NTL Prove (yet again) that there is demand for BB but not at any Price.

Sponge Bob

NTL quietly slithered out their own quarterly report early this week. It makes for far more interesting reading than the Comreg guff and is reported in the Irish Times today . Key figures are.

127,500 homes passed with BB enabled cable.

12,800 customers signed up for BB already .

I make that Over 10% BB Penetration where available.

Remember that this service is not shoved down your face daily in the media either. It is sold by word of mouth pretty much and some door to dooring .

Also remember that NTL are up against Eircom Bitstream in all their Cable BB areas so the actual demand for BB in those areas is over 10% + Bitstream + Wireless , and Smart and BT LLU as well in certain parts. .

We can correctly surmise from those figures that the rest of the country would have over 10% household penetration were the BB service widely available and reasonably priced and if the lines could take it.

Surprisingly (not) the takeup is lower .

Sponge Bob

One Other Point of Note.

In the recent Comreg survey (discussed elsewhere) Comreg 'found' that 8.4% of ALL households in Ireland have BB .

NTL have over 10% BB penetration all on their own albeit only in Dublin/Galway/Waterford and maybe Bray where they have their cable .

HUH ???????

eircomtribunal

Sponge Bob wrote:

HUH ???????

Eircom have an even higher rate than NTL in the area they are offering supply:

According to their 2005 SEC filing Eirom have 1.17 million broadband capable lines (or 60% of line coverage). With 130–140 000 broadband connections (including bitstream customers) that gives them a take-up rate of 11 or 12% where they supply.

P.

Sponge Bob

Interesting point but the problem is that 30-40% of Eircoms customers are not residential but business and are lumped in that figure .

NTL runs its cable BB in residential areas and is a good indicator of demand in the home .

If you live in parts of Dublin and Galway and Waterford you have a great platform choice of 3.5Ghz or Cable or DSL , not that IBB seem to have noticed

The Real B-man

Sponge Bob wrote:

One Other Point of Note.

In the recent Comreg survey (discussed elsewhere) Comreg 'found' that 8.4% of ALL households in Ireland have BB .

NTL have over 10% BB penetration all on their own albeit only in Dublin/Galway/Waterford and maybe Bray where they have their cable .

HUH ???????

Not Bray goes as far a Loughlinstown :rolleyes:

vinnyfitz

Sponge Bob wrote:

Interesting point but the problem is that 30-40% of Eircoms customers are not residential but business and are lumped in that figure .

Really? The only stat I've "seen" on this is Eircom's radio ad claiming 36,000 Business BB customers "growing by 600 every week". I'm not sure how they can even calculate it?

eircomtribunal

vinnyfitz wrote:

Really? The only stat I've "seen" on this is Eircom's radio ad claiming 36,000 Business BB customers "growing by 600 every week". I'm not sure how they can even calculate it?

Eircom has stated previously that 1/3 of its broadband customers were business customers.
One would assume that the percentage would go down in future.

The DCMNR had announced last year that it would ASAP monitor and publicise the broadband growth figures on a continuous basis. I can't see that – perhaps they do and I've just not seen it?

Eircom's figures, 600 new business dsl customers per week does not say much. If that represented a third of overall weekly dsl take, then we'd 1800. If it represented 1/4 of overall weekly take, then we'd a weekly dsl take-up of 2400.

To reach Eircom's own goal (sic!) of 500 000 dsl connections by 2008 (end of 2007 in Eircom lingo), then a weekly take-up of (350 000 connections divided by 124 weeks equals) 2823 was necessary.

Eircom's 500 000 goal in 2 and a half years time is pathetic. Eircom managed to make it the quasi official policy goal, at least it looks like that when you see it reprinted in the ComReg documents. Noel Dempsey's "challenge" to the industry of 500 000 by the end of 2006 seems to have vanished from the media.
500 000 connections, or 12.5 bb connections per 100 inhabitants by the end of 2007. What kind of goal is that? It is the goal for Ireland to remain solidly in the back-league.
According to OFCOM there are currently 8.1 million broadband connections in the UK (July 2005 figures), which equates to a penetration of 13.5 bb connections per 100 inhabitants.
Eircom's goal, or the "industry goal" as it is referred to on the TIF website, will bring us merely to a 12.5 bb connections per 100 inhabitants penetration – in two and a half years time!
We are "ambitiously" aiming for not quite reaching the current UK broadband penetration rate in two and half years time. Not to speak of the smaller Northern European countries with which we should really compare ourselves.
P.
P.S.: I am aware that there will be additional broadband connections besides dls, which I neglected in the figures above.