Broadband - An issue ignored

[netwhizkid]

The vast majority of people living in rural areas in 2007 have no access to Broadband, those in cities & towns have mouldy broadband laughable at by our foreign peers.

There is several reasons for this and the blame lays squarely at the Fianna Fail & PD's door. Eircom was privatised in 1999 by Mary O'Rourke and since then the network has deteriorated rapidly under-investment, profit taking, asset stripping etc. have reduced Ireland's Telecommunications network the the verge of disaster - This is typical of Privatisation and has condemned many rural areas to economic depression.

My own area is a typical Irish village depressed and with no prospects. Economic Activity is stifled because there is no Broadband several potential businesses have rejected the area and the existing Business have relocated to a Broadband friendly area.

Broadband is essential and Noel Dempsey really should go to a creche playing with blocks as he might have the intelligence for it... just. FF have left areas like my own in a uncertain position and Eircom continues to rape the wallets every time.

[cyberianpan]

There is several reasons for this and the blame lays squarely at the Fianna Fail & PD's door. Eircom was privatised in 1999 by Mary O'Rourke and since then the network has deteriorated rapidly under-investment, profit taking, asset stripping etc. have reduced Ireland's Telecommunications network the the verge of disaster - This is typical of Privatisation and has condemned many rural areas to economic depression.

What assets were stripped from Eircom ?


cYp

[Twin Towers]

My own area in Kilgarvan Co. Kerry is a typical Irish village depressed and with no prospects.

They have broadband in Kenmare, dont they?

[cyberianpan]

At time of privitisation Eircom's local loop (for which it has a universal service obligation) was largely copper .... so expecting Eircom to deliver "fat pipe" local loop was a pipe dream.

ComReg take an unduly legalistic view of regulation & would be well advised to move towards a more prudential view.

Even on the legal front: Dublin Corporation are sick of telco's digging the roads, they proposed requiring telcos to lay general purpose ducting whenever they wanted a new line. Idea was that the Corpo would pay for & administer the ducting & allow all access. Obviously this wasn't within the interests of the telcos & they were able to claim consitutional protection. A simple ammendment is needed here but no party has sponsored it.

Furthermore we don't have a greedy military in this country so we have quite a lot of high frequency spectrum available for broadband, I understand that DIgiWeb intend using some of this.

Blaming FF/PDs for the broadband issue is not fair given that we have such a richness of solutions & no party has serious policy in this area.

cYp

[trekkypj]

The only solution to this disaster of a situation is for the Government to buy the exchange network off Eircom, replace, exchange by exchange, the entire network with a fiber optic based system using the latest and best standards and technology, and then to allow any Telco to install lines in the exchanges for a flat fee.

But then, its Ireland we're in, not South Korea or Japan *sigh*

[wexfordman]

On this one I tend to agree, the current government have failed in the delivery of bb infrastructure that is vital to our economy. There are many reasons for it, but ultimately these could have been overcome by imaginative policy, more robust enforcement, and by giving adeqaute powers to comreg (on time). That on top of the fact that comreg seem to be more of a reporting body rather than one which takes action. In many cases, it can be argued that comreg have fudged the issue to make figures look good, and provide excuses for our lack of bb (for example low takeup etc).

The BB for schools ws a great idea, well funded, but poorly implemented, resulting in many rural schools using sub standard and expensive sattelite BB.

The Group BB schemes, again imaginative, but porly developed and managed by the government.

Hopefully things are looking up, with a recent tender for 100% bb coverage for the country, but it remains to be seen whether this is implemented in a prudent way.
We should have been at 100% coverage years ago, we shoul dhave been looking at much higer speeds than the current average bb speeds, and we certainly should have had much better pricing than is currently available.

Comreg have not been effective over the last 10 years, and we have had 2 ministers in charge, both of them innefective in my opinion.

Wexfordman

[Catalpa]

Even out here Blanchardstown it took me 8 tries before I was accepted for BB.

Eircom advertise the Talktime Anytime + BB package as Tax Free. Great stuff alltogether yet guess what folks? - when they sent me out the Bill they added 21% VAT on to these VAT free services!

Just to add the cherry on the cake last week they sent me another Bill for I know not what service of €70 +

I have sent off a complaint about all this and await their reply with interest!

[QuizMaster]

I live in a rural area and there is certainly no prospect of Eircom ever rolling out broadband to us.

Luckily for us, we live near the border. A wireless internet provider based in Derry has covered the Inishowen peninsula with masts, I think with the help of funding for border counties. We have good quality broadband now but no thanks to Eircom or the Irish state.
We count ourselves lucky.

Hooray, we have a united Ireland! Microwave radiation knows no borders!

[Catalpa]

I live in a rural area and there is certainly no prospect of Eircom ever rolling out broadband to us.

Luckily for us, we live near the border. A wireless internet provider based in Derry has covered the Inishowen peninsula with masts, I think with the help of funding for border counties. We have good quality broadband now but no thanks to Eircom or the Irish state.
We count ourselves lucky.

I think that might be another reason people are relucant to invest in wiring is that satellite technology will render obsolete underground lines anyway.

Look at cassettes - yesterdays technology already yet the market peaked in 1991 and now they are History!

Or digital cameras. In 1995 I went around the Camera shops in Dublin demonstrating this technology. Not one shop was interested in buying them! A great idea they admitted - perhaps one day they just might get one in to see if it would sell!

Now they are the Market!

[MichaelR]

My own area in Kilgarvan Co. Kerry is a typical Irish village depressed and with no prospects. Economic Activity is stifled because there is no Broadband

Have you tried http://www.permanet.ie/ ?