Yet another report highlights Irelands poor BB performance

BendiBus

This time it's from the European Commission

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0220/telecom.html

I don't think there are any startling revelations in it.

Country by Coutry comment

The Usual Bar chart

damien

I'm sure the DCMNR will highlight the good bits, so here's the balance

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ecomm/implementation_enforcement/annualreports/11threport/index_en.htm

From this PDF - http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/implementation_enforcement/annualreports/11threport/sec_2006_193_vol2bis.pdf

Pg 69: Monthly average total cost per full unbundled loop, 2004 & 2005

4th most expensive but the 3 more expensive are from new EU countries where the market is not fully liberalised. We have had LLU in Ireland for 5 years now.

Pg 76: Highest line rental on the planet! Or so it seems. Higher than rest of the EU. This is line rental from the EU and world incumbents

Pg 78: Composite basket. Finland and Japan are higher. Note the fixed part is line rental. Who had the highest?

No doubt ComReg will highlight that we have cheap National calls but that is only one part of the composite basket with is a much truer representation of a real phone bill.

Mobile baskets are on page 48 onwards. Notice that Ireland is at the very upper part of the graph. Showing once again how high our prices are. This backs up ComReg figures showing the average monthly ARPU is the highest in the EU.

Pg 64 is Broadband penetration rate.

Sponge Bob

page 39 . High capacity business leased line prices are the highest on a per Km basis .

page 59. Figure 59 (Total BB DSL lines beween Bitstream Eircom and LLU is shown as 219,369 for october 2005 .

Eircom in their annual report last week claimed to have reached 200,000 Bitsteam by December 2005. Where did the other 19k come from as there is no way we had 19k LLU lines in Ireland in October 2005 .???? Did Comreg tell porkies to the EU again ?? , in fact on page 65 it looks like 3.5k LLU lines with only 400 orders outstanding.

Pg 76 Highest line rental on the entire planet...... Ooooh I'm so proud of us topping that chart along with the leased line one.

jwt

Isn’t it weird that in areas like local call rates and national call rates we are quite competitive with the EU?

And in areas where there is a monopoly we are not competitive?

I wonder why that is?

What could possibly be driving prices down in one area and keeping prices up in another?

Maybe we should have a competition to see if anyone can come up with an answer?

This would be where more than one group competes for the prize.

John

eircomtribunal

The EU figures and tables are important and should be pointed out to the Oireachtas Committee members.

ComReg are coincidentally out today with more fog information.
Their Amarach trendwatch report, issued today, is, as always, a piece of ****e wasting our money.

This time they've stopped to even mention the home Internet penetration figure. Have a look at page 28, personal Internet usage:
They manage to describe our disastrous "personal Internet usage from any location", which with 42% in Q4 of 2005 is down 3% from the 45% we had in Q4 of 2003:

42% of respondents personally use the internet from any location
compared with 38% from Q3, 2003 and no change in Q3, 2004.

Do I remember right that Comreg in their submission to the Forfas consultation/or was it the DCMNR thingy?/ fantasised about a much higher Internet usage, or home Internet penetration, which they could somehow figure out from their data (in the absence of CSO figures)?

Also "nice" is one of the "Report's" conclusions about the fact that we still have a spectacular 71% dial-up, plus 8% of mobile/other or don't knows(page 43):

Broadband at 20% is holding its own in a market dominated by regular dial-up connections for the internet. This penetration level seems set to increase in 2006.

...indeed, indeed...

P.

damien

Dempsey doing his spin: http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0220/businesstonight.html

It's all cos we're late starters...

Sponge Bob

I looked at that 219k figure again, the bitstream dsl component is some 167k with cable BB at around 19k , LLU 3k and wireless ( including lots of Ripwaves) at 25k ,this detailed breakdown of where 219k BB connections in Ireland are arrived at p66 of 114

Jeez 10% of our so called BB connections in Ireland must be those bloody ripwaves

OECD composite baskets are explained in detail right towards the end.

eircomtribunal

damien.m wrote:

Dempsey doing his spin: http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0220/businesstonight.html

It's all cos we're late starters...

The RTE interviewing was good again. Great to see.
Noel forgot to mention the old lame duck that it was also all due to the dotcom crash, miraculously singling out Ireland broadband.
The latest fad is to congratulate ourselves to the fact that we did so well now in the second half of 2005. What a nonsense. Even the Eircom blurp, orchestrated to woo the next bunch of (Ausssie?) pigs to the trough of the Irish national telephone infrastructure, does not show any trend worthy to single out for praise. Not 2400 new customers, but nearly 3000 per week are needed for the next 100 weeks to arrive at Eircom's own meagre 500 000 dsl customers goal by end of 2007.


And nothing in the Amarach trendwatch (ongoing low Internet usage of 42%, of which a considerable 39% percent is in the "once every week or less" category; and of which only some 63% use the Net at home) to give a more cheerful outlook.
No wonder Noel sounded rather unconvincing, despite the well-trotten lousy arguments.

