What is wrong with campaigning for broadband

Xian

I propose the removal of the third objective "Universal access to broadband services for all users" from IrelandOffline's list of objectives.

To support this proposal, I hope to show that the achievement of the objective would be counter-productive to the aims of IrelandOffline and that by concentrating on attaining affordable FRIACO, IrelandOffline stands to achieve all three objectives.

The question will be asked "why not have both objectives?"

Firstly, I would say that the decision has already been made for us. The Government and the Department of Public Enterprise have repeatedly stressed their willingness to work for high speed internet access while ignoring the need for FRIACO. The Department of Public Enterprise in particular, has stated that FRIACO is a matter for the ODTR to resolve. The ODTR, in turn, has stated that its role in the introduction of FRIACO has been fulfilled by the introduction of phone codes for the service and that it is up to the OLOs to request the ODTR to intervene. They have also stated that, as the incumbent has not introduced such a service, it has nothing to regulate in the area of FRIACO. Eircom have repeatedly stated that they have no intention to introduce such a service. ESAT have not asked Eircom for a flat rat wholesale interconnect rate and has consistently refused to request the ODTR to intervene regarding its introduction. Both telcos have shown that they are intent on providing a premium ADSL service while maintaining a pay-per-minute service for other internet users. Thus the options which will be open to the Irish internet user are clearly divided between a pay-per-minute service or a premium rate broadband service.

Secondly, although it has been noted that IrelandOffline represents two groups -- those in favour of FRIACO and those who are campaigning for broadband access -- I hope to show that the needs of all members of IrelandOffline and the Irish internet user as well as Ireland's technological standing internationally are better served by concentrating on the introduction of FRIACO.

To illustrate this, I will take the UK for comparison. Other countries are more similar to Ireland in size, but I believe that the UK is better suited for demographics (rural/urban population), an equally reluctant incumbent and (soon) a regulator with the power necessary to bring about the necessary change in the running of the telecommunications infrastructure of their respective countries. In order to save space, I will not quote sources for my statistics. All statistics mentioned are defensible and I leave it to the members to challenge any of them.

It is important to note that the objective in question refers to "access" to broadband. Eircom themselves have been unable to encourage the use of the internet with "Mutant Mouse". IrelandOffline, without an advertising budget, cannot hope to succeed where Eircom have failed.

Access to broadband in the UK has reached 60% in the last 18 months. The rate of increase is likely to slow as this percentage covers mostly built-up areas and the incumbent telco has been reluctant to rollout broadband access to more rural areas where they are less likely to make a profit. The prices for broadband access have not been competitive by OECD standards as the emphasis has been put on business use. For this reason, in areas where broadband is available, a mere 1%-2.6% of households have been willing to subscribe to a broadband service.

In Ireland, the scenario is likely to be similar. The Government and the Department of Public Enterprise have made no mention of domestic broadband in their announcements on investment in the telecommunications infrastructure. ESAT have availed of subsidies to fund the unbundling of Local Loops but have shown that their focus is on the more lucrative business market. Eircom, after being forced to allow access to the network, will be eager to recoup their loss of income from leased-lines by targeting the same area. Given all of these organizations' focus on broadband for business purposes and their neglect for the need for FRIACO, the broadband services to be introduced in Ireland are likely to be priced beyond affordability for domestic use. I admit that the figure for domestic take-up of broadband is likely to be slightly higher than in the UK, but only due to heavy users of the internet trying to stem the spiralling costs of pay-per-minute internet access. The telcos will be only too pleased to mop up this extra demand for their premium service.

One area where Ireland will differ from the UK with this introduction of broadband is the number of internet users per capita, a key statistic in the evaluation of a country's technological progress. Whereas the UK can boast one of the best levels of internet usage, both for numbers of users per and time spent online, Ireland faces no such surge in its international standing as a technological nation. With one of the lowest numbers online per capita and for time spent on the internet, it is clear that the majority of the population is wary of the cost of pay-per-minute internet access. Because they are therefore unaware of the benefits of the web, they are unlikely to sign up for a service they see no need for. The majority of households who will sign up for broadband access will be made up of those who are already keen users of the internet. Our figure for internet users per capita/hours online is likely therefore to remain static -- at the bottom of the scale of OECD countries.

