Pitty You closed that thread "Doing Nothing"

angryuser

It was a shame you closed that thread "doing nothing" although I understand why, as I was just going to post something to it !! However, here it is. Apart from doing 'nothing' why do those who maintain that nothing is being done, not do something themselves. The easiest and maybe one of the best things they could do is lobby their TD's and MEP's ?? I have lobbied mine, who happens to be a Minister, and he has lobbied Mary O'Rourke, who has replied, and further info from her is awaited.
So, I am doing my 'pennyworth' and if EVERYBODY did their pennyworth, would it all not make some impact, AND keep IOFFL
in the limelight ?? Incidently another thing that can be done (as I posted in another thread) is to move from Eircom to Spirit, "en masse" Not only will you get cheaper phone bills, but that WILL hit eircom !!

Dustaz

Originally posted by angryuser
Incidently another thing that can be done (as I posted in another thread) is to move from Eircom to Spirit, "en masse" Not only will you get cheaper phone bills, but that WILL hit eircom !!

Thats a good idea if only to make one feel better. plus it gives you the advantage that you can say "Eircom? bah, i dont pay em"

As a matter of interest, Suppose 2000 people migrated from eircom to spirit or another company, how hard would it actually hit them?

nahdoic

Originally posted by Dustaz
Thats a good idea if only to make one feel better. plus it gives you the advantage that you can say "Eircom? bah, i dont pay em"

Not only would it make you feel better, but Eircom will often ring you up, or send two of it's suits over to your house, to find out why on earth you transferred from their unrivalled service! And it is so great being able to give them an earful about not having flat rate net access. They have no answer to it, except a pitiful excuse that ... ehh well all the other companies that offer it abroad are running out of money like BT...

nahdoic

Originally posted by angryuser
Not only will you get cheaper phone bills, but that WILL hit eircom !!

Just curious about this. I have looked around at some of these other phone companies. And they all seem to be great for international, and even national calls, but when it comes down to local calls is Eircom still not the cheapest? If there was any other company out there offering cheaper local calls I would definitely move to them. But I don't think there is? And that is 90% of what my phone bill is made up of... anyone know of a place with cheaper local calls?

Bard

The "No activity for ireland offline" thread wasn't locked.

The message thread created by "MS" was annoying and unhelpful.

sceptre

Originally posted by nahdoic
but when it comes down to local calls is Eircom still not the cheapest? If there was any other company out there offering cheaper local calls I would definitely move to them. But I don't think there is? And that is 90% of what my phone bill is made up of... anyone know of a place with cheaper local calls?

Might help if you actually looked up some of the prices.

Esat are cheaper than Eircom for local calls. Off-peak the prices are the same - 1p per minute. However, Esat's minimum call charge is 3p (Eircom's is 5p). Meanwhile, during the day, Esat charge 3p per minute, Eircom charge 4p per minute. Finally, Esat treat any call within the Republic as a local call - Eircom still have long-distance "trunk call" charges.

Rags

Taken from esats website "-2-1 pricing - call anywhere in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) for the price of a local call. Daytime 3p per minute (3.78c ); Evening 2p per minute (2.52c); Weekend 1p per minute (1.26c) ."

If memory serves me right, Eircom is 1p per minute evening and weekend.

Rags

Lemming

In relation to pulling services over to rival companies, and as i've said before elsewhere:

a couple of hundred home 56k users migrating is not going to hurt Eircom in any manner really. We're small fry. Granted, it's bad publicity, but financially it ain't nothing much.

a couple of hundred ISDN user migrating .. now THAT'd get them to sit up a little.

But the real bruiser for EirCon would be some of their business users moving shop to their rivals, since that's where Eircom make most of their money.

ANy thoughts on this folks?

angryuser

As most contributors probably live in the Dublin area, then they are lucky in that a majority of their calls will be local. If you live in Dundalk, as I do, then a switch to another provider, in my case Spirit, has "dramatically" reduced my phone bills. BUT the most important thing, other than the saving is that I have reduced Eircom's income ?? Ok, so mine is tiny, but if all 2,000 or more of us moved, well surely they "would" feel a difference ?? In addition if we email all our 'buddy's and relatives, and talk to them about switching, then the numbers could be much higher. ?
As for local calls, I cannot believe that any other provider could be dearer than Eircom ? If they are the same, or even 'slightly' cheaper, then together with national and international calls a big saving can be made. ? Apart from the good work being done by the committee, I believe we can all add weight to their efforts by 1. Lobbying those in power, and those hoping to get into power, and 2. switching away from Eircom ??

NeilF

Originally posted by angryuser
Apart from the good work being done by the committee, I believe we can all add weight to their efforts by

.....

2. switching away from Eircom ??

http://www.spiritelecom.ie/
Esat Fusion has taken over the provision of home phone service to Spirit Pay-by-Bill customers.

Let's not get carried away here. Whilst Eircom are in a league of their own (excuse the pun ) many of the other telcos, Esat in particular, are almost as bad and I don't think we should be endorsing one over another. Remember which telco prompted IrelandOffline's founding?

nahdoic

Oh i just luv people, who are piss ignorant, patronising and quote just plain wrong info.

Originally posted by sceptre

Might help if you actually looked up some of the prices.

I already have as I said in the same post above. I already knew Esat's local call charges would increase my bill. I was wondering if there were any other companies, I did not know about, who have cheaper local calls.

Originally posted by sceptre

Esat are cheaper than Eircom for local calls. Off-peak the prices are the same - 1p per minute.

Nope. Might help if you actually looked up some of the prices*. As very kindly pointed out by Rags. During the evenings Esat charge 2p, while Eircom charge just 1p. At the weekends, they both charge 1p. But that 2p charge would drastically increase my bill and is why I have not switched to Esat or any other phone company. So I ask again does anyone know of a place with cheaper local calls?

