| d2r diego's weblog |
unmetered internet access in Ireland? Not reallyYeah, right. Karlin mentioned this a couple of days ago, and today the BBC is running with it as well. Note the Jupiter numbers on the article: 1% of Irish homes have broadband. That has to be on par with various group of fish that live in deep trenches of the Atlantic ocean. Or maybe they can get broadband from submarines... This is a PR stunt, plain and simple. UTV's "unmetered" access is actually limited to 30 hours a month (for the cheapest option, the other one is 180 hours). So they are only changing the "meter" from bandwidth to time. The result of the equation remains the same: X Gigabytes for Y Euro. How is that different from Eircom giving you DSL but limiting transfer to 4gig a month? It's not. Unmetered access usually means unlimited transfer in a month for a flat fee. This is a flat fee, but not unlimited. So the typical result of unlimited (bringing down the cost of transfers to a numer low enough so that internet use becomes pervasive) doesn't happen here. The point of unlimited access is precisely that you leave the machine connected all day and the internet becomes woven into the fabric of life. UTV's offer, just like any other offer for access today in Ireland, only lets you only knit the Internet to one of your coats. Shame on the operators, and shame on the government that doesn't fix it. Categories: technologyPosted by diego on June 27 2003 at 12:25 PM Comments (please see the comments & trackback policy).
Well, the way that POTS (plain ordinary telephone service) telephone systems are designed, it really isn't possible to allow you to stay always-on. You need to redesign the system. Where in the world can you stil get true unmetered Internet access on POTS? In most countries, there seems to have cut it back and placed some sort of time limit. I agree that the cap for ADSL (where the design constraints of POTS don't apply) is very low, but surely the principle of setting some sort of limit is not completely ridiculous? Otherwise heavy users are inevitably subsidised by light users. That's commercially unviable (and possibly even illegal.) Posted by: Antoin O Lachtnain at June 27, 2003 2:24 PMTrue unmetered access on POTS is available, and has been available, in the US for years. A standard "technique" until DSL was available was to get a second phone line and simply connect that to the PC, and leave it on all day. Setting a limit IS ridiculous at those prices. Look at colocation facilities. If, say, EircomNet (either via phone or DSL) is providing me with access to the data. Anywhere else in the world, DSL access is NOT metered. Colocation facilities give you access to T1 lines at low prices (what Eircom charges here for 6GB limit on DSL). So the options are simple: a) all the companies in the rest of the world that provide unlimited access for a flat-rate fee are insane, losing money by the truckload, and therefore will collapse shortly to be aquired by Eircom (who isn't) or b) Eircom (and the other Irish operators) are taking us for a ride. Which of those two options is more likely? Posted by: Diego at June 27, 2003 2:52 PMmmm... and if I remember rightly (or rather, as I was reminded lately) if you sign up for UTV internet you have to CPS (carrier pre-selection) your telephone line to them. i.e. all you telephone calls now go via UTV and their partner carrier (not Eircom). Depending on your point-of-view, this may or may not be a bad thing. And as a little bird told me, this isn't true FRIACO if you have to CPS to that operator. Posted by: Jamie Lawrence at June 27, 2003 3:24 PMI have DSL for a couple of years (San Francisco) and I note a growing cultural bifurcation between my friends in Ireland and my friends in the US. In terms of usage of the Internet and digital media, their abilities and methods are divergent and generally sub-optimal. Of course, I deal with a lot of Asian, especially Korean, clients and to them, the bandwidth situation in the US seems anachronistic and paltry. For example, they couldn't understand why were bothering expending effort on providing QoS for game state message updates for an MMOG for narrowband players at *all*. So their are hierarchies of access, and levels of neglect, within the emerging global digital economy. Unfortunately, Ireland's internet regulationary framework seems determined to create access and a mindset and availability rooted in a decades-old econhomy that has been superseded in most of the world. Posted by: meehawl at June 27, 2003 8:52 PMAn interesting thread. All this presumes the internet is an unlimited resource. Of course it isnt. DSL will probably be "capped" in future - probably by bandwidth. It is simply a matter of time (in my opinion). The problem with POTS is that the modem banks become "engaged" or "full". I believe this could well be the reason why they have cut off periods etc. This may be why they have switched from bandwidth to time. As for Ireland vs US (and can I bring the UK market in?) is simple. The irish government to my knowledge invited BT to install DSL in Ireland. All the while BT told the UK governement they couldnt unroll DSL in the UK. The reason was simple. Ireland was set up as a monopoly - whereas the UK was set up as on open market. the UK was slow to get it's DSL running - but now has healthy (or even over) competition. Prices range from £15 (yes!) to £50 depending mainly on speed - but also massively on company. I can get a 1MB line cheaper than BT offer 512KBS. Ireland pay 60E plus? pretty sure that is correct. For years i tore my hair out and cursed the government for it's inaction while the "celtic tiger" exploded with new technology companies. I am now so pleased that they did it this way - and admitt that i was wrong. The US seems to have healthy competition too. All views welcome. Posted by: Raider at January 8, 2004 12:06 PMCopyright © Diego Doval 2002-2007.
|