Etain Doyle Interview

newstalk

Scheduled for Tuesday 4th March

On the Right Hook 4.30-7pm every weekday on Newstalk106

Time to be Confirmed





brian@newstalk106.ie

PiE

Good stuff, any chance of getting someone from Ireland Offline in for it aswell?

dahamsta

I'll be expecting my invitation in the post then, shall I?

adam

ElNino

Are you going to ask her about her fat pension and luxury motor?

JohnK

I'll try and listen online for that

Dangger

Hi Brian,

Will it just be Etain? Any other of the regulators making an appearance? Isolde Goggins' previous role in the Competition Authority and experience in consumer affairs appears to beginning to show in the operations and recent statements of ComReg. I think she would be an excellent speaker on the subject of consumer issues in relation to telecoms.

I'm not saying that Etain would not however a previous performance on the Pat Kenny show showed her to be a weaker when addressing the critical consumer points. eg your average user doesn't give a damn about our "low interconnection rates", after all its good for telcos not him/her. At the end of the day such rates beneft the telcos and they do not pass the saving onto the end user as they have decided not to compete and just continue to give us a show of pseudo competition, whilst crying out for state funding in many guises. The end user wants low retail rates and REAL availability, end of story.

I feel these issues must be tackled solely from the consumer perspective when addressed on shows such as the Right Hook.

Great to see Newtalk carrying on their investigations! I'm most grateful for it.

spongebob

Meke sure you ask her why we pay the Highest Line rental in Europe .....see the chart BELOW which shows where we were BEFORE the 2003 round of price rises, sanctioned by Comreg. Thanks to EircomTribunal for the Graphic.



Lovely, we are at the top of that EU table and have been for ages......

On the 18/03/2003 the Eircom Standard Line Rental will rise to €21.15 Including VAT , by far the highest in Europe.

Is this because we have the Best Lines in Europe .

Did they get 8% better overnight (the amount by which they go up in March 2003 ) Inflation is 5% by the way.

Why does Eircom want to slither out of its Universal Service Obligation when it already pulls in more per line than anybody else in Europe, we are talking about 150% of the EU median here.

The Chart above shows that Sweden and Finland, countries with Much Lower population densities per KM Squared than Ireland, actually dropped their charges last year. Eircom already cost 50% more per line than in Sweden/Finland berfore the inflation busting hike.

It cannot be the uniquely low cost of calls in Ireland. The World Economic Forum punctured this myth when it showed that Irish Local Calls cost a lot more than ...you guessed it....the very same Sweden/Finland (page 4 of linked WEF report)....the self same report also shows that our Broadband infractructure is below that of emmmmmm Guatemala and Tunisia to name but 2 out of 50 (page 2 of linked WEF report) who are doing better than us.

All of this happened on Etains watch. She accepts the bullsh1t figures that Eircom give her....along with Phil Nolan and Alfie Kane and their Norn whining. She should be held accountible for the dismal state of our infrastructure, this could involve dunking flash motors into the Liffey on Live television, "pour encourager" of course.

The long walk home would give her time to reflect .

M

MDR

Dave and Muck,

Spell out it out clearily, she has done a less than adequate job,
what particularily annoyed me was the incestant whinning that the ODTR didn't have sufficent power to mandate FRACIO, and as soon as Dermot Ahern (kudos to him for a good job) started to make threatening noises about it ... COMREG changes its mind and acts.

The truth was the could have mandated it months/years ago, but she is a regulator with out insight nor enthusiasm for the job. She is of the ilk that belives somehome Ireland is a different telco market than every other state in Europe. She choose again and again to belive the spin telco's were presenting her with, ignoring the fact they were acting out of self-interest, she ignored the figures showing we were slipping further and further behind ...

Ask her how Eircom dupped her into believe that the outragous cost of €110 a month for a broadband connection given their costs, ask her how they then able to slash there prices in half. ask her did she not look to the EU average, ask her doesn't she live in cloud f*cking coo coo land .... !!!!!!!!!

WILL YOU ASK HER TO DO HER BLOODY JOB !!!!!!! :mad:

dahamsta

I meant to ask this earlier: Muck, as you point out, Eircom have raised their price 8% for line rental, however it appears that the new price cap for this is CPI+2. If inflation is 5%, Eircom have exceeded the price cap by 1%, is this correct? If so, newstalk, could you ask Doyle about this?

Tell her dahamsta says she's a waster while you're at it.

adam

LoGiE

Originally posted by PiE
Good stuff, any chance of getting someone from Ireland Offline in for it aswell?

