€ircon trumpets 100,000 connections?

tomk

I happened to see an €ircon ad on TV last night, celebrating the 100,000th broadband connection, and emphasising in particular the positive effect of broadband for schools and the education sector in general. I came here this morning, expecting to see a thread bristling with indignation (but not surprise) at their gall, but maybe nobody else saw it?

Anyway, the thrust of it was that "we are a broadband nation", and because we have such a wonderful broadband service, our education system benefits from faster access to information etc. The example they showed on the screen would have had me jumping up and down and screaming, except that I didn't want to wake the baby. They showed an Irish classroom videoconferencing with a French classroom, on a big-screen TV (at least 32") with a webcam on top, and conversing back and forth in real time! Obviously, they were clever enough not to explicitly state that this kind of thing is possible with current broadband offerings, but it was definitely implied. And of course they did not mention that the provision of DSL for schools is so inadequate that the Government has had to step in with its satellite fudge.

I also have a problem with €ircon using its position as a wholesaler (i.e. the 100,000 lines) to strengthen its position in the retail area - which I presume is the intended affect of this ad campaign.

Did anyone else see this? I can't even see a "100,000th broadband customer" announcement on €ircon.ie, so I'm beginning to wonder did I imagine it all?!

jwt

We issued a press release regarding the 100,000 ad

###BEGINS###

[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

eircom's 100,000th broadband signup is not a success

Internet business and consumer pressure group IrelandOffline today poured
scorn on eircom's current campaign highlighting the 100,000 broadband
subscribers in Ireland. According to the group this figure is most
certainly not something that we should be boasting about at an
internationally televised event.

IrelandOffline spokesman Aidan Whyte stated "Far from being the achievement
eircom would have everyone believe, it is a serious embarrassment that
Ireland Inc and eircom in particular should be very concerned about. This
'milestone' still leaves Ireland languishing in 18th position of 21 OECD
countries for broadband penetration. eircom should not be congratulating
itself on achieving a thoroughly substandard goal."

According to the group, in a period when EU countries are achieving
broadband penetration rates of 40% Ireland now has a dismal 7% broadband
take-up, a rate which greatly concerns the Government's own Information
Society Commission. Added to this are the stark facts that Ireland has one
of the highest line rentals in Europe, the 2nd highest LLU charges, no
definition of functional Internet access and a line failure rate of 24%
compared to a failure rate of less than 1% in Northern Ireland. Furthermore
the 100,000 figure includes resellers of Eircom's bitstream product.
IrelandOffline wonders how many OLO customers are included in the
100,000 figure?

Commenting on the reasons why less than 50% of Irish business users and
consumers can avail of broadband, IrelandOffline Committee member John
Timmons stated: "Broadband is constrained by supply not demand. In
particular by the appalling state of eircom's copper network, by eircom's
unambitious broadband rollout plans and by eircom's low capital expenditure
which is currently running well below the level of depreciation. Coupled
with an insincere regulatory attitude from ComReg, Ireland is rapidly
becoming a text book scenario on how not to do it."

Timmons added "Watching the football last night showed Ireland can do
better than many of our European rivals on the pitch, but the advertising
from eircom at the match highlighted that we are static at the bottom of
the European broadband league."

Spokesman Whyte stated "IrelandOffline now calls on eircom to develop a
broadband rollout plan for the 80% of exchanges for which they currently
have no plans whatsoever. IrelandOffline supports the latest statement from
the Information Society Commission and calls on the Minister for
Communications to follow up his announced aspiration of 500,000 broadband
subscribers by the end 2006 with a detailed plan on how this is to be
achieved as per the Joint Oireachtas Report"

Silicin republic picked up on it as well


John

vinnyfitz

I saw it so don't worry - you were not imagining it.

They showed an Irish classroom videoconferencing with a French classroom, on a big-screen TV (at least 32") with a webcam on top, and conversing back and forth in real time! Obviously, they were clever enough not to explicitly state that this kind of thing is possible with current broadband offerings, but it was definitely implied. And of course they did not mention that the provision of DSL for schools is so inadequate that the Government has had to step in with its satellite fudge.

I must say the point you make did not occurr to me. But you are quite right! It was definitely intending to give the impression this sort of real time interactivity was now possible in broadband enabled schools all around Ireland.

If this is not true then Dempsey should give out yards to them - him a former Education Minister and all....

Perhaps a complaint to the ASAI is called for here?

damien

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=202387

There are already complaints gone to the ASAI I believe.

It's time for Esat, UTV, Netsource, Digiweb and whoever else helped bring about the 100,000 connections to get their act together and publicly comment on this.

It is not the job of IrelandOffline to do your work when you have the resources and people to do this. Our press release was sent out last week and picked up by SiliconRepublic and the Sunday Tribune.

shinzon

i have to say i did see this ad and to be honest it made me laugh cause its utter bull**** and made me angry because again misinformation is leaked out and the likes of esat netsource et al remain quiet on the issue

shin