From: Vincent Cunniffe (vincent at domain beacon.ie)
Date: Tue 25 May 1999 - 13:29:16 IST
Enclosed is a copy of a message which I sent to TE :
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I was just reading the press release of Thursday the 13th May, 1999,
and was annoyed to find that yet again Telecom Eireann had ignored
the needs of the Internet community in the round of changes for the
year.
None of the details laid out in the release substantially affect the costs
for a private citizen accessing the internet from home, which remain
crippling. The per second billing is a bad joke : most of the costs which
would be removed by such an action (such as disconnections while
trying to log into an ISP) are explicitly ruled out by the 11.6p minimum
charge.
Furthemore, the entire flat-fee structure which was proposed last year,
mentioned in Telecom press releases, and discussed on the front
page of the Irish Times, has simply vanished. It was not, in fact, a flat
fee structure at all, which point was a major source of annoyance to
anyone whom it would have affected, but at least it would have served
to remove some of the major obstacles in place in this country to usage
of the amenities offered by the Internet. It now seems that Telecom
Eireann simply trumpeted the scheme as a way to pay lip service to
calls from the Government to improve Internet access, and have now
simply cancelled the whole idea.
What is Telecom Eireann currently doing to address the very serious
and growing needs of the online community in this country? What plans
are in place to support the crucially important electronic infrastructure
which is becoming more important every day in attracting businesses,
both small and large, to Ireland?
Sincerely disappointed,
Vincent Cunniffe
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