NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

Marlow wrote: »

And well, when it suits them, they do commercial roll-outs like this one, which has nothing to do with regulation or the goverment, as they're a private entity.
/M

Hold up - nothing to do with regulation or the goverment. Thats just not true. They're a company that own infrastructure within the Irish state and they operate within this state - they have to abide by laws within this state - just because they're registered in jersey doesn't give them the right to do what they like here, although it does seem like it most of the time.

Marlow wrote: »

There is no regulation, as to where a provider has to roll out their infrastructure.
/M

Eh? that was my point? are you even reading my posts? there is no regulation!
Comreg are incompetent and useless - time and time again they have shown that.

Marlow wrote: »

There's nowhere in Europe, where the regulator regulates, where commercial providers have to target their roll-out.

The regulator can however make rules on network sharing, price caps, requirements for any rollout that any provider is doing etc. And yes, that job is not being done.

That has nothing to do with the NBP though. That is a problem in Ireland in general, as providers are paying 3-10 times as much for renting infrastructure, as they pay to get the bandwidth from the UK or France to Ireland.

Not even the pricing on the eNet managed, government owned, Metro Networks are price regulated in a sensible way.

And where a price has been set by the regulator, the requirement of availing the product to other providers has not been made a requirement.

Either way, you're barking up the wrong tree. If you want Comreg regulation, you need to speak to Naughten .. who believes, that LTE/wireless is equal fiber based network infrastructure etc. And that the high transit prices across the emerald isle aren't the problem, (at least not his) because Comreg doesn't want to regulate them.

/M

Naughten is a muppet - the dept. should know what is what. I don't take Naughten seriously on anything, it's the dept pulling the strings and I think they completely missed an opportunity to shake things up with the NBP instead we end up with Eir - a company that hates its customers.

Marlow wrote: »

Every minister in that position in the last 2+ decades has been clueless to the subject. So have the advisors been (clueless). Even before Dial-Up Dempsey.

Why would you expect that to change, unless you rally for changes ?

As for ending up with Eir .. there's loads of independent providers around that cover similar grounds and quite a few do a decent job of that. So, you always have another choice.

/M

You've no decent choice it you're not on the 300k or where Siro have rolled out.

turbbo wrote: »

You've no decent choice it you're not on the 300k or where Siro have rolled out.

That is a question of what your requirements are and clearly only seen from your perspective. For the average home anything from 10 Mbit/s and up is sufficient.

The much bigger problem is, that the basic price point in Ireland is too high. And that comes from the line rental prices (even wholesale) and the core infrastructure being priced at prices that are 10-fold of what it costs elsewhere in the world.

The issue we have, is that a lot of homes can't afford to pay more then sub-30 EUR for phone+internet, yet the retail landline charge is 28 EUR'ish. That's before you fill the pipe. Nevermind the line rental for FTTH.

And because that core national infrastructure is priced so high, it becomes commercially unviable to serve small rural patches in the middle of nowhere. Not enough left for the provider delivering the service at the end of the day.

So, unless Comreg and the minister attack the problem and regulate at the core issues ... the core infrastructure and the wholesale network pricing .. nothing is going to change. That's the core problem that ALWAYS is being overlooked, even though it has been raised by providers numerous times. They don't even regulate the pricing for government owned infrastructure properly.

The bottom falls out of the NBP, because you can't get the bandwidth into these areas at a sensible pricing.

/M

turbbo wrote: »

I can't get above 2.5mbs on a fixed line service where I live and I live about 4kms outside a city, not on the top of a mountain. And I'm positive I'm not alone in living in what one would consider suburbia and getting a totally inadequate service - this is the norm for Ireland currently, check any bb statistics ranking and see where Ireland is placed. I'm sick to death of people talking about how good we have it here - total $hite.

And have you checked, if a fixed wireless provider can offer you more ?

/M

user1842 wrote: »

I hope im totally wrong, I really do. The only way I think to rescue the situation is to give Comreg the legal powers it needs to do its job and give it the staff it needs.

We need an amazing regulator if this will work.

We can't even regulate the banks, and that would seem like it should be even higher priority.

Ultimanemo wrote: »

They have been chewing this NBP for three years now, I think they will chew it for 3 or 4 years more and then they will spit it on our faces.

Lol! too f u c k i n right.

This whole discussion is great, it should have happened in whatever Dept Dempsy ran, years ago.
Now, with Leo and the neo-libs, and a ragbag of Indos, nothing radical will be done, the Examiner is right.

The one real frustration is that the ESB has a cable into every house AND is state owned.

However, the ESB pays a huge "dividend" to their owner, the Minister. This could be used to wrap fibre around the wires, as is done elsewhere. But no, we'll take the divided, and let Siro make their own decisions.

There lies the fundamental problem. The ESB is not privatised, the Dept/Regulator allows them to jack up the prices, despite the so-called competition, because the Dept gets the income. The Dept who gets the money has no interest in pushing on the development of telecommunications. This "policy" suits the Dept of Finance, keeps them happy.

Gonzo wrote: »

it's real annoying that the NBP has taken so long, and that Eir have done stuff to their own advantage leading to Siro pulling out, but it could be alot worse, at least Eir will provide FTTH to the majority of the country once the NBP is complete. It could have easily ended up with Imagine or some other wireless provider filling the country with wireless junk that will be obsolete within a few years and we'd be back to square one.

That is true if NBP will ever happen, I don't think it will. One political trick to manage the masses is: keep them occupied with small things so they don't come after you for the real thing. NBP is fulfilling that purpose here

I would be happy if I can get Imagine, that would be enough for me.

Ultimanemo wrote: »

They have been chewing this NBP for three years now, I think they will chew it for 3 or 4 years more and then they will spit it on our faces.

We got signed up for NBP over 5 years ago! 3 years in your dreams,

I lost out on a job because where I lived had very bad phone signal, and I was unaware my phone stopped working at the end of our road,

Finally moved house, contacted the relevant company who blackballed me because I said they never made contact! 5 years and I'll never get my dream job because of it!