EsatBT advert Sunday Business Post

Dangger

Full page advertisement Page 7 of the Sunday Business Post 12/1/03

Another step forward for digital Ireland

Good news for EsatBT and the Irish consumer.

It's great news for Irish consumers (and businesses!) - in a nutshell over the coming months, you'll no longer be restricted to paying cents per minute for your internet access. You'll have the option to pay a flat monthly rate which will allow you unlimited internet access 24 hours a day.

Esat BT wholeheartedly welcomes the government's policy on flat rate internet access and the regulator's decision - announced earlier this week - to direct eircom to facilitate its introduction. In spite of strong opposition, we have consistently led the push for this directive as part of our on-going commitment to building a real digital Ireland.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank both the Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern and the Commission for Communications Regulation for their support. And vision.

Ireland is now starting the process of catching up with the other 8 EU countries whose internet usage is booming as a result of the introduction of flat rate internet access.

As Minister Ahern recently said, 'Ireland can no longer afford to follow. We must lead'. And you can be assured that at EsatBT we'll continue to push for initiatives such as this , and initiatives on broadband that will bring the reality of a digital Ireland home to the people who live and work in it. And that's a promise, not just talk!

seamus

<mr burns voice>Excellent</mr burns voice>

Nice to see them giving full coverage of the issue to the general public, as well as making sure Eircom have to comply, by not letting the issue go under the rug, but....

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank both the Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern and the Commission for Communications Regulation for their support. And vision.

No mention of Ireland Offline? The cads!

Mountjoy Mugger

Originally posted by seamus

No mention of Ireland Offline? The cads!

We could like to thank IOFFL who were formed when we started to change their contracts to suit ourselves, for all they have done too... the cads!

Dustaz

As Minister Ahern recently said, 'Ireland can no longer afford to follow. We must lead'. And you can be assured that at EsatBT we'll continue to push for initiatives such as this

while at the same time selling our dsl at extortionate rates for no good reason


Nice publicity stunt esat but the Kettle rang for you guys, something about your colour.....

BuffyBot

Nice publicity stunt esat but the Kettle rang for you guys, something about your colour..... [/B]

Frankly I don't care about the motives - it has given the whole issue some publicity. Despite what we here might think, most people in the greater public wouldn't give a flying funk about Eircom and how much they charge for net access.

However, seeing an ad like this, from a recognisable competitor with a good brand name (Esat and BT - well nearly every nelly in the country knows who either of those two brands are!) might make them think "Jesus, well if it's got this, Eircom must be doing something bad here"

While thats boiling it down to a simple form, the publicity can only be good.

sceptre

Originally posted by seamus
No mention of Ireland Offline? The cads!

There's no way in hell that any telco will official recognition to a consumer pressure group in public. They're afraid of creating a widespread and de facto consumer group that they can't control.

As soon as FRIACO becomes an affordable reality, almost all our time can be devoted solely to the price and availability of broadband services. Given that Esat's BB price seems to be set solely by whatever Eircom set their's at (and given that Esat can set it at whatever they want as they're not paying Eircom a wholesale rate), Esat know we'll all be knocking on their door yet.

seamus

Originally posted by sceptre
As soon as FRIACO becomes an affordable reality, almost all our time can be devoted solely to the price and availability of broadband services.

I think IOFFL may expect to lose a few members at the point. I'll defo be getting a FRIACO service, but will continue to be an active member. At the beginning, I may have just been interested in FRIACO, simply for selfish reasons, but I realise now that the correction of the entire shambles here will at least show Irish people what can be done by just applying a litte pressure. And this country has many shambles that need correcting......

Incidentally, how's the charter coming along? Has daveirl had a chance to work some more on it?

Hannibal_12

I certianly hope that IOFFL continues as strong if not stronger than it was before. With all the publicity of late I am sure that will be the case. FRAICO is good step but broadband is the future (In Ireland anyway, everywhere else its the past!) and based on that premise Ireland's future looks grim if nothing is done about the inexcusable price Eircon has set.
Having flat rate 56k access is good, having flat rate 512kbps access is alot better, in fact it is slowly becoming standard elsewhere and so there must be a constant push for cheaper access irrespective of what the price is but especially if it is 2-3 times more expensive than any alternative in the world.

PiE

Bah, they're trying to take the credit! :]

naitkris

Originally posted by Hannibal_12
I certianly hope that IOFFL continues as strong if not stronger than it was before. With all the publicity of late I am sure that will be the case. FRAICO is good step but broadband is the future (In Ireland anyway, everywhere else its the past!) and based on that premise Ireland's future looks grim if nothing is done about the inexcusable price Eircon has set.

i agree. IOFFL has really been a strong voice in terms of getting to the FRIACO decision that we are at now. with ongoing pressure, things should really progress i feel. from an eircom point of view, i have a feeling they will want to roll out affordable broadband faster now instead of having to introduce FRICAO as it could be cheaper for them in the long run perhaps, anyone know? broadband anyway will mean that your telephone line is not tied down which is good for eircom as well as they can charge you loads for the usual phone calls you make and also charge those who call you while you're using the internet, unlike with FRIACO.

i haven't seen the Esat BT ad myself, though they could have at least put something like "the general public" or "pressure groups" or something along those lines down - oh well, it's only an ad. good anyway to see that the pressure on eircom is starting to mount from all directions.

if Esat BT are already starting to advertise the whole FRIACO decision and also that eircom has to sell FRIACO by the end of february, we may see Esat BT try get a headstart and offer FRIACO as early as march in order to grab a bagfull of customers before anyone else.

parasite

surely they can't genuinely claim to have consistently led the push, they could be multitudes of times more aggressive, no ?

netsmart 'sux' anyway, i hope some other isp's pop up once friaco's implemented

BoneCollector

I think IOFFL may expect to lose a few members at the point.

