Opinion

Opinion pieces

Opinion

Universal Gigabit by 2028 is not believable

‘The policy is the policy until the policy changes’ The Government’s Digital Connectivity Strategy dates from 2022 and contains three targets. We can dispense with target number three, the BCPs and schools, which was met some time ago, and number two, the 5g target, is worth a post of its own. The question here is whether the Government credibly can cling to the claim of ubiquitous gigabit coverage by 2028. The strategy was supposed to “evolve“. In 2023 the Department committed to an update no later than 2025. That didn’t happen, but last December we were advised the strategy would...

Opinion

Will 5G come to the rescue of rural Ireland ?

Will 5G come to the rescue of rural Ireland ? We thought that 5G could be the best hope rural areas have when it comes to getting high-speed internet access.  But we fear that nothing will change enough to make a difference and the have-nots will still go without. Here we are in April 2019 and I fear that will be the case — we’re certain now it will never be the panacea that was promised. Network Some time ago carriers were saying that spectrum licensing would be the greatest hurdle to being able to provide rural broadband using 5G...

News / Opinion

Virgin Media – pirates of suburbia

Another Study Shockingly Discovers That Cable TV Needs To Compete On Price from our “well-duh” department For the last decade the cable and broadcast industry (Sky now Comcast) and UPC (now rebranded Virgin Media) have gone to great lengths to deny that cord cutting (dropping traditional cable tv for streaming alternatives and/or piracy) is real. First, we were told repeatedly that the phenomenon wasn’t happening at all. Next, the industry acknowledged that, certainly, a handful of people were ditching cable, but it didn’t matter because the people doing so were losers living in their mom’s basement. Then, we were told...

Opinion

The end of the cable

There have been some very interesting global developments in the cable industry of late. It is reported that Vodafone may be considering buying Liberty Global International (UPC+Virgin Media). Cable&Wireless Communications have already acquired some of Liberty Global’s assets namely Columbus International.The question that must be asked is are the glory days of cable coming to an end? Eamonn Wallace chairman of IrelandOffline said: “Meanwhile here in Ireland UPC lost about 1,800 customers this quarter. While revenue and margins are holding up (for now), the real problem is this revenue is mainly driven by price increases and higher triple play penetration,...