5 7 Live on the Eircom flotation

spongebob

Some choice comments and a badly timed No Show from Comreg to explain their inactivity on the pairgain issue make this a very entertaining radio spot, it went out yesterday but the Real Audio Clips only went up on the RTÉ site today.

Colm Rapple seems to have read the Business Post article on the state of the network. Again, fair play to 5 7 live.

M

Moriarty

I've just had a listen and it's pretty good coverage. They really should have mentioned that eircoms capital expenditure isn't even enough to keep the network in the current state of disrepair - never mind to start upgrading it - but otherwise it wasn't bad at all. I can honestly say that I wasn't an ounce surprised with comregs no-show. At least this is getting coverage

spongebob

If you get the Entire Show clip and listen to the last 5% only you will hear that an embarrased Comreg tried to make a a lame excuse for their failure to answer the issues that Colm Rapple raised.

M

Moriarty

I listened to comregs statement. It was piss poor. As I said, nothing I wasn't entirely expecting.

spongebob

Originally posted by Moriarty
I listened to comregs statement. It was piss poor.

We should nevertheless commend them for their consistency and for the stoic fortitude that is required to maintain themselves at optimal uselessness at all times.

M

Moriarty

Heh.

Da Man

Is ComReg in possession of any useful metrics on Eircom's network or how do they come up with great pieces of usefulness like "the network has gotten better"? Or where does that minister get such clap trap that Ireland's telecoms infrastructure is good?

This **** should be pretty easy to measure you'd think. How many faults per line? How many broadband line failures? How many lines can actually handle proper modem traffic? How does any of this compare with other countries? How does the line rental compare with other countries? How does Eircom's service offering compare with other countries? That's pretty much all you need to know and it should obviously be in the public domain as they're running our goddamn telephone network. It shouldn't be difficult to independently audit this stuff and if Eircom is found to be lying, we just revoke their rights to run the network and give it to somebody else.

spongebob

Originally posted by Da Man
Is ComReg in possession of any useful metrics on Eircom's network or how do they come up with great pieces of usefulness like "the network has gotten better"?

Eircom did the metrics themselves in a secret internal report, including the comparisons with other operators ......which are grim .

As the Sunday Business Post explains it all I think you should read the article which prompted the Colm Rapple piece on 57 Live, it is Here

M

Da Man

I understand that and I have read the article and my question remains.

It seems we can get all sorts of useful information about BT's quality of service, but we need leaked secret internal Eircom documents to find out how the regulated Eircom is performing? What else do you really need in order to prove that ComReg don't have the foggiest clue what's going on? I just don't understand how they can possibly call themselves a regulator if they don't know the basics of Eircom's performance? Is Eircom purely regulated on this magic basket of services that conveniently includes both call rates and rental?

spongebob

The demand was issued in July 2003 , see page 18 of this document Here . Eircom should have given the data to Comreg 4 months ago in October 2003 as we can see.

Maybe you should tell Colm Rapple that Comreg already have the data and ask Colm to ask Comreg what they intend to DO about these pairgain systems (or carrier lines as they are also known) .

Also ask Colm to ask them about the Functional Internet Access bit on page 23 of 24 where they decided that Ireland should not have Functional Internet Access because Comreg refused to describe functional in any way despite being mandated to do so in an EU directive . The UK regulator, faced with the same directive, decided that half the speed of a 56k modem (28.8k) was the minimum standard for functional while Comreg decided it was 0k . Fascinating or wha' ?

M

Da Man

The relevant info that ComReg requested was:

- Publish statement on factors affecting network performance
- Inform ComReg of number/location of carrier systems
- Develop a network plan to address network performance issues

The only metric they're asking for is the number of carrier systems, the rest is just waffle. Presumably ComReg wants this waffle so it can forward it onto anyone questioning what they're doing.

I don't know if I would bother with Colm Rapple. His research appears to be to read the Sunday Business Post, so it's presumably better to approach them. The 5 7 Live show also didn't seem capable of slating ComReg's bull**** statement.

Anyways, enough talking about it. I need to work up a bit more anger to motivate myself to deal with these civil service morons.

Da Man

And ze beef. SB's article states that the internal research in '03 found that number of faults per line is 16. ComReg produced numbers for Jan-June '03 in this document: http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg03131a.pdf, section 2.4 page 9. And it's around 6 faults per line. ComReg states that things are improving, so clearly the failure rate should have dropped since that report so the average for '03 should be below 6 faults per line.

I couldn't find any metrics on broadband quality of service.

spongebob

The large difference between the two figures is easily explained.

1. Eircom internal stats say 16 faults per 100 lines . These figures were produced for Eircom by consultants .
2. Eircom stats produced for Comreg say 6 faults per 100 lines . These figures were allegedly audited by an independent auditor appointed by Eircom themselves. (Section 1.4) , I wonder if the consultants and the auditors are the same people

Your link is crocked Da Man , This is it again Here

Comreg believe Eircom, of course they do.

M

Da Man

I'm not particularly surprised about the findings and they're not all that earthshattering either, but when you approach the media or a minister it's nice to have something very simple and understandable to use as an example of ComReg's failure to regulate.

What's Dermot Ahern's e-mail addy do you know? Anyone have a good addy to someone in the Sunday Business Post? Someone in FG worth copying to put a bit of pressure on them?

I'm probably going to chase ComReg on that network performance plan as well to see what's in it, if it exists. If it doesn't exist, more grief is heading their way.

Do you know if there's a ComReg publication on the appointment of an independent auditor?

spongebob

57live@rte.ie

simon.coveney@oireachtas.ie (Fg Spokesman)

tommy.broughan@oireachtas.ie (Labour Spokesman and a great man for th'oul pairgain isssues)

minister@dcmnr.ie (Ahern )

dunno where the requirement to use auditors is specified, ask Comreg who Eircoms auditors are for that Service Stat document , info@comreg.ie )

M

spongebob

The other issue is the USO

Simply ask Comreg when they recieved the data from Eircom as required in the USO issued in July (linked above) and why they have not done anything with the data yet. Comreg promised some poster in here that the review of the USO would be complete in December 2003 with regard to a plan to deal with Pairgains. The Eircom reports would also help determine the definition of Functional Internet Access ....also gravely overdue.

M

eircomtribunal

Originally posted by Da Man
Or where does that minister get such clap trap that Ireland's telecoms infrastructure is good?

As you ask: From the "Appendix A – Operator submitted statements" of that comreg 03/131a document:
" Eircom Ltd
eircom is Ireland’s leading communications company, providing a comprehensive range of advanced voice, data and Internet services. The company, which was formerly known as Telecom Eireann, was established in 1984 when it became a semi-state company. Since 1984, eircom has continually invested in its infrastructure, giving Ireland one of the most advanced networks in Europe. eircom continues to invest in the development of the services, thereby increasing value and benefit to customers..."

An additional important point with line faults: The timeframe for Eircom repairs is simply unacceptably long. Since when do we not need telephone or Internet on weekends? The ESB repairs day and night and on weekends on the basis of a much lower line rental
(standing charge) and in a much more dangerous environment.

Peter