Nero fiddled, Dempsey ponders

jwt

State ponders building its own NGN

05.04.2007 - Communications Minister Noel Dempsey TD has warned that the construction of a next-generation network (NGN) serving Ireland is now a national priority and said the construction of an NGN as a strategic national asset by the State is one option being considered.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single8095

John

watty

Would EU let them?

damien

Project Dingle anyone. He really has swallowed that NGN pill. One wonders will the Govt offer money for anyone told build an NGN network, when suddenly out of nowhere eircom comes along and says "We'll do it". My tinfoil hat is blinding people on this sunny day.

Hacketry

damien.m wrote:

Project Dingle anyone?

I've been following this Project Dingle idea for some time. I have to declare that I had some responsibility for suggesting the plan to Noel Dempsey some considerable time ago, and was surprised when I read about it named as 'Dingle' in the papers some time later.

However there seems to be no documentation, half of DCMNR staff I deal with have never heard about it, and various bodies like Bord na Mona who actually have some largely unused fibre resources know nothing about it.

My suspicion is that it's a phantom plan, including this government NGN lark, but does betray some of Dempsey's apparent interest in direct market interventionism. Whether we ever see any under this administartion is another story.

Sabre rattling with an empty scabbard.

My tinfoil hat is blinding people on this sunny day.

Ahhhh. Stop it. It's burning my hungover eyes......

damien

Hacketry wrote:

I have to declare that I had some responsibility for suggesting the plan to Noel Dempsey some considerable time ago,

It's been around since before Dialup Dempsey.

Altreab

damien.m wrote:

Project Dingle anyone. He really has swallowed that NGN pill. One wonders will the Govt offer money for anyone told build an NGN network, when suddenly out of nowhere eircom comes along and says "We'll do it". My tinfoil hat is blinding people on this sunny day.

Project Dingle?? Please enlighten me

P.S. or should it be project Daingean?

TimTim

Altreab wrote:

Project Dingle?? Please enlighten me

P.S. or should it be project Daingean?

Google tells me:

Codenamed "Project Dingle", this is a combination of the data networks of ESB, Bord Gais, RTE and Iarnrod Eireann, to create a new telecoms giant.

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9674046.html

watty

This is what Noel was doing last month:
http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/News+and+Information/2007-03-09+Castles+Stamps.htm

Fitzee

Isn't this kind of a good idea? We'd have a carrier neutral national network again assuming they buy back some of eircom's old network.... We might have real competition with a level playing pitch..? Sorry if I am missing something?

Hacketry

damien.m wrote:

It's been around since before Dialup Dempsey.

Really?

I stand corrected. I was under the impression public provision of this kind of infrasructure was a project explored during the current minister's tenure. Hmmmn.

Has anyone seen any documentation on this plan?

Capt'n Midnight

Fitzee wrote:

Isn't this kind of a good idea? We'd have a carrier neutral national network again assuming they buy back some of eircom's old network.... We might have real competition with a level playing pitch..? Sorry if I am missing something?

Why buy eircom's old network ?
would it not be cheaper to buy the whole company or build a parallel network ?

I have memories of Dublin Gas, a company whose stock market value ( £2m ??) was far far less than the grants it got to improve the network around the natural gas changeover.

Fitzee

I don't think they need to buy eircom's whole network. But the missing piece of the puzzle that would be uneconomical to replicate AFAIK is the "last mile" copper? I'm not sure how you can make that work. Buying eircom in full won't give a carrier neutral network and hence the same old problems with competition, LLU etc. would persist.