So tell me something I don't already know

Nuno

Republic bottom in telecom poll

Link to article in the Irish Times here


The Republic has come in at the bottom of a European telecommunications scorecard that criticises the slow pace at which incumbent telecommunications companies have opened their phone lines to competitors.

The European Competitive Telecommunications Association says that the unbundling of local loops has been "a failure".

Unbundling refers to the requirement that incumbents give competitors access to the "last mile" of local phone lines that run directly from local exchanges into homes and businesses.

According to a scorecard published by the association with analyst Cullen International, only 0.01 per cent of European lines have been unbundled in the year following the enactment of an EU law that requires unbundling.

Among its findings, the scorecard reveals that only 2 per cent of European phone lines have been converted to DSL (digital subscriber line), a technology that enables high-speed internet access across ordinary copper phone wire.

New entrants operate only 3 per cent of these lines over unbundled loops, leaving incumbents with 97 per cent of the DSL market.

According to the association, more than 50 per cent of new lines in the DSL market are operated by incumbents.

The scorecard places the Republic at the bottom of the league in nearly every one of more than a dozen categories, alongside Greece.

The State has no commercially available DSL lines, no fully unbundled lines, and only one partially unbundled line, purchased by Esat in a Limerick exchange.

While the Republic is listed as having more cable internet broadband connections than Greece - 52,000 as opposed to 10,000 - industry insiders say this is not a correct comparison.

The Irish figure is for the number of homes that could theoretically be serviced by a cable modem, while in all other cases, the figures refer to the actual number of homes with cable modem connections.

A more realistic Irish number would be closer to a few thousand connections at most, and the majority of these are provided by a small cable operator in Dungarvan.

The full report is at www.ectaportal.com/html/index.php




And yet another report comes out telling us the same old story.
I feel a joke coming on........<Sarcasm Alert>

How many Telecommunication Reports does it take to get FRIACO and DSL introduced? </Sarcasm Alert>

Anyway, here is another report that the fact finding group can file away.

[Correcting link. - adam]

Fergus

The actual scores and stats in Excel format are here:

http://www.ectaportal.com/uploads/691ScorecardFINAL8Feb02.xls

Some interesting figures too.. number of exchange MDFs (main distribution frames)..

Laughable how Eircom can make such a big deal about infrastructural issues when you look how tiny our infrastructure is compared to the likes of the UK

mdf

I'd treat the figures with caution. A number of them are incorrect

Bard

Originally posted by mdf
I'd treat the figures with caution. A number of them are incorrect

how do you know? what is your source for that information?

dahamsta

The Excel spreadsheet alleges that the figures have been confirmed by relevant regulators, barring exceptions. Why should we not believe this?

adam

Fergus

Heck.. even allowing for a large margin of error, we're still fairly safely in last place or thereabouts.

segadreamcast

Originally posted by mdf
I'd treat the figures with caution. A number of them are incorrect

Eircom employee by any chance...?

dahamsta

No Noel.

adam

segadreamcast

Wow...you shot down that conspiracy theory quick.

My apologies to the member, Adam, and Eirc---wait, just the first two.