IrelandOffline's fate will not be much better. Scanning the forum, it is obvious that because the members are tech-savvy, the majority will sign up for broadband access at any cost. The organization's membership will therefore dwindle just when the difficult stage of achieving "Universal broadband access for all users" is beginning -- broadband access in rural areas where profit margins for the telcos are just that: marginal (It is debatable whether "Universal" broadband access will ever be achievable. Just think of an analogous objective: a "pothole-free" road network). With fewer members, it will have become safely ignorable by the telcos when it calls either for flat-rate internet access or Universal broadband access.

The rate of growth in the take-up of broadband in the UK is set to be "slow". With the majority of internet users having FRIACO and reported to be happy with the service they have and unlikely to upgrade to broadband, the status quo is likely to prevail. In Ireland in this scenario, it is also likely to prevail, but for different reasons, millions of euros of Government investment notwithstanding.

To argue in favour of FRIACO as a means to achieving the aims of IrelandOffline's members, the Irish internet user and the standing of Ireland in terms of technology, I will be quoting from a report on FRIACO by analysys.com from October 2001. I haven't read the entire report (it costs GBP 900!) but the quotes are sufficient:

"Growth in the number of online consumers in Europe continues apace, but broadband for the consumer has turned out to be costly for all concerned -- for the telecoms operator, the ISP, the SME and the residential customer."

The core problem in Ireland is the low number of users online. Eircom, by wielding their formidable advertising budget to encourage internet use, have been shown to be at a loss as to why internet use remains in the doldrums in Ireland while growing exponentially in other countries. The fact is that many would-be internet users have been deterred from fully availing of its benefits because they are wary of the pay-per-minute service. Consequently, offers like hi-speed consistently fail to attract significant numbers of subscribers as there is no public awareness of the benefit of paying a subscription for a higher level internet access product. Eircom allow themselves to be convinced by surveys saying that Irish people have no interest in the internet and recoil at the concept of FRIACO as the only revenue they see making from such a small segment of the telecommunications market is through its pay-per-minute regime. For the same reason it will not introduce flat rate wholesale interconnect rates, safe in the knowledge that if it does not introduce a FRIACO product itself, the ODTR is powerless to intervene as it would therefore not be a matter for regulation. If they have been forced to unbundle the Local Loop, they are sure to target the most lucrative market to compensate for it -- businesses. ESAT too believe the market to be too marginal to ask the ODTR to intervene and prefers, as Eircom, to target the business market, where the internet is a necessity rather than a luxury and therefore more amenable to inflated prices. Rest assured the first rollout of broadband will be in areas where there is a concentration of businesses.

Xian

"...the likely effects of FRIACO models [are] that not only will ISPs and OLOs benefit from these, but, in the medium and long term, so will incumbents too. In the long run, the absence of FRIACO is likely to slow migration to broadband."

Eircom, looking at BT's predicament in being forcibly divested of its crown jewels, will no doubt argue that the rollout of broadband in this way will deprive them of millions in revenue. In the United States, where broadband availability currently reaches 80% of the population though uptake is low, Technet is campaigning for the Government to invest in a further upgrade of the nation's telecommunications infrastructure, citing the economic benefit of it enabling IT companies develop the "next big thing" in home entertainment to "kick-start" the economy. A survey in the US showed that 75% of the population online were content with their dial-up connection and saw no need to upgrade to broadband. There exists now an untapped availability of broadband in western economies which content-providers and IT companies are working to exploit now without any upgrade of the network, in the same way computer applications made use of the growing power of personal computers in the last decade. The uptake of broadband in these economies has been slow because the content has not yet changed sufficiently to warrant an upgrade in service. That is not likely to remain the case.

"FRIACO is not merely a stopgap between pay-as-you-go (metered internet access) and broadband, but more an important and effective migration path to mass-market broadband," says Analysys' Rupert Wood. "It is the only viable way for ISPs and online operators to offer unmetered access. We believe that FRIACO will have a significant market for at least five years and that it will not delay, but rather promote, the spread of broadband by effectively building up and preparing a user base ready to take broadband services."

