From the fiction section...

dahamsta

Comreg's Quarterly Report is out. Better than a le Carré novel by the pool I'll wager...

http://www.comreg.ie/publications/docs.asp?ydate=current&s=5&navid=98#?s=5&navid=98

adam

eircomtribunal

"ComReg Quaterly Report survey shows home Internet penetration at almost 50%", that's how ComReg announce their latest Quarterly Report on their web site.

It is understandable but unacceptable that ComReg want to hide their continuing failure. The underlying figures of ComReg's Internet survey tell a different story.

It is worth and is does not take any amount of time to skim through the figures of ComReg's latest Internet survey.

The 49% percent, falsely claimed to be the figure for Internet penetration, refers to fixed telephone line holders only. The sole reason for it going up is the decline of fixed line holders, which is a very worrying infrastructural degradation for Ireland's future. Real Internet usage, people using the Net more than once a week, has actually declined.

I'd like to challenge every journalist in the Irish Media who reprints this blatant misinformation about the Irish Internet situation.

Could I get help here by people watching the Media's response to ComReg's misinformation and posting it here?

Thanks Peter

dahamsta

Despite assurances that I would be resubscribed to Comreg's media mailing list, I had to get it via ENN like everyone else...

Ireland's Communications regulator ComReg has said in its latest quarterly report that Irish Internet penetration now stands at 50 percent, growing by five points in the three months to December 2003. The growth was driven in part by flat-rate dial up subscriptions and DSL broadband subscriptions, of which there are now 40,000 and 26,000 respectively. The agency also said that Irish mobile phone penetration now stands at 87 percent, up four points.

eircomtribunal

Thanks Adam, first email is sent:


"Subject: ComReg's claim about 50% Internet penetration
Date: 17 March 2004 15:30:40 GMT
To: matthew@electricnews.net

Dear Matthew,

I am appalled that ENN again uncritically report ComReg's misleading claims about Ireland's Internet penetration.

Ireland's Internet penetration did not at all go up by 5 percent, but according to ComReg's own figures only by 1 percent to 38%, as you can easily check out yourself from page 13 of ComReg's Internet Survey (http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0430d.pdf).

ComReg's claim is deliberately based on the percentage of Internet connections from fixed line holders in an attempt to mislead the public. Nothing to do with Internet penetration.
The figure for Internet connections of fixed line holders has solely gone up by 5 percent because of a - very worrying for Irelands infra-structural future - fall of fixed line holders. Nothing at all to do at all with "The growth was driven in part by flat-rate dial up subscriptions and DSL broadband subscriptions.." .

Please take a moments time and skim through the data in the above mentioned ComReg document and you'll find a different picture:
page 12: while usage from work has gone up, usage from home is still at 31%, usage from school is down by 4%
page 13: percentage of households with Home Internet Access is only up 1 percent, or 4% since one year
page 15: standard dial-up still at a staggering 83% of home connections, down only one percent
page 16: most home users are still on pay per minute (row 1,2 and 5)
page 18: the real Internet usage is falling: one year ago 20% used it daily, now 19%; one year ago 41% used it several times a week, now 39%. Our real Internet usage has gone down!
When the Swiss regulator says Internet Home usage in his country is at 45 percent he means those people who "use the Internet at least several times per week". If we applied this definition to Ireland we would come to the honest but rather disturbing figure of 58% (daily + several times a week users) out of 38% (homes connected to the Net), giving us a result of 22 percent.
page 20: Hours per week are down from an average 8 one year ago to an average of 7 now

Matthew, I think it is time to question ComReg's deliberate misleading with regards to the situation of the Internet in Ireland."

Peter

eircomtribunal

The Independent publishes ComReg's misinformation of a 5% increase to almost 50% of Home Internet penetration, when the increase was at 1% to 38% according to ComReg's own figures, unquestioned:

"Public more aware of fixed line competition
Wednesday March 17th 2004

IRISH consumers are growing more aware of the fixed line competitors to Eircom, according to the latest quarterly figures from telecoms regulator ComReg.

According to the body, in the quarter ended December 2003, 14pc of fixed lines were occupied by alternatives to Eircom, like Esat BT and Smart Telecom.

This means that about 25,000 consumers switched to alternative operators in the quarter, bringing the total number of carrier pre-select (CPS) lines to 225,000.

Two out of three of those surveyed have been approached by an alternative operator in the past 12 months.

However, despite the growth in CPS, the figures, conducted by TNS MRBI, also showed that while 18pc of respondents now used an operator other than Eircom, churn is still a problem with one in four respondents switching back to the incumbent in the last year.

Consumers have become more hungry for information on alternative operators after Eircom increased line rental to €24 a month in January.

