[Release] ComReg: Irish telecoms most expensive in EU

It's ENN jwt. Intelligent coverage and commentary optional.

Do you reckon they have a parrot around the office as a mascot?

adam

Where do Comreg get these misleading 'baskets' of theirs from ?

Nice to see that Switzerland was taken out of the EU ARPU figures by Comreg for the first time seeing as the Swiss voted to stay out of the EU in a referendum and all

Now we are top of the table, wehhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

And did anyone hear Isolde speaking to Emma McNamara at the end of 5/7 live yesterday, Emma took no prisoners

Unison (no cite)
Midlands Radio (no cite, inn?)

Why did Comreg remove a key OECD table from the June Report that was in the March report then . I refer to the Important OECD table in Fig 2.8.4 in the March report that went completely AWOL from the June report.

Yet Isolde was referring to the basic stats in this missing table in her interview with Emma and without stating her source for her assertions to Emma . She has no doubt seen the source ....but more anon.

Then there is the % increase table published by the OECD which is never reproduced by Comreg in any reports and never has been , fortunately there is the more definitive Comwreck report instead Here is how we were doing a few years back.



The OECD, furthermore, published this exhaustive survey on APRIL 11th 2006 so why did Comreg ignore it one wonders .

The reason for the deliberate removal of Fig 2.8.4 , despite the availability of up to date figures during the preparation of the June report is all in this spreadsheet on the OECD site from which I take the following data.

OECD Broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, by technology, December 2005

DSL Cable Other Total
Iceland 25.9 0.1 0.6 26.7
Korea 13.6 8.3 3.4 25.43
(snip)
New Zealand 7.3 0.4 0.4 8.1
Ireland 5.0 0.6 1.1 6.7
Czech Republic 3.0 1.4 2.0 6.4
Hungary 4.1 2.1 0.1 6.3
(snip)
OECD 8.4 4.2 1.0 13.6
EU 15 11.7 2.2 0.3 14.2

We are at less than half the EU15 average and less than half the OECD average and with the Czechs and Slovaks breathing down our necks .

The other question I have been told to ask about the Comreg figures is as follows.

Of the 330k odd BB connections why does Comreg count 20k IBB Ripwaves as BB when the dog on the street knows they are not BB. Should the true figure not be 310k BB connections.

But the real problem is when you look at the chart from Comwreck and what should be the latest chart (those OECD figures above in chart form) NZ were behind us and are now ahead. The Czechs and Slovaks were way behind and have very nearly caught up . In fact they have caught up by now but Comreg were 'saved' by the ripwaves.
And in that OECD Spreadsheet is the very chart that Comreg deliberately deleted , Its attached below and should be compared to fig 2.8.4 in the March Quarterly report .

We actually went BACKWARDS so Comreg simply deleted the chart.

This entire thread brings me a special feeling in my subcockle area, so to speak.

An Comreg have never carried the OECD Net Increase figures showing performance from one year to the next. This data will show whether they are compliant with that Ministerial Directive of Dermot Aherns from 2003.

2003-2004 . Ireland Underperforms OECD as a whole (from Comwreck) contrar to directive.



2004-2005 Ireland Ireland Underperforms OECD as a whole from OECD here , spreadsheet containing table here and table attached below .

It would be a lot worse were it not for that Ripwave rubbish distorting the figures in Comregs favour . Am I surprised ???

Judge wrote:

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? The figure at 2.8.4 in the March report was from the EU commission not the OECD - part of their 11th Report on the Implementation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Package. That report's only published once a year.

looked back thru both just now and you are right mea culpa on that one.

Ignored it by publishing it as Figure 2.7.4 in the June report perhaps?

Quite. Anyone see what happened to the OECD average figure in 2.7.4 once Comreg redrew the stats did they ???

The OECD average is 13.6 per 100 households. Ireland is about half the OECD average at 6.9 per 100

Source spreadsheet on OECD site here

All the EU 15 are members of the OECD while not all the EU 25 are.

But don't let facts get in the way of a good dig at ComReg, eh?

. An easy target eh . I'll ask cg to edit certain of my comments out.

Thanks judge.

cgarvey wrote:

In the interests of completeness and transparency, I'd prefer to leave the original post.. honest mistakes are fine 'round here.

.cg

Fine. I withdraw the accusation that the comparative BB penetration per 100 persons figures were removed by Comreg from their report , deliberately or otherwise.

Comreg did fess up the OECD table in table 2.7.4 and not in table 2.8.4 in the June report . These are the latest OECD stats released 11 April 2006 .

Comreg then strangely portrayed the OECD average BB penetration in table 2.7.4 as about 12% (I make it) while it is actually 13.6% . The original OECD data which should be reproduced correctly by Comreg in table 2.7.4 in the June report may be found in the OECD spreadsheet here

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/6/13/36463588.xls

Comreg left out the EU15 figures of 14.2% despite their being in the OECD report and despite there being a specific ministerial directive to get Ireland to at or above the EU15 average by date nnn (could not be bothered but its probably passed)

Comreg furthermore include ripwave installs under the category 'other' which are a figure comprising FWA and Fibre installs. The swedish other figure is mainly fibre.

The Czechs who have a fixed 3g ish wall mount gizmo which runs at 256k minimum got special permission from the OECD to include it as BB for their BB figures where Comreg got no such permission from the OECD to include the Ripwave units despite their performance being worse than the 3G gizmos in the Czech republic.

Were the Ripwaves removed from the calculation ...they being a dialup substitute and not BB .....our figures would be lower , not only in December 2005 but now. I make it that 5% of reported BB connections in Ireland are Ripwaves. I will allow Clearwire units as BB with reservations .

If Digiweb are not in the figures then they are probably more accurate than I thought overall. As Clearwire do deliver the correct bandwidth ..albeit with blocked ports....I would consider them worthy of inclusion.

My main objection is that 3G data is excluded from the BB figures but the Czechs asked the OECD for permission to include SOME of it because there was a fixed variant AND it was 256k minimum.

Ripwave is slid in under the radar.