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

Opinion

The end of the cable

There have been some very interesting global developments in the cable industry of late. It is reported that Vodafone may be considering buying Liberty Global International (UPC+Virgin Media). Cable&Wireless Communications have already acquired some of Liberty Global’s assets namely Columbus International.The question that must be asked is are the glory days of cable coming to an end? Eamonn Wallace chairman of IrelandOffline said: “Meanwhile here in Ireland UPC lost about 1,800 customers this quarter. While revenue and margins are holding up (for now), the real problem is this revenue is mainly driven by price increases and higher triple play penetration,...

News

The National Broadband Plan part II

The National Broadband Plan Irelandoffline would like to give the DCENR team who built the http://broadband.gov.ie/ mapping site that was launched yesterday some kudos for a job well done. By the standards of the output produced by DCENR over the years this is an astonishingly complete and accurate piece of work. We were extremely worried when a frankly incoherent list was quickly announced by Minister Rabbitte just before the local elections but as it turns out we need not have been. Some opportunities have been missed. The ability to send a geolocated query direct from the map, perhaps with a...

News / Press Releases

National Broadband plan

So after an enormously long wait and endless delays (2 years of work) the Department of Communications have finally delivered, we’ll resist the temptation to voice our initial reactions to this opus but anyway here is the map: http://broadband.gov.ie/ Here is the rationale and methodology behind this all: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/DA48DCDA-A8D1-47BC-B91E-CE12B6DAB8E1/0/NBP_Mapping_Consultation2.pdf We’ll issue a Press Release as soon as our analysts have concluded their studies of these documents. If you have any comments or observations please feel free to contact us.

News

Let’s keep this between ourselves shall we?

There were thirty two submissions to the DCENR’s public consultation on to the National Broadband Plan – the ‘Call-for-Input’. Of those, six believed that what they had to say was so commercially sensitive, dangerous or controversial that the general public should not be allowed to see it – any of it. Perhaps the security of the state is at risk. Three of them are monopolies owned by the public. They are: An Post Aurora Telecom (subsidiary of Ervia) Coillte We shall now be seeking the submissions from the Department under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.

News / Press Releases

Hi ho Comreg to the rescue!

IrelandOffline cautiously welcomes (yet another) leaked announcement by ComReg of their intention to measure the performance of mobile operators around Ireland, we would like to take this opportunity to point out :   This is the actual job of the regulator and yet here we are seemingly in shock when the regulator sets out to do what it is actually supposed to be doing. They should be more concerned with enforcing the current licence conditions rather than announcing a future intention to do “something”.   Now that the government NBS scheme is over, Comreg announce they will now “test” the...