Mr Long - Nice Article in PCLive!

sikes

v. good indeed hope that will open the eyes of people

LoBo

link/text anyone?

spongebob

Here Scratch

LoBo

quick glance through, seems to be about the cool things you can do with broadband, and not much about the appalling situation of broadband availability in Ireland.

Having said that, right at the start it deals with how ISDN is being attempted to be sold to us as 'high speed' access, and that we shouldn't be fooled as it ain't broadband.

Colm

LFCFan

According to the article €ircon are offering i-Stream for €90 a month with a 3GB cap. Should this not be €107 a month with a 3GB cap?

Dangger

quick glance through, seems to be about the cool things you can do with broadband, and not much about the appalling situation of broadband availability in Ireland.

My brief for this article was not a rant! I do enough ranting with my official IOFFL hat on. The idea behind the article was to demystify the term "broadband", and give reasons as to why it is required by the masses, for a variety of reasons not solely entertainment.

You may have noticed that the article states its the first in a series so there is plenty of time to cover other areas, and more specifically the Irish problems.

You got to get everyone hooked on the need for speed *before* you tell them they can't have it!

The prices shown are without vat.

MDR

You got to get everyone hooked on the need for speed *before* you tell them they can't have it!

spoken like a true spin doctor ...

LFCFan

...people reading might think....Ooh Goody. Broadband at €90 and then they go off to sign up and realise it's really €107 and that will piss them off no end and they will sign up to Ireland Off Line in disgust.

Dangger

LFCFan I like that logic! I did menion the caps though too, and the man dressed as a mouse gracing our tv's

MDR

...people reading might think....Ooh Goody. Broadband at one kidney, and then they go off to sign up and realise it's really two kidnies and that will piss them off no end and they will sign up to Ireland Off Line in disgust.

I think they will be sufficentily pissed off at having to pay one kidney

LFCFan

.....you can survive on one kidney so the 'Nerds' would be tempted but then to be told 2 kidneys would put them right off.

spongebob

.....with the UK who pay €42 euros for the same service so the relative expense was highlighted in that manner.

Bold Dangger.

Quote INCL VAT for The Public and EX VAT for Business oriented publications from now on.

NEVER mix them in the same article. Pay ME and I will subedit for ya !

IE
pclive is for individuals , include VAT
compuscope is Trade exclude VAT

M

Dangger

Quote INCL VAT for Seosamh O'Publeek and EX VAT for Business oriented publications from now on.

I'll remember next time.

Paddy20

Just read the first instalment of your series David.

For someone like me who knows - bog all - about broadband, it proved to be educational and very interesting.

Now, even I want broadband ASAP?.

I am looking forward to instalment number 2, and you know me - ie, not known for being overly complimentary, but fair due , I give it four out of five.

Yours,

Paddy20.

jonski

Although cable access is available in parts of Dublin and Limerick, DSL looks likely to be the only option for many.


I live in limerick and i don't know any part of it that has cable connection to the net..thrust me if it did i would have it.

SkepticOne

Cable access is available in Dungarvan, Thurles, Clonmel, Kilkenny and parts of West Dublin (mainly Dublin 24).

Powernet, a wireless service for businesses is available in Limerick. Two wireless services are also available in small parts of Dublin from Leap and IrishBroadband.

DSL is available in Dublin from Eircom and Limerick from ESAT. Both of these offerings are priced out of reach of the consumer and have sold badly. Many potential customers are out of reach due to distance or line problems.

Most of the country does not have access to any sort of broadband.

Paddy20

I truly believe that a copy of Davids PC Live "Broadening horizons" instalment number 1. Should be forwarded to "Todaypk@rte.ie".

IMHO it could help open the door too a special- Late, Late show.

That is my opinion and I am sticking with it, and it certainly would not do the sales/circulation figures of the "Expensive" PC Live magazine ! any harm. They might even decide to put a fairer covercharge/retail price on PC Live!.

Pat Kenny, obviously isbecoming increasingly interested in this more aware of his own personal lack of knowledge in this area.

Today, I sent him a e-mail recmmending that he take a look at this forum with the astounding number of opinions and postings it warrantsmore attention, and ourbeloved RTE has an inherent duty too educate the general public as to when they may well be suffering an injustice, of massive proportions - as they are!!..