Might be an idea:)
I'd just hope I don't end up feeling the same way as I did after listening to this as I did after listing to the Una McGirr Esat-Bt and David Long interview. thread
We don't need a technical breakdown/what wonders this new tech:rolleyes: ADSL will bring. You need to bust her chops on issues like Muck has raised, that and more basic questions

-Why does Ireland still not have FRIACO when most EU countries mandated it years ago using existing laws? If a problem came up the law was changed end of story. No holding hands with the Telco’s.

-Why do we have the most expensive ADSL service in Europe? Could it be because the Telco's wanted to max out profits on dial-up? But Etain isn't it your job to look out for the general public and our interests? Why didn't you sort this out two years ago?

-Now I don't know a great deal about wireless spectrums etc but Maybe Etain could explain why certain companies still have licences that they haven't used and seemingly have no plans to use. Surely these should be given to companies that will offer services to the public?

I'm praying she gets a tough time with difficult questions that need to be asked. We the Irish public are getting taken for a ride and George Hook as a prime opportunity to get some answers. No pleasantries for Etain please;)

dahamsta

I'd just hope I don't end up feeling the same way as I did after listening to this as I did after listing to the Una McGirr Esat-Bt and David Long interview.

Like you'd just lost your homosexual virginity? (Dustaz, is this too much? Heh. <evil grin>)

We don't need a technical breakdown/what wonders this new tech:rolleyes: ADSL will bring. You need to bust her chops on issues like Muck has raised, that and more basic questions

I'm going to answer these questions as I imagine Doyle would, in the hope that it'll help our good friend newstalk prepare for the interview. Your mission, Boards Poster - should you choose to accept it - is to refute these arguments so Hook can interrupt her each and every time she tries it on, and move the debate onto more fruitful matters. The arguments aren't difficult to refute.

Can I say before I start though that I'll be very, very disappointed if this interview goes the same way as the last one. Certainly, these matters have to be dumbed down a little for a general audience, but these are serious issues that need to be discussed in in the public domain in more detail. George Hook's ability to get ADSL is neither interesting nor helpful.

Why does Ireland still not have FRIACO when most EU countries mandated it years ago using existing laws?

The term "most" is inaccurate, since the majority of EU countries did not have a FRIACO-style service when ComReg began the implementation process. More importantly though, FRIACO is generally only seen as successful in the UK, and ComReg felt it needed time to evaluate FRIACO to see if it could be implemented here successfully. At this stage, we believe it can, and ComReg will certainly try to make it as successful in Ireland as it is in the UK. The prices we've set, which are the lowest in Europe, will help us achieve that.

Why do we have the most expensive ADSL service in Europe?

This is actually an unofficial official answer from ComReg. The implementation staff in ComReg actually believe this. I don't.

Eircom needed to make a significant investment to rollout DSL in their exchanges. New equipment needed to be installed, new software and procedures needed to be developed and implemented, and new capacity needed to be added to their networks. This investment needs to be offset by Eircom, and obviously Eircom wrote this investment into their cost structure. I view this as acceptable considering their investment.

I'll refute this one. While I find it acceptable that some portion of the investment be built into the cost structure, the level allowed by ComReg should have been out of the question. Eircom's profit levels and ongoing market dominance demonstrate that the company would have been able to recoup their investment over a longer period, and ComReg should have made this a requirement. Eircom's borrowing notes should have no bearing on the matter, the decision to buy Eircom was entirely in the owner's hands.

Why didn't you sort this out two years ago?

I was trying to, however there were ongoing legal disputes in the courts. ComReg cannot be responsible for difficulties with the Courts system.

Maybe Etain could explain why certain companies still have licences that they haven't used and seemingly have no plans to use.

Many of these licences have been revoked in recent months, and the remaining licence holders have been warned that if they don't implement services on those licences, they will also be revoked.

Surely these should be given to companies that will offer services to the public?

We are currently working on new licencing rules and procedures for assigning them, including the removal of licence fees for many sections of the spectrum.

Off you go then.

adam

LoGiE

Well I'm glad my post was some use then. As for my feelings listening to the last interview, I believe rage with a light sprinkling of utter fury somes it up better. As for losing my homosexual virginity...despite Eircom and the Irish goverment trying they're best to butt **** me for every last cent. It's very much intact thank you:)

newstalk

Now Wednesday 5th march either 4.40/5.25

newstalk

5.25 Tomorrow
www.newstalk106.ie

De Rebel

Originally posted by newstalk
www.newstalk106.ie

Thanks for that. Those of us who are geographically challenged will be looking forward to the opportunity to pay FREE Eircom.net 30c or so to listen in :rolleyes:

SkepticOne

There's an audio stream (windows media) on the site. http://62.25.96.7/newstalk

newstalk

any points and issues you want raised during the interview...

