Draft Letter

gandalf

OK as everyone has been asking for one here is my initial attempt at a letter. See I can be constructive.

Dear <TD Name>

I am writing to you to point out the pathetic state of internet access in this country.

For a country that purports to be the E-Hub of Europe we are actually placed 27th of 30 European States in the latest OECD Broadband Survey.

The only Flat Rate Internet Access (ESAT) product offered in Ireland has been withdrawn due initially to the delay in unbundling the local loop and then to the uncompetitive charges that have been levied by Eircom.

Internet Access in Ireland is now behind the rest of Europe, so much so that it is probably costing us new jobs. How can we expect to attract new investment especially in the High Technology arena that we seem to be targeting, when a significant part of our communications structure is based in the dark ages.

The Office of the Telecommunications Regulator has done a good job with the limited powers that they have. These powers have not gone far enough to drive the communications revolution that is now needed to allow Ireland to catch up with the rest of Europe and regain our competitive edge. The New Communications Bill will give the necessary powers needed to give this process a shot in the arm, unfortunately this has been sidelined until after the next election.

I would be grateful if you give this issue some thought and attention. I would also like details of what <TD’s Party Name> Policies are towards this important area of Communications.

If you require more information visit the IrelandOffline web site at http://www.irelandoffline.org/ .

Looking forward to your reply.

<Your Name>

Please edit it, make suggestions, Adam maybe if you can give me more figures & facts etc.

Gandalf.

MarcusGarvey

Maybe include a fact sheet with the letter, and on this fact sheet would also be in-depth explanations of FRIACO , flat-rate, conditional flatrate, adsl etc

plum

Just for your information - FRIACO is actually a narrowband product.

Unbundling of the Local Loop will give rise to broadband type services, such as ADSL, SDSL etc

The similarity is that they are all 'unmetered' but they are not the same technologies or speeds etc

gandalf

Yep I'm well aware of the fact FRIACO is narrowband. There is no point in putting too much information into a mailer.

What we want is the powers that be to sit up and take notice. I have a mail list (so far of 13 politicians) made up and I will fire these mails out tomorrow.

All your local TD's mail address's are on this site http://www.irlgov.ie/oireachtas/frame.htm just check under members of the Dail.

Gandalf.

Bard

Originally posted by MarcusGarvey
Maybe include a fact sheet with the letter, and on this fact sheet would also be in-depth explanations of FRIACO , flat-rate, conditional flatrate, adsl etc

"Fuel for the fire", as such... info for such a fact-sheet can be found here:

http://www.irelandoffline.org/wiki/index.php?BulletPoints
http://www.irelandoffline.com/Article.asp?id=020601
http://www.irelandoffline.org/wiki/index.php?WhatsWrongInIreland
http://www.irelandoffline.com/News.asp?section=media
http://www.irelandoffline.com/News.asp?section=meetings
http://www.irelandoffline.com/News.asp?section=other
http://www.irelandoffline.org/wiki/index.php?WhyWeNeedProperInternetAccessForEveryone

and more pages @ http://www.irelandoffline.org/wiki/

cheers,

PhilipMarlowe

Good stuff...
I like the simplicity in the early stages.... ie., 27th out of 30 cannot be misunderstood, whereas some of the more technical stuff could go over peoples heads....
With that in mind, maybe include more of the simplistic stuff... a line like:
What I am paying (on average) €127 per month for here, other Europeans are paying €25
I know the figures migh not be exact but someone who knows could fix that...

Boston

actually this booklet you get on the eircom adsl trials explains all about adsl in very simple language, and also for a surprise a limited amount of bull****,
it could be worth taken extracts from it for the letter

MarcusGarvey

I like that idea «Bo§ton» , would be funny too that Eircoms literature could be used against them ....

SkepticOne

Nice letter. The full name of the communications bill is the Telecommunications (Regulation) Bill. This might avoid confusion with the TDs.

Boston

What is ADSL

ADSL (Asymmetric digital subscriber Line) is a technology that allows very high-speed data transmission over exiting, ordinary telephone lines. it is usually used as a very high-speed internet access technology.(im own addition) but can also be user to provide multimedia entertainment, such as video of demand and digital TV, without the need to rip up roads and inconvenience members of the public

Why is it 'asymmetric'

Asymmetric means that the speed of download on the line is different then the speed of upload. For example, a 512kbps/128kbps connection means you are receiving data at 512kbps and outputting data at 125kbps. ADSL makes more bandwidth (or speed) available downstream than upstream to allow greater downloading capability


How ADSL works

Conventional analogue modems use the same frequency band (0-4 kHz) as the telephone service. this means that if your modem is in use, your voice telephone line is unavailable. Since ADSL operates at frequencies (100khz to 1.1 MHz) above the voice channel, ADSL 'splits' your telephone line into a voice channel and an ADSL high-speed internet channel. Therefore you have two channels available on the one line, one for voice and the other one for internet.
ISDN also operates two channels, but both are identical with maximum 64 kbps speed and can run voice and or data on either.

