[ILUG] DIY ADSL

[Mark Twomey]

Chris wrote..

>Esat are trying to compete with Eircom on too many fronts, and are getting
stretched a little thin.

The only reason Esat are getting stretched is because they are trying to
compete in the same spaces as the giant. I'd think of this as McCaw Cellular
V's AT&T. Craig McCaw decided that it's better to live in the shadow of the
giant [AT&T] and make a good living doing 10 to 15% of the things the giant
does only better, than to attempt a land war in China, and try and fight the
giant in a 100% of the giant does. The net result was when AT&T found
themselves losing the cellular space, they bought the immensely profitable
McCaw Cellular and made the founder, stockholders very rich people.

Getting to my point, if I'm a telco startup I'm looking to ignore 80% of
what the giant provides and concentrate on areas where I'm going to be
effective. In this case, it's broadband, to hell with Mobile or Home lines,
if you're serious you're niche.

>My first question is, if we go to the regulator and force the unbundling =
of the local loop.. and then no telco's >come (or at least for those in
Athlone, = don't come for a year or two) - what will people do ?

Errrm, nothing. But it's a moot point as the regulator would not force the
unbundling unless it facilitated competition. That is, you'd need a
competitor waiting in the wings to do something with it before it could
happen.

If @Home or AOL Time/Warner showed up and said "We want to connect Ireland",
the regulator would throw Eircom out him/herself.

>How would people feel about building aDSL co-ops ? Gathering all the peop=
le in your area together - to >implement their own aDSL services ? How much
would people really spend to get aDSL..

Nice idea, but it will not work here. Ireland has a huge digital divide;
many people you would speak to would neither know nor care about broadband.
I'd be shocked if I polled the neighbours and found that many of them would
want broadband, I'd be pleasantly surprised if many of them where on the Net
via dial-up or even owned a computer.

The only way it could be practical, would be to wire entire apartment
blocks, buildings or estates filled with net using geeks who are willing to
absorb the huge costs.

>Create the local ISP as a not-for-profit company, and let people in the =
locality do the support.. Create a local >WWW site that has a list of the
techies that will pop round to your house and fix your problems...

BANG! I can see that raising a big red flag in front of the regulator. We
all know that much of the customer support we get from many companies is
dire at best, but there is the illusion of accountability. If something
seriously goes wrong there is a corporate entity that can be sued, cautioned
or shutdown. With this system you're asking to turn what could be a
construed as an essential facility over to the goodwill of its userbase.
There are reasons that energy production and water supply are not run in a
co-op style by their users, until they are I don't see any regulator
allowing Net access on demand to be maintained in such a fashion.