Digital Divide? Not in Ireland says Dempsey

damien

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single6046

Despite the gathering momentum in terms of supply, particularly through the arrival of new products and prices, Dempsey said that there are still side issues in terms of public demand for broadband that "require focused attention".

He pointed to a discussion paper recently published on his department's website that suggested 17pc of Ireland's potential broadband market has been addressed. A public consultation on the demand issue is currently underway and called for submissions and comments to be submitted to information@broadband.gov.ie by Wednesday 1 March.

Responding to the suggestion of a digital divide in Ireland, Dempsey said: “We do not believe that anything in Ireland exists that could be termed a 'digital divide'. However, naturally infrastructural development tends to occur in urban areas before it spreads to rural areas. The Government deemed that, given the importance of broadband, this delay suffered by rural areas was unacceptable and so the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources developed the County and Group Broadband Scheme.

paulm17781

It is remarkable that in the face of over whelming evidence, Dempsey once again has an answer that gets him off the hook for a few more weeks.

Sponge Bob

Someone should send him on a fact finding tour north of the Artic Circle to see how the Scandinavians do it properly .

dahamsta

Sponge Bob wrote:

Someone should send him on a fact finding tour north of the Artic Circle to see how the Scandinavians do it properly .

One-way, obviously.

uncle_sam_ie

He should tour Ireland first if he's under the illusion there's no digital divide.

bealtine

uncle_sam_ie wrote:

He should tour Ireland first if he's under the illusion there's no digital divide.

Ja he should get out more...

ednwireland

i have reply from dempseys departement which states that i can get broadband from 42 suppliers in donegal town. the fact is 2.5 years after the exchange was upgraded i still cant get broadband through my phone line due to a minor short on the wire i am hopefully going to get wireless through a new provider who is rolling out next month. basically they think that because your exchange is upgraded its job done.
i really dont know where the politicians come from at times they are so out of touch with reality its unbeleivable
so like many others i still dont have broadband

eircomtribunal

Now to our yearly Spot-the-difference competition:

Broadband at the crossroads
24.02.2005 - Speaking exclusively to siliconrepublic.com, Communications Minister Noel Dempsey TD says he is still confident the 500,000 broadband target can be reached by the end of 2006.

10,000 a month sign up for broadband
14.02.2006 - He [Noel Dempsey] continued: "In late 2004, the Government set a target for industry of 400,000 broadband subscribers to be achieved by the end of 2006. Subsequently, broadband subscriber numbers have almost doubled."

P.

dahamsta

I foresee a press release with the words "shifting goalposts" ahead...

paulm17781

I noticed that he said 400,000 this time. Did he not revise it to 500,000 by end 2007?

Sponge Bob

Ken Shabby wrote:

I foresee a press release with the words "shifting goalposts" ahead...

His predecessor, Ahern , set a target of 350,000 by Mid 2005 .

When it was obvious that this would be missed (it was obvious in late 2004) , Dempsey set a new target of 400,000 or maybe 500,000 by end 2006 . That was in October 2004. In early 2005 Dempsey was gung ho for the upper end of that range but is now covering his bets by restating the lower target.

What Dempsey never did was admit that BB target for mid 2005 had been missed by a mile, there were some 150,000 connection by mid 2005 instead of 350,000

Dempsey is also ignoring 2 further targets , that we should be in the top decile of OECD countries by 2005 which was set by his predecessor Ahern and then downgraded once someone bought Ahern a calculator and a dictionary and spelt out DECILE slowly to him. This downgrade by Ahern in early 2004 was that we should be at or above the EU15 average (thats the EU before poor countries with advanced communications infrastructure joined almost 2 years ago ) and that we should reach this EU average in (was it mid 2005 or something) a timely manner .

We are still in 14th position out of 15 , just ahead of Greece , and have overtaken nobody in the EU or in the OECD the past 5 years.

eircomtribunal

11th January 2005, in a DCMNR Press release, Noel Dempsey declares, just as he did on many other occasions:

As broadband becomes more widely available, the number of users will continue to rise. I have said it before and I will say it again here, I want to see at least 500,000 broadband users by 2006. Other countries have done it, and so can we.

P.

watty

As Alice says "How can I have more when I havn't had any?"

It's easy to double anything when there is very little.
But hard when there are lots. Is it any accident that nearly everyone has a Mobile Phone. That won't double.

Taking how to increase Broadband usage from Phone example:

Roll out 100% coverage of a Broadband system that really works.
Double the cost of Dialup Internet.

The insane cost of line rental has driven people to Mobile phones along with the added functionality of texting and personal number instead of a house number. There is no way in current climate that such demand would exist for broadband as:
* If you want it, it is more than even chance you can't get it
* it isn't needed as much as personal phone is.
* Too small a proportion of offical stuff can be done easier online.

I can order my car tax online. BUT only if I didn't lose the POSTED form with the PIN. Why should they care WHO pays for my Car Tax?

Almost all of Comreg is PDFs. The next most web unfriendly document after MS OFFICE. With names like comreg05172367.pdf

The goverment Broadband info site is hard to find (google is easier than the search on the main government site) and out of date and misleading when you do find it.

Still no Flat Rate Internet Dial up, even though they say there is (a secret plan to stimulate BB). Why can no-one get Eircom FWA?

I'm baffeled as to what they think they are doing.

bealtine

watty wrote:

As Alice says "How can I have more when I havn't had any?"

I'm baffeled as to what they think they are doing.

Hah you are baffled...not as baffled as Dempsey and his minions:)

Capt'n Midnight

Responding to the suggestion of a digital divide in Ireland, Dempsey said: “We do not believe that anything in Ireland exists that could be termed a 'digital divide'.

In all fairness he is right. A divide would suggest two halves the haves and the have not's. There just aren't enough haves to justify the word divide, maybe the word slice or chip or shave.

With many recovery programs the first step is admiting you have a problem. Only then can you solve it. If you don't admit there is a problem then you don't have to solve it !

IT Loser

ednwireland wrote:

i have reply from dempseys departement which states that i can get broadband from 42 suppliers in donegal town. the fact is 2.5 years after the exchange was upgraded i still cant get broadband through my phone line due to a minor short on the wire i am hopefully going to get wireless through a new provider who is rolling out next month. basically they think that because your exchange is upgraded its job done.
i really dont know where the politicians come from at times they are so out of touch with reality its unbeleivable
so like many others i still dont have broadband

WHat I don't understand is that my exhange has been enabled for a good while, and I suffered from the line fail test even though the guy next door didn't. Ergo, the exchange was enabled, and my line was ****. Therefore further "enablings" {don't ask me} should have acheived nought.

Now all of a sudden my line is good to go for Broadband, but the explanations I am getting for this make no sense when the "line failure" argument is considered. Once the exchange was enabled then that should have been that....if the line was bad then nothing short of a replacement line would have fixed it. Right?

Essentially, what I am saying is that there may be an intermediate ground, such as your line is really passing the test but some minor physical impairment is bringing up a "fail" on the line test.

If I was you pal I'd rip up the house looking for the line, and physically inspect it. Look for really obvious physical shortcomings in the line and repair them, then try again. I unfortunately have too many contending explanations for my sudden BB capability, but one of my favourites is that I mended the problem myself by ripping up the line, and discovering really shoddy workmanship on it.

loly

He should read the dublin digital divide report .....there's a digital divide in Dublin. Somehow I think that should result in the same result nationally. http://www.dublinpact.ie/pdfs/DigDivideStudy.pdf

watty

The problem with a line might be anywhere between your house and the exchange.