He said –

My own experience in everyday life is that I use my mobile phone to ring other people on their mobile phones. Yes, I use fixed line DSL in terms of my home broadband.

Q. But isn’t that copper DSL still the key issue?

Eircom still has the bulk of the home fixed line market.

Yes. Despite there being 100,000 fixed wireless subscriptions, there are 600,000 fixed line broadband subscriptions and that’s either Eircom or services sub-let by Eircom.

But cable is now starting to be a significant player. Go back to the principle of competition: it is a much more competitive market now because in that fixed line broadband area, the cable, wireless, fixed line and 3G operators are competing, in my mind.

We’re starting to see prices come down, although not as fast as I’d like.

Q. Do you think that in a couple of years, we won’t have a situation where one company still has the large bulk of the residential broadband market?

Obviously Eircom has a big advantage in terms of having that network. And it’s a huge advantage, particularly in urban areas, where you can upgrade your network to higher speeds, such as VDSL.

I think in Ireland there will be two different tech developments.

One is for that 60 per cent of the country which is in an urban area where there is that competition between fixed line cable and wireless.

And then there is the more rural 40 per cent of the country where it is more likely that it will be mixed – fixed line and possibly other technologies such as 3G or satellite or possibly Wimax.

So in answer to your question, it may be that different technological solutions will apply, or different market responses will apply in different parts of the country.

[he doesn't say anything about altering the technical terms of ComReg's relationship with eircom though....]

Bye, Barry

http://www.tomrafteryit.net/wireless-broadband-providers-in-cork/#comment-111685

you’ll see an interesting thread (I think you had an input to it??) which illustrates that there is plenty of bb on offer but the problem is price and technology. There is one telling comment – about dsl ‘nude’ a technology which is ‘outlawed’ in Ireland, which illustrates neatly the issue. Ryan needs to be taken aside and have explained to him what happens elsewhere, where the incumbent has been properly integrated into the offer, not allowed to dominate it.

My impression of him is that he is prepared to listen, his briefing from the dept heads will, of course, be designed to defend their actions.

Bye, Barry

This man obviously does not give a damn about Rural Ireland. We have waited so long for any form of decent communications better than the 16k dialup rubbish we get out here.