The failure of ESAT's Surf NoLimits, as with other such services in the UK previous to the introduction of FRIACO, was due to the unavailability of a flat rate wholesale interconnect rate. While the user was paying a flat rate, ESAT had to pay per-minute to Eircom, in the expectation that Eircom would soon introduce a flat-rat product of its own giving it first-mover advantage. Eircom did not, for reasons mentioned above, and the service soon became a liability. At the time the service was curtailed to a 75-hour per month its user base was 20,000, a figure that would have grown substantially had it been commercially viable. These users would have been a lucrative market ripe for upgrading to a broadband service.

"The overall number of active internet access accounts in Western Europe is predicted to grow rapidly from 64 million towards the end of 2001 to more than 110 million by 2005, according to the report. In the UK where FRIACO is widely available, the number of FRIACO-based dial-up connections is expected to rise more than 100% by 2003. Wood believes this is because broadband cannot be priced attractively enough in the short term to encourage take-up among low usage users currently on metered dial-up services."

"... FRIACO is good news for ISPs as it provides larger and more manageable revenue streams by turning active end-users into subscription-based customers. Ironically, the key long-term beneficiaries, though they have long resisted unmetered access, will be the incumbent operators, because FRIACO-based services represent the most effective migratory path towards broadband access, an area which they dominate, both as quasi-monopolists in digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure and as dominant DSL-based ISPs."

Herein lies the crux for Eircom. They can either let the status quo prevail, resulting in the scenario described in the first part of my argument, or they can introduce a FRIACO product to build a user base in anticipation of the provision of content that relies on the surplus bandwidth now available in western economies. In the first instance, they preserve existing revenues; in the second, they position themselves to reap the rewards of the next wave of internet services.

"FRIACO services [are a] part of the overall scheme to move people away from paying for the internet via telephone calls through to paying for internet access on a monthly standing charge basis, which will help in the acceptance of paying a higher price for broadband."

The argument for campaigning for FRIACO alone is simple. Removing the fear of high phone bills, more people will venture onto the web. A greater user base for telcos will encourage them to offer a wider range of services of differing bandwidths to encourage users to upgrade. Competition among telcos for this hitherto non-existent market will reduce prices for these services. With an increasing range of services offered at affordable prices, the number of new internet users increases exponentially from the doldrums it is in today. The membership of IrelandOffline achieve all of their objectives as the introduction of FRIACO is achieved, affordable domestic broadband is made available and marginal areas are targeted as untapped markets. The internet user base reaches average OECD levels or more, remedying Ireland's current appalling rating in this regard. All for "the flip of a switch" as was mentioned elsewhere.

It was said in an earlier thread: "To go back on the decisions made during the formation of our organisation regarding its policies would be hypocritical -- and just plain wrong."

I suggest that it would be "hypocritical -- and just plain wrong", in light of the above arguments, to maintain "Universal broadband access for all users" as a reasonable and attainable goal and therefore propose for IrelandOffline to drop the objective.

Fooger

Great article Xian and I guess this time I would agree with you on only one very good point about how once DSL is available to these small businesses and CSers they will be gone in a flash (a flash of phat pipe goodness) and FRIACO is the only way to bring broadband to the regions as once Eircom are not able to charge ridiculous prices for 56k then investment for residential broadband becomes a business plan.

But I still disagree that broadband/DSL is a bad direction to take. We are no longer in the realm of normal business culture but a world of insane eircom branded madness where the telco seems more scared of new tech more then my granny. The whole pricing structure and bandwidth is not market lead at all (as far as I can tell) but with the introduction of ADSL this will hopefully change.

Yes FRIACO should be one of the first thing sold to the new ODTR as soon as that Comms Bill passes but we should not take our eye off ADSL.

"Universal broadband access for all users" that’s going to happen anyway (Eircom just what to be subsidised and basically paid to do it but it will happen sooner or later) hmmm maybe you are right!!

