Irish Times Article - Eircom Seeking Funds for DSL Networks

Nuno

Hi Folks

I thought you might find this interesting......

http://scripts.ireland.com/technology/newsshowall.cfm?ID=2040

Lemming

Cheers for that link Nuno. Some interesting reading!

Now ... onto dissection:

Eircom is seeking funding to deploy DSL technologies ...

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this picture?? Eircom want the government to put in considerable amounts of money (40%), and then Eircom are trying to charge other competitors 75 Euros, and us a f*ck load more for the "privilege" of DSL connections. They have some brass neck, they really do! Considering Eircom wont even be footing the full bill, how can they turn around and demand such sums of money. (well .. how could they anyway!)

"We must get value for money, we must do things that really move Ireland towards the idea and vision of Ireland as an e-commerce hub."

From the mouth of Alfie himself. This is a classic!! Getting value for money doesn't mean raping your customers and competitors Alfie!! (excuse that imagery, but I want to get a point across folks). What I also find funny(in a very tragic way) is that at present course, Eircom will single-handedly kill the vision of Ireland as an e-commerce hub.

nahdoic

I would be very much in favour of a goverment and Eircom backed deployment of ADSL if it would mean that Eircom drastically reduce their ridiculous prices, and we would see ADSL widespread across the country and not just Dublin.

po0k

I personnally would like to see the government deploy its own network and infrastructure, thereby removing Eircon's monopoly which is based on that it has full control of the local loop.
Eircom are the last people who should be getting (or asking for) funding. They are the reason that we are not able to post 24hrs a day to boards.ie
that is bad enough. What's worse is that they won't let others into their exchanges even though it has been demanded by EU courts since last January. This is a farce. The regulator has no claws to tear at Eircon's throat, only stiff whiskers to tickle them a bit.
It is my belief that we shall soon be hearing of a case coming before a tribunal in which Eircom "donated" campaign funds to certain ministers to keep the whole LLU issue from the Dáil.


Also, the Government is planning on laying fibre cable all along the west coast from donegal to cork with loops in Connemara (near meh) and Dingle penninsula.
Hopefully this should make it a hell of a lot easier for ppl to setup local businesses supplying wireless internet to local commuinities.

Lemming

Originally posted by [FCA]SyxPak


It is my belief that we shall soon be hearing of a case coming before a tribunal in which Eircom "donated" campaign funds to certain ministers to keep the whole LLU issue from the Dáil.

HO - HO - HO !! This should be entertaining >:-> (assuming it ever gets to court!). Note the use of the word tribunal in there

Could this be time to play the "last outpost" (I think that's its name?) for Eircom??

Ref. Last Outpost -. that bugle song they play for soldiers at their funerals
Nah .. I reckon we just play "For whom the bell tolls"

yellum

Shower of ......

They have some nerve. If they get one penny from the government it will make us look like a right state of muppets. Irish Govt gives money to Monopoly Telco to help improve monopoly.

SkepticOne

Yup. Subsidising monopolies does not work!

Where is the incentive for the monopoly to pass on the savings to the consumer? All this would do would enable the Valentia consortium to extract more money out of the economy. Are savings from the multi-million Global Crossing deal being passed on? I can understand this happening when there were 500,000 shareholders complaining to the Government about their share prices. But now?

What the Government should be doing is subsidising the take up of LLU and underwriting the price set by the ODTR. I would favour a scheme where by a telco, for example Colt Telecom, is contracted to install DSL equipment in exchanges throughout the country and sell "bitstream" access at a reasonable to ISPs.

However, the current National Development plan does not address local loop issues. Instead, it concentrates on leased line type access to the regions on a piecemeal basis.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Lemming
What I also find funny(in a very tragic way) is that at present course, Eircom will single-handedly kill the vision of Ireland as an e-commerce hub.

...unless the people of Ireland cough up the moolah. What Eircom is saying is that it is the Government's fault that Eircom are useless at providing modern services because the tax-payers aren't forking out subsidies to them. That errorcom slogan "Ireland by the b*ll*cks" is very apt.