IrelandOffline in Indo Supplement today

damien

Who would have thought we'd get column inches in Sir Tony's paper ?


The Future's here, but why isn't it faster ? by Damian Corless

Twenty years ago I'd be clacking out this story on a typewriter, pausing every two minutes to check a spelling in my dictionary, and pausing again for the Tippex to dry before clacking on. Finished, I'd cycle the five miles to the office with the smudgy pages. The appliance of science would then take over.

Ten years ago I'd be writing this on my first home computer, with not a bottle of Tippex in the house and the dictionary gathering dust because of a marvellous thing called Spellcheck that allowed any dimwit to spell in flawless American. Finished, I'd transfer the article onto floppy disc, get on my bike and go.

Today, floppy discs and my bicycle are ancient history. When I finish an article I simply cut-and-paste it onto an email and click Send. I then pick up the phone to let editorial know it's on the way, and more often than not it has already arrived.

In an Ireland where not so long ago you joined a three year waiting list to get a phone put in, technological progress used to be a case of not missing what you've never had. However, with the hi-tech suppliers making a hard-sell of how they keep surpassing themselves, expectations are shooting up. When I first got internet access down the phone-line it was love at first sight. The infatuation soon faded and the routine became (1) click to download a page, and (2) grunt and scream and mutter death threats in the desktop version of gridlocked road-rage.

Then I got broadband and the cursing stopped. Pages appeared fully formed on demand. The future was finally here and I was blissfully happy with it. That's until a body called IrelandOffline announced that Irish broadband users are paying too much for a service which they say could be 200 times faster. The proof of this, they claim, will be in a report out soon.

First things first. Even though we've seen the floppy disc go from cutting edge to museum piece in a twinkle, it's still hard to believe there's a broadband system out there right now that goes 200 times faster. What does 200 times faster actually mean?

Damien Mulley, Chairman of IrelandOffline, says: "With the 512k (half an mb/s) service that's the current Irish standard, if you want to download video it takes time and the quality is blotchy. Sweden has an 100mb/s service available which is 200 times faster, which would allow you to watch the home video of a friend in Australia in real time." Quality-wise, it would be like having your personal cable TV channel.

The computer enthusiasts who make up IrelandOffline's membership compared price and speed across the 15 pre-enlargement EU states. According to Mulley: "The average speed in Europe is 8mb/s, or 16 times faster than here. France has one 8mb/s service for a flat fee of €15 per month including VAT, compared to €33 here ex-VAT. Another French provider offers a 20mb/s (40 times faster) connection with unlimited local calls and 80 TV channels all for €35 monthly."

The report says Ireland is years behind Europe in providing broadband access to customers (NI, with one third our population, has roughly the same number of connections) and that we're paying too much for an outdated 512k connection that has far too little capacity to meet expanding needs. Mulley says: "The average size of an email is getting much bigger each year. The same with files to be downloaded. You need bigger capacity, not an obsolete 5-year-old system."

Ireland's biggest broadband provider is Eircom with 75% of the market. Commercial Director David McRedmond responds: "It's nonsense to say it's a 5-year-old technology. The 512k entry level is the up-to-date Europe-wide standard of our supplier, Alcatel. Our first priority is to have broadband available in every town in Ireland. To date we've rolled out the network to cover 80% of the population. This time next year it will be 90%. Once the country is covered our strategy is to increase speeds as quickly and affordably as possible."

McRedmond says that while he wouldn't question the costs and speeds in the forthcoming report: "They're not comparing like with like. They're cherry picking. Our own research compares Eircom with other incumbents (the former national telecom monopolies) and their most common entry level is 512k. Tarifica, the independent telecoms analyst, issued a report last November showing the average 512k price is €35 ex-VAT while ours is €33."

Mulley says: "Eircom is used to moving at its own pace and in its own interests. No-one can blame it, but it needs a prod." While McRedmond rejects charges that Eircom has been obstructing the arrival of effective competition which would force prices down and standards up, he points out: "We are not the State. Our business is to look after our customers and ensure good returns for our shareholders."