Yours,

paddy20:(

Bard

Fair play to Dave Long, IrelandOFFLine's chairman for being published in this months PC Live! magazine with the article "Broadening Horizons" which explores Ireland's broadband penetration (or lack thereof!).

The article can be seen on pages 56-57 of the October 2002 print edition of the magazine or online here.

pepsiman

Originally posted by Bard
Fair play to Dave Long, IrelandOFFLine's chairman for being published in this months PC Live! magazine with the article "Broadening Horizons" which explores Ireland's broadband penetration (or lack thereof!).

Doesn't this thread cover the same article? It is an article worth reading!

Bard

Apologies... I had not seen the original thread.

Canadian

Nice article, but it's a shame really that such an introductory article describing the possibilities of high speed internet has to appear in 2002.

Close your eyes, Imagine you are in America, and you pick up a magazine that talks about the groovy things you can do new things called "mobile phones". Mobile Phones? Yes - no wires required. You are free to walk around and talk on these amazing little things. WOW! This is GREAT! This will CHANGE MY LIFE!

Now imagine a monopoly charging €1000 for these Mobile Phones and €400/month for access to the network. (especially when phones are free and access is virtually free everywhere else in the world)

Nah - nothing like that would ever happen....



==========================
No to Nice
Ireland can't compete with Estonia.

LoBo

Good analogy

Like having one mobile network in the US, which is now introducing SMS over your 'cellphone' - however..
- it is only available in 2 US Cities
- even in those cities, 1 in 20 applicants will mysteriously fail to qualify for the new phones
- those that do are charged €400 for the special SMS cellphones
- each SMS will cost you €2
- any other networks trying to offer a more competitive service are able to get a wholesail SMS price of €1.80 from the one mobile network. They can try and flog that on.


.. and so on

[edit: forgot one]
- meanwhile, this same operator is spending all its marketing budget on advertising IVR (those automatic menus you can access from your phone: press 1 for marketing, press 2 for an operator)

pepsiman

(Straying off topic here, but I had to...!)

About SMS and USA:

Less than half [of American teenagers surveyed about their wireless phone usage] are regular users of wireless data services like text messaging

From an article at Cellular News from today.

AT&T Wireless offer SMS at 10¢ per message, with these terms (excerpt):
You can only send messages [...] in select geographic areas. Maximum message length is up to 160 characters, which includes the e-mail address*. Any characters over the maximum will be deleted.

*: Elsewhere referred to as "10-digit mobile phone number"

Not exactly up to the Irish standard

LoBo

exactly pepsiman - SMS only kicked off in the last year or so in the US, so naturally its not quite as used as it is elsewhere in the world (europe in particular is fairly sms heavy).

Its what makes it a good (fictional) target for analogy to our broadband situation . Example: I was in the US on a J1 for the summer of 2001 and tried to explain to some local workmates what SMS actually was, and was fairly unsuccesful. They just had no concept of it. If an american had tried to explain to an average Paddy Irishman what their cable internet was like in summer 2001, would we have been any better?

Bard

erm... personally I'd rather have affordable broadband than mobile phone text messages, tbh...

Gerry

SMS is just an application over an already existing infrastructure, and would probably have been fast-tracked in the US if there was demand for it. Broadband is a slightly more complicated issue, and they managed to do a much better job than Ireland with that. I agree with Bard here.. WOOHOO I can send a 160 char text message.

Canadian

Speaking as someone from a world close to America (Toronto), I would never spend 10 cents on 2 lines of text. Most Americans will feel the same way. We're just not used to that sort of billing.

-Local telephone calls are flat rate. ($20/month all you can blabber)
-Broadband is flat rate. ($40 per month all the porn you can handle)
-Most mobile packages are flat rate (to a max number of minutes)
-Many people have flat rate Long Distance ($20/month for all of Canada, as much as you want)

Because most people will have a number of minutes included in a mobile phone contract, people would rather talk than text.

And what if one gets near their max minutes/month?? Most Americans will rather get a bigger flat rate package to avoid any annoying 10 cent charges.

There is nothing so offensive to a North American as to pay a dime every time we do something. That pricing model doesn't work there.

The phrase 'nickel and diming' was probably created in the US

==================
330 Million People Agree
Flat Rate Works.

Paddy20

Maybe this thread should in fainess, be merged with the "Original" thread entitled - Mr Long- Nice Article in PCLive - started by sikes on 19/09/02.

Together they would become one very interesting & justifiable thread?

Yours,

paddy20;)