Our New Government Needs to stop Dithering With Our National Broadband Plan. In 2012 a National Broadband Plan was announced by then Minister Rabbitte. The project should be completed by now, were we to believe Minister Rabbittes ‘promises’ in 2012(1), but it is presently one year away from starting off, the latest delay owing to an apparent problem in planning. IrelandOffline cannot do much about any of that. However we wish to make a point about the envisaged rollout period which is far too long and far too unambitious. In 2012 it was known that a substantial portion of a...

IrelandOffline has been campaigning for many years for improved, consistent, value based broadband services for all the citizens of Ireland. The published statistics on Internet access show that the service providers concentrate on densely populated areas. This is not surprising as the supply of telecommunications services has been privatised. However, there will always be areas where either distance from populated areas and/or low population density militates against service provision. The National Broadband Plan (NBP) was launched a number of years ago to deal with the issue of support for “disenfranchised” areas with respect to broadband. The published objective was to...

Lovers of eighties’ TV will remember ‘Endurance’ the Japanese game show in which desperate students had their nipples seared with a magnifying glass, or had their heads powdered with fish food before being dunked in a river full of carp. On a similar theme of desperation and humiliation, eir (the company formerly known as eircom) has launched a competition of its own that combines broadband-misery, special pleading, and queue-jumping. It’s called “FibrePower your Community”; we’ve called it “Grovel”. Grovel hopefuls will submit details of their community in a written application accompanied by  “your own words, song, video or indeed a...