Ireland Offline

bealtine

Ireland Offline today announced its intention to reform.

The previous committee decided that there was not a lot more that could be done in this field. This was true at that time.

It is patently clear that very little progress has been achieved in the interim.

However recent non-events have shown that a reformed IoffL would be a very useful resource for consumers and others who need an independent voice in the
telecommunications field.

A more formal announcement will be forthcoming in the next few days.

watty

++ vote

But since it disbanded how can it announce a decision to reform?

(However arrived at, I agree with it).

Our man in Havana

I think it is a necessary step given the lack of BB in rural areas.

Fergus Cassidy

16/05/2008 (Ireland.com)

Patrick Logue

The failure to deliver broadband to many rural areas of the country has had major social and economic costs, a conference was told today.

Irish Rural Link said it was launching a national campaign to pressure the Government into improving the service in rural areas.

Chief Executive Seamus Boland told the meeting in Charleville, Co Cork that urgent action was required and expressed concern that the Government’s National Broadband Scheme (NDBS) may not be adequate.

The NBS, announced in May 2007 aims to provide broadband to the areas of Ireland that are unserved and ensure that every reasonable request for broadband in these areas is met.

However, Mr Boland said a number of concerns about the proposed scheme had not been answered.

“The main concern is that the areas which the NBS is proposed to cover do not include all those areas where people cannot in fact get broadband,” he said.

“The Department of Communications estimates that in approximately 10 per cent of the country broadband is not potentially available. A number of experts have estimated the actual figure to be twice or three times the Department’s figure”.

The group has launched a campaign which it says will ensure that everybody who has tried and failed to get broadband in rural Ireland can make Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan and his officials aware of the fact.

The campaign called Connect Rural Ireland will involve postcards being distributed to rural communities which can then be sent to the Department of Communications.

“The Connect Rural Ireland campaign will ensure that the Department of Communications will know unambiguously where the problem areas are instead of having to rely only on broadband distributors as they currently do,” Mr Boland added.
© 2008 ireland.com

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Irish Rural Link's campaign site

Fergus

RangeR

Excellent

smellslikeshoes

This is great news.

Fogmatic

Yes it was good to read that (even at 12kbps max!).

I got a personally addressed leaflet from Eircoma years ago, congratulating me on being enabled for broadband. They insisted for years that I could get it, too, but couldn't seem to be able to explain how.....
Their website at the time responded to my phone number with 'Donegal is enabled for Broadband', and some links to order it from various companies (Donegal Town? County Donegal? Some little spot in Donegal?). And when we had the phone put in, they gave us a Donegal area number, though the line came from the Dungloe direction. (I could go on, but would only be preaching to the converted here!)

lmimmfn

surely there are enough people in the country to be outraged at the disgrace that is BB in this country to get off our fat asses and march to the Dail in protest.

This government hasnt got a clue, they perceive wireless broadband as broadband when its not, its latency/ping rates make all but the most simple tasks impossible( fine if you like to hang around waiting for your movie to start downloading or to forget about gaming or decent remote server access i.e. working from home for some of us ).
The handling of Eircom is a disgrace, they denied them cash for rolling out NGNs( thankfully ), but now theyre just taking the chicken ass usual irish BS of sitting on the fence and waiting for some other poor company to come in and sort their/our mess.

The worst thing is this isint going to be sorted soon and for a country where our largest export is software were not doing much to safeguard our economy, ohh lets base all our investment on making builder/contractors rich over the next 10 years instead

Decent affordable and working broadband is the right of every person in this country as is ESB and phone services

What a joke, its not only rural areas that are suffering, those in built up areas cant even get decent broadband simply because theres no minimum guarantee of service, i mean cmon, can you imagine the uproar if you couldnt run more than 2 lights off your ESB connection without it failing and ESB saying "well we dont guarantee rate of supply, just that you have supply, and if you dont like it well you still have to pay us for the remaining 11 months of the contract you signed. Thanks for that, next sucker please

Gotcha

fair enough but forgive me if I am one of the few who doesn't really give a damn....in the past all I ever saw was "more heat than light" from IOL but I am gladly open to be persuaded otherwise so good luck to all.....been out of the country for the last +12 months....not a good time to be returning!!

bealtine

Gotcha wrote: »

fair enough but forgive me if I am one of the few who doesn't really give a damn....in the past all I ever saw was "more heat than light"

You are always welcome to join IoffL and help direct the light where you think it is needed...

clohamon

Well done. I hope the news outlets have the cop to check with you before churning out the government propaganda.