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

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...

News

Further Input to Consultation Document No. 09/39 on Local Loop Unbundling (‘LLU’) and Sub Loop Unbundling (‘SLU’) Monthly Rental Charges

In response to: http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0962.pdf Comreg Note “In Consultation Document No. 09/39, ComReg expressed the preliminary view that 1,600 lines represented a highly conservative point at which to draw the boundary between those exchanges that are considered viable for unbundling during the control period (large exchanges) and those that are not (small exchanges). ComReg now believes that a threshold of exchanges containing at least 2,500 lines is appropriate because: In operator responses to Consultation Document No. 09/39, the majority of operators believed that a cut-off of 1,600 lines was inappropriately low. A number of the operators indicated that the cut-off point...