State of play.

mayhem#

I'ver been living outside of Ireland for two years now and broadband seems to be available eveywhere at reasonable prices in this part of Europe.
What's the story in Ireland now? Is broadband (DSL) widely available and affordable? When I left is was living in "da country" (Clare) and my only access to broadband was via a satellite link...
Would be interested to hear people's opinions; what's more popular, ISDN, DSL or wireless etc...

E.

eircomtribunal

mayhem# wrote:

What's the story in Ireland now? Is broadband (DSL) widely available and affordable?

For availability look up the map here.

Affordability has gone from moon-priced to overpriced. Despite various claims made by ComReg, the DCMNR and the incumbent to the opposite, Irish broadband pricing is way above the European average. That is true for Eircom's Mickey Mouse up-to 512 kbs adsl with a 4 gig cap, but much more distinctive when it comes to higher spec products. Due to our top of EU line rental price, the total out-of-pocket price for the Irish broadband consumer is high enough to thwart any chances of Ireland catching up with the other EU countries in terms of broadband take-up.

Home Internet penetration has alarmingly gone down from an already low position. End 2003 37% of households had an Internet connection, end 2004 this figure has gone down to 35%.

On the plus side: The problem is at least generally accepted.

P.

mayhem#

Jayzus that's bad!
Here (read belgium) a get 3 MB dsl with 512k upload for 29.95 p/m.
Cap is 10 gig and an additional 1 euro per gig over that.
Availablity is about 75-85 % nationwide. Up north in Holland it's even madder, you get 8 MB dls for peanuts there....

Are there not WISP sprouting up all over the place?

E.

Blaster99

I don't see any signs of the WISPs doing anything out of the ordinary. They all seem to mimick Eircom's pricing model, with a few percent discount. I think there's so much demand right now (which probably goes contrary to eircomtrib's statement) that there's no real need to compete on pricing.

mayhem#

So basically bugger all has changed since two years ago?
What's the availabilty of DSL outside the larger cities?

E.

eircomtribunal

mayhem# wrote:

So basically bugger all has changed since two years ago?
What's the availabilty of DSL outside the larger cities?

E.

Two years ago dls was still moon-priced and very few exchanges were enabled. So things have changed, the problem is that the distance we are lagging behind the development in other countries is not getting smaller.

Other things have changed, too: the Irish communications regulator has got a totally different name (ODTR – ComReg), unfortunately still the same attitude and "efficiency" – contrast this with the UK situation, where the regulator has got a totally different attitude and efficiency, but only a slightly different name(Oftel – Ofcom).

P.

Blaster99

On paper it's pretty good, so long as you live near the exchange.

Not a lot has happened, no. Maybe the 3.5Ghz roll-out will change things a bit, maybe LLU will do something, maybe NTL's rollout will shake things up. But this stuff has been talked about for at least a year while the rest of the world has gotten on with it.

mayhem#

How about the miles & miles of fiber that were being put in the ground?
Is anyone using that?

E.

Slutmonkey57b

Of course not. That's for use by... eeehhhh... we don't know yet. Possibly wisps. If they can afford it. And get some High sites. Which they can't.