"The Push – Pull Borrowing from the back pocket isn't for the faint of heart. Experienced pickpockets never simply just place their hands all the way into the victim's pocket. Instead, they use the push-pull technique: When a thief spies a potential target, preferably in a crowd situation, he pushes against him from behind, thus desensitising the victim and possibly loosening or slightly lifting his target’s wallet for easier removal. Then he lightly grabs the wallet and pulls it out." From the "The Pick Pocket Guide". 13th edition

December 24. 2002

Dear Minister Dermot Ahern,

You are probably aware of Philip Nolan's recent public relations campaign, with interviews and articles in various papers. We'd like to alert you to the lies and intentional misleading concepts brought forward by Eircom's CEO.

We use Ian Campbell's interview with Philip Nolan in the Irish Independent (19. December 2003) to make our argument.

Campbell's text is blue
Nolan's quotes are red
Our comments are black

In the case of broadband and Eircom's ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) service, branded i-stream, Nolan clearly believes his company has played its part by committing EUR 125 m to its rollout and is now looking for the Government to help generate demand.
"Everybody argues it's chicken and egg. I think it is a pull-push," he says. "If you're pulling and pushing you've got a much better chance of getting it from A to B. Some focus on the demand side would be very welcome. E-commerce and the spread of e-government would be important in driving demand. In the UK, Tony Blair committed a billion on the demand side," he adds.
This is an outright misrepresentation of the situation: The experience everywhere else simply is: With the right price - between 30 and 40 euros - ADSL will be accepted. Eircom's ADSL is outrageously overpriced: 107 euros plus the highest set-up cost and a 3 Gig data transfer cap.
In the UK broadband started to roll when the regulator had forced down the price - any other suggestion is fantasy.
The push-pull tactic is a well-known pick-pocket technique – don't fall for it.

About the state of competition:
"There is still a lot of churn – people switching from one company to another," argues Nolan.
An outright lie. The reviews of the regulator say the opposite.

"In any market you have success and failures. Nobody is forced to use Eircom. They choose to use Eircom."
Outright lie number two: If you want a landline phone you are forced to connect with Eircom. If you use a different phone company for your calls, the lion's share still goes to Eircom in CPS charges and line rental. If you want a leased line the situation is similar.

He doesn't, however, think that competition is the key to widespread adoption of ADSL. "One of the most extensive DSL rollouts was in Germany, one of the least competitive markets. The EU has just taken them to court because they still don't have competition on local calls! So it seems to me that there is no correlation between competition and broadband rollout," he says.
Total misrepresentation of the German situation; a meaningless non-argument. Philip assumes you are ignorant and can be bluffed. Germany has one of the fastest broadband rollouts in Europe, with prices of 30 euros for a decent ADSL product. While it is true that the incumbent has kept its near monopoly position, the German regulator made sure its pricing was right for the national interest, and that includes the consumer. The Irish regulator has failed to look after the interest of the consumer; he merely and counterproductively made sure that the fleecing of the Irish consumer by the incumbent was legally "correct".
Fatally none of the Irish TD's noticed, as they don't have to pay for their phone and Internet bills or don't understand this "Internet thing" anyway ["no, it has not mainly to do with paedophiles!"]

On FRIACO:
"We’ve read the minister’s statement and we’ll work with the Government and the regulator to move forward," says Nolan. "But the real question for me is where is your investment best made? It seems to me that technology of the future is broadband and FRIACO is narrowband."
What a cheek: Eircom has for years maliciously sabotaged the rollout of broadband, using every trick in the book – stall and sue technique – to keep its unjustified profits from overpriced (and not cost orientated as the legislation demands) narrowband offerings and the sale of overpriced leased lines. Even now Eircom is pushing its so-called "hi-speed" package, which is nothing but a horrendously overpriced narrowband ISDN connection. Costing no less than 1150 euros for one month 128k ISDN connectivity.
While broadband really is the path to invest in, cheap (under 20 euro/month) FRIACO for narrowband (56 k and 64 and 128 ISDN) Internet access is hugely important at this stage:
1. As a stepping stone to broadband, as the experience all around us shows, (even if we had a 30 euro ADSL offer to all areas tomorrow, our uptake would be slower, as we have been denied an affordable narrowband Internet access up to now, which gives people the chance to get into the "Internet thing". No amount of advertising/education campaigns or other demand side projects can compensate for that.)
2. As a very important temporary access path for people remaining outside the broadband enabled areas. How many people could avail of broadband lines now, in the next year, within two years? The figures are truly dismal. Ireland's dispersed settling pattern does not help of course, but it should not even be considered as an excuse. Other countries have overcome similar problems - and we all got electricity, didn't we?
Switzerland has a 95 % ADSL reach to date and boy they have mountains and small towns and villages.

Minister, cast a cold eye on Nolan's lies and move on in the national interest.

Regards

Eircomtribunal.com