ODTR Report: Future Delivery of Broadband - The Highlights

yellum

Just thought I'd put in some of the text from this document to see what you think, I have added my own bitchy comments:

Ireland has made substantial progress on some of the relevant issues – almost 9 out of every 10 SMEs are connected to the Internet for example

The market, after almost four years of liberalisation, has delivered a lot in terms of retail price reductions and improved services to the end user.

The work of the ODTR in setting the frameworks for a liberalised market also assists the competitive delivery of broadband. The licensing of alternative technologies, including fixed wireless and the unbundling of the local loop allows alternative service providers to access the market.

The ODTR believes its role, alongside the creation of regulatory frameworks, is to inform the sector on the key issues surrounding the delivery of broadband and this report presents findings from Ovum and MRBI on cost of supply and the possible demand for broadband.

Always wanted to know what they thought they did ...

Price is one of the key factors in encouraging broadband adoption amongst residential and SMEs users. From this research, it would appear that a broadband package at between €40 - €60 per month would attract a relatively high percentage of Irish SMEs. For residential users a targeted product emphasising broadband’s fast and unmetered nature may gain some appeal, with €30 - €40 per month likely to represent the upper price range.

Now they know what the SMEs and residential users would pay, yet they allow Eircom and Esat charge how much for DSL ?

There is an impression that Ireland is falling behind. However this report shows we have made inroads in terms of the availability of broadband products and we have a growing Internet enabled community willing to use this technology more. On these foundations we will have to build the future delivery of broadband in Ireland.

Nothing gonna stop us now, we're roaring ahead.

It will be the case that for many users of the Internet a basic connection with 56kbit/s capacity will be sufficient.

Thats all we're used to ... let us all try dsl for a while and then see

The promise of broadband communications can leave those who are unable to access facilities they require, through high costs or lack of availability, frustrated and unable to develop their businesses in directions that they want.

And the award for stating the bloody obvious goes to .....

The market for Broadband services in Ireland can be broadly described as something of a dichotomy. At the lower end of the market are the overwhelming majority of Irish Internet users who currently go online over a standard 56kbit/s dial-up connection.
Provided over eircom’s local network, many of these users are residential and SME customers and the vast majority are satisfied with this most basic connection.

I'm happy with what I got, I was always told be happy with what you got.

As a percentage of customer premises, this figure equates to a broadband penetration rate of approximately 0.3%. This leaves Ireland trailing other countries

Substantial progess is it ?

DSL services are steadily gaining in popularity as operators provide these services to the Irish market. DSL adoption has grown to approximately 1,200 lines at the end of August 2002.

To date, the only challenger to eircom in the DSL market has been EsatBT. Much of EsatBT’s planned DSL infrastructure will be located outside of Dublin .

This decision to focus outside the capital was partly influenced by the availability of over €10m of additional NDP funding for projects which extend broadband deployment in the less developed parts of the country.

http://www.norcontel.ie/ndpcomms/docs/press160101.pdf

So we had to bribe Esat to roll out ? They never mentioned that ..

A major challenge to DSL services - particularly in residential areas, is expected to come from cable modem services. At present it is estimated that there are approximately 1,000 cable modems subscribers in Ireland.

...

At present, three operators (eircom, EsatBT and Chorus ) are licensed to provide broadband fixed wireless services, and although two of these offer such services, the total number of customers is estimated to be less than a few hundred .

Grab a licence and don't let go lads. If you have it there can't be anyone else offering a service.

Although high equipment costs have often been reported as an inhibiting factor to network roll-outs, it would appear that FWA operators are choosing to focus on more established sections of their businesses

So give the licence to someone that will use it ...

It should be noted that a number of ISPs are currently in the process of introducing flat-rate or un-metered Internet access models to the Irish market. The ODTR welcomes the arrival of these products and considers that such developments should assist in stimulating increased future demand for broadband.

Its time for IrelandOffline to disband I think, no more to do ...

Whilst cost may be a key concern for many users, for an equally large, if not greater constituency the lack of compelling and relevant content is often the main inhibitor to broadband adoption.

4 billion webpages and nothing on ....

The recent launch of DSL and flat rate Internet products will hopefully increase the level of Internet access in the coming year.

