Damien posted the following table of international broadband data from the ITU
Notice Japan has 50mb broadband for less than $32 per month?
According to Damien the comparable Irish figures are:
eircom broadband business plus – 4MB – €107.69 inc vat
eircom broadband business enhanced – 5MB – €204 inc vatDigiweb Metro Plus – 5MB – €78.65
Digiweb Metro Xpress – 8Mb – €163.35
The Irish minister for communications broadband suppression should be shot or at least fired for gross incompetence.
That broadband data on Japan looks very old..i am currently getting 100 Fiber to the home. No restrictions whatsoever, from USEN for JPY 5000 permonth…i think thats about 25 euro ack in eire..
Holy crap lupan!
100mb for €25 per month? That is incredible!
These figures are TOTALLY irrelevant and just the usual spin that IOFFL like to put on everything. What is the population of Japan or Korea or Germany? Work out the cost per delivery per head and it all starts to make more sense.
It’s all about economics. The sooner the better the broadband bashers realise this then maybe everyone could start working together instead of pushing in opposite directions. NI is the best example. The government here need to invest heavily to assist eircom or other providers to go into rural areas and provide broadband.
Why do you think Temple Bar or Dolphins barn are the most unbundled exchanges? Because they are in nice areas? no. Because it Costs (economics) excactly the same to unbundle either of those as it does to do an exchange in the burren. In fact getting backhaul to the burren exchange could make it more expensive. Now. Would you prefer to do an exchange with about 19,000 lines with a possible takeup of your llu service of 6% or one with 900 lines with the same takeup possible costing you more?
Top 20 Eircom Exchanges by number of working lines.
Name Code Lines
TALLAGHT TLH 28,580
BLANCHARDSTOWN BDT 27,374
CROWN ALLEY CRA 24,428
DOLPHINS BARN DBN 23,466
BELCAMP BLP 20,155
BALLYBODEN BLB 19,229
BEGGARS BUSH BBH 18,861
PRIORY PARK PRP 18,604
RATHMINES RMS 17,504
DUNLAOGHAIRE DLA 16,899
NORTH MAIN NMN 16,816
MERRION MER 16,777
QUAKER ROAD QKR 16,580
TERENURE TRE 16,480
PALMERSTOWN PAL 16,427
DROGHEDA DBC 16,408
LIMERICK LMK 16,000
WALKINSTOWN WAL 15,838
SWORDS SRD 15,113
DUNDALK DDK 14,856
There are many more factors involved in the ECONOMIC side that I don’t have time to go into here.
Best Regards,
Brian.
Brian,
Get your facts correct. That was an ITU table that was posted. You do know who they are, right? Unless you can prove where the IOFFL spin is in this table then I expect an apology from you.
BTW, am I right in thinking that on your own broadband advisory site that you make money by referring people and that you *only* refer to companies that pay you? I don’t see any actual links to Smart offers yet you saw you are an agent for Smart? I don’t see any UTV offers either. Why is that?
Damien,
I am just pointing out that you continually completely ignore the ‘economics’ involved. If you owned an ISP would you unbundle an exchange in the burren or an exchange in dublin.
Some points made on another very good blog..
IP Transit is not free.
LLU is not cheap.
Line Rental.
It has not gone away. Eircom still have to get paid for the use of that copper pair to your house.
Most importantly!
But it only cost €xx over there.
Now that we can’t bitch about you not offering a service at blah speed lets bitch about it costing more than in someother country. You usually get some brightspark posting that it only costs €15 a month in some part of europe known for broadband. Usually Sweden or Holland. Guess what? While there may be some niche players that do such great deals it isn’t the norm. George, a frequent swedish visitor to our office pays more than €45 a month for 512k DSL
Oh and €15 wouldn’t even cover the line rental let alone any of the other costs outlined above. Most residential services in europe are being run at a significant loss and this will end badly, the only way to compete in a low margin, high turnover market is to offer poor service.
Another fact that seems to be lost on quite a lot of people is the fact that we live in a high cost economy. I am not quoting any real figures here, but, if for example my DSL rental cost me EUR 30 per month in France, I’d expect it to cost me EUR 45 in Ireland!! That and the rest in fact too!! My pint of beer costs me EUR 2.50 in France, it costs me EUR 5 in Ireland!! But, then agian, I’m also paid a whole lot more than I would be in France a fact that appears to be lost on most people!
Did you read the article in the guardian recently about how all the free isp offerings in england is going to end in disaster?
We have went from 89£ to 24.99€ for double the speed in what 4 or 5 years?
With regards to getbroadband.ie – Smart have been removed from listings until they can guarantee to us (and the rest of the country) that they are going to exist next week. We have been talking to UTV about them getting listed. It’s something I need to pick up on again soon. The team have been very busy with other work on our project. We provide a service that thousands of people use every week as a reference with a very small proportion actually using it as a direct means to signup. It costs us money to run so we get coomission from the ISP per signup. I apologise profusely if I offended you but I think it’s time for people like us to start working together instead of pushing in the total opposite directions. Sure, I get frustrated sometimes with the way NOTHING any ISP does seems to please you. I mean what do they need to do? Magnet are pushing the boundaries of IP technology. BT offer EXCELLENT phone and BB packages and Eircom offer one of the most reliable broadband services available. I use Eircom broadband myself since it was 89£ for half a meg and the only downtime I have ever had was when they were upgrading the speeds. Things ain’t all that bad. The rural issue NEEDS to be dealt with and dealt with FAST. Damien I’m sure you and I agree on many points. We may have to agree to disagree on some. Again, if I offended you or the rest of the people in your organisation I apologise but I am sick to the teeth of negativity in the Irish Broabband market.
Best Regards,
Brian