So Barry, frequent visitor to this blog has posted a thread on the old IrelandOffline forum looking for interested people who want to campaign to get the rest of the country broadband. I won’t be involved, just so we’re clear. Ive done my time and it’s about time that all those people who get on to me on an almost daily basis still and say “someone should do something” should themselves be that someone. So Barry is doing just that but he needs the help of others too. With the recent attitude from Lying Eamon Ryan, there is a definite need for some kind of lobby group and Shane Ross can’t be left to be the only person fighting for broadband, he needs others to row in too. So get over to IrelandOffline’s forum or if you don’t want to join Boards.ie (whyonearthnot?) leave a comment here and Barry can respond.
As an example of the sheer bad attitude from Eamon Ryan and the Government, here’s a short clipping from the Sunday Times
John McElligott, the managing director of eBay in Ireland, has called on the minister to take a “quantum leap†by investing in NGNs, bringing Irish broadband speeds closer to the 100 megabits per second (Mbits/s) enjoyed in some countries. Irish download speeds for residential broadband users are a maximum of 12 Mbit/s. Most of the country operates on speeds of 1-2 Mbit/s. Ryan said McElligott was “right to be ambitiousâ€, but questioned his thinking. “John runs eBay. When he starts running a construction company, he can advise me on digging holes to every home in the country,†Ryan said.
Cos Ryan clearly has a PhD in telecoms and broadband…
Sunday Times article today seems to indicate that a number of businesses are going to get together and lobby Ryan – multinationals like eBay and indigenous companies like daft.ie said to be involved.
I think Shane Ross left the cat out of the bag on Prime Time. 🙂
[…] where does that leave us? Fucked, that’s where. Fucked because we won’t be able to take advantage of any […]
Just joined.
Quote from Barry on boards
“I am, as I’ve said elsewhere, willing to participate in any such creation, but my time and geographic availability (I spend a lot of time out of Ireland) would prevent me from being the ‘founder’ Is there anybody out there who would be willing to get it up and running?”
/Quote
Deja Vu, loads of people will say yeay, great etc, but the proof is in the pudding. Who will actually devote the time effort and energy.
I’m not holding my breath, been there got the t-shirt, officially jaded 🙂
But I’ll keep my mouth shut and wait.
John
why dig holes when it could be beamed point to point?
see http://www.wifiber.ie
Mark
I fully support and back IrelandOffline II and have read the thread on boards.ie, if I can do anything I will, however I cannot post on boards.ie as I am banned and I am not going to re-register as my ban will expire in April 2009 and I wish to serve my ban sentence and rejoin then.
Apropos John above, a mailing list was set up as a result of my message and about a dozen people are on it, there are a load of ideas rolling around as to what to do, so there…. Not sure if John is one of the participants…..I doubt it.
I have been offline for a week or so, but my presence or absence wasn’t important, being willing is what counts….
Bye, Barry