Damien Mulley

With Leaving Cert results about to happen I have a feeling we won’t see you lads for a while. So best of luck! Best of luck to everyone else in the blog world who are also waiting on their Leaving Cert results.

ComReg have another release about LLU here. We had a draft press release ready to go to counter the expected spin from them which probably would have said how great they are with the LLU talks. But alas ComReg don’t seem to want to press release this news. It’s great that they’ve finally highlighted how hard it is to move to LLU though. Still, why bin good content. Here’s the release:

IrelandOffline welcome any and all actions by ComReg to repair many of the serious problems with local loop unbundling in Ireland. However important issues like high wholesale costs, seamless movement from one service to another and the lack of automated ordering systems means consumers will still not be able to avail of the benefits of LLU. Benefits include cheaper prices and innovative packages such as TV, movies on demand, higher speed broadband and phone all over one line.

IrelandOffline chairman Damien Mulley commented: “The ComReg announcement today is much like a plumber on the Titanic telling the Captain he’s fixed a leaking pipe. Meanwhile the ship is going down. This new system will certainly make it more convenient for businesses and consumers to move to phone and broadband providers while keeping their number, something possible in other countries for most of this decade. However, a huge amount more needs to be done before consumers can really benefit.”

What today’s announcement means:
The current issue that ComReg have improved on means that consumers and businesses can now order broadband from a provider and keep their number without major disruption and downtime as had been occurring previously if they wanted to keep their number.

Even with the new system in place, in order to move to an LLU product (such as Smart’s or Magnet’s), you have to first cancel your broadband service with eircom and then your new provider has to request LLU from eircom. If your phone and broadband service is not with eircom it is worse again. You have to cancel all services, move back to eircom and only then can an order by your new provider be placed. Adding outages, billing issues and potential downtime to ordering broadband.

The new system that ComReg created for Ireland is a manual system meaning at most a few hundred orders can be processed per week. In the UK with an automated system 30,000 LLU customers a week are being moved over to free broadband providers like Carphone Warehouse and Sky. Industry in Ireland have been requesting an automated ordering system for years but to no avail.

Ireland currently is placed 14th in the EU15 for broadband penetration, a partial reflection on the lack of a working LLU system.

Great satire and great special fx means it’s heard to tell the spoof from the real thing. This is Time Trumpet from the BBC. It’s a great watch.

Here’s the preview clip:

Stephen Lavelle is into mobile terrorism. Or wants to revive Trigger Happy TV.

(Oh and just in case it is interpreted otherwise, Mr. L’s blog isn’t shit.)

If The Office (US Version) were like Battlestar Galactica.

Brent is back.

UPDATE: IFilm had to take them down.

“I heard the hammer cock,” John said. Let’s say somebody breaks into your apartment at gunpoint. Let’s say that they seem likely to kill you or your roommate. Let’s say you happen to have a samurai sword on hand.

ComReg have a survey of businesses here. It says great things about use of broadband and other such stuff.

This is what ComReg press released:

The ComReg survey revealed that, of those businesses connected to the Internet, 74% of
SMEs and 85% of corporate firms use some form of broadband – most commonly DSL.
The survey, of over 550 businesses in Ireland, was conducted on behalf of ComReg by
Millward-Brown IMS in May and June, 2006. Other highlights of the survey results
include:

• Over 40% of business customers switched telecoms service provider in the past, with
almost 20% switching in the past 12 months. However, almost half of those who
previously switched fixed-line provider claim to have switched back to their original
provider,

• Over 96% of businesses that provide mobile phones to their employees use Vodafone
or O2 packages,

• Two-thirds of SMEs and three-quarters of corporate firms use their mobile phone
while in the office – even when they may have access to a nearby fixed-line telephone,

• Half of all SMEs and corporate firms are using IT-based business applications which
require a broadband speed connection, and

Here’s my dose of REALITY and stuff ComReg never stuck into their PR:

Facts:

* Half of all Corporates have complained at least once to their phone service provider in the past year (Page 19)

* 1/3 of all SMEs have complained at least once to their phone service provider in the past year. (Page 19)

* 48% of SMEs do not have broadband. 52.5% of SMEs are on broadband. 73% of SMEs use the Internet. Of them 72% use broadband products. (Page 39) The rest are still on antiquated Internet products which are not broadband – 19% on dialup, 9% on ISDN and 2% on Satellite

* 1/3 of SMEs who tried to get broadband could not not. (pg 46) This reflects a survey from the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland from 2005 which stated 30% of SMEs who tried to get broadband could not.

Why is a neutral regulator talking up some facts and spinning any bad news? Something is rotten.