost. Broadband would be available to 90% of homes. Support would be top class. All their staff would be highly trained and knowledgeable. Internet access would be a ultility not a commodity. Local calls would be free.

Thats the kind of eircom i want, not a dead one.

bk

This is great, it seems the minister has been copying straight off the IOFFL hymn sheet.

For me this is one of the best indicators just how successfull IOFFL has been at getting its message across and how seriously the members and committee of IOFFL are taken by the decision makers of Ireland.

Well done to everyone involved in IOFFL, it seems we have the decision makers ear, now lets make good use of it.

The Clown Man

Especially for someone like me who lives too far from a DSL enabled exchange!

Hah! I like it. I'd say there a fair bit between the lines there.
Nice to see an active aggressive approach from the man at the top. Here's hoping. And hopefully not long waiting.

Mr_Man

Surely there must be a lot of TD's/Senators who live outside BB enabled exchanges, and if they do then we should contact them to let them know of the problems faced in getting BB at a reasonable price. We should also encourage them to lend their support to Dermot Ahrens efforts (and encourage him to walk the talk).

One of the independant TD's lives near me and I plan to contact them in this way, make them work a little for their money

M.

Trebor

Originally posted by Mr_Man
Surely there must be a lot of TD's/Senators who live outside BB enabled exchanges, and if they do then we should contact them to let them know of the problems faced in getting BB at a reasonable price. We should also encourage them to lend their support to Dermot Ahrens efforts (and encourage him to walk the talk).

One of the independant TD's lives near me and I plan to contact them in this way, make them work a little for their money

M.

tell them if they get broadband they could get a webcam set up in the dail and then they could watch it from home without having to go through traffic and vote by e-mail then we can reduce their expense accounts and save millions!!

Cork

Originally posted by De Rebel
to date and an apparant determination to drive on.



The full speech can be found here

Fair play. The Minister seems to be aware of the problem. This is a very impressive speech - very direct and lacking in sound bytes.

Impressed.:D

De Rebel

Originally posted by Mr_Man
Surely there must be a lot of TD's/Senators who live outside BB enabled exchanges, and if they do then we should contact them to let them know of the problems faced in getting BB at a reasonable price. We should also encourage them to lend their support to Dermot Ahrens efforts (and encourage him to walk the talk).

One of the independant TD's lives near me and I plan to contact them in this way, make them work a little for their money

M.

I'd strongly recommend that you meet your TD face to face - its so much more effective than e-mail or writing. I made a suggestion along those lines a few weeks ago, that some of the many articulate people who post here should go and meet their local TDs and explain the issues. (See here) And the result? Not one single follow up, apart from a couple of complimentary PMs. There are a lot of whingers hanging out here who could make a valuable contribution. But I suppose its easier to whinge than to do something positive.

De Rebel

Originally posted by Cork
Fair play. The Minister seems to be aware of the problem. This is a very impressive speech - very direct and lacking in sound bytes.

Impressed.:D

Do you ever give up? It crossed my mind as I was submitting the initial post that a compliment to a FF minister would have you in here like a bluebottle with the smell of cow sh1te in its nostrils spouting your usual party political clichés. And did you disappoint?

BoneCollector

Thats the kind of eircom i want, not a dead one.

Unfortunatly eircom dont share your enthusiasm
there main drive is greed/Profit as much and as quickly as possible.
Long term and foresight, is not in there vocabulary, they only see whats infront of them not whats ahead.

Stonemason

Im not interested in bashing eircom and your being naive if you think eircom will roll over and give people what they want and need without a fight!! hence the word DEFEAT.The reason myself and many on these boards dont really care about eircom in relation to BB is that we live in rural areas and we simply wont qualify for BB EVER!! through ADSL or RDSL unless eircom come up with a way of upgrading a junction box in the middle off nowhere for a fiver and can extend the range of ADSL or RDSL 50k then our only hope is Ballons/ESB through your sockets/or some form of wireless system.I would point out that if one of three systems i mentioned did come to pass i would rid myself of eircom simply because i only ever really use my land line for the internet so they would become redundant.


ooo Happy days

Cork

Originally posted by De Rebel
Do you ever give up? It crossed my mind as I was submitting the initial post that a compliment to a FF minister would have you in here like a bluebottle with the smell of cow sh1te in its nostrils spouting your usual party political clichés. And did you disappoint?

Ireland OFFline is non political. Any metters political there is a politics forum on Boards.ie.

But on the Ireland Offline forum we have discussed the merit of many politicians and polical partys.

But there is nothing wrong at giving praise where it is due or criticisim where it is warranted.

The Ministers speech was very apt. It should have been delivered years ago by past Ministers of Communications from VARIOUS political partys.

There is absolutely nothing wrong at saying "well done" once in a while.

sceptre

Originally posted by Cork
The Ministers speech was very apt. It should have been delivered years ago by past Ministers of Communications from VARIOUS political partys.

Hmmm, don't know about years ago. FRIACO as a concept put into practice in these islands (us and the bigger one) isn't around for more than five or six years. DSL is around a wee bit longer but has only been out of the lab and into the marketplace in the past half decade. Hence the lethargy with regard to broadband and flat-rate telecoms has been around since about 1996/97. So years ago (emphasis on a few years), yes. Years ago (emphasis on pre-1997 governments), 'fraid not. I'm sure we could blame any other party that happened to be in office had they been in office because they probably wouldn't have done much either, but well, they weren't.

All-Ireland tariffs for voice communications are of course here already if you use Esat at home or Meteor as your mobile provider.

While the noises Dermot Ahern is making are good and someone's either been reading here or listening to the few Irish journalists who have an interest, know what they're talking about and are prepared to talk about it (and they know who they are), I'd like to see his plan for cheaper broadband. No extra points for just talking about it I'm afraid - if there were I'd be cheering the 5Mps connections we're all going to have by 2007 according to the former Minister and resulting election manifesto.

There is absolutely nothing wrong at saying "well done" once in a while.

No there isn't. Nothing at all. You know, a lot of us are cynics here by now. People who when these things do happen (assuming they do) will be just as likely to say "about bleedin' time" as "hey, that's great". And that's unfortunate. It's repeated inaction that's made people cynical though. Should have had done it by now. When it does happen, great, we'll all have a party. I'm pleased by the speech made by Dermot Ahern. I'm far more interested in the "how" though. (I think it's defined as a qualified cautious welcome)

We're non-political, not apolitical. The responsibility does lie with those in power at a given time. Wait till I get older and start blaming the civil service for everything

Cork

I'm pleased by the speech made by Dermot Ahern. I'm far more interested in the "how" though. (I think it's defined as a qualified cautious welcome)

I would echo your comments on this 100%.