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IrelandOffline is a voluntary organisation campaigning for universal high-speed broadband for all

News

Ireland Is Bottom of the Global Pile in Telecommunications.

Ireland Is Bottom of the Global Pile in Telecommunications. Comreg have asserted recently that “broadband is working” in Ireland which demonstrates how far removed our regulator (Comreg) is from reality. The reality is that vast swathes of the country still cannot get decent broadband or are relegated to mobile midband products. This is a Map showing where DSL is currently available in Ireland. DSL1 is up to 8mbits and DSL2 up to 24mbits. Most eircom exchanges use the older technology. Clearly, the problems are attributable to a failure in decisive regulation. The endless rounds of consultations, without ever reaching a...

News

Response to “Next Generation Broadband in Ireland”

We would like to observe that we find it very difficult to approach this document as it appears to proceed from the core assumption that there are no NGN assets in the state. There are a number of operational NGN networks already , particularly the ESB and eircom core . Yet no data is forthcoming on  their operation and traffic growth and on the advantages that appertain to their being operational . We have had an operational NGN in Ireland for 6 years ….surely we must have learnt something from that and from which we can push its advantages closer...

Opinion

A Broadband Code of Conduct for Ireland

IrelandOffline have been informed that Comreg and the National Consumer Agency are now actively supporting the efforts of the Advertising Standards Authority to accurately inform the Irish consumer of the standards that ISPs should adhere too when advertising broadband to consumers. This is in response to a profusion of ‘up to ‘ offers in the ISP market and the misleading nature of many of these offerings. This is where products are advertised with enormous headline speeds or as ‘up to’ a certain speed but where the consumer has almost no chance of reaching these speeds or anything near those speeds...

Opinion

Is Mobile “midband” in Ireland Destroying broadband Infrastructure?

What is the problem? There is an explosion in products claiming to be “broadband”, in fact many of these are mobile “midband” products. IrelandOffline examine some of the consequences of this explosion in these products. The term midband is used to describe these products as opposed to broadband as these products are really dial up substitutes and the  speeds delivered can be so variable as to make the claims of broadband less than accurate. Furthermore the headline broadband speeds quoted are the full total of “speeds” delivered from the transmitter, this bandwidth is shared amongst all users of the sector....

Opinion

Examining the Broadband excuse machine

In this piece we examine the most common excuses trotted out as to why Ireland is not a world leader in the Broadband stakes. We are constantly reminded that Ireland is an e-knowledge economy, the e-hub of Europe. We examine these issues from the perspective of broadband. Facts Throughout the last last few years, we have had numerous reports  on the state of broadband in Ireland. These have included an Oireachtas report, numerous Forfas reports, reports from An Taoiseach’s Office and many others. However with all these reports available and recommendations made, nothing seems to get done.We have a lot...