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"This probably will be the first site to offer DSL in Ireland, and we hope it will be operational in three to four months," David Taylor, director of regulatory affairs at Esat told ElectricNews.Net. "But we have targeted 39 exchanges to be operational by the end of 2002, which is a very ambitious target. This is the first small step on a very long road."
Now that an agreement has been signed, Esat will have access to one of Eircom's sites which will allow Esat to install its equipment and complete the technical work necessary to have an operational service in the west of Ireland. Although this agreement only pertains to one exchange in Limerick, Galway and Cork have also been targeted for access. Esat is currently evaluating the DSL product set that it will offer from the exchange and said it is too early to discuss details about its DSL products.
Taylor confirmed that Esat is paying the price that the ODTR issued in April as an interim price for access to Eircom's exchanges. He said the company has been aided financially by the government's national development plan, which is paying a portion of Esat's cost for access to Eircom's site.
Although Esat is making progress with its DSL rollout, Eircom is still stalled in its rollout because of its ongoing legal disputes with the ODTR. A spokesperson for Eircom said, "We have no timeline for our DSL service right now. We were ready to launch a DSL service a couple of months ago but we were stopped by the regulator."
Currently Eircom has two separate disputes with the regulator relating to broadband rollout. The first is regarding the unbundling of the local loop, wherein Eircom has taken the ODTR to court to dispute the price it has set for accessing Eircom's exchange. This case is ongoing, and the high court will be hearing arguments again on 29 November. However, Monday's news that Eircom has agreed a deal to offer access to its exchange at the price the interim ODTR appears to be a sign of progress in the row.
The second dispute regards bitstream unbundling, wherein Eircom rents lines to other operators to offer DSL. Eircom plans to offer its i-stream product by this method, which eliminates the need for operators to access Eircom's site and install their equipment. This is viewed as a faster method of DSL rollout, but it also gives Eircom all the control over its own technologies. The ODTR still has concerns over the wholesale price set by Eircom for bitstream unbundling, and has directed Eircom that no launch can take place until 21 days after the ODTR approves Eircom's bitstream prices.
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