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After a six-month dispute between the ODTR and Eircom, Irish consumers and businesses many soon have access to DSL technology.
On Wednesday, the telecommunications regulator, Etain Doyle, said that the conflict should be resolved shortly, though she declined to expand on the meaning of those comments. Doyle made the statement at a US-Ireland e-Logistics forum held at Farmleigh House in Dublin.
More evidence that the dispute may soon be resolved came from the Irish Times who cites unnamed industry sources on Thursday, claiming that the ODTR and Eircom were close to a resolution of their dispute.
At the heart of the conflict is the wholesale price Eircom wants to charge other telecommunications providers for DSL. Originally, Eircom planned to charge other operators EUR75 per month, per customer, to connect to its DSL network. But Doyle insisted that this figure was much too high and blocked Eircom from rolling out both its consumer and its wholesale DSL service.
Eircom has said that any other price would not be cost effective. But now it is thought that the company is willing to agree to a wholesale price of around EUR50 per month.
Pressure has been steadily mounting on Eircom and the regulator to conclude their dispute, since the first day it began. Furthermore Eircom now faces the prospect of competition from other telecoms who are moving ever closer to offering their own service without buying DSL from the former state owned telecom at a wholesale rate.
In November 2001, Esat said it had gained access to one of Eircom's exchanges in Limerick and planned to offer its own DSL service by April. At the time the company said that it had targeted 39 exchanges to be operational by the end of 2002, and was hoping to rollout DSL in Galway and Cork following its work in Limerick.
Meanwhile a company run by former Formus executives, European Access Providers, is planning to introduce wireless broadband Internet services in Dublin before April as well. EAP's technology is known as fixed wireless broadband, and it will provide the company with a way to offer broadband services much faster than dial-up, but without the need to lay cables to user's premises.
Along with the potential competition, the ODTR and Eircom have faced pressure from groups like ALTO, Ireland Off-Line and ICT Ireland. In fact, a wide range of organisations and companies throughout Ireland have expressed worries about the potential consequences of the Republic's lack of broadband and with an election looming in the next few months, the intensity of concern is increasing.
Even the European Commission has weighed in on the debate, saying one of its primary goals in the telecommunications sector in 2002 would be increased access to broadband for European consumers.
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