Oftel Internet usage report & Unmetered Dialup

hudson806

Oftel's latest report on UK Internet usage was published today. Among other things, it contains some pretty fascinating comments about unmetered dialup Internet:

5.9 Currently 42% of UK Internet homes are using calls-only packages compared to a rising 40% who are connecting via unmetered packages, as shown in figure 5e. The number of consumers opting for either fully or partially unmetered packages has increased significantly from 25% to 40% over the last year.

and

A third of consumers who connected straight to unmetered claimed that they would not have have connected to the Internet at all if unmetered packages did not exist. Those consumers tended to be DE social grades and lower income groups. This equates to 5% of UK Internet homes whose connection was driven by the availability of unmetered packages. This suggests that unmetered packages are playing a significant role in the overall uptake of Internet at home, as well as the amount of time consumers spend online

The complete report is available at:
http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/research/2001/q6intr1101.htm

ando

yes, if only we could drill this into the governments heads ....... and letting that very important bill drop till next year shows exactly what they think of internet access for home and small business users

aidan_dunne

Of course unmetered access increases the number of people connecting to the net and increases the amount of time they spend online. We all know that. We've all known that for years. That's just common sense. It's just that the people who could introduce flat-rate in this country (i.e. Eircom, ODTR, government) either don't have the common sense to recognise this, don't want to listen to the arguments for flat-rate, just don't care or are just plain stupid. In fact, I think it's a combination of all these factors.

As I have said time and time again on this forum, I know lots of people who would love to go online but are put off because of the horror stories they've heard about the big phone bills people get from using the net. If they knew exactly how much they were paying each month for net access, e.g. £20 or so per month, and knew this was all they were going to have to pay and not worry about getting a nasty surprise on their bill in the post, they would gladly get connected. These facts and figures from OFTEL just confirm that. But do you think the government or Eircom will see this report and think, "Hmmm, maybe there is something to be said for unmetered access," and finally offer unmetered and FRIACO access in this country? No f***ing way! Why? Because they want to continue charging us ridiculous call prices and push up the profits.

We may as well face it in this country. Eircom do not give a $hit about improving internet access in this country. Their current ad campaign with the giant rat is not about getting more people to enjoy using the net, it's about getting more people to use the net and therefore increase Eircom's profits from these call charges. Eircom are holding back the economy and development of this country just because all they are interested in is lining their own pockets. And I'm totally pi$$ed off with it. What does it take to get these people to see the benefits of introducing unmetered internet access in this country? The facts and figures are there for all to see, we've been screaming at them for years to give us flat-rate but yet they still ignore the figures and their customers. I feel as if we're all just banging our heads off the wall at this stage and no matter what we do Eircom and the government will never come round.

gurramok

agreed aidan_dunne.

What we need ot do is to cut back on those ridicously high bills !!
How about reducing that bill for £200 last month by half ??
Once ppl start imposing their own partial blackout....ie cutting back on those high bills, Eircon will start losing money.
Thats where we can only get noticed, they need our money more than we need their 'service'.
We the 20 odd % of home access users(excl no-limits ppl) need to cut back on those bills to have some impact.

Re: Oftel....if only odtr was as effective
The Oftel report proves that cost is THE number 1 barrier to net access for all. Once cost is sorted (flat-rate) then the speed of the access becomes an issue !

btw according to a previous post on the boards Eircon do have a flat-rate package in NI :mad:
what does that tell us ?.....pure f*** greed !!