El_MUERkO

:sigh:

What can I say that hasnt already been said

Dangger

Did an interview with the Tribune today covering this report. It should be an intersting article.

Paddy20

Thanks Yellum,

Thats saved me a lot of reading. I found your comments very interesting.

However, I seem to have got the impression that the quotes from the report are somewhat well meaning, while being contradictory in content.

I will leave my remarks at that, as I would not wish to state anything that could be construed as indicating some lack of a true understanding of the real potential benefits to all sectors of our Country, on the part of any ODTR employees?

Yours,

paddy20.

LoBo

very interesting Yellum - could you post a link to the full report too please?

Look forward to reading (here, hehe) the interview Dangger.


"the vast majority are satisfied with this most basic connection. "
if potatoes cost €1 each and any other food cost €50 for all-you-can-eat* portions, the vast majority would be satisfied with this most basic and overpriced food.

*: There is a limit of 3 platefuls on this all-you-can-eat service. Plate setup charge of €100 applies. Plate suitability test must be passed before customers can be set up. Perhaps we can interest you in the BigPotato service instead?

viking

So we had to bribe Esat to roll out ? They never mentioned that ..

That's certainly one way of looking at it.

A friend of mine was talking to someone in the ODTR about some of these issues, apologies if this has been said before. Basically EsatBT are only going to be funded (33% funding of the cost of installing ADSL equipment into exchanges) until Christmas, this equates to about 40 exchanges (Eircon also have 40). It would probably have been more but there were 14 exchanges that they weren't able to upgrade because they were denied planning permission by the local county council to dig up the roads to the exchange to install their backhaul. :rolleyes:

Because EsatBT are receiving this funding they are not purchasing any wholesale bitstream services from eircon yet, this will happen after Christmas. So even after the ODTR delayed Eircon's release of i-stream because of high wholesale prices, we still have absolutely no wholesale bitstream DSL line active in Ireland today. Also on that note, the requirement that OLO's purchase a block of 24 ports on the DSLAM has been removed, they can now be purchased on an individual basis. Maybe this will help matters...

DSL adoption has grown to approximately 1,200 lines at the end of August 2002.

We now have 1,700 DSL lines, *gasp*

Interesting fact: Eircon will only consider upgrading exchanges that have a capability to perform an RLT (Remote Line Test). This means that even in a town in Ireland that might have a large population and a huge interest in taking up DSL, unless the exchange is RTL capable then eircon wont even consider upgrading it to DSL.

On the FRIACO issue, eircon have produced a FRIACO product description. They are required to submit pricing to the ODTR on the 20th December.

viking

pork99

Seems to be an exercise in self gratification, I mean self justification

some breathtaking complacency

"many of these users are residential and SME customers and the vast majority are satisfied with this most basic connection."

because they have no choice because you lot have failed to do what we pay you for

We want results not waffle, there are some encouraging signs lately but we are so far behind that it could be too little too late.

yellum

Originally posted by LoBo
very interesting Yellum - could you post a link to the full report too please?

http://www.odtr.ie/docs/odtr0279.pdf

Or in doc format try

http://www.odtr.ie/docs/odtr0279.doc

LoBo

thx - the .pdf link doesn't exist. poking fun at the OTDR and their lack of acrobat abilities?

ps- thanks for your initial post with excerpts, seeing as the entire report is a fat 71 pages long

thegills

Just some facts to back up previous statements

they were denied planning permission by the local county council to dig up the roads to the exchange to install their backhaul

Aer Rianta in Shannon Airport- No DSL in Shannon...

unless the exchange is RTL capable then eircon wont even consider upgrading it to DSL.

Castletroy in Limerick (serves the NTP and hundreds of UL student accomodations) but Esat BT aren't upgrading the Xchange

Hannibal_12

Same old drivel again and again and again. I have basically given up on broadband in Ireland within the next two years for a reasonable price, by which time I may not even be here. Oh well, the saga of incompetence, greed, complacency and indifference continues unabated.

yellum

Originally posted by LoBo
thx - the .pdf link doesn't exist. poking fun at the OTDR and their lack of acrobat abilities?