How does it compare with usual speeds?

current average speeds over a PSTN ( ordinary) dial-up connection are in the region of 33 to 35 kbps, using a 56kbps modem **.

An ISDN line has two channels, each capable of 64kbps. That's 128 kbps for combined channels (which are charged as two calls) with downloads speeds of 512kbps. ADSL is several times faster then both

** for technical reasons a 56kbps modem will never actually deliver 56kbps
the figure is a theoretical limit

smokin' an'chewin' man

Originally posted by gandalf
OK as everyone has been asking for one here is my initial attempt at a letter. See I can be constructive.

After a bunch of us contacted Howard Brittain over the past couple of weeks he has put up a small section supporting the cause on his site. He doesnt want to promote it yet but theres no point in hiding it, it has some very good references on it.
http://www.anchor-net.com

Fergus

To add to the pot, here's a letter I sent to Charles Flanagan of Fine Gael:

http://www.qvolution.com/ioffl/sample1.htm

gandalf

Good letter Fergus, did you get a response yet?

I've sent my letter to 13 politicians. The 5 TD's in my area and the one other major party candidate at the next election. Letters have then been sent to O'Rourke, Harney, Ahern, Quinn, Noonan, and then 1 to the Greens and Sinn Fein.

If I do actually get a response I'll post them up here.

Gandalf.

Boston

has anybody thought about complaining in person
i mean they do have offices, and this close to an election they will be holding public meetings in local pubs and community centres

gandalf

Oh don't worry I'll be doing that as well Boston!!

But theres no harm in sending out letters as well. The more letters they recieve about this subject the better.

Gandalf.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

First up...
Good to see the letters getting off the ground:)

I know we thrashed out some concepts of complaints to the DCA (Dir. of Consumer Affairs) when No Limits was stopped, and then promptly realised we didn't have much standing given the lack of a contractual relationship, but....

I happenned to hear the evening news and Tom Kitt TD, who is the minister(jr) for Consumer Affairs went off on this whole spiel about the euro and how we, as citizens must be the vigilant whistle blowers on any ANTI-consumer behaviour, also talking about the necessity for consumers in general (besides the euro changeover) to the make it known where companies are ripping the public off. Obviously at this point I was sniggering to myself thinking, pity nothing has been done about the telecoms sector( nothwithstanding they have their own Regulator) in regard to the Sale of Goods & Supply of Services Act 1980?? Some of the statisitics from your letter Fergus would definitley hold water in any EU wide comparisons (both on Price & Service Quality).

So Perhaps we should include him in any letter writing- (his clinic is on my road so I think I might as Boston recommends pay him a personal visit). It would do no harm to have another wolf at the door of €ircom- because so far AFAIK the DCA have never stepped in, nothwithstanding the complaints.

BTW Niall,
If we agree on a standard letter it might be an idea to upload it as a PDF or even a .doc for people to use!?

Fergus

I made some tentative enquiries about visiting one of the local TD's clinics. Seems an appointment is required.. some guy was meant to call me back, never did.

Anyone have any experience of doing this in the past? How successful it is, what sort of buffers there are, what time you can really expect to get, etc

Bard

Fergus... I'm related to someone (that's as detailed as I'll get on a public forum) who used to be in politics and could give us quite detailed and useful answers to whatever questions we may have about the political process, clinics, the Dail, etc. etc.

First we need to formulate the questions... what exactly do we want to know???

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Clain
Would sending the letter to the ODTR be of any use as well? In for a penny....

Yes, definately.

MarcusGarvey

Originally posted by Fergus
I made some tentative enquiries about visiting one of the local TD's clinics. Seems an appointment is required.. some guy was meant to call me back, never did.

I dunno, the father went to a couple of these before to get something worked out. He didn't make an appointment but turned up when the clinic was on, generally I thought they were walk in clinics.


Anyone have any experience of doing this in the past? How successful it is, what sort of buffers there are, what time you can really expect to get, etc

You'll get a few minutes, depends on how you can sell your problem. It also depends on the TDs power. If you can sell it so they think they'll get community praise for their help then they'd like to talk more. What you get out of it also depends on the politician. some can get you speedbumps in your estate some can help you secure a fulltime position.

If you sweettalk the TDs handler, (the guy that organises the clinics) , then you have a good chance of getting "quality time" with the TD.

GoneShootin

make it a sticky when the finalised version is ready, so we can all start given the post office work

MarcusGarvey

When we do send off our letters, how about having a page with a table where the TDs that got the letters are listed, how many individual letters they were sent and if they have given a reply yet.

It could then be broken down by voting district and made into a nice graphic looking thing.

Handy with an election coming up to see which of the political parties in your district were the most responsive.

Snowbat

Originally posted by gandalf
--snip--
If you require more information visit the IrelandOffline web site at http://www.irelandoffline.org/ .
--snip--

You might want to change that to http://www.irelandoffline.com/ - someone decided the .org site should be an FAQ site. I thought IrelandOffline was an organisation, not a commercial enterprise?

gandalf

Too late Snowbat

Gandalf.