ComReg Quarterly Report - The devil is in the missing details

damien

http://www.comreg.ie/whats_new/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=102234

Forgot line rental once again. Forget the basket that the EU and OECD uses for calculating average bills. Anyone else want to pick this apart and we'll send out a press release in the morning with the new data. Have national residential calls gone up?

I notice they stuck in Switzerland once again for mobile costs. All the rest are EU tables. Tut tut.

We told the Minister when we met him to expect this marketing style obfuscation of the true facts. Glad ComReg proved us right again. Thanks guys!

viking

Now you see Switzerland:


Now you don't:


"Magic" huh?

(Switzerland are also not in the "OECD Low User Post Paid Mobile Basket" graph, nor the "OECD Medium User Post Paid Mobile Basket" nor the "OECD High User Post Paid Mobile Basket" nor the "OECD Pre-Paid Mobile Basket")

paulm17781

I noticed cable is growing faster than DSL. 16 % increase for DSL 20% for cable. Cable take up is so low it is kind of irrelevant, it would be interesting if this trend continues though.

damien

IrelandOffline will be on 2fm at 1900.

netwhizkid

Shall be listening if it this evening,

is it i presume?

damien

I think so aye.

viking

Anyone catch the interview or get a recording?

damien

Consumer group lambasts ComReg telecoms report.

Today, IrelandOffline expressed outrage at the state of the Irish
telecoms market where, yet again, Ireland comes first for high prices
and 2nd last for broadband usage and where the teleoms regulator has
failed to highlight all the areas of concern.

Some facts from ComReg's Quarterly Key Data Report of the Irish
Communications Market [1] :

Ireland ranks 2nd worst for Broadband in the EU15.
Ireland is the most expensive for mobile costs. €17 more than EU avg per month.
Ireland has the most expensive line rental in the EU. €8 more than EU
avg per month.
Ireland is above the EU average for landline bills.

However, not all this information can be easily gleaned from the
ComReg report. Commenting on the way the report was marketed by
ComReg, IrelandOffline's Vice-Chairman John Timmons stated: "We are
quite concerned that the regulator, in a report about their own
market, appears to be airbrushing out some crucial information of
which the consumers of Ireland should be informed. The ComReg
reporting methodology is quite questionable."

Areas IrelandOffline highlight as questionable include landline rental
which is the most expensive in the EU and is €8 more per month than
the EU Average. This was once again omitted from the ComReg telecoms
report.

According to IrelandOffline, ComReg failed to use the EU approved
"composite basket" that would calculate a typical monthly bill,
comprising calls to mobiles, fixed lines, international calls and
other factors in line rental.(Most expensive in EU) If the composite
basket were used, it would show Ireland towards the bottom of yet
another EU table.

In a comparison of mobile prices, Ireland is the most expensive in the
EU by a whopping €17 more than the EU average. However, in the ComReg
report, Switzerland, a non-EU country, is added into the comparison
making Ireland Appear to be 2nd worst and absolute bottom of the
table. (pg 29)

Damien Mulley, Chairman of IrelandOffline, highlighted the group's
unhappiness with the ComReg reports and why they have brought this to
the attention of the Minister for Communications and the EU. "We need
a regulator that at the very least acknowledges the good and the bad,
not a regulator using PR and marketing tricks. These ComReg surveys
and the obfuscation of information therein have worried us to such a
degree that we have discussed the matter in a face to face meeting
with Minister Noel Dempsey and earlier this year we brought this to
the attention of the EU when we met them in Dublin."

John Timmons added, "We hope that 2006 will bring more honesty and
transparency to these ComReg reports. The first step in solving a
problem is admitting a problem exists. Comreg must face up to reality.
Only then can we make progress or we will be treated to a succession
of self-serving reports."

Sponge Bob

Introducing Switzerland to hide the ongoing failure that is the highest ARPU in the EU is soooOOO dishonest and sOOOOoooo Comreg

eircomtribunal

Well done.

How necessary IOFFL's information action is can sadly be seen again on ENN, where ComReg's propaganda fell on fertile ground. Just look at the language!

Growth in broadband adoption

Despite a series of recent reports highlighting Ireland's poor broadband performance, ComReg's study reveals that in the three months to the end of September 2005, there has been a 19 percent increase in broadband subscriptions. Moreover, the growth rate in broadband subscriptions over the last 12 months was 229 percent.

The report shows that as of September, there were 208,500 broadband subscribers in Ireland, with DSL remaining the predominant technology platform for broadband access. Non-DSL broadband subscriptions, fixed wireless, cable and satellite broadband represent 21 percent of all broadband subscriptions.

P.

P.S.:
Make sure to get your press releases printed out (the clerk Ronan Lenihan will do it on request) to the members of the Oireachtas Communications Committee, the legal guardians of the regulator.

damien

Shamefully the Irish Examiner today got it wrong too. They talked about how great Ireland was for mobile penetration saying we were the highest in Europe. Did they even look at the graph?

JohnC.

damien.m wrote:

Shamefully the Irish Examiner today got it wrong too. They talked about how great Ireland was for mobile penetration saying we were the highest in Europe. Did they even look at the graph?

Maybe they didn't. Maybe they just heard the news which was reported on TV yesterday that Ireland has 100% penetration and thought 100% is as high as it gets, ergo, we have the highest (or equal highest) in the EU. Of course, they would be wrong to assume 100% is the highest.

eircomtribunal

ENN, to their credit, today report on the IOFFL statement:

Lobby group Ireland Offline has criticised the Communications Regulator (ComReg), for failing to highlight vital information on the state of the Irish telecoms market in its latest Quarterly Key Data Report. "The ComReg reporting methodology is quite questionable," said John Timmons, the organisation's vice chairman. According to Ireland Offline, ComReg failed to use the EU approved "composite basket" that would calculate a typical monthly bill, comprising calls to mobiles, fixed lines, international calls and other factors in line rental. It contends that if the composite basket were used, it would show Ireland towards the bottom of yet another EU table.

P.