IrelandOffline OECD Broadband Price Report

Moriarty

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** OECD Broadband Report - Ireland 27 Out of 30 for Value **

Consumer Report Shows Ireland One of the Most Expensive Countries in
the World for Basic Broadband Services.

Internet consumer group IrelandOffline this morning published a new
detailed broadband pricing report comparing Ireland to the 29 other
OECD countries. Results of the report show that Ireland comes 27th out
of 30 for value for money.

IrelandOffline Chairman Damien Mulley said "This report is the clearest
evidence yet as to the state of broadband in Ireland. No talking up,
side-stepping, or clever marketing can distract from the evidence: 26
other countries in the league of 30 score better for value for money."

Adding to Mulley's comments, IrelandOffline spokesman Aidan Whyte
stated, "When you factor in the cost of Irish line rental, the most
expensive in Europe at €24 per month [1], consumers in Ireland pay out
substantially more for a service that is, in most cases, significantly
inferior to those available in other developed countries."

He added, "High prices and below average broadband packages are
symptomatic of poor competition in broadband markets. While eircom
retain a stranglehold on the market via their wholesale bitstream
products, they have no incentive to improve the situation. This is
enhanced by their continued policy of frustrating the Local Loop
Unbundling process [2]. Recent attempts by ComReg to fix the LLU
process ran into a brick wall when eircom once again brought them to
the High court in yet another attempt to sustain their wholesale
monopoly."

While government iniatives such as the MAN projects and the Group
Broadband Schemes will aid in broadband roll-out they will not bring
about Broadband for All in Ireland. Until all the recommendations of
the Oireachtas Report on Broadband [3] and the Forfas Report [4] are
implemented, Ireland is going to remain at the bottom of the league,
resulting in jobs and investment going to countries with superior
broadband infrastructures and pricing.

Added Mulley, "IrelandOffline now calls on all consumers to write to
their elected representatives and the Minister of Communications and
express their total dissatisfaction that Irish people's prosperity once
again suffers as a result of a telecommunications market in Ireland
that fails to address their needs."


** ENDS **

MEDIA CONTACTS

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Damien Mulley chairman@irelandoffline.org
John Timmons info@irelandoffline.org Mobile: 087 284 8079


** NOTES **
Prices available here: http://www.irelandoffline.org/bbpc.php

An analysis of the report and pricing table will be sent in a separate
email.

[1] Factoring in line rental is important as 95% of broadband
connections in Ireland are over phone lines. Line rental is €24 per
month. This figure is over €8 higher than the EU average. The next most
expensive country after Ireland for line rental is Luxembourg at €18,
€6 less. eircom currently makes €400m from line rental yearly while
only investing €200 in the national network.

[2] LLU: a telco puts their equipment in an eircom exchange and doesn't
rely on reselling the eircom wholesale package. A telco can then offer
superior products that are better value to the consumer. LLU is a
complete failure in Ireland as has been noted by the EU. Of 1.7m
potential lines, only 2300 have been unbundled by EsatBT.

[3] http://broadband.oireachtas.ie

[4] http://www.forfas.ie/publications/broadbandbenchmarking041126/index.html

Analysis document:

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[EMBARGOED until 6am Mar 21st 2005]

This is the analysis of the IrelandOffline OECD pricing report, a press
release about the report was sent in another email and can be viewed
here: http://lists.beecher.net/pipermail/media/2005/000035.html

** Analysis of Report: **

* Prices available here: http://www.irelandoffline.org/bbpc.php

* Prices go from cheapest to most expensive. Ireland appears at number
27. For Ireland the price of eircom's entry level broadband package was
used. Cheaper packages are available with EsatBT and UTV, but both
companies require customers to sign over phone service to avail of this
so their products weren't used as it wouldn't have been comparing equal
products.

* The table shows that a significant number of broadband packages in
the OECD are €30 or under.

* Many of the basic packages from other countries used to compare to
the broadband products in Ireland are legacy services. They are now
rarely used in the featured OECD countries as they have been surpassed
by packages far above the 2mb products we have yet to benefit from in
Ireland. Typical packages in the EU are 8Mbps packages. The UK will
introduce 8Mbps packages later this year.