0857106106

Fergus

Any chance you can get your streaming server back online?

MDR

its pretty dodgy try again ...

newstalk

online stream of programme working

Fergus

Etain Doyle:
"First of all, we wouldn't have had a tradition of being in the front line of countries in relation to residential and small business services in telecommunications."

Incredible

Etain Doyle:
"If you take the UK for example.. because it was also a laggard until early last year.."

MDR

Yes Etain our call charges may be favourable ... but our line rental still SUCKS !!!!!!

did anyone tape it ?

Dangger

Fair play to the Newstalk team for sticking with this!

I think George came across well and didn't stand for the early techno babble too long! Back to basics. I must echo Fergus' sentiments in relation to those bizzare early comments from Etain.

Not having a tradition of being a leader in telecoms services is surely no reason to remain a laggard! :rolleyes:

With that attitude is it any wonder.......:(

bk

Plus she mentioned the new Eircom DSL product at Eur 45 :mad:

It will be 54 EUR

MDR

she did squeeze in excluding VAT though ...

SkepticOne

Slightly unfortunate mention of the resellers of minutes as an example of competition.

Also, I would have liked to know what could be done in the event that Eircom string the 54 euro DSL along without fulfilling their wholesale obligation all the while blaming the regulator.

Ardmore

Originally posted by Dangger
Not having a tradition of being a leader in telecoms services is surely no reason to remain a laggard! :rolleyes:

It's also not entirely true. The Irish telephone network was pretty advanced during the 70's/early 80's when there were major upgrades right across the system. (Customer service wasn't terribly advanced, with 12 month waits for new lines, but the exchanges were quite advanced).

I remember an uncle visiting from America commenting on the fact that we could call him direct, but he still had to call an operator to place an international call.

Fergus

Super low quality 8kbps mp3 of interview here (size 838K)

Much more listenable 16kbps mp3 here (size 1675K)

I didn't think much of the interview. Doyle managed to absorb most of the airtime with rambling semi techy babble and the same old "I wish we could do more" excuses. Little or no challenges from Hook.

spongebob

Originally posted by Ardmore
It's also not entirely true. The Irish telephone network was pretty advanced during the 70's/early 80's when there were major upgrades right across the system.

... but he still had to call an operator to place an international call.

Your memory is at some variance to reality outside Dublin.

The Appaling state of the network in the late 1970's resulted in a loosening of the purse strings over in the Post and Telegraphs as they were known.

In a raft of investment ....mainly in the period 1981-1985 much work was done to get the Irish phone network up to what was Then considered to be a good standard. Much of the work amounted to a simple redress of a massive copper deficit.

The system was finally at an acceptable level in 1985 or so by 1985 standards . It has fossilised since. That was almost 20 years ago.

By 1987 the last MANUAL exchange in the country was removed. There were still a few Mechanical ones around in the late 1990's.

Eircom farmed out its technicians on contract to BT in the late 1980's and got rid of them in the early to mid 1990's

The network has not been upgraded in the past 10 years apart from the switching backbone.

M

MarVeL

First off an apology to anyone driving alongside me as I was listening to this, I can only say that I was severely provoked. In particular to hear Etain repeat over and over again the long established mantra of "We had no power/authourity" would drive a saint to the bottle. As far as I can see she has been granted no new powers but yet can now mandate these changes.

Also, as Dangger has already pointed out, it is ludicrous to put forward the theory that not being a leader in telecoms is any justification for the current state of telecoms here. We should have at least tried to maintain our position instead of plummeting backwards as we have been doing.

Positively she did point out, in a roundabout way, that Eircom have been very underhanded in their approach to her office but then she failed to say what action she would be taking about this. Surely she has some means of enforcing the rules other than "Well if they can't have it, neither can you" which is obviously playing right into Eircoms hands.

I thought Hook was very good at trying to follow through on the important points of the show but I would have loved to have had some representative of Ireland Offline on the show to drill down on the more blatant evasions. Maybe some other time Newstalk?

Good show all the same.

dahamsta

In particular to hear Etain repeat over and over again the long established mantra of "We had no power/authourity" would drive a saint to the bottle. As far as I can see she has been granted no new powers but yet can now mandate these changes.

Well, they have been given new powers, but not as much as we'd have liked. The real change these days is the fact that the agency has the backing of an apparently proactive Minister, rather than a foolhardly blowhard who achieved little or nothing in her term. Of course the other change is that there are two other Regulators sitting beside Doyle now, keeping an eye on her. I imagine it's rather like being in a creche.

adam