The ComReg report also shows that 80,000 mobile subscribers have switched operator since full number portability was introduced last July.

This represents a 50pc increase on the previous quarter. Ireland's third mobile operator Meteor has taken up a number of the subscribers who have moved.

In the internet market, the appetite for DSL and FRIACO continues to grow. According to figures from Amárach (for ComReg), DSL take-up is growing by 1,400 additions per week with 26,000 customers at the end of December 2004.


There has also been growth in the take-up of FRIACO, while home internet penetration has increased 5pc to almost 50pc.

Ailish O'Hora"

eircomtribunal

I take my hat off and apologize: a fairly balanced article on ComReg's Quarterly by ENN, looking beyond the misleading ComReg press release.
Peter

"Marginal boost in Irish Net usage
ENN Thursday, March 18 2004
by Ciaran Buckley

Flat-rate Internet and DSL broadband products are selling at record levels, but have made only a small dent in the Irish Internet market according to ComReg.

According to ComReg's latest quarterly figures, penetration of DSL broadband is still low, maintaining the 2 percent penetration it enjoyed in the previous quarter, which is double the 1 percent figure recorded this time last year. The survey found that 83 percent of Internet users still access the Internet through a standard dial-up connection. The survey also found that among home-based Internet users, 9 percent of consumers have flat-rate dial-up Internet access, 4 percent have broadband, 20 percent pay a monthly fee for metered dial-up access and 52 percent pay as they go.

ComReg put a brave face on the statistics, noting that according to its figures, flat-rate dial up orders exceed 1,600 per week and DSL take-up levels currently exceed 1,400 per week.

"The higher level of Internet take-up and usage are encouraging for continued flat-rate and DSL adoption," said John Doherty, chairperson of ComReg, in a statement. "We would like to see the continued marketing of DSL coupled with critically important demand initiatives throughout 2004 and beyond."

The quarterly Consumer TrendWatch survey, which was compiled on behalf of ComReg by Amarach Consulting and was carried out in the first quarter of 2004, found that the percentage of Irish adults with home Internet access has risen from 37 percent to 38 percent on a sequential basis. Overall, 1.26 million adults, or 43 percent of the Irish adult population use the Internet, a 2 percent decrease since the last quarter of 2003, but a 5 percent increase year-on-year.

But Internet usage is gradually shifting towards the workplace. The survey also found that home use of PCs is static at 31 percent, work use has risen from 14 percent to 16 percent and school or college use of the Internet has fallen from 10 percent to 6 percent."

eircomtribunal

Siliconrepublic start asking questions about the 49% claim.
ComReg's 49% claim and explanation are pathetic:
The latest and rather up-to-date CSO results show a 35% home Internet penetration if I remember rightly.
With their press release about the Amarach survey ComReg are even at odds with the conclusions Amarach themselves arrived at: Page 28, "Conclusions: Overall use of the Internet has remained mostly unchanged with over four in ten Irish adults online [this includes Net access from work]. There is evidence of a slight dip in Internet use in schools and colleges."

Peter

siliconrepublic:
"ComReg clarifies net stats

19.03.2004 - ComReg has defended its decision to release a statement that almost 50pc of Irish households now accessed the internet. This figure only represents 83pc of those polled for the quarterly survey from which the figures were taken.
Based on the results from all of the people surveyed, total domestic internet access stands at 38pc. This constitutes a rise of 1pc on the previous quarter, whereas the statistic of 49pc usage – taken from the fixed-line subset only – offers the more substantial quarterly growth rate of 5pc.

In the quarterly survey, prepared by Amarach Consulting on behalf of the regulator, respondents were divided into two sections: one for users with fixed-line telephones only and another, the total amount that included those without a fixed-line connection.

According to a spokesman for ComReg, this method of measuring internet usage is consistent with the way it is done throughout the EU and the OECD. The spokesman added: “The figures are both going in the same direction; there’s increased internet usage by fixed line and increased internet usage by other means.”

In a footnote on the page of the report with the internet usage data, ComReg noted that the Internet penetration figure was “nationally representative of the adult population with a fixed line, with a margin of error of +/- 3pc”.

In its press release issued to announce the report’s findings, ComReg had included the higher figure only. Although 49pc is clearly a more impressive amount than 38pc, it does not tell the whole story; the data appears to suggest that 17pc of Irish homes – almost one in five – do not have a fixed telephone line.

Furthermore, using the higher figure would exclude those accessing the internet over non-dial-up means such as satellite, cable or wireless. Only last week, ComReg awarded 38 wireless licences to eight different nationwide service providers, with the clear aim of providing an alternative to DSL, which requires a fixed-line telephone connection.

By Gordon Smith"