Telecoms and Broadband in Ireland - What Should Be Done ? / National Broadband Scheme

AfricanDave - I ordered BT at one point then cancelled it as I had Eircom and someone else in the house wanted to stay with them so I cancelled the BT subscription but continued to get bills for over €200 six months later. I rang them a few times after I had cancelled just to be certain. It appears their systems have a few technical glitches.

I eventually went with Eircom broadband for €24 a month which is fine enough though I'm sorry to say I don't really look at my bill too closely but it's generally around €65 for BB and line rental per month - but should be less. Time to change I think though I'm too lazy really. I'd consider going with BT if that shite with the cancellation hadn't happened above but I should start shopping around again. I wonder sometimes if laziness isn't really fear....

I think one of the worst things with BT is having to sit on hold on the phone for 45 minutes.
Then when you do eventually get someone on the other end they have thick foreign accents and it's hard to understand them.
(I'm not in any way xenophobic but I think if you're going to work in a call centre it certainly helps to have a fairly neutral accent)

AfricanDave wrote:

I think one of the worst things with BT is having to sit on hold on the phone for 45 minutes.
Then when you do eventually get someone on the other end they have thick foreign accents and it's hard to understand them.
(I'm not in any way xenophobic but I think if you're going to work in a call centre it certainly helps to have a fairly neutral accent)

Is Tipperary acceptable? (those rolled rrrrrrrrs)

In fairness I have been on the phone with some Irish people and found them just as hard to understand. I wouldn't single out any county though.
Also, with some companys the call centre is really busy and all the activity in the background makes it hard to hear the person you're talking to.

In case anyone from Tipperary is reading, I too would like to clarify that I love their accent (and the accent of south Waterford) with its Hiberno - Norman rolling rrrrs, a delightful reminder of the origins of many of the inhabitants of this part of Ireland.

cactus flower wrote:

In case anyone from Tipperary is reading, I too
would like to clarify that I love their accent (and the accent of south
Waterford) with its Hiberno - Norman rolling rrrrs, a delightful
reminder of the origins of many of the inhabitants of this part of
Ireland.

The Waterford 'r' is actually a uvular 'r'. It sounds
more like 'ur' than 'ar'. The funniest thing is that the
Deefer/Dortspeak accent tries to emulate the uvular 'r' and often fails
badly. Listen to the continuity announcers on RTE and you'll hear it.


Regards...jmcc

jmcc wrote:

The Waterford 'r' is actually a uvular 'r'. It sounds
more like 'ur' than 'ar'. The funniest thing is that the
Deefer/Dortspeak accent tries to emulate the uvular 'r' and often fails
badly. Listen to the continuity announcers on RTE and you'll hear it.


Regards...jmcc

Is the Waterford 'r' like the French 'r' as in chambre or tour de france? http://www.gantguillory.com/phonetics/e_consonants2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guttural_R

The phonetic symbol for the pronunciation of the R in some parts of France means it's identical in sound to the throaty sound in Irish as in the sounds at the end of afach ach riadach - that sound is symbolised universally by this character: χ

I can't imagine Dort folk emulating the WaterfoXd accent - why would they? I Xeally can't heaX them using it. I don't think you'll ever hear such phrases as 'Man it's really kewl that we've got fXee wifi bXoadband on the DoXt - Xeally makes commuting fXom ClontaXf a bXeeze eveXy moXning'.

Don't tell me there's free wi-fi on the Dart...?
Dublin gets everything.

AfricanDave wrote:

Don't tell me there's free wi-fi on the Dart...?
Dublin gets everything.

I was half-joking - in Paris recently it seems that their Metro is getting underground wifi built by Cisco and the buses in Dublin were threatening to provide it weren't they?

Paris wifi
http://www.m-travel.com/news/2003/05/wireless_intern.html

One thing I'd like to know about EU laws with regard to unfair competition is why Dublin councils weren't allowed to build the city wifi they wanted? This is an area where EU competition laws could impinge on national projects - what if there is really no private incentive to build wifi or anything like that? Should we be offering different companies incentives to do this rather than building it ourselves? Why does it have to be that profit has to be made from this - it's like the EU is debarring community effort in favour of industry that is profitable only. Where can the line be drawn? Wifi and broadband are closer to libraries and water systems than bus systems and so on. Even urban transport it could be argued is better off public mainly with incentives offered to build it as they seem to be doing in Paris.

I really couldn't give a f*ck if 'IBM' or 'Oracle' was painted down the sides of the Dart or down the M7 to Limerick as advertising return for private investment. This debarring of free city-wide wifi - tut tut. Why aren't we fighting it?