SkepticOne

I agree that FRIACO is important and should remain one of the goals of IrelandOffline. I am not convinced yet that IrelandOffline should drop its broadband goal.

Although flat-rate and broadband are very different from a social point of view, many of the causes for the lack of them are the same, e.g., monopolistic control of the local loop. The Comms Bill goes some way towards addressing this. By dropping one of the goals (and possibly dividing the membership), IrelandOffline will have greater difficulty in pushing this forward.

I don't agree that the broadband battle is largely won. It will take years of pushing before we get widely available broadband affordable to the general population. As Xian points out, a lot of the Governments investment is only aimed at the business community. This has to change. Until we have had success in one of our goals, we should not at this stage be considering dropping any.

I regard Xian's article as one promoting flat-rate but it doesn't persuade me sufficiently that IrelandOffline should drop broadband.

All IMHO.

dahamsta

Hi Xian,

Just a note to say well done, you made a very good argument, and you obivously put a lot of time and effort into it. I've notified the committee of your post.

adam

Stonemason

A very good well writen artical though i ran out of steam towards the end .I agree with anything that will bring down the redicules pricing for net access though im a little cautious to drop pushing for broadband completely due to the very argument you stated for it I.E the goverment and telco,s focusing on Business users i feel this would be disasterus for net usage to grow in ireland.The present connections are fine for grabbing your e-mail but do not encourage people to go any further than that.Many see broadband as a Flat rate soloution with the abilty to make the most of the net.Also as of late ive come to the conflusion a lot of people in ireland (older/middle aged)arnt so much technofobic rather than overwhelmed by the hole computer net access thing this has become aparent since we opened the shop ive had so many people wanting PC lessons and the Internet being sighted as one of the main reasons.at the moment i find hard to justifie their intrest in the net the way things are and to be honest i wouldnt want to be arround when they realise its all been a horrible hype.


Stone

seamus

Well, I'm convinced. Very well written Xian. Imo, to say that ADSL is going to happen is true. The way it is right now, there is nothing IOFFL can do to have it introduced faster and cheaper than proposed. It's now a matter bewteen the ODTR and Eircom and the impending Comms Bill. IOFFL hands are tied in this matter, imho. FRIACO is at the moment, not in the plans of any telco in this country, and as Xian has pointed out, broadband will not take off without a 'primer' of FRIACO to get people interested.

A few case studies of my own:- My gf has a net connection at home. It has a max speed of 33kbps, and it is dire. I can't handle it. It loads a standard modern web page in about 5 mins, which is about the time I get bored and turn it off. She and her family are the same. It can take up to 10 mins to simply check email from POP3 accounts, which can be checked in less than 20 secs on a decent 56K line. When you are paying by the minute, this kind of service seems even worse, and the only time their connection gets turned on is for my gf to check her email, despite the fact that her brother is an engineer, and her sister works for Eden recruitment (big computer training place). Luckily she realises the usefulness of the net through her college connection. But if it wasn't for her, none of her family would bother with the net, and I can see times when it would be of enormous benefit to all of them, but they don't know it.

Case 2: My dad is a self-employed accountant, and never uses the internet. The connection into his office is perfect (in fact the exchange is at the end of the garden), but he sees no use for it. I have taught him how to use IE and OE, but he seems to be of the opinion that the net is all just 'advertising and porn' to use his own words. Sounds fair, until you find out that he transfers 800kb of data to his assistant 40 miles away by using a floppy disk, and communicates using faxes and phones. A FRIACO product would allow him 'always on' email and integrate all of these things (mostly) into one, and would be far cheaper then petrol/postage/phone charges. And, knowing him, this kind of net access would encourage him to at least venture onto the internet when he gets bored.

From my own experience, if these two cases are happening close to me, then they are happening all over the place. And neither of them would get broadband if offered. 'We don't need it'. They would if they had experienced FRIACO. I agree with SkepticOne though on the split. If we got rid of the pursuit of broadband, we would be left with a 'Hardcore Gamers+Businesses -v- Home Users' situation, which is a million miles from where IOFFL wants to be. Maybe a change of policy, something along the lines of 'Introduction of affordable broadband services.....'

