IrelandOffline, a leading consumer advocacy group, have received a letter from a member outlining the reason that broadband is not available in certain areas of the country and the excuses for this failure as outlined by the Minister of Communications. Minister Ryan responds to every query with : “The provision of broadband services is, in the first instance, a matter for the private sector service providers operating in Ireland’s fully liberalised telecommunications market. Broadband services are provided by private service providers over various platforms including DSL (i.e. over telephone lines), fixed wireless, mobile, cable, fibre and satellite.” IrelandOffline would like...

How green is your broadband IrelandOffline, a leading consumer group, have studied the “green” ideal of various different broadband technologies. We have come to the conclusion that the electricity usage of mobile technologies (as used in the National Broadband Scheme) is far worse than ordinary DSL technologies. If our goal is that of a sustainable economy then excess usage of electricity must be looked at very carefully. Green technology gone astray Mobile A base station (where your calls and NBS comes from) are 800 Watts each for each transmitter/receiver (even though the aerial is fed 10W to 20W of RF...

IrelandOffline have quietly been working on a plan. IrelandOffline believe that one of the key goals of any “Smart Economy” is to have fibre running to within a few kilometres of every citizen of that “Economy”. With the lack of vision and leadership from the Department of Energy, Communications and Natural Resources it fell to IrelandOffline to help drive some form of coherent national policy forward. Even in these straitened economic times access to broadband is still a burning issue and this issue still needs to be addressed for the benefit of the country. Better access to broadband nationwide will...

International Broadband Quality Survey again blasts Ireland. IrelandOffline, a leading consumer advocacy group today received their copy of the Global Broadband Quality Study from the prestigious “Oxford University Said Business School” which is issued annually. The study reaffirms the positive link between broadband leadership and innovation economies, something we in Ireland claim to aspire to. Yet again this study demonstrates the much touted “Smart Economy” is nothing other than“smoke and mirrors”. We need real political leadership in order to drive the broadband issue forward for the benefit of all. Many emerging economies are ‘leapfrogging’ us by focusing on bringing the...

IrelandOffline welcomes news of regulator’s “fine” Consumer lobby group IrelandOffline today welcomed the news that the communications regulator, ComReg, has opted to “fine” mobile operator Three Ireland (H3GI) for over-stating their subscriber numbers for the last number of years. IrelandOffline understands that the prepaid subscription heading could have been overstated by as much as 150,000.We believe that whilst ComReg have always had the power to fine regulated companies, they have often complained of not having enough power to do so effectively. The much vaunted ‘fine’ of a mere €1,500 shows how ineffective ComReg’s powers are. IrelandOffline accepts that ComReg need...