Broadband speeds are also dependent on speeds in other parts of the internet world. I founds an article in the BBC website on speeds and measurement
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7098992.stm

Yesterday with the ESRI report coming out positively about the future of the irish economy I heard mention on the radio of the proportion of our exports going out over wires as 47% ?? It sounds like it's an industry we should seek to foster and by maintaining and augmenting the infrastructure - the wires - we are feathering ourselves for the future in terms of industry as well as putting in services for our domestic market.

I thought Carlow had free wi-fi.
I remember reading it in one of the newspapers sometime last year.
Supposedly most hotels have it in their lobbies....?
I don't have a laptopo so I wouldn't really know.

AfricanDave wrote:

I've just checked the Magnet website, and it doesn't look like I can avail of their service.

Quote :

. Magnet Entertainment offers Digital TV, high-speed broadband and telephone services to homes in selected Developments in Dublin, Laois and Meath that have been equipped with Magnet's Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) technology.

I live in a 30 year old house in Co Wicklow.

Oh, well that's not a runner, then.

Unfortunately not.
I wonder what's going to happen with Eircom's request for tax breaks and subsidies in return for rolling out high-speed broadband.
Given the extraordinary wastes of tax payers' money we've seen over the last few years I think paying out a few million for good broadband would be well worth it.

what about those mobile broadband thingies?

cookiemonster wrote:

what about those mobile broadband thingies?

You mean 3 Broadband and the like?

I have 3g reception on my phone at home but only one bar max.
My brother lives nearby and he has o2 mobile broadband but the 3g doesn't work so he's stuck with gprs (somewhere around 56kbps).
I'd say if I went for the mobile broadband the max download speed I would get would be half what I have now.
It's only really good if you have a laptop and live in the city.

AfricanDave wrote:

It's only really good if you have a laptop and live in the city.

Would you consider moving to somewhere like Sandyford or Dundrum to take advantage of the better internet services?

Not in today's housing market climate
Besides, I love the country.
I was out in my garden doing some sweeping earlier on today, and after few minutes of sweeping I turned around and had six cows staring at me all lined up along the fence.
Really wierd, but I'd much prefer cows staring at me than nosy neighbours.

AfricanDave wrote:

Not in today's housing market climate
Besides, I love the country.
I was out in my garden doing some sweeping earlier on today, and after few minutes of sweeping I turned around and had six cows staring at me all lined up along the fence.
Really wierd, but I'd much prefer cows staring at me than nosy neighbours.

They were stealing YOUR SOUL!!!

Cows are notorious for that you know.

AfricanDave wrote:

Not in today's housing market climate

Really? You could get a good deal on a house which had reduced its price.

Quote :

Besides, I love the country.
I was out in my garden doing some sweeping earlier on today, and after few minutes of sweeping I turned around and had six cows staring at me all lined up along the fence.
Really wierd, but I'd much prefer cows staring at me than nosy neighbours.

Righteo, I'm of the different persuasion, I couldn't stand living in the country, I like the city too much. We'll have to bring the better services to you.

Living near the city seems so expensive. Even for standard things like petrol. It goes in Arklow at the moment for around 115 per litre, while in Dublin it's reaching 130. I know Arklow is a bit of an anomoly for petrol, but there's other things too. Going out for drinks or a meal is so much cheaper around here. Same goes for some food, especially things like deli sandwiches and breakfast rolls etc.

I would love if we had better services though. Especially public transport. I can live without high speed broadband as it is but public transport would really improve my quality of life. Driving so many miles is so stressful.


The cow thing really reminded me of that freaky milk ad that used to be on tv.... Milk so good, the cows want it back!

And you have the train to Dublin, all along the coast - best of both worlds.

I'm in west wicklow. No train, No bus. There are a few privately operated busses but I would still have to drive to them and park. Also the times don't suit me.
Then when you've figured in the cost of driving to the bus, parking, getting the bus to a bus eireann stop or train station, then paying for the train or bus, it's just so much cheaper and easier to drive.

Babcock and Brown, the Australian investment bank which owns Eircom has lost one third of its value... Should and could Ireland buy it back at a knock-down price or is there some law forbidding it?

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0613/breaking33.htm

What happens to Eircom if they go bust? Did they pay much too much for it?

Comreg have told Eircom to drop the charge they levy on operators for using the wires. About time.

Quote :

Consumers are likely to see broadband costs fall in coming months after the telecoms watchdog Comreg told Eircom to slash the cost it charges competitors for sharing its lines.

Comreg yesterday confirmed an interim measure it introduced over two months ago that instructed Eircom to cut the so-called Local Loop Unbundling Line Share charge by 65pc from €8.41 to €2.94.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/eircom-told-to-cut-costs-for-net-lines-1422414.html

Hopefully this will lead to higher bandwidth in the short term as well as reduced prices.