* Many packages in the OECD are dozens of times faster than speeds in
Ireland, while still cheaper. For €35 in France you can get unlimited
national and local calls, 80 channels of TV and a 20Mbps broadband
connection. Japan offers 50Mbps for €30. You can get 100Mbps in Sweden
for €65.

* eircom will soon increase the download speeds on their basic package
to 1Mbps. While download speed was doubled, upload remained unchanged.
Upload speed is as important since file sizes and digital photo sizes
are increasing in average size every 3-6 months and sending photos from
a home pc to a website or company network are common uses of uploading
for home pc users.

eircom took 2 years to increase the speed of their basic package
download speed and left upload unchanged. The latest speed increase
announcement makes no difference whatsoever to Ireland's position in
this table.

* There have been many arguments stating that Ireland has a unique
population density and geography and this is a reason for poor
broadband deployment and uptake. However Northern Ireland has circa
135,000 broadband customers, the same number as the Republic. Coverage
in Northern Ireland stands at 100%, while Ireland has 55% coverage.
Line failure rate in the Republic is 20-25%, in Northern Ireland it is
less than 1%.

* Mentioned in the report, former state owned telecoms and current
incumbents are among the slowest to bring about innovative products and
to offer the best value. However this does not apply to all incumbents,
and eircom could take a lesson from the more progressive incumbents who
implemented LLU, transforming broadband penetration in their countries
to some of the highest in the OECD.

damien

INN and Newstalk have already interviewed us tonight for tomorrow's news bulletins. Here's hoping it'll get picked up by more news orgs.

Well done to everyone on boards who helped us put that pricing table together.

Sponge Bob

Of course Smart really put the cat among the fat Stephens Green pigeons . Instead of reach extending the 512k packages Eircom abolished them to make their base package look good. The net effect is 1mbit at 4.5km max and nothing beyond that.

Eircom have done 220 exchanges and will do another 200 by March 2006 .

Their coverage in a country of 70k Km2 will be

4.5k x 4.5k x Pi = 64 Km2 coverage each x 420 exchanges total or 27k km2 .
Thats about 39% national DSL coverage by end March 2006

....and Yes, lots of the exchanges are beside the sea and that includes the Marine DSL package.

They want the taxpayer to pay for the other 61%

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote:

The net effect is 1mbit at 4.5km max and nothing beyond that.



4.5k x 4.5k x Pi = 64 Km2 coverage each x 420 exchanges total or 27k km2 .
Thats about 39% national DSL coverage by end March 2006

A further point that seems to be often overlooked is, simply, that people
who are within the mysterious 4.5 km "radius" of the exchange are more often than not having their lines fail the pre-qual tests. Even brand new lines simply fail, no explanation is ever given (only clichés dressed up as excuses).

There is no accountibilty on the quality of lines that are supplied.
No minimum standards are adhered to on line installations.
For this I lay the blame squarely on Comreg, they are supposed to be
our Regulator, they cannot even put in place an elementary line quality
regime...

As we all know something around the 25% mark of all lines simply fail.
Will these lines, that should be prefectly acceptable, ever be enabled?

Our neighbours in the UK and the North do not seem to suffer from the
"issue"...The "line length" there is 10km from the exchange.

Is this the result of the chronic under investment, where less than half of
the line rental income is spent on the actual lines? Where does the rest go?
(answers on the back of a stamp pls)

seamus

bealtine wrote:

who are within the mysterious 4.5 km "radius" of the exchange are more often than not having their lines fail the pre-qual tests. Even brand new lines simply fail, no explanation is ever given (only clichés dressed up as excuses).

Perhaps IrelandOffline should make a call for everyone who wants broadband to order it, regardless of whether their lines fail or not. Quote McRedmond, and tell the public to demand that eircom do everything they can to get them DSL. Eircom get more customers, and we get to see exactly how bad the lying, and covering up was when most of those 20% of failures in fact can get 1Mbit DSL. Win-Win.

eircomtribunal

Siliconrepublic covers it nicely here.