Fergus

The broadband campaign is a much wider issue.. it involves competition between telephone, cable, etc.. new forms of media that explot broadband.. infrastructure investment issues..

FRIACO on the other hand is purely a single point - that eircom should charge for interconnection to their network based on capacity, not by the minute. After all, their costs are based on capacity, not per-minute.

Xian

Originally posted by Fergus
FRIACO on the other hand is purely a single point - that eircom should charge for interconnection to their network based on capacity, not by the minute. After all, their costs are based on capacity, not per-minute.

ODTR Press Release 13/09/2001
"Eircom must set charges that are cost oriented and non-discriminatory and the Regulator has again reminded eircom of its obligations as a regulated company."

The reason why the ODTR has prevented eircom's rollout of i-stream is that the wholesale prices for the product were deemed not to be "cost oriented and non-discriminatory."

Is it therefore reasonable to suggest that the Regulator has neglected its duty in the regulation of another wholesale product, interconnect, whose prices are even less cost oriented?

Fergus

Is it therefore reasonable to suggest that the Regulator has neglected its duty in the regulation of another wholesale product, interconnect, whose prices are even less cost oriented?

Well, there is no capacity-based wholesale product to regulate. The only interconnect wholesale is per-minute, and the rates there are in line with EU.. in fact the ODTR and Eircom continually boast about 'the lowest interconnect prices in Europe' <zzzz>..

But those rates are only relevant to OLOs competing on long distance voice traffic. Such per-minute rates are designed to achieve adequate returns based on short duration voice-call traffic patterns. They are highly inappropriate to long-duration local internet calls, where the revenue is then far in excess of what is required. With local calls being carried entirely over Eircom's own network, Eircom have only their own fixed costs to cover. The concept of charging by the minute is really just an invention of marketing as an alternative to a fixed monthly amount - it shouldn't yield significantly more.

Eircom know they are making disgustingly excessive amounts of money from heavy internet users because of the per-minute rate, but they continue with this as their only concern is to make as much money as possible for Mr. O'Reilly.

To quote Gordon Gekko from the 1987 movie 'Wall Street': "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works"

Dustaz

Xian, great post and you make some great points, one of which im going to take up with you:)

Your (and others) assertion that as soon as some members get broadband they will forget the cause, insulting. Might i remind you that there are many who post here that are already on broadband and are still interested in seeing ALL the goals of Ioffl achieved.

Having said that, if - theoretically - broadband was made available to the public for a ludicrously low figure (say for arguments sake 10 a month), then i would consider all goals achieved. Clearly this is not going to happen anytime soon, but it IS something that can be worked towards - a lower price for existing broadband solutions.

I am strongly in favour of FRIACO for obvious reasons and think that IOFFL should continue to push for it. I just dont think that one goal should be completly dropped for what is always going to be a short term solution.

Yoda

Originally posted by Dustaz
Your (and others) assertion that as soon as some members get broadband they will forget the cause, insulting. Might i remind you that there are many who post here that are already on broadband and are still interested in seeing ALL the goals of Ioffl achieved.

Fix the problem that hurts Irish internet use -- the cost. Fix that now. You wrote on another thread that "the internet experience should be fast". While fast would be nice, Dustaz, it is cheap I need more than fast. With so much resource being put into the broadband issue, I feel disenfranchised and I feel that my needs (which are the same for the great majority of Irish internet users) are not being met, or even looked after.

I am strongly in favour of FRIACO for obvious reasons and think that IOFFL should continue to push for it. I just dont think that one goal should be completly dropped for what is always going to be a short term solution.

