Comreg Confuse Everyone, especially themselves.

spongebob · 23-02-2004 10:25am #1

Comreg have come up with a classic load of Regulatory Bull to explain how a breach of licence is actually compliance. It concerns the compliant 3G operators who have 'launched' services without actually having any available.

It is very indicative of the uselessness of Comreg as a regulator .

The article today on Silicon Republic starts

"Autumn is the earliest that Irish consumers can expect to be able to go into a shop and buy a next generation 3G mobile phone, despite all three operators making a commitment to a ‘commercial launch’ in the second half of last year."

I had noticed this and pointed it out before but Moriarty keeps messing with the bloody articles

. Can you leave it run this time please !

Silicon Republic then decided to tackle Comreg on the fair point that the unavilability of 'commercial services' seeming to mean that the3G licencees were not compliant with their licences . In a nutshell.

"consumers may question the accuracy of the phrase ‘commercial launch’ of services."

Quite so. Over to Comreg.

"“It is somewhat confusing,” says O2’s corporate affairs manager Johanna Cassells. “They are regulatory requirements. They are not commercial services. We don’t believe there will be commercial services in the market until the latter part of this year. There is a clear difference between a commercial service and a regulatory requirement.”"

BUT the licences do not mention "regulatory requirements" they mention "commercial services" of which there are NONE at the moment .....some 2 months after there should have been no less than 3 active networks.

" “We have a small number of business customers who have has 3G handsets from us since our commercial launch last May,” says Joan Keating, Vodafone’s head of corporate communications. “They are paying the equivalent of GPRS tariff rates.”

Did nobody tell Joan in Voodoofone that her lot had launched a 'regulatory requirement' and not a commercial service at all.....especially as Voodoofone are not launching the service to the great unwashed until the 1st of May next.

"ComReg doesn’t regard the launch issue as its problem: “They [the networks] are ready commercially to launch from the work we have done with them, the problem is a handset issue,” "

Crap. When I rang O2 recently they admitted they had no billing system, even though I have a 3G handset

.

"Johanna Cassells elaborates: “The reality is that there is not an adequate supply of 3G handsets and won’t be until 2004 to support the technology. We want 3G handsets that are similarly priced to 2.5 handsets. They need to be as compelling to buy as existing phones. They are simply not available.”"

But Johanna, there are handsets available if you hunt around. Once you have one the 3G networks will still not allow you to buy a service off them. Since when was there a regulatory requirement to "Be As Compelling To Buy" ??????

The Silicon Republic in Full.

What a bunch of absolute muppets Comreg are. To compound matters they seem to be getting worse.

M

seamus · 23-02-2004 10:29am

In fairness Muck, what you're posting has nothing really to do with IOFFL except that it shows some flaws in Comreg (unsurprisingly).

We will confer on the matter

spongebob · 23-02-2004 10:34am

Now that Silicon Republic have put them on the spot they have admitted that they WILL NOT ENFORCE their own licence conditions in a transparent and equitable manner.

That is the relevant bit as far as this Board is concerned....along with what to do about them .

M

dahamsta · 23-02-2004 10:57am

IrelandOffline wanted wireless...

spongebob · 23-02-2004 11:41am

So .....

How can we expect Comreg to enforce the Conditions in the 3.5Ghz licences given this farce over the 3G licences. ?

Nominally we have a number of licencess who were awarded their 3.5Ghz Cells in about Mid November last year.

A strict CONDITION (one would hope) is that that a basket of Commercial services are available in these Cells by about Mid November THIS year. Each basket was specified by the licencees themselves when they applied. The wording of the licence indicates that Non performance by this November will lead to the licence being pulled and reallocated if there is another applicant.

As of now, 3 Months into the 1 year 'use it or lose it' , period THERE ARTE NO COMMERCIAL 3.5GHZ Services anywhere in Ireland.

After the 3G farce I have very little confidence that Comreg will hustle the full deployment of 3.5Ghz along within the agreed licence conditions.

M

Venom · 23-02-2004 12:32pm

Well seeing as how Intel have dropped all Bluetooth support due to it just not taking off in a viable way and are pushing for a wireless USB type product, not to mention alot of other companies who are now following suite, dont go expecting many bluetooth products to be out anytime soon

SkepticOne · 23-02-2004 2:37pm

ComReg require Vodaphone to roll out commercial services. However this is a "regulatory requirement". It therefore falls into the same category as Single Billing, Eircom's wireless obligations etc, i.e., a statement saying that the regulatory requirement is met. The actual 'content' of the 'requirement' is irrelevant. What matters is that is statement is produced saying that the requirment is met. This is what Vodaphone mean when they say they have produced a regulatory requirement.

At the end of the day, and in the fullness of time, some overpriced service approximating what we understand to be 3G may (or may not) be produced. This doesn't matter from a regulatory point of view.

It is a metaphysical thing like transubstantiation. One moment a company is non-compliant with the regulations and the next it is complient even though no physical change has occurred.

Hope this helps.

spongebob · 23-02-2004 4:17pm

I wonder if their next trick in Comreg would be to Mutate Base Pairgain Boxes into Gold.

M

Comreg Confuse Everyone, especially themselves.

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