No there is a PDF version, they sent it to me. And that pdf is linked on their website here:

http://www.odtr.ie/docs.asp?Type=Year&Year=2002&Image=images/docs_issued2002.gif

They should fix it soon though since we're talking about it.

Brian fix that link !

scojones

Originally posted by thegills
Just some facts to back up previous statements
Aer Rianta in Shannon Airport- No DSL in Shannon...

The "dark" fibre that is between shannon and limerick is being turned on on Nov 1st. But waiting for developments there is like waiting for a bus in ballygobackwards. Chorus Powernet is available in Shannon btw.

spongebob

who's dark fibre Esats?...is this a little bit of the famous western digital corridor being turned on then?

scojones

Originally posted by Muck
who's dark fibre Esats?

I'm not sure who's it is to be honest. It was in the irish independent a few weeks ago. I still have the article at home. It just went on about all the dark fibre nonsense and that the dark stuff between shannon and lk is being turned on on Nov 1st. I got the understanding that nobody "owns" it. Which makes turning it on utter sh!te. I'll have a look for the article today and if i find it i'll type the whole thing up, but it's 2 + 1/2 pages of the independent long. Can't find link on their site. (I'm aware my info is bad and is speculation-like, direct flames to /dev/null).

crawler

HI , HELLO , BONJOURNO BRIAN!!

BRIAN!!

BRIAN!!

I really really have to ask - do the "real" people in the ODTR really really believe the same old churn that keeps reappearing.....

Michael Collins

Originally posted by sjones
(I'm aware my info is bad and is speculation-like, direct flames to /dev/null).

Yeh I read that myself, I've lost it now though. It was interesting enough. Talked about how the Government planned to have every house connected to a broadband 5mb connection by some date, 2005 maybe? I forget now. If you could type it up it'd be great, don't worry too much about it though.

Cheers.

yellum

Closing date for replies to this is tomorrow at 4pm. Send them your comments !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eircomtribunal

Originally posted by yellum
Send them your comments !

We have just published our formal response to the ODTR’s consultation paper about the FUTURE DELIVERY OF BROADBAND on www.eircomtribunal.com. We tried to make it readable even on its own as much as possible. If you think it is too heavy stuff for you, it has got a few illustrations.

Peter

De Rebel

Peter

That is an excellent article. Concise, accurate and very easy to digest. In stark contrast to the ODTR's Magnum Opus.

You should send copies by registered mail to the main players (CMNR, Taoiseach, eMinister, Enterprise & Employment, ForFas, also the Head Offices of the Opposition Parties, the news desks of the Main Daily and Sunday Newspapers, and the news desks of the main radio and TV players). Ensure that you request a considered response from each.

I'm sure that this took a lot of effort. The original publication was a f*****g disgraceful waste of taxpayer's money. It asked a simple question "Does Ireland Need Broadband" and took 70 pages to tell us that further consultation was needed. Your response shows it up for what it was in the kindest possible way and with clinical and devastating effect. How I would love to hear the ODTR restate its conclusions, opinions and arguments in the exact same number of words you use. And then hear the ODTR actually answer the question.

"Does Ireland Need Broadband" ? Dermot Ahern *appears* to be on side, time will tell. The ODTR *appears* to think not. Your article is one of the first which should help some of the other players understand the issues and actually reach a decision.

So once again, thanks and well done. And don't stop now, that would be a waste - follow through and circulate it.

LoBo

This is a fantastic article, well done.
http://www.eircomtribunal.com/pops/future_response.html

A few suggestions:
make it more visible from this page (http://www.eircomtribunal.com/dossier_future_delivery.html) as when I was first looking through all the new updates on the site I missed the fact that the response was on its own page.

Also I would personally remove the paragraph starting with "Last but not least: Change the line repair modalities of the incumbent. " I don't think it adds anything to the article, and isn't a good foot to end on IMO.

Spelling/Grammar:
Do not ask the blind to lead the blind! Chinese
should be
"Do not ask the blind to lead the blind!" Chinese Proverb

also "sea change" somewhere in the document, should that be "sea of change" ? or am I confused?

Cheers, good luck, and spread this article about!

SkepticOne

Originally posted by LoBo

also "sea change" somewhere in the document, should that be "sea of change" ? or am I confused?

No, thats fine. The expression just means a fundamental change.