Xian's post suggests that takeup of broadband isn't that great percentage-wise even where it is available, and that broadband does follow FRIACO for natural business reasons. Therefore IrelandOffline should, as I have said elsewhere, choose to make that its first priority.

irishguy

I think that FRANCO should be rolled out straight away for about €30 a month or even €40 (24/7 access). In the short term this is more important than broadband. Because Joe public only uses the internet a few times a week to check there email and have a look at a few web pages. They don’t spend much time on the net because it is:
1) Expensive
2) Slow
3) They are not really computer literate and don’t realise the full potential of the net.
But if they had FRANCO they would surf the net more learn more about the net and its applications thus realising that they need broadband. This would quell the out cry of avid net users and would create more interest in broadband as more ppl would realise that they needed it. Then by the end of the year roll out broadband at about €60 a month for 512k or even higher with maybe DTV and video on demand. By this time allot of the population would be connected to the net (~60%) they would be making huge revenues from FRANCO and would drum up allot of business for broadband.Then they could rationalise rolling out broadband because there would be a big demand for it

Fooger

Your (and others) assertion that as soon as some members get broadband they will forget the cause, insulting

I think Xian has a fair point really, not that I would like the idea of it I see myself as one of those who could possible forget IOFFL once I was happily hooked up as I would quickly fall into that CSers and quake3 gamers and have a honest grasp of my own reality to pass critical judgment of myself but I can’t speak for all the others. I never meant to cause offence but I still agree with Xian that this group will inevitability loose some potential members due to complacency but I never meant to imply that this group is a bunch of …erm bad people just that I understand his point.


By my logic (which is not perfect by anyone’s standards) eircom will lose all its heavy users to DSL (those who pay more then say €100) all that is left in the market from eircom’s point of view is those per minute guys who hardly ever use the internet (and if they do then they switch to DSL) so then eircom, to earn more from that group, will release a flat-rate product (and afaik if I am right then other OLOs can launch the same product??).
Those who do gain DSL will but urban dwellers then flat-rate access may become a regional political issue (then we’ll see the quickest deployment of DSL to the country side in the world knowing these political types). It’s this attitude to DSL bringing in flat-rate access that I feel that IOFFL should keep an eye on broadband and ensure it arrives with a reasonable price or no caps.

I could be just talking though my ass but it all seems to make sense to me.

Yoda

Fooger said:
Those who do gain DSL will but urban dwellers then flat-rate access may become a regional political issue (then we’ll see the quickest deployment of DSL to the country side in the world knowing these political types). It’s this attitude to DSL bringing in flat-rate access that I feel that IOFFL should keep an eye on broadband and ensure it arrives with a reasonable price or no caps.

But that's still not prioritizing correctly, in my view. There is an existing 56K dial-up service used everywhere. It is that which needs to be addressed in the first instance, and it is that which will bring on other faster services by making people happy to use and expand their use of the internet in general.

I believe that if we prioritize correctly, we will sooner win the day than we are now.

Dustaz

I read this post a few days ago, so i might not be remembering something and maybe im talking rubbish but:

Wasnt FRIACO (or some form of flat rate access) available in the UK well before Broadband was rolled out? It hasnt helped there.

Boston

well it has,

Yoda

Originally posted by Dustaz
Wasnt FRIACO (or some form of flat rate access) available in the UK well before Broadband was rolled out? It hasnt helped there.

Scroll to the top of this thread, Dustaz, and read Xian's posting. Indeed, study his posting. It tells us all we need to know. What he says is:

Access to broadband in the UK has reached 60% in the last 18 months. The rate of increase is likely to slow as this percentage covers mostly built-up areas and the incumbent telco has been reluctant to rollout broadband access to more rural areas where they are less likely to make a profit. The prices for broadband access have not been competitive by OECD standards as the emphasis has been put on business use. For this reason, in areas where broadband is available, a mere 1%-2.6% of households have been willing to subscribe to a broadband service.

FRIACO was there first, and everyone uses it. Because everyone uses it, market forces encouraged the telcos to roll out broadband. Which is why I am urging IrelandOffline to take the same track in prioritizing its goals.

Today I received information from a friend who works in a university in Tehran. I had asked him about the kinds of services available to ordinary people (not to people working in universities, since they have fiber optic cable which connects to one of national educational hubs, and then is sent to France Telecom through DVB). My friend answered:

I don't know about private prices much, but you can get a 24 hours dial-up service with 33600 bps bandwidth for less than $50 a month. But the people usually don't like these, and ask for per-hour prices (which will be cheaper for casual users). There are also cheap night services, which will let you connect from 1AM to 8AM.

