Publicity?

qwertyup

The recent reaction to the FAI/Sky deal has really put the heat on all the parties involved, as we all know. I mean, there is talk of rushing in legislation, and the Taoiseach himself tries to play negotiator.

What really for me though, and which has prompted me to type this, is the fact that what is in essence a trivial matter should get so much hype, attention, and attempted action. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the Internationals as much as the next person, and I haven't missed one (on TV or otherwise) for the last few years, so don't get the impression that I am a sports hater.

After all, its not as if you need Sky to see the matches full stop. The majority of TV holders can pick up TV3, and you can get it on there an hour later (a fact that is often glossed aside). Even so, this issue has gotten intense publicity, from newspaper articles to letters, to political action.

And yet something which is important to many small businesses' livelihood, cheap flat rate/broadband access, is a total non starter for discussion. Sure, every so often we see an article which has a bit of a dig at Eircom or Esat, but its rarely a continued theme. For every vaguely critical article there are numerous ones which present no negative connotations when talking about the companies products etc .

As well as that, there at times seems to be no public knowledge that we are all being royally ripped off when it comes to Internet access. Hell, people don't even seem to mind the existence of "long distance" rates within Ireland, which I do not believe are justified in a country as small as ours. But that is another matter. The point is, for whatever reason, the general public just don't seem to know, or maybe care, about the telecoms plight in Ireland.

A few months back a letter appeared on this topic in the Irish Times. It sank, with no followups. It didn't even manage to get a response out of Eircom. I meant to respond, but due to a shameful combination of laziness and incompetence on my part, I didn't.

What I would propose is that we take a small, but possible meaningful course of action in order to generate some semblance of public interest/knowledge in Irish telecoms problems, namely the price of broadband, and perhaps more importantly, the lack of an affordable flat rate product. To me the best way to do that would be to launch a letter campaign, and try to get discussions into the large national broadsheets ( Irish Times, Independent ) which last longer than a day.

This would require a concerted effort on the behalf of people who support the need for these products, to write eloquently worded and logically argued letters. If the discussions were to really continue for an anyway reasonable length, the topic would have to be addressed from a number of angles, perhaps with a greater emphasis on the personal/business side of things than the strictly technical, so as to encourage the publication of such letters, and to avoid ostracizing the less technically minded.

I think that it would be a good idea perhaps to include a reference to Ireland Offline in these letters/emails ( Supporter of/Member of, as is the case ). However, to do so would risk tarnishing the name of Ireland Offline if abusive letters or ones containing incorrect information were to be sent in with a mark of support. The way around this, as I see it, would be to make a sticky post where people wishing to send something under the auspices of Ireland Offline would first post there message in the sticky post, whereby it could be approved or marked as otherwise by modding members of the Ireland Offline committee as necessary.

In this way, should any letter be sent in by one of us forum goers that contains something wrong, and someone for whatever reason decides to tear into Ireland Offline, a committee member could just rebuke the statements by mentioning that the letter had not been approved, and therefor they could not be given out to.

If this is too much work for the committee, who I realize are part time, voluntary and perhaps overburdened, then so be it. If not, I think it might be a way to try to get something to happen, because precious little seems to be at the moment, insofar as Eircom is concerned. Personally I need either flat rate or affordable broadband in order to better run my website. However, that is a somewhat trivial reason as it is a side project, whereas many need these products at a cheap and reasonable rate for their business. And surely someone's livelihood should be able to generate at least a respectable fraction of the publicity gained by a decision to air soccer matches a hour late on terrestrial TV?

Forgive me if this post is unsuited to the forum, or presumptuous. I've been reading the forum for the last year or so, but I only just today got my account working again. If it angers anyone, I apologize in advance, because that was not the intention. I just am so fed up of the government's, and Eircom's inaction on this matter. We sure as hell haven't seen Bertie raging against the monopolistic/money grabbing tendencies of Eircom recently...

MrPudding

More publicity is something that we definatly (i can never spell that word) need. I like the sound of your idea. If we plan it properly we should be able to effectivly have a public debate through the broadsheets. We could maybe go so far as to have one us posting letters giving views similar to that which €ircon may give and thus giving ireland offline an opertunity to address these foul lies in a public way. If we can keep it going we should get ordinary (by this I mean unconnected to Ireland Offline) punters throwing in there views as well.
What do you alll think of that?

SkepticOne

I like the idea. Careful planning is the essence.

Dangger

I agree completely and the letter writing thing is something I have been interested in persuing for some time. We need a volume to get a discussion going and to provoke some sort of response. Why only today our old friend Tommy McCabe Director of the Telecoms and Internet Federation met with the Minister of COmmunications, Marine and Natural Resources, Dermot Ahern to urge him to recruit external candidtates with relevant commercial experience to the new Communications Commission which will be replacing the ODTR. I'm reading between the lines on this on of course and taking that he wants ex-Eircom employeess in there!

Mr Tommy McCabe, then went on to say that:

a lighter approach to regulation was necessary to enusre continued competition and investment in the new harsher reality.

Ah yes I see the lighter approach that would have had us paying even more for I-Stream! I attended the EU hearing on LLU and listened to the competitions call for a heavier touch.

Perhaps this is an opening salvo inviting an invasion of the letters page? Or maybe we'll have an opportunity after Friday weeks Times, as I am writing a piece for it.

Tommy McCabe also tackled me at the National Digital Media Conference after my speach, jumping to his feet and sternly asking me "Yes well its all very well calling for flat rate, but who is going to carry the cost?"

There appears to be a conceptual gap in some peoples understanding, with some people feeling that offering flat rate Internet access will mean more expensive voice calls to subsidise FRIACO. How short people memories are. We used to have flat rate local calls too!

The prickly issue of course is that Eircom have a vast number of employees that they could do well to get rid of, however they are protected to a large extent by ESOT's part ownership of the company. The amount of staff they have compared to the amount of lines they control is excessive. With Eircom's burden of bloated wage costs and the potential for huge job losses people like IBEC are always going to try and keep the boat steady.

MrPudding

So how do we plan it. I assume that we would need to have all the letters written in advance and ready to deploy. We would also need to be ready to react to replies from ordinary Joes and possibly telcos. Sound like fun.

qwertyup

I just checked around a bit, and the following are the addresses, snail mail and otherwise, for the large broadsheets.

Irish Times

Email

Mail
Letters to the Editor,
The Irish Times,
10-16 D'Olier Street,
Dublin 2.

Fax #
01-671 9407;

Letter Guidlines

Irish Independent

Email

Mail
???

Fax #
???

Phone
Apperently you can freephone in your letters to:
1-800-733-733

Even if its just to get others to look over the letters for technical errors I think a letters thread would be worthwhile.

(If anyone has anything on the Examiner post it. After all, Corkonians are getting one of the shorter ends of the sticks too.)

Dangger

If we can hold of a few more days, and perhaps have an informal discussion after the AGM, we could agree on a strategy for this. As I metioned before I think I have a good starting point.

VeeEmmy

An idea has occurred to me... you know how taxis have their little protest stickers in the rear window... We could easily devise a very legible sign for the rear window of our cars:

I USE THE INTERNET
and I VOTE


I'm a commuter on the N11. I think I might do it anyway.

MrPudding

I can't make it to the AGM but I want to be more involved.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by MrEnvy
I can't make it to the AGM but I want to be more involved.

I would suggest getting in touch with the new committee after the AGM. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to get involved.

Dangger

Mr. Envy I've pm'ed you my number. Give me a call some time. We can discuss in advance of the AGM or after.