ET - Counterstrike - Action One: Petition

Action One: Petition.

September 8. 2002

Now that things seem to start moving with flatrate Internet access, let us make sure there will be big leaps rather than small steps.
Send this petition (you can change the text to your liking) by filling in your email and name and clicking submit to send a copy directly to eMinister Mary Hanafin, Communications Minister Dermot Ahern and the ODTR. A copy of your email will be sent to the email address you supplied

Privacy Policy:
All data you'll submit will only be used for the purpose of delivering your petition. We do not share your personal information with other parties; we hate spam as much as you do; we do not send unsolicited e-mail. If you are receiving e-mail from us, it is because at some point you contacted us otherwise.

September 9. 2002
EircomTribunal Petition to e-Minister Mary Hanafin, communications Minister Dermot Ahern and the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation

A Chara,

SUMMARY OF MY PETITION:
I ask you to immediately take regulative action:
1. To enable narrowband flat rate Internet access packages  (56k modem and ISDN) at consumer prices of between EUR 15 to EUR 20.
2. To enable uncapped broadband (ADSL) Internet access packages at consumer prices of between EUR 30 to EUR 40.
3. To stop the incumbent EIRCOM's misuse of its dominant market position with regards to Internet access pricing.

PETITION
More than anybody else you are probably acutely aware of the disastrous development of the Internet in Ireland over the last years.
With only 32 online minutes per citizen per month, Ireland is the worst performer of all countries of the developed world.
Ineffective legislation and regulation have allowed the de facto monopoly and former semi-state Telco EIRCOM to price the Irish citizen out of using the Internet and to paralyse any competition.
Just to illustrate the grotesqueness of the Internet access pricing that EIRCOM was and still is allowed to force on competing Telcos and on the consumer:
Cost of *one-day* modem Internet access in the Republic of Ireland: EUR 40
Cost of *two-month* modem Internet access in Northern Ireland and the UK: EUR 40.

Two long years ago the ODTR introduced flat rate Internet access numbers.
Now finally there is some movement.
Two other Telcos, EsatBT and Nevadatelecom/UTV, are trying to introduce flat rate Internet access packages. The offers to date (UTV's restricted off-peek flat rate for EUR 30 and EsatBT's prepaid internet hours) are a small step in the right direction, but by no means what we need. The two operators have to be commended and it is difficult to understand, why they bother at all: They can expect EIRCOM to simply nullify their projects by offering a similar product if there is customer movement to these operators. That is not how competition ought to work, that is how misuse of a dominant player stifles competition and progress.

Two years ago the ODTR sat on the fence and watched EIRCOM cannibalise not only Esat's flat rate package "no limits" (off-peak flat rate for £20), but with it the progress of Internet uptake in Ireland.

This time I am not prepared to accept similar inaction. I ask you to do three things, swiftly and decisively.

1.Set a "FRIACO" price (a price at which the line holder EIRCOM has to sell full flat rate access to competitors) to allow a consumer price for flat rate modem/ISDN access that is equal or lower than that in Northern Ireland/UK; that's between EUR 15 to 20.

2.Set a new wholesale price for ADSL broadband to allow a consumer price for uncapped broadband access that is equal or lower than in Northern Ireland/UK; that's between EUR 30 to 40. This price range is the by now universally agreed precondition for ADSL acceptance.

3. And very important: Do not allow EIRCOM for a significant period of time, 1 to 2 years, to offer a similar flat rate consumer package. This measure is absolutely necessary and justified to encourage competition and discourage dominant market power misuse. EIRCOM must not again be allowed to stifle and kill off any serious competition in this way. EIRCOM have consistently claimed that there is no consumer demand for this type of access, they have consistently claimed that this is no business model for them, and they have made exorbitant profits on their unchecked overpricing of the Irish Internet user over the last years.
Take example from the Continent, where German competition authorities just have ordered dominant airline Lufthansa to stick to its exorbitant price for an inland flight for another 18 month, when they wanted to match the new half as expensive fares of a new no frills airline.

Please confirm this correspondence and respond to the points raised.

Regards

Your Name:

Your email address:

Read eMinister Mary Hanafin's response to the petition

Click here to download the petition text as a Word document.