Tribune covers story of coverage map - eircom apologists chime in

damien

Page 7 of the Sunday Tribune today carries the coverage map that John Handelaar created for IrelandOffline.

Gaping Holes in Irish Internet

The government is coming under fire from an Irish broadband lobby group which has produced a map showing the unequal distribution of high-speed Internet access acrossthe country writes Conor McMorrow

A NEWLY DRAFTED map has highlighted major differences in levels of broadband availability across Ireland, according to a leading broadband lobby group.

The Ireland Offline map displays the uneven availability of broadband over Irish phone lines (DSL broadband), with much of rural Ireland left deprived of the service that has been termed the 21st-century equivalent of 1950s rural
electrification. Ireland Offline was set up in 2000 to campaign for proper internet and broadband access, a competent regulator and healthy competition in the area. The group has been a persistent critic of the government's failure to meet its commitment to provide broadband across the state.

"This map gives a geographical view of DSL availability in the Republic of Ireland. Each exchange that has broadband equipment is depicted with a circle around it",” said Damien Mulley, chairman of Ireland Offline. “There are approximately 1,100 exchangesin the country and Eircom have enabled around 400 of them so far. These enabled exchanges are mostly around the major population centres, but they should enable the exchanges that are in more rural locations.

‘Compare this to Northern Ireland where every exchange has been enabled and, as a result, there are 207,000 broadband cotmections in the six counties, compared to 270,000 in the Republic.”

Mulley believes Ireland’'s poor record in the provision of broadband availability has left the country lagging behind in development of its knowledge economy.

But in response to criticism of its record on broadband access, the government has poured cold water on claims made by Ireland Offline. A spokesman for the Minister for Communications Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey, said: “"The minister has repeatedly expressed his concern about the availability of broadband in Ireland, particularly outisde the major centres of population. For this reason, the deapartment operates a number of programmes designed to provide access to towns and people."

The spokesman added: “Broadband is a top priority for the minister because it is an essential building-block for the knowledge economy. While the minister is not satisfied with the current situation, significant progress has been made over the past two years.”

David McRedmond, commercial director of Eircom, also criticised Ireland Offline'’s map. He said: “I think that it is grossly misleading as we are making broadband available as much as it is anywhere in Europe, and this is a fantastic achievement."

John Doherty of the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)
added: ‘It is important to realise that the 400 entthled exchanges on this map
represent about 75% of the population. Eircom has a very large number of small exchanges. Eircom has been enabling these exchanges, but the issue is more about supply and population. Each exchange is not the same, as exchanges in areas of low population density cannot be looked upon in the same wasy as exchanges in areas of higher population density.

eircomtribunal

damien.m wrote:

John Doherty of the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)added: ‘It is important to realise that the 400 enabled exchanges on this map represent about 75% of the population. Eircom has a very large number of small exchanges. Eircom has been enabling these exchanges, but the issue is more about supply and population.

No muscles (minister Dempsey about ComReg), no teeth (citigroup about ComReg) and no shame and no spine, we should add.

While Eircom's David McRedmond is highly paid for to mislead, bullshît and lie about this, the Commissioners and the DCMNR are paid for to act in our interest.
While David will probably leave the company and these shores, after being paid out his millions by Babcock & Brown (or Badcock & Drown as an Aussie friend calls them in view of the treatment they dish out to bought-up companies), and we'll be spared to have to listen to and look at much longer, the other guys will stay around on our pay till the end of days.

P.

zuma

Well David McRedmond gets over 500,00 a year incl. Bonuses so he'll certainly mint it when the Aussies take over!

For that type of money I'd "misledd" all day long!!!!

Sponge Bob

eircomtribunal has a similar map of switzerland where the coverage was much better and that was a few years ago, even up the alps beyond the snowline .

also see the equally anorexic vodafone 3g coverage map here

http://62.17.23.101:8080/liteview6.5/servlet/MapGuideLiteView?REQUEST=MAP&WIDTH=696&HEIGHT=696&FORMAT=PNG&LAYERS=VodafoneCoverCombo.mwf&BBOX=-50000,0,450000,500000

Xcom2

Yikes it could be easier to complain to them?

took me 10 mins to fill in the form's to have a moan...

Altreab

zuma wrote:

Well David McRedmond gets over 500,00 a year incl. Bonuses so he'll certainly mint it when the Aussies take over!

For that type of money I'd "misledd" all day long!!!!

its FAR worse than that Zuma he is on a "basic" of over €700 K a year plus bonus as can be seen here
and a "performance bonus of €2.8 million" ......... yeah someperformer all right ...... the share price is "Since its flotation earlier this year eircom shares have yet to trade above their initial offer price of €1.55. "
and that was in July 2004
This is in June 2005 €1.3 Million "basic" salary!!!

all in all depressing reading


but i think this report in 2004 sums up the whole sad situation

eircomtribunal

ENN mentions the Sunday Tribunal article:

The Sunday Tribune reports that broadband lobby group Ireland Offline has highlighted significant difference in the levels of broadband availability across Ireland. Ireland Offline has created a map of the country, which reveals uneven availability of DSL broadband, particularly in rural Ireland.

Isn't it a shame that an internet media service like ENN does not use links in its articles?
P.

eircomtribunal

ENN mentions the Sunday Tribune article:

The Sunday Tribune reports that broadband lobby group Ireland Offline has highlighted significant difference in the levels of broadband availability across Ireland. Ireland Offline has created a map of the country, which reveals uneven availability of DSL broadband, particularly in rural Ireland.

Isn't it a shame that an internet media service like ENN does not use links in its articles?
P.

Blaster99

damien.m wrote:

John Doherty of the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)
added: ‘It is important to realise that the 400 entthled exchanges on this map
represent about 75% of the population. Eircom has a very large number of small exchanges. Eircom has been enabling these exchanges, but the issue is more about supply and population. Each exchange is not the same, as exchanges in areas of low population density cannot be looked upon in the same wasy as exchanges in areas of higher population density.

How much does eircom pay John Doherty?

Sponge Bob

Blaster99 wrote:

How much does eircom pay John Doherty?

Or more to the point...Does Comreg work for the Irish Public or for Eircom ???.

See this particular Comwreck blog quoted here, it was published in August 2005 before some 150 of the exchanges on the map were ever enabled. The map is up to date.

Note that there is no question of the accuracy of the map itself , bar a speck in a bog in west connemara that I questioned elsewhere . Neither eircom or Comreg saw that so what the **** anyway .

Back to Comwreck

(Comreg) gave Ireland a 78% population coverage column for 2003/2004, when we know that in 2003 and 2004, the year of the chart data, Irish dsl coverage was below 50%.

That Comreg claim was published here, page 11, in June 2005 in a document they amusingly call their "2005-2007 Strategy Statement "

When the anorexic pimpling that is DSL coverage in Ireland was put to Commissioner Doherty of Comreg in the form of a map May 2005 he stated, fairly accurately for once, that the coverage represented by the map was 75% population coverage.

This is well worth serious investigation because the 75% figure conceded by Comreg last week is the first time they EVER admitted the truth .

Doherty

It is important to realise that the 400 enabled exchanges on this map represent about 75% of the population

If it is IMPORTANT , and we think so around here John, why have you lied about it for so long ???????

damien

When certain groups all start joining forces to call IrelandOffline names you know we're getting far too close to the truth. We should start doing more of these visuals.