I've just had a poke around at the BTinternet website. I was curious to see what BT were offering since their owners(majority shareholders?) of Esat

Anyway, it was interesting!!

They have 3 net packages available:

1. BTInternet Pay-as-you-go
No monthly fee
Pay per minute for the time you're online
Internet calls cost 1p per minute from 6pm to 8am weekdays and all weekend, and only 2p at other times (5p minimum charge)
5 BTinternet email addresses.
10Mb of webspace

2. BTinternet Anytime
Our BEST VALUE flat rate internet access package
Go online whenever you like, as often as you like for £14.99 a month, which works out at just 49p a day!
No internet call charges
No more clock watching to go online
5 BTinternet email addresses
10Mb of webspace

3. BTinternet for BT Surf Packages
Flat fee internet access between 6pm - 8am weekdays and all weekend
Surfing at all other times costs 2p per minute (5p minimum charge)
BTinternet is charged at £4.00 per month, plus the cost of your chosen BT Surf package (all charged to your phone bill). You can order a BT Surf Package during this registration if you haven't already done so. Your options are...

(i)£ 5.99 per month for BT SurfTime Evenings & Weekends
(ii)£14.99 per month for BT Surf Together package includes
- BT SurfTime Evenings & Weekends
- Line rental & call discounts to national and international calls1
(iii)£19.99 per month for BT Talk & Surf Together package includes
- BT SurfTime Evenings & Weekends & line Rental
- Call discounts to national and international calls1
- Unlimited local evening and weekend phone calls2

1Calls to 13 of BT's most popular international call destinations at just 9p a minute (evenings and weekend only)
2Call charges apply after 60 minutes for each call
5 BTinternet email addresses
10Mb of webspace


Sounds od that they would kill a similar service over here!

Although I guess that the reason is probably having to pay Eircom to use their lines whereas BT own the lines in the UK.

Still, £14.99 per month for UNLIMITED access sounds WONDERFUL!!!

Mike

how's this for irony

I've read somewhere on some other site that Eircom are actually installing DSL in Northern Ireland at present....

dunno how true it is, but I'd believe anything is possible in this situation.

The main difference between the UK and here is the existence of the FRIACO product over there. This has given rise to a whole range of products. It explains why UTVInternet offer a flat rate in the North but not here.

FRIACO type services are rare in Europe but it has the advantage of quickly transforming the market for dial-up (and possibly ISDN) services.

Eircom offer ADSL in the North but not here because the local loop is unbundled in Belfast (LLU).

What is known as FRIACO in the UK is often confused with LLU. These are solutions to different problems and it's worth reading up on these.


[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 04-06-2001).]

[dahamsta]

The biggest irony of all is the hypocrisy of both Eircom and BT while they're working across each others borders. Eircom were and are actively blocking LLU in Ireland while lobbying for it in the UK. BT were and are actively blocking LLU in the UK while lobbying for it in Ireland. It'd be almost comical if it wasn't my money they were playing with.

Irony is great if you can enjoy it .

However, I think you've got to ignore the hyprocracy and irony and campaign for both some sort of FRIACO and LLU here in Ireland.

There is already a lot of political pressure behind LLU from Europe and within Ireland and this should be taken advantage of. FRIACO (or something similar preferably including ISDN), as I've said, is fairly rare in Europe, but involves no technical issues. This is also worth campaigning for. Some sort of dual strand campain would be what I would be looking for.