At the end of the day, says Mulley: "It's the job of the recently appointed Communications Regulator, Isolde Goggin, to open the market to competition. If ComReg can't do that, Communications Minister Noel Dempesy has the power to force the issue by making the appropriate ministerial directives.

Slutmonkey57b

Not comparing like with like?

If you compare it on speed, you notice they pay less for the same speed (if it's even available). If you compare on price, you see they get 10x the speed for the same price. So no matter what "apples to apples" comparison you make, the result is the same - we're getting ripped off.

eircomtribunal

(McRedmond)"To date we've rolled out the network to cover 80% of the population. This time next year it will be 90%. Once the country is covered our strategy is to increase speeds as quickly and affordably as possible."

The master of the lie is careful not to say Eircom would now broadband cover 80% of the population, by slyly speaking of "rolled out the network to cover...".

But: The last mile of copper to the end-user is integral part of the network, and when over 20% of that part fails to deliver broadband to the enduser, than the network is not "rolled out to cover 80% of the population"! 80% of lines originating from bb enabled exchanges with a 20% failure rate on the last mile bit gives us a coverage of 64 %.

We should keep making journalists aware of that vital difference and encourage them to look behind the PR and lies.(contact address of Damian Corless ?)

We should also keep pressing ComReg's latest Commissioner Mike Byrne not to support the flimsy lies of Eircom about the dsl coverage in official documents! ".. Eircom has publicly committed to achieving 90 percent DSL coverage by March 2006," (Byrne in the recently published consultation paper on Universal Service Obligation).

P.

dahamsta

I'd imagine Damian Corless will be getting a phone call from on high shortly...

Is it just me or is McRedmond slipping just a little bit here? Whatever about the usual 80% garbage, the 512-is-standard stuff would appear to be outright lies, that (apparently) IrelandOffline will shortly be able to refute completely.

Any comment IrelandOffline? Would you agree that McRedmond is a big fat lying piece of crap?

adam

damien

dahamsta wrote:

Any comment IrelandOffline? Would you agree that McRedmond is a big fat lying piece of crap?

You may say that Adam, I couldn't possibly comment.

joetighe

hi folks,
I know its easy to focus on the limitations of our telecommunications infrastructure, nevertheless the Group Broadband Scheme is about bringing broadband to areas where it hasnt already come.
The Co-Ordinators are paid by the Regional Authorities to promote the scheme, advise communities, match communities with ISP's, aggregate applications, and check the validity of applications before they are submitted to the dept.
Im happy to be contacted at jtighe@meathcoco.ie to clarify my role and/or the scheme, and i'd be even happier to be contacted by individuals or groups ready to kick off a scheme in their area, and to advise on how to do so. Perhaps a public information meeting can be arranged in your area.
The initial activity is generally a community meeting or one individual collecting 25+ names to show interest in an area. From that the scheme can get moving and an ISP can be identified.
Please get in touch, this deadline closes 28th April although there will be more, and it takes ISP a few weeks to get an application together.
Regards,
Joe Tighe
Co-Ordinator for Kildare, Meath, Wicklow.
jtighe@meathcoco.ie

eircomtribunal

joetighe wrote:

hi folks,
I know it's easy to focus on the limitations of our telecommunications infrastructure

It is neither easy nor is it exclusive.
Without the critical analysis and initiative of many here on boards and in Irelandoffline the DCMNR broadband scheme would not have come about.

If we had had more clear thinking in the DCMNR and a firmer hand on ComReg, the incumbent would not have come away with destroying Ireland's Internet and Broadband future.

Joe, I am not at all knocking the scheme you are promoting here, just pointing out that this band aid could have been used in a wiser and more effective way if it could have been concentrated on the last three to five percent of population coverage that are really difficult to serve.

Instead the incumbent can even partake in the scheme and get grant-aid for dsl enabling exchanges, rewarding him for n o t having upgraded.

I assume you don't want to go into a general discussion here, as you will rightly concentrate on the practical implementation of the scheme; but perhaps you can let us know, whether this really is happening (Eircom pulling grant money from this scheme for exchange enabling)?

P.