Report slams Ireland’s broadband prices

21.03.2005 - Ireland has emerged as the 27th most expensive country in the world for basic broadband access and it has been surpassed by countries where it had been compared unfavourably with in the past, such as Greece and Italy.
According to a top 30 listing compiled by lobby group IrelandOffline of locations in the world with the cheapest basic broadband packages based on OECD figures, Korea topped the list for a basic package of 2.5Mbps for only €13 a month, followed by France with 8Mbps broadband for only €14.90 a month and the Netherlands with 768Kbps broadband for €19.95 a month.
....

P.

zenith

breakingnews.ie has it at

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/03/21/story194594.html

damien

Coverage in the Examiner.

Broadband ‘among most expensive’
By David Clerkin

IRELAND is one of the most expensive countries in the world for broadband high-speed internet access, according to a new report.

Internet lobby group Ireland Offline said Ireland was near the bottom of the table in its survey of the 30 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the world’s leading industrialised nations.

The report claimed Ireland was 27th of the 30 for value for money. Ireland Offline chairman Damien Mulley said the survey was “the clearest evidence yet” of the true state of broadband availability in Ireland. “No talking-up, side-stepping or clever marketing can distract from the evidence: 26 other countries in the league of 30 score better value for money.”

The group said Irish consumers were paying more than those in other countries for a lower-quality service. Although Eircom announced plans last week to upgrade the basic broadband package available to most Irish homes, doubling connection speeds from 512 kilobytes to 1 megabyte per second, Ireland Offline said typical packages in other EU countries were up to 8 megabytes per second.

Eircom, however, said its improved offering meant Ireland was now at the top of the table for the quality of its standard offering and that the entry-level product available here was better than most EU countries.

Ireland Offline spokesman Aidan Whyte said Ireland would miss out on foreign investment and jobs unless recommendations by an Oireachtas committee and state research agency Forfás were implemented.

The group said the situation south of the border compared unfavourably with Northern Ireland, where broadband is available to the entire population and has fewer line failures. Northern Ireland has almost the same number of broadband connections despite having half the population of the Republic.

“Ireland Offline now calls on all consumers to write to their elected representatives and the Minister for Communications and express their total dissatisfaction that Irish people’s prosperity once again suffers as a result of a telecommunications market in Ireland that fails to address their needs,” said Mr Mulley.

damien

Business World.
Telecom Paper. (subscription)

ednwireland

seamus wrote:

Perhaps IrelandOffline should make a call for everyone who wants broadband to order it, regardless of whether their lines fail or not.

I tried ordering nothing happens (my line fails i am near the limit of 4.5 km ) a local engineer told me they were about to extend the range before this smart thing came up so i'm still stuck on dialup with two people working from home.
i don't see how this helps anything

cherrio

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21987

Good publicity, every bit helps

damien

The Inquirer

dahamsta

seamus wrote:

Perhaps IrelandOffline should make a call for everyone who wants broadband to order it, regardless of whether their lines fail or not. Quote McRedmond, and tell the public to demand that eircom do everything they can to get them DSL. Eircom get more customers, and we get to see exactly how bad the lying, and covering up was when most of those 20% of failures in fact can get 1Mbit DSL. Win-Win.

Don't want this to get lost in the noise here. Assuming the free trials will kick off again in April, which is highly likely, this is an absolutely brilliant idea for a campaign.

adam

dahamsta

SiliconRepublic.com wrote:

Ireland with a total basic broadband package from Eircom currently at 512Kbps costing €39.98 (including line rental)

Eh?

IrishExaminer.com wrote:

Eircom, however, said its improved offering meant Ireland was now at the top of the table for the quality of its standard offering and that the entry-level product available here was better than most EU countries.

You know the opposition is in trouble when they have to stop bullsh1tting and skip straight to outright lies.

WizZard

The Register

seamus

Enn have picked it up (finally )
http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9594833

Sponge Bob

dahamsta wrote:

You know the opposition is in trouble when they have to stop bullsh1tting and skip straight to outright lies.

