About us…

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

The NBP Intervention Area Map

The NBP Intervention Area Map IrelandOffline have learnt that eir have announced that it will have the “entire Dingle peninsula” fibred-up in  2017. Congratulations seem to be due to broadcaster and musician Philip King on having pulled this one off. Most small communities are at their wits’ end to find a way to induce telecommunications into their area and great credit is due to those like Philip who develop local resources and a long term vision for their communities.  https://t.co/qTWrLvzEYP There is however a wider issue. Areas coming within the scope of providers’ plans may potentially be removed from the...

IrelandOffline’s NBP Delay Primer

IrelandOffline’s NBP Delay Primer As we enter the sixth year of planning for the National Broadband Plan and with much speculation about another hold-up, we thought we’d have a look at some of the key mis-steps that have added significantly to the time taken so far and what might yet delay the project. These delays are not all cumulative; some of those from the past overlap significantly, but there are still headaches ahead. Early days and the Mobile Wireless lunacy It’s fairly easy to forget that the NBP actually started in mid 2011 with the Next Generation Broadband Taskforce and...

The report please, Mr Naughten.

The report please, Mr Naughten. IrelandOffline now know who is going to own the assets of the National Broadband Plan and to nobody’s surprise it’s not us the citizens of Ireland. The rationale The reason it should be the Irish people is obvious from the intervention mapping. It seems that ninety six percent of the national territory can neither sustain a competitive market in communications infrastructure, nor attract enough interest from the regulator to mandate that the necessary investment be made. A decade and a half of ever deepening digital divide is all the evidence required. Instead of setting out...

National Broadband Plan descends into utter farce

IrelandOffline expresses concern over the future of the National Broadband Plan A few short weeks ago An Taoiseach (1) appointed Denis Naughten as Minister for Communications while at the same time he said that the responsibility for delivering the National Broadband Plan, together with the specialised NBP procurement team, was moving over to that Department with the really long name headed by Heather Humphreys. Today Minister Denis Naughten basically announced he was taking it back. Would someone actually take charge and please tell us what the hell is going on here? If this the ‘Rural Alliance’ ‘4G Interim Fix Proposal’...

Comreg the toothless poodle regulator (part #532)

Comreg the toothless poodle regulator (part #532) We here at IrelandOffline towers have read with dismay the recent reports from various telecommunications companies, if these reports are shown to be correct it portrays our glorious regulator as being asleep for the last few years. This is an utter disgrace and our regulator should be abolished and a regulator that is fit for purpose instated. We warned of this many years ago and lo and behold asleep they went and here we return to a theme from earlier this century which was first mooted in the early noughties : The telcomms...