*
http://mmm.eircom.ie/AtHome/WhatProduct/calc.asp
http://www.esatfusion.com/homephone/index.html

oscarBravo

Hmm. If I were to switch to Esat, could I use Eircom's CPS code (13666) to select Eircom for evening local calls? I know it means dialling 5 extra digits every time, but hey....

[ BTW, how appropriate is that code? ]

muchos_bongo

Originally posted by Bard
The "No activity for ireland offline" thread wasn't locked.

The message thread created by "MS" was annoying and unhelpful.

That's censorship for you...

Bard

Originally posted by muchos_bongo


That's censorship for you...

Have you anything actually "helpful/useful/on-topic" to say, muchos_bongo?

muchos_bongo

Originally posted by Bard


Have you anything actually "helpful/useful/on-topic" to say, muchos_bongo?

I do actually, but unfortunately I don't think you'd understand it. Not being technical and all.

For example, IMHO irelandoffline have ruined any constructive FWA in Ireland. I shall explain...

By lobbying the ODTR 'on behalf' of the average user irelandoffline and other 'concerned parties' have bullied Etain Doyle into opening up 2.4 GHz and 5.6 GHz thus destroying any consolidated wireless broadband access system in this country. With an any and everybody approach the ODTR has effectively kyboshed any QoS that could have been presented. IrishWAN have a good plan but brownspots will be their biggest issue and they won't be able to do anything about it. Licencing is their only hope. But then, what would I know...

dahamsta

Oh, that's the funniest thing I've read yet on the IrelandOffline forums, muchos_bongo. Kudos man, kudos. More, MORE!

[EDIT: Actually, I was trying to remember who you are, so I did a search on your username. Not very positive, are you? Why are you here? Haven't you got anything better to do than try and disrupt people who are actually trying to get something done? I dislike people like you, people who criticise but are absolutely unable to come up with solutions or answers. Or are you being paid to do that perhaps?]

adam

Bard

Originally posted by muchos_bongo


I do actually, but unfortunately I don't think you'd understand it. Not being technical and all.

Actually, I understood it perfectly, and it was quite amusing. Who said I wasn't 'technical', eh?

Keep it coming!

SkepticOne

Originally posted by muchos_bongo
By lobbying the ODTR 'on behalf' of the average user irelandoffline and other 'concerned parties' have bullied Etain Doyle into opening up 2.4 GHz and 5.6 GHz thus destroying any consolidated wireless broadband access system in this country. With an any and everybody approach the ODTR has effectively kyboshed any QoS that could have been presented. IrishWAN have a good plan but brownspots will be their biggest issue and they won't be able to do anything about it. Licencing is their only hope. But then, what would I know...

Have you any evidence that the 'opening up' of these spectrum ranges was due to pressure from either IrishWAN or IOFFL? As far a I can tell, you still need a licence for broadcasting over 100mW with 2.4 Ghz equipment. In any case there are plenty of other frequency ranges such as 20Ghz which was used by Formus before they went under.

Do you have plans to operate under 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz under licence?

dahamsta

Anyway, why shouldn't there be an open and unlicenced spectrum? Interference is something you just have to deal with, just like the Citizens Band has done for decades.

God I hate trolls who think this kind of crap is funny.

adam

yellum

IrishWan did not lobby the ODTR about this. The ODTR were following EU guidelines when they brought in the regulations for the public band of 2.4Ghz.

There are many other parts of the FWA spectrum that were allocated for commercial companies. Chorus, Forums and Eircom all have frequencies for FWA. I think other commercial companies do too. The 2.4ghz band is unlicenced and for public use so a proper QoS is not required, unlike the licenced bands that the above mentioned companies have.

I suggest that you go to the ODTR website http://www.odtr.ie and look at the FWA documents that they have.

muchos_bongo

dahamsta> I did have a solution. It was to licence the lower bands for FWA. Positive? I believe I am positive with regard to BB within this country. It's the ODTR that pandy to uninformed public opinion. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the principles of irelandoffline. I just think that it could be structured in a more constructive fashion. The in-fighting/ego-bashing that has been witnessed here over the last couple of months is indicative.
No, I am not paid to proffer these opinions. My opinions are my own and shall remain so.

Bard> That's a matter of opinion.........

SkepticOne> The power requirement is 100mW max. To provide a commercial solution requires a general telecommunications licence.
Yes indeed there are other frequency ranges. There are a number of issues, however. Primarily CPE is expensive in the higher freqs. Also, higher freqs. do not penetrate objects well (such as buildings) requiring external antennae and line of sight. These antennae require planning permission, generally, and have an exorbitant cost from the perspective of SME/SOHO/residential.

yellum> Fair enough on your IrishWAN point.

The following companies replied to the FWA consultation document (1/43),

Albera Networks
Broadband Access
Broadband Ireland
Broadband Solutions
Chorus Communications Ltd
Eircell
Ensemble Communications
Giant Wireless Partnership
Hyper-Lan Ltd
Mobius Technologies Ltd
Ogier Electronics Ltd
Radiant Networks PLC
Southern Health Board
Visitor Based Networks
Esat Telecommunications Ltd
Off Air Electronics

Most if not all of these would have proposed a nationwide licencing scheme. Yes, there are other frequencies that can provide FWA, however as I mentioned above, they have high associated costs. The simple fact of the matter is that 2.4GHz and 5.6GHz are unlicensed in the USA and as such there is a multitude of low cost high quality equipment to choose from within these spectrums.

I do not agree with you on your QoS point. QoS should be a requirement of any commercial solution.

Hyper-Lan Ltd, by the way, are a reincarnation of Formus.