It will never be over, we will still need to educate both public and politicians. If errcom or who ever start to think no one is looking or the pressure is off.. the will revert even more back to there bad practices.

We may achieve our primary objective #1, but we need to keep the presure on all the time to keep pushing for more and more progress..
if we stop the fight and look 5 years ahead...
While the Rest of europe is running at 50mbs for €40pm, errcom is now advertising cheap flat rate broadband 1mbs for €390 with a wholesale price of €350.

personaly i could have been selfish an not bothered since i was not cut off not limits and have netsystem downloading at upto 1Mbs (so hey, im ok jack why should i bother!?)

You always have to look at the bigger picture which is Progress, unfortunatly in this country we have to fight all the way.

Zombrex

As Minister Ahern recently said, 'Ireland can no longer afford to follow. We must lead'.

Did he really say that! God what world is he living in ... Mr Ahern you see that small dot far far head of us, that my friend is the rest of the world.

How anyone can think Ireland is still at the cutting edge of the internet is beyond me. We are YEARS behind the rest of the world. Lets not forget, we still don't actually have FRAICO, we won't have it for at least a few months.

dahamsta

Nice publicity stunt esat but the Kettle rang for you guys, something about your colour.....

[ This is going to be bizarre... ]

Obviously I continue to share your skepticism Dusty, but this is one thing I simply can't fault Esat on, particularly since the ongoing silence from Esat BT before Murphy came along was something I complained about... and complained about... and complained about; even more particularly when this was one of the routes I thought they should have been taking. I don't know whether it was Murphy's appearance that prompted the advertising spend, or it was coming anyway - and that's why I remain skeptical - but either way I think it's a Good Thing.

I still won't consider them as a supplier, but that's simply because I believe UTV's product will be more suitable for me, and because I have more respect for UTV. Esat BT could learn a lot from UTV, and I'm not just talking about Internet access. Every aspect of their business still needs a heck of lot of spit and polish. Well, not so much spit, since it'll short the comms equipment out. (Although it has to be said that I do often feel like spitting when I have to deal with some of their guys on the phone. After they screwed up.)

adam

corkey

Utv have pulled the rug from the big players, Eircom sent the out the boys to your door asking why you changed lol:D , Esat are like Eircom no cop just send out more bull in the papers and hope you read im fedup, The money im saveing With UTV is great .
Roll on clicksilver

corkey

Sorry guys clicksilver

OHP

Originally posted by Dustaz
As Minister Ahern recently said, 'Ireland can no longer afford to follow. We must lead'. And you can be assured that at EsatBT we'll continue to push for initiatives such as this

while at the same time selling our dsl at extortionate rates for no good reason


Nice publicity stunt esat but the Kettle rang for you guys, something about your colour.....

eeeeeeeeeeek! Nasty Dustaz but I Love It

OHP

SkepticOne

Originally posted by corkey
Sorry guys clicksilver

Problem is that they don't have the same wholesale deal down here.

corkey

I hope soon, Look what they did for us from eircom bills to something normal

Fergus

With announcements as explicit as this, it really sounds like EsatBT are ready to roll with FRIACO as things are, which suggests they have the required primary exchange connectivity. If so, the only real obstacle left is the wholesale price. Odds on we will get a price from eircom as proportionately excessive as DSL, as they need to kick off the usual delay based on dispute and legal action.

ando

them full page adverts from esat and FRIA*?* are a regular thing nowadays :eek: !!!

Cork

Do you think Eircom has still the upper hand?

I think the tide has turned aganist them.

This ad by Esat is very welcome. They was also an ad in another newspaper that Esat cut their international call rates. All Of this is very welcome.

I think price is the new battle ground.

ednwireland

ESAT have their own exchanges don't they ? sorry we have no esat network at all up here.
if they are so keen to do friaco surely they would offer it on their system and that would actually force eircom to provide the service.
seems to me like esat are happy to sit back and blame everyone one else and claim that it's not their fault they are as culpable as eircom.

maxheadroom

Originally posted by ednwireland
ESAT have their own exchanges don't they ?

No - they just stick their kit into the spare space in an eircom exchange (which eircom charge them for, naturally).


If esat had their own exchanges, then they'd have a completely seperate telephone network. Which would be expensive to build.

PiE

Originally posted by maxheadroom
No - they just stick their kit into the spare space in an eircom exchange (which eircom charge them for, naturally).

Yea, but the exchange-space rental still doesn't justify the prices EsatBT are charging for DSL.

Which makes EsatBT just as bad as eircom, no matter how many full-page adverts they buy saying differently.

dahamsta

Esat do in fact have some of their own exchanges - they have one in Penrose Wharf in Cork, for example - and even some last-mile connectivity via dedicated leased lines to Enterprise-level customers. Most of their interconnects are via Eircom though, obviously.

adam

pete

Originally posted by maxheadroom
If esat had their own exchanges, then they'd have a completely seperate telephone network. Which would be expensive to build.

Lucky old eircom got the taxpayer to front the cash for their network - and then sold it back to them!

Genius.