Cyber-Bertie – blissfully unaware that most of Irelands students are priced out of using the internet [@ a grotesque € 3 an hour for super slow modem access] ? Hello Bertie |
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You are going around talking about Ireland becoming the e-hub of Europe. Recently you even started talking about Ireland becoming the global leader in e-government and as a knowledge society.
We have to break some bad news to you:
While you are talking about these things, other countries are doing those things.
While you keep talking about it, Ireland has fallen back to last place in all things concerning the internet.
The ODTR is deceiving you about the true extent of its failure
Your Office of the Director of Telecommunications is intentionally deceiving you and the public about the total failure of the governments Internet policy to save their face. It’s classical tribunal stuff: how the failings of another State body have allowed one powerful private company, the former semistate EIRCOM, to sabotage the development of the Internet in Ireland in order to make short-sighted short-term profits. That’s an act of sabotage on the future of the whole nation.
In our dossier Facts, lies and incompetence. A look at the ODTRs quarterly review, we have detailed how the ODTR is deceiving the public about the state of residential Internet in Ireland and about the development of broadband Internet access. We have enclosed a copy.
The gist of the dossier: When the Nielsen Internet survey figures are looked at objectively, it becomes clear that they are a bomb shell: Internet Ireland is in a state of coma. We have reached last place of the developed world, we are nearly down to the level of banana republics. One little chart, compiled from the Nielsen figures, which the ODTRs review does not dare to show you, visualizes the failure of Internet Ireland. It compares the average monthly online time of the Irish home Internet user with that of other countries.
The last five years
The last five years of Internet policy under Minister Mary O’Rourke were a complete failure, the tax payers money wasted.
The civil servants of the ODTR do not understand how a market economy works and fail dismally to regulate for achieving the universally acknowledged single most important basis for Internet success: cheap access pricing.
With allowing the monopolist EIRCOM to charge Internet access costs of € 3 per hour for slow modem access – that is € 41 per day and € 775 per month for a product that has a cost price of around € 10 (and a consumer price in Northern Ireland of under € 20) – the dismal ratings are of course understandable and have been predicted.
We have grotesquely overpriced Internet access costs:
One day slow modem access in Ireland costs € 41 – for less money you get two month modem access in the UK or one month always-on ADSL broadband access.
We have the highest Internet access cost, so it's only logical that we would have the lowest Internet uptake.
The ODTR has set the road for future failure
And the ODTR has made sure, that Internet Ireland will stay comatose for the foreseeable future:
First it has allowed EIRCOM to stall the critically important rollout of ADSL for three years.
Now it has itself allowed to be blackmailed into accepting a grotesquely high ADSL wholesale price (resulting in a well over € 100 retail price and € 200 set-up price) with EIRCOM that will ensure, that ADSL will not roll – which of course will suit EIRCOMs dial up profits just fine.
The ODTRs answer to the following question is symptomatic for their naive incompetence:
Question: Does the ODTR agree that it makes financial sense for the monopolist EIRCOM if ADSL is not adopted quickly, as its charges for 56k modem and ISDN modem internet access (deceivingly named "Highspeed") are excessively lucrative?
ODTR: This query would be better put to EIRCOM.
The experts agree that a retail price of around € 30 per month will be essential for ADSL success – and cheap flatrate dial up as an important gateway and fair access for people in areas where ADSL has not arrived yet.
In the UK ADSL is now widely available for € 35 per month and set-up costs of under € 100. The picture is similar all around us.
Don't take the nonsense
The ODTR is giving vague hints about Irelands different situation (underlying costs, population density, economies of scale) as an excuse. Don't take that nonsense. They are an EIRCOM invention. Just ask the ODTR why they think electricity can be supplied at comparable prices in Ireland.
We'll be watching you
We ask you to not ever mention again Ireland being the most successful software location of the world in connection with Irelands Internet policy.
You know exactly why Ireland has become the largest location for the worlds software industry. You know exactly, that it has got nothing at all to do with Irelands Internet policy or tele-infrastructure, but solely with Ireland having legalized what is basically a tax fraud system for multinationals of a dimension, that makes Ansbacher and Co a choir boy project. We are determined to make sure, that any public misinformation about these subjects are spotted and published.
Did you have time to look beyond South Koreas soccer team?
Much more amazing than South Koreas soccer team is this countries rise to first place in Internet matters. Look how they did it. Look how they took the lines away from their incompetent incumbent Telco and never looked back since.
Can we put one direct question to you? We are eager to print your answer here.
Can we expect from this government an Internet policy that will result in Internet access costs for modem, ISDN and ADSL that are at least as low as those in Northern Ireland by October of this year?
Yours
eircomtribunal.com