P.

AndrewMc

damien.m wrote:

Dempsey doing his spin: http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0220/businesstonight.html

It's all cos we're late starters...

After listening to that, Dempsey seems more than ever like a totally passive side-line observer sitting on his hands. Not a word about how terrible it all is and how he's fighting tooth-and-nail to fix it...

damien

http://www.electricnews.net/frontpage/news-9670851.html

When contacted by ElectricNews.Net a ComReg spokesperson declined to comment on any criticism coming from Ireland Offline.

Awwww.

Sponge Bob

damien.m wrote:

It's all cos we're late starters...

No we are not, we had Chorus Cable BB in Malahide as early as 1997/1998 but Tony O'Reilly turned it off in 2000 .

Malahide therefore had no BB from about 2000 until 2004 or so but they was not late starters !

eircomtribunal

And also on ENN here

Irish line rental highest in Europe: EU
Tuesday, February 21 2006
by Ciara O'Brien

Irish residential customers have some of the highest fixed line phone bills in Europe, thanks to pricey line rental.

According to a new Europe-wide report on telecommunications compiled by the European Union, the prices on Irish phone bills are beaten only by Finland in Europe. Worldwide, Japan is the most expensive in the survey. Ireland's monthly line rental charge of EUR24.20 is the highest in Europe, and is also more expensive than rates charged in the US and Japan.

This is despite the fact that there is no guarantee of the availability of a DSL connection or even dial-up internet speeds. Damien Mulley, with lobby group Ireland Offline, has called for a reduction in these charges if the service cannot be guaranteed.

"If we're paying that amount of money, we should be getting a quality service on it, and we're not," he told ElectricNews.Net. "As a way of incentivising the incumbent, Eircom, into providing quality lines, it should be forced to give a reduction to people who cannot get broadband."

Although the report revealed that call charges in Ireland are cheaper than other European countries, line rental is pushing Irish telecoms bills higher. Despite getting a good deal on national calls, fixed line users are paying above the EU average for local calls, according to the report.

Irish business customers fare a little better, escaping the top ten most expensive. For line rental, business customers pay the second highest line rental after the UK.

Ireland is also expensive when it comes to local loop unbundling (LLU), ranking as the fourth most expensive for LLU in the EU, well above the EU25 average. Only three new EU states charge more each month for LLU, including Slovakia.

Mulley observed that "anything telecoms related in this country has sky-high prices, which is a shame." He warned that high pricing could serve to discourage Irish consumers from using fixed line and even mobile services.

P.

SkepticOne

damien.m wrote:

http://www.electricnews.net/frontpage/news-9670851.html

When contacted by ElectricNews.Net a ComReg spokesperson declined to comment on any criticism coming from Ireland Offline.

Awwww.

You've got to hand it to Comreg in some respects though. They know how to throw down the gauntlett.

Sponge Bob

SkepticOne wrote:

You've got to hand it to Comreg

yeah, all €24.20 a month of the Highest Line Rental on the Planet

SkepticOne

AndrewMc wrote:

After listening to that, Dempsey seems more than ever like a totally passive side-line observer sitting on his hands. Not a word about how terrible it all is and how he's fighting tooth-and-nail to fix it...

He has the choice of either doing something or downplaying the problem. Obviously it is easier to downplay the problem since trying to fix it will a) be admitting there is a problem that needs attention and b) draw criticism from the likes of Eircom who might be affected.

Politicians lie by omission. Therefore he talks about Ireland being a late starter. This is true (notwithstanding a few areas pointed out by Sponge Bob.) What he doesn't mention, obviously, is the governments role in creating the situation of Ireland's late entry and he know's this won't be brought up by the interviewer.

Laguna

How many 'startling' broadband uncoveries are going to happen?, do people really think Eircom are going to be shamed into providing 100% service in Ireland by these reports?, get real, Eircom couldn't give a toss.

Nothing is going to change in this country with regard to phoneline DSL, I've said it before and I'll say it again, the ONLY way we'll get 100% BB availability in this country is if either the Government set up their own BB scheme via existing RTE/Vodafone communication masts or we wait until a company like Digiweb roll out WiMax here.

Other than the 'hope' of WiMax, I tire of these damning reports of the Irish BB situation, yes, the BB situtation is more than embarrassing in relation to other countries, **** it, you could write a report everday uncovering something new about how **** the telecoms are here but ultimately it will change nothing, Eircom is a private company, they DON'T CARE if there's 100% availability of BB or not.

SkepticOne

Laguna wrote:

How many 'startling' broadband uncoveries are going to happen?, do people really think Eircom are going to be shamed into providing 100% service in Ireland by these reports?, get real, Eircom couldn't give a toss.

I think a lot of people do think that. This is why Dempsey and his predecessor, Ahern, can get away with "challenging" the industry to deliver so many broadband connections. It is simply a game being played between the two parties. Neither side take it seriously.

watty

Of course Eircom care. Think of what they would lose in Dialup Internet charges.