EU to launch legal action

p2p

Why isnt ireland listed here ???
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/22/28407.html

DC

Maybe Ireland is included, but not considered important enough by The Register?

SkepticOne

The EU is angry about LLU failure. Ireland is a shining example (relatively speaking) of how to succeed with LLU and therefore probably won't come under scrutiny.

bk

EsatBT use LLU on all its DSL enabled exchanges, therefore Ireland is an example of how LLU can work and probably will not be investigated.

Of course it only works in Ireland because bitstream DSL from Eircom is so expensive, thus making LLU feasible. Also I believe Esat gets funding from the government for many of the LLU enabled exchanges outside of Dublin.

Having said that I hope Esat continues unbundling exchanges (what about the Dublin 9 area? Hint Hint!! ) and I would love to see Nevadatel/UTVi doing the same, imagine not having to pay Eircom as much as a cent ever again (with the exception of the co-location charge of course - fair enough).

SkepticOne

I should have said "comply with LLU" rather than "succeed with LLU". 190 lines being offered is hardly success. There is no way ESAT even with grants is getting any return on its investment.

What esat needs to do now is bring down the price to the level at which people are prepared to pay for the service.

Eircom, of course, aren't worried about lack of take up of DSL because DSL simply eats into revenues from dial-up and lower-end leased lines. Only competition will change this situation and so far they have nothing to worry about.

DC

I keep getting confused with Local Loop Unbundling (LLU).

If Esat have unbundled my line does that mean that it is no longer €ircon's line? Could I get all my DSL and phone calls through Esat and not pay line rental to €ircon?

Isn't that what LLU is supposed to be? Or have I misunderstood something?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by DC
If Esat have unbundled my line does that mean that it is no longer €ircon's line? Could I get all my DSL and phone calls through Esat and not pay line rental to €ircon?

Isn't that what LLU is supposed to be? Or have I misunderstood something?

There are two types mandated by the EU.

1. Full unbundled metalic path. Here, the OLO takes over the complete line and essentially must provide all services over this line. This might include the various forms of DSL + some sort of voice service or they may leave out voice.

2. Line sharing. Here the OLO provides the DSL equipment (DSLAMS etc) but the line carries on to Eircom's exchange for voice services. The same OLO might provide voice services but this would be via CPS using Eircom's exchange.

I saw some pricelists when ESAT were offering their services early on and they appeared to offer a choice of either of these. I'm pretty sure it's just line sharing now.

As far as I know, you still have to pay line rental to Eircom even if you are going for option one.

LFCFan

Surely unbundling the loop means than €ircon 'rents' the line to €sat at a wholesale rate and then €sat rent that line to the customer? In that case you will owe nothing to €ircon(directly anyway) and pay €sat your line rental.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by LFCFan
Surely unbundling the loop means than €ircon 'rents' the line to €sat at a wholesale rate and then €sat rent that line to the customer? In that case you will owe nothing to €ircon(directly anyway) and pay €sat your line rental.

According to the salesperson in esat, the first option full unbundling incorporates line rental into the price so you don't pay it to Eircom. They don't currently offer voice services over fully unbundled lines though. They said that they would be doing so in January. This is what I was told. Your mileage may vary.