[ILUG] ireland offline 'strike'

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> I have to agree with Adam on this, though not for reasons he may
> like:
>
Actually your reasons are /exactly/ the reasons I suggested this idea in the
first place. There was a lot of hype on the IrelandOffline forums about
protesting about this, and doing that, and shouting about the other. People
really wanted to just /do/ something, something tangible, so I just took all
those ideas and rolled them into one - they weren't even mine, I just
packaged them (Red Hat Protest).

> It's actually irrelevant if it's not a success on the day:
>
*Exactly* Well done for seeing through the guff Ciaran. But *I* can't say
that to the press, now can I? And it's already working - in the Irish Times
today:

"[The] Department of Public Enterprise general secretary Brendan Tuohy
[said] the [Communications Bill] is nearly ready to be published and
urgently needs a reading early in the New Year. However, this is now
entirely dependent on the Dail making the Bill a priority. The Bill would
change the structure and powers of the ODTR and will also have the power to
force companies to comply with EU legislation regarding unbundling the local
loop."

Now maybe they were going to say that anyway. And maybe they weren't, and we
had a small part in pushing them into commenting. Either way, it doesn't
matter, because the issues are coming to the fore.

Also of interest this morning is an Analysys report[1] on FRIACO (Flat-Rate
Internet Access Call Origination), the model used in the UK to provide
flat-rate services to OLO's (Other Licenced Operators). In a nutshell, it
says that it works and that it "strengthens the market". That pretty much
says that Eircom and Esat's argument that there isn't a viable business
model to support flat-rate services is rubbish, and gives us more ammunition
against them for our next press release.

Thanks for the post Ciaran.

adam

[1] Press release:
http://www.analysys.com/Articles/StandardArticle.asp?iLeftArticle=926