With the grotesquely overprized internet access costs in Ireland – regulated by the State and executed by EIRCOM – we deem it necessary that all government web sites should carry a warning display about the price the customer will have to pay for accessing them, just as premium telephone access costs have to be displayed on ads.
ACTION
Ask the government departments/agencies which have websites, to display this or a similar warning sign on their sites.
The more people ask for it through the web forms, email contact or/and fax adresses, the more they will have to think about this demand. The press, RTE and TV3 should also be contacted, and the TDs too.
We are currently collecting relevant addresses (postal, phone, fax and email) on our addresses page, your input is welcome.
Letters, faxes and emails to government departments/agencies could go something like this:
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To the
Department of _______
A Chara,
I ask you to display this warning notice on the start up page of your web site, to make people aware of the unbelievably high cost of accessing the site in Ireland.
Similarly I ask you to put the warning notice on stickers on all government brochures, that show the government web site adresses.
Are you aware that Ireland is now squarely on last place of developed countries in regard of online time per citizen, due to grotesque state regulated overpricing ?
Please confirm this communication and respond to my demand.
Yours
Here is the proposed text for the warning notice:
A Word of Caution
Can you really afford to read this web site online?
It may be more expensive than it is worth.
Due to EIRCOMs misuse of its monopoly status, facilitated by the Minister for Communication and the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR), it will cost you around € 3 per hour on modem access and over € 6 per hour on ISDN 128 access.
Why not consider joining the 85 % of Irish citizens who do not access the internet from home?
| We have sent the following email to the ODTR. We'll print their answer as soon as we get it |
A Chara,
with the extremely high cost of internet access in Ireland – due to the fact that the government continues to fail to stop EIRCOMS monopoly misuse – we deem it necessary and prudent to have the government put up warning notices on all its web sites and literature promoting its web sites. This notice should inform prospective users of the site, that it will basically cost them over € 3 per hour on modem access, which is roughly the same per minute price as watching a movie in a cinema. On ISDN it is even € 6 per hour.
Please confirm this communication and respond to my demand.
Yours
Here is the proposed text for the warning notice:
A Word of Caution
Can you really afford to read this web site online?
It may be more expensive than it is worth.
Due to EIRCOMs misuse of its monopoly status, facilitated by the Minister for Communication and the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR), it will cost you around € 3 per hour on modem access and over € 6 per hour on ISDN 128 access.
Why not consider joining the 85 % of Irish citizens who do not access the internet from home?
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