AaaAaaanyway... Depressing, isn't it...

dahamsta

Here was me browsing my favourite source of news and biased opinion (The Register of course, what else?), and there in the left hand panel is an ad for an ISP I hadn't heard of before...

http://www.fast24.net

Look at the prices and details down the right hand side folks. Tiered, realistic services, priced accordingly. Per annum. Including VAT.

It makes me wanna cry.

adam

LegacyUser

i was having a happy day untill now,

i mea theres so many great ideas out there of solving the problems isp throw at us, hubson came us wit h afew and so did that site,

the solve the problem of high start up costs you pay for your year in advance, sound like a perfect way to cover the one off cost involved in seting up a flat rate offer

LegacyUser

That works out at £13.25 for unlimited online time, and £5.75 for unlimited off-peak online time. Telewest only charges £10 for unlimited 24/7 online time though, so they aren't that cheap. Still helluva more affordable than the £400 it would cost you to do the same with Eircom net though.

LegacyUser

maybe we should do that for the seminar,
compare irish prices to the uk,
i.e. compare how much it would cost to haev a pc online 24/7 in ireland to the uk, and then when they say its a smaller market then the uk, we can say that chraging 20 times the uk price for a country our size still does work out,

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gladiator:
maybe we should do that for the seminar,
compare irish prices to the uk,
i.e. compare how much it would cost to haev a pc online 24/7 in ireland to the uk, and then when they say its a smaller market then the uk, we can say that chraging 20 times the uk price for a country our size still does work out,</font>

that's a brilliant idea glad, I would Absoulutly LOVE to see the faces of them eircom pri<ks's when they have to explain the extreme overpricing of their crap, and why they intend to only introduce their DSL to S.dublin, which has got me COMPLETLY and urtly pi$$ed off ...

dahamsta

Gotta admit it, it's a good idea. A few bar and flow charts demonstrating the huge differences in price and availability would show the telco's (not just Eircom) up. Hey Bard, how about whipping out Photoshop and throwing a few together?

adam

LegacyUser

Its a difficult one Adam. I'd personally love to see a few suits blush when presented w/ the statistics ( Your favourite word ), but realistically the response will be along the lines of economies of scale [or lack of in Irelands case].

In fairness this is true on a general scale, but it would be worth making sure the Telco's know that Irish consumers are not idiots and shameful profitering is simply unacceptable. Of course this then could be illustrated w/ comparisons to other EU states etc.

---

80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
Hey Bard, how about whipping out Photoshop and throwing a few together?

adam</font>

BTW, MS Excel's the Man for this Job- I was just doing loads of it in work today. I actaully didn't realise how comprehensive it is for charts etc. Very impressive!

---

80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

dahamsta

While there is some truth in the economies of scale defense, I think we all know that it's mostly FUD. Whether or which, I think it would be profitable - to Ireland Offline of course - to put some numbers on the table and demonstrate to everyone else the scale of the problem in Ireland. Eircom and the OLO's are well aware of the situation, but you put those facts and diagrams in front of a journalist and they'll trip over themselves to get it printed.

adam

LegacyUser

Going by this map comparisons with Spain/Portugal (we might come out ahead) and Sweden/Finland (we probably come out behind) would at least be comparing similar pop. densities.

Anyone got the facts and figures for broadband availability and pricing in these countries?

http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/GERM/g272/europop.htm

mike65

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/benchmarking/list/2001/index_en.htm

for many facts and figues on EU internet
access, prices etc.

Mike

LegacyUser

Useful link, but not exactly what we need I think.
For instance it gives ADSL and Cable usage, whereas IMHO availability is the comparison we need.
i.e. percentages of rural and urban areas where broadband is available for each broadband tech.
Presuming that the Nordics have broader availability we can use it to refute the notion that you need larger populations/ higher pop densities to justify broadband.

The prices are also out of date

Still, some of the graphs might be worth having handy.
Like the one that shows off peak access costs increasing in Ireland in 2000.

I've checked the links for Sweden and Finland from www.telecom.eu.org

The Finish one is broken and the Swedish webforum link is broken too. Anyone read swedish?