Our substandard DSL packages are only available if one pays line rental first . We pay €24.20 here and when one adds in Line rental thats €64.20 for basic BB and Line Rental . Comwreck have a series of excellent tables showing EU wide comparisons Here

Line Rental Costs EU 25 . At least we made it to the top of this list not the bottom .

jwt

Interview done for RTE News (2FM) this morning should air today.

John

dieselfreak

In TheRegister as well

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/21/ireland_broadband/

damien

We just need RTE to pick it up now.

damien

So, shall we make this a Quarterly report like the one ComReg sends out ?

TheMonster

Congrats to all involved - excellent report.

damien

We were just on Anna Livia radio.

dahamsta

damien.m wrote:

So, shall we make this a Quarterly report like the one ComReg sends out ?

Only if Peter Weigl will agree to do the graphs!

damien

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2161

ADSL Guide took our data and made their own graph out of it. Fantastic !

cgarvey

*cough* they also "corrected" 2 things!!

SeaSide

TeleGeography's CommsUpdate


Part of the GlobalComms Database

Ireland Ireland

FROM TELEGEOGRAPHY


Tuesday, 22 March 2005
Ireland fails to impress in broadband price league

According to a list published by the lobby group IrelandOffline, Ireland is the 27th most expensive country in the world when it comes to basic broadband services. While South Korea emerges as the cheapest location with a basic 2.5Mbps package costing EUR13 per month, followed by France with 8Mbps for EUR14.90, eircom’s basic 512kbps option costs EUR39.98 (including line rental). IrelandOffline blames the high cost in part on high line rental costs, which at EUR24 is around EUR8 more than the European average. Factoring this in, Ireland becomes even more expensive if you are looking for broadband over a standard phone line – as 95% of users currently do. To redress the situation the group argues that the regulator, ComReg, needs to urgently address the situation of LLU.

Xcom2

Well done!

You made page 7 of the Irish Daily Mirror

Ireland 3rd dearest for web costs.
By Michael Brennan.

Ireland is one of the most expensive countries in the world for broadband services,a report revealed yesterday.
The high speed internet connection costs almost €40 a month with Eircom,compared to €27 in Britain and €15 in France.
Ireland ranked 27th out of the 30 countries in the survey for the Orginasation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Aidan Whyte,from Ireland Offline which carried out the study said :"When you factor in the cost of Irish line rental consumers in Ireland pay out substantially more"
An Eircom spokesman said the figures might be "selective".
He added that when Eircom calls charges were combined with line rental consumers paid below the EU average.



X

seamus

damien.m wrote:

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2161

ADSL Guide took our data and made their own graph out of it. Fantastic !

They also calculated a very useful stat - the cent/kbps. Even if you factor out the upload speed, so you're getting a pure cent/kbps value, Ireland's new rank is 29th.

To be fair (I'm not trying to stir it here ), when you increase the download to April's upgrades, it becomes 15th place for Price per kbps, based on download only, but a dismal 19th based on upload and download.

Despite those eternally poor placings (regardless of what figure you use), it still doesn't tell the whole story vis-a-vis availability.

Victor

eircomtribunal wrote:

Siliconrepublic covers it nicely here.Report slams Ireland’s broadband prices

21.03.2005 - Ireland has emerged as the 27th most expensive country in the world for basic broadband access and it has been surpassed by countries where it had been compared unfavourably with in the past, such as Greece and Italy.
According to a top 30 listing compiled by lobby group IrelandOffline of locations in the world with the cheapest basic broadband packages based on OECD figures, Korea topped the list for a basic package of 2.5Mbps for only €13 a month, followed by France with 8Mbps broadband for only €14.90 a month and the Netherlands with 768Kbps broadband for €19.95 a month.
....

P.

Thats a typo. They mean 27th cheapest. In the following quote, I would omit one word.

consumers in Ireland pay out substantially more for a service that is, in most cases, significantly inferior to those available in [strike]other[/strike] developed countries.

damien

seamus wrote:

To be fair (I'm not trying to stir it here ), when you increase the download to April's upgrades, it becomes 15th place for Price per kbps, based on download only, but a dismal 19th based on upload and download.

