IrelandOffline article in "Derry People / Donegal News" newspaper

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">As seen on http://www.donegalnews.com/news3.htm :

Donegal business man leads cheaper internet access campaign

By Kate Heaney


A LETTERKENNY based business man is spearheading the drive in Ireland to get cheaper internet access rates for small businesses and personal users.

Martin Harran, from Castlefin, a Director of VFM Floors at Thorn Road Industrial Estate, is Chairman of Ireland Off Line, a recently established nationwide group formed to lobby for internet access rates similar to those available throughout the rest of Europe.

Speaking this week Mr Harran explained how and why the group that now has around 800 members, came together.

Around two years ago Esat, Ireland's second largest telecoms provider introduced a flat internet access rate of £20 per month which offered unlimited internet access between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. Monday to Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday.

Eircom, while expected to, did not follow suit and offer a similar package to its internet users.

Mr Harran was one of some 2,000 high internet using customers of Esat who availed of the flat rate access package.

'Earlier this year Esat stopped taking on new customers for the flat rate service and in April they contacted the 2,000 heaviest users of the special rate and told the customers they were abusing the service and the account would be closed. That caused uproar among these 2,000 high internet using customers,' Mr Harran explained.

Many of the disgruntled customers came together in chat rooms on line and it emerged that the real problem was Eircom, as they were charging Esat for the use of the network.

Ireland Offline's web site states 'The organisation originally grew mainly out of discussions on the ie.comp newsgroup on Usenet and unrest following recent events in the Irish unmetered Internet market. We are not affiliated with or sponsored by any of the Irish ISPs, telecoms companies or other Internet related companies (such as online.ie).'

The site can be accessed at Irelandoffline.com

'Esat told us they thought by this time Eircom would have introduced a flat rate for internet users. A group of us who had met on line decided to get together to see what we could do and 17 of us met in Dublin in May and formed a working committee,' Mr Harran said.

The working committee quickly set out their objectives and were determined to achieve flat rate access similar to that offered in Britain and Northern Ireland. There you can have 24 hour access to the net, seven days a week for £15 per month and that includes certain telephone calls.

Their second objective was to get more broadband communications installed for the ordinary user. Mr Harran explained that Eircom are upgrading 13 exchanges in Dublin to broadband later this year, but it is not available in most parts for the ordinary user.

The third objective set out by the group was to get 'local loops unbundled'. He explained that this meant sorting out the cable between local exchanges and houses or businesses.
In May Minister Mary O'Rourke announced a feasibility study into the provision of a new broadband communications corridor from Donegal to Clare.

The feasibility study into the Atlantic corridor fibre - optic cable has begun and will focus on a public private sponsorship to build and operate the broadband corridor. The findings are expected to be presented next month.
'Under European legislation, where you had an incumbent like Eircom in Ireland or BT in Britain, the local loops were supposed to have been unbundled by January of this year and it has not been done yet,' Mr Harran said.

Eircom is the one of four key players in the internet communications sector and as they own all the equipment and lines other internet service providers have to buy these services from them. The other key players, according to Mr Harran are the government, the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulator and Esat and other providers such as Chorus.

'People came from all over Ireland to that first meeting with the aim of raising the profile of the of the need for flat rate internet access at a reasonable price and speeding up internet use. People were not aware how bad access here is compared with other countries,' Mr Harran added.
First the committee met with Esat, then Minister O'Rourke, then Etain Doyle the DTR and then Eircom.Each of these blamed the other for the difficulties explained by Mr Harran and his fellow committee members.

'We decided the best thing to do was to get all four of them together to explain the situation and a seminar has been arranged for August 29 in Dublin where each of the key players will state their position on the issues and we will then have a questions and answer session.'

The chairman of Ireland Offline said he expected around 200 internet users to attend the seminar and they will all be looking for answers.

Their 800 members represent home users of the internet, professional IT people working from home, tele-workers and small business users. Big business was well able to look after its own needs, Mr Harran said.
If this government wanted Ireland to become the e-hub of Europe these issues needed to be addressed and quickly, he said. He quoted recently released official figures on internet usage in Ireland compared with other countries.

The average internet user here spends four hours per month on line. In the United Sates and New Zealand the average is 35 hours per month, nine times more than their Irish counterpart.

To drive home the need for Ireland Offline's campaign, Mr Harran explained that a similar organisation called CUT was formed in Britain two years ago to lobby for the same objectives. They disbanded two months ago having achieved their targets.

'The 2,000 high internet users Esat tried to cut off the flat rate were using more than 75 hours per month. Unmetered access encourages greater use because people are terrified of big telephone bills, naturally enough,' Mr Harran added.

He was optimistic this week that the fast expanding membership of Ireland Offline would achieve their objectives, just as their British counterparts did.
During the May feasibility study announcement by Minister O'Rourke she said the National Development Plan had earmarked £150 million for the roll out of broadband communication lines around the country.


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LegacyUser

isnt there allready a topic about this http://www.boards.ie/community/Forum18/HTML/000404.html ?

dahamsta

The article wasn't published.

Shut up Gladiator. Back in your box.

adam

LegacyUser

Back in your box! *roflmao* sorry.. struck me as funny at the time.

Congrats Martin you media darling you. Whats next? Cover of Newsweek? Time magazine perhaps? the skies the limit!

LegacyUser

Lol that was a good one

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gladiator:
isnt there allready a topic about this http://www.boards.ie/community/Forum18/HTML/000404.html ?</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:

The article wasn't published.

Shut up Gladiator. Back in your box.

adam

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Well said Adam.

It didn't include the text of the article.

I'll moderate the forum, thanks Gladiator.

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Bard

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'First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

[This message has been edited by Bard (edited 26-08-2001).]