This is very instructive. There is 24-hour metered service (don't worry about the bandwidth, you have to consider Iranian telephone lines) for a reasonable price. Lots of people, who can judge their own needs, don't need that, and prefer metered service. And can choose.

I have to ask my friend again whether broadband is available. I suspect it is not. But the point is, Iranians have better, more affordable dial-up service pricing options than we do in Ireland.

And the telecom monopoly in Iran is the government there.

Dustaz

I did read the post. My point is that Broadband is still only in 1% of the houses even with FRIACO.
Im not for one second claiming that BB isnt a niche market at the moment, it is. Internet access was a niche market a few years ago tho.

dahamsta

Ok, this is a wee bit complex, so bear with me...

One of the main problems the IrelandOffline committee is faced with in this situation is that the entire concept of removing an IrelandOffline objective is ultimately outside it's remit. It has been pointed out to me by several committee members that the original objectives were decided at the formative public meeting of IrelandOffline, and that at least the same or better representation should be needed to remove or alter an objective. This creates a quandary, because it is unlikely the committee will call a formal meeting of the organisation until the AGM, which is scheduled for May; and we do not yet have a secure system for polling the membership electronically.

But there are other factors at play here. For a start, Xian has obviously put a lot of time and effort into formulating this proposal, and the membership has spent time debating it. The IrelandOffline committee respects that time and effort, and doesn't wish to give the impression that Xian and the members time is going to waste (it certainly isn't). Also, it is obvious that there are other members who agree with Xian, and wish to see the third objective removed, or FRIACO prioritised. And this again creates a quandary, because the committee has been discussing the FRIACO issue for some time, and although a formal decision has not been made, the consensus of the committee is that FRIACO needs to be tackled more intensely.

All that being said, considering Xian's contribution, we didn't want to just brush it under the carpet, or even say, "Well, we think it's time to get to work on FRIACO too, so why do we need to remove the objective?" It's a fairly powerful suggestion, and I felt we should address it, so I asked for a committee vote on the proposal, as stated in the first line of his post: I propose the removal of the third objective "Universal access to broadband services for all users" from IrelandOffline's list of objectives. The result is a majority against the proposal, with eight out of eleven committee members responding, all against. Several reasons were given for deciding against, however I'm just going to state the most relevant from the committee's point of view, and my own personal point of view as the current PRO:

1) The committee is already keen to prioritise the rollout of flat-rate services at this time, and the committee feels that, bearing this in mind, there is not a necessity for the removal the broadband objective.

2) IrelandOffline receives a large amount of media attention because of broadband issues. Removing the broadband objective could be harmful to the organisation as a whole.

The first is simple - it's our view that we're /already/ doing this, and there is nothing to be gained from removing the objective. I accept that this is not immediately obvious from discussions on the forum, but the Research Working Group in particular is concentrating on FRIACO at the moment, and this was a concious decision, made mostly by myself and Fergus while discussing the approach we should take. The second is simple too - thus far, IrelandOffline has been driven by it's ability to create issues and circumstances that are attractive to the media. The broadband issue is currently under the spotlight, and those issues can be used as a tool to shift focus to FRIACO. Without that tool, I feel that it would be much more difficult to highlight FRIACO.

Once again though, all of that is, when you get right down to it, moot. Therefore we would ask that Xian and the membership accept the committee's assertion that it will prioritise flat-rate at face value, and allow the objective to stand at this time. We would also suggest that if Xian or other members are still unhappy with the existence of the objective at the time of the AGM, that they table a motion for member vote on the topic at that time, and the committee will undertake to accept the decision of a majority of the membership. The committee, however, reserves the right to defend the objective at that time, and/or table an alternative to the motion, such as the modification of the objective.

Finally, to address the concerns of members who are primarily concerned with broadband issues - please note the use of the word "prioritise". IrelandOffline's "mission" remains to encourage the rollout of any and all Internet services that will cut costs for the average user. We are not saying we will stop commenting on broadband issues, just that we will try to highlight FRIACO issues more intensely. IrelandOffline wants what's best for IrelandOffline members, and the community and the country as a whole.

Thanks,
adam