Well, our report was based on the basic entry level packages. We were doing our best to compare 512k packages against 512k. I'm sure we can easily go abck over the providers on the list and find their 1mb packages and compare it that way. Though I suppose taking the higher end packages would be better again for comparison sakes ?

We could take eircom's 4mb package and compare it to the 4mb packages in other countries too. I wonder how they'd fair ?

dahamsta

Feedback to the Reg about the Irelandoffline report story.

Irish consumer group IrelandOffline was ranting this week that the emerald isle has some of the most expensive broadband in the world. There was no sympathy out there among Reg readers in the Seychelles, Gibraltar or South Africa:

Oh, how amusing!

40 Euros for 512k broadband - expensive?! You have no idea...

I work for a small international school in the Seychelles and we recently upgraded our Internet connection from dial-up to 'broadband'. Here's the deal (the best and only one available here!)...

256k link 4500 Seychelles Rupees per month

There are SR10 to 1GBP - yes! That's £450 per month for 256k access!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!

You lucky sods in Ireland don't know you're born!

Steve

---

I'm not sure the Irish realise just how lucky they are. Broadband prices in South Africa are in the region of £80 per month for a 512kb line capped at 3gb! Have a look at http://www.mybroadband.co.za and see just how unlucky and unhappy South Africans are!

RH

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Heh - Ireland thinks they have it bad - try here in Gibraltar! £59 a month for a 512/128k line that's up and down all the time...

Catherine (who's thankful her job pays for her home connection)

Blaster99

I would have no problem with the 4Mbps comparison...

god's toy

It was reported on RTE Radio 1 and (Dublin’s) FM104.



Good job guys, finally people know the truth!

seamus

damien.m wrote:

Well, our report was based on the basic entry level packages. We were doing our best to compare 512k packages against 512k. I'm sure we can easily go abck over the providers on the list and find their 1mb packages and compare it that way. Though I suppose taking the higher end packages would be better again for comparison sakes ?

Exactly, that's why it's not totally fair to use certain metrics. We'd still be at 512K if Smart hadn't stepped up.
Metrics like price per Kbps doesn't take into account contention, caps etc.

damien

Totally open to suggestions as how to do the next table by the way.

Sponge Bob

damien.m wrote:

Well, our report was based on the basic entry level packages.

The report should concentrate solely on the entry level packages available from the 'incumbent' or copper monopolist in each country because most DSL subscribers have that no matter where they are .

Blaster99

To push my own agenda, I would prefer a graph with multiple speeds to highlight the pathetic overpriced service offerings in this country at the higher speeds. And I agree, let's stick with incumbents and their ADSL-based offerings. Their pricing ultimately needs to reflect the market reality in their country eventhough they're always the most expensive. That applies here too. Eircom is a lot more expensive than UTV or whoever the cheapest provider is in Ireland so it all evens out.

Drapper

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2161

Interesting

SkepticOne

What types of broadband to include depends on who you are trying to influence.

If you are trying to influence Eircom, then compare the DSL of Eircom with the DSL of the other incumbents since Eircom only have control of their own infrastructure.

I would argue, however, that Eircom don't really give a damn about what ordinary people think. After all, most of these people have nowhere else to go. What Eircom are worried about is what ComReg think and what DCMNR think.

When McRedmond engages with the media it is in order to influence ComReg and DCMNR because in a monopolised market only the regulator and the government have the power to change things.

It is the regulator and the government, I would suggest, that IOFFL is also trying to influence.

Now, assuming that the goal of IOFFL is make convenient and affordable broadband widely available, I would suggest that what is compared is whatever is widely available and popular in each country, be that DSL, cable or other technology.

The reason for this is that there are two perceptions to be avoided if ComReg, DCMNR or some other body are to be influenced. The first is a nerdy fixation with a particular technology. The second is the perception of eircom Eircom bashers. Both of these possible perceptions work against the ability of IOFFL to influence. IOFFL needs clear in its goals.

Be technology neutral is my advice. If I want broadband then I don't give a damn how it is delivered. I just need to be able to get it in a cheap, convenient way.