Stall The Ball

You may or may not have heard that eircom recently announced they are going to upgrade a further 300 plus exchanges for broadband. Sounds great doesn’t it? And that’s on top of the previous 100 exchanges. That’s fantastic isn’t it?

And all of this wonderful news on top of announcements from wireless operators of nationwide 4g services, wimax and 95% wireless coverage of the midlands. It's absolutely brilliant isn't it?

Well it would be if we had a definitive time line.

Eircom has pulled off another PR coup. They face increased competition from wireless, have the EU looking in their direction, have beaten Comreg into the ground to the point of it being embarrassing and ignore Minister Dempsey (or he ignores them, I’m not sure which anymore) so they had a few choices. Spend loads of money getting broadband to the majority of people or spend a tiny amount issuing a PR.

Result?

1. Competitors loose out on customers as people sit put and wait for DSL broadband
2. Other competitors trying to raise funds to roll out innovative products have to answer investors questions regarding viability and sustainability
3. Minister Dempsey gets to peek his head out from behind Comreg’s apron strings and cry “Look at what I have achieved." (Convenient timing as well)
4. Comreg get to cry “We made them do it” (keep dreaming)
5. Any naughty question about the recent EU report damming Comreg and in turn eircom regarding the state of broadband can now be poo poo’d
6. Loads of free advertising as the media laps up another eircom PR piece without actually checking the background facts. (try the 5 W's guys)
7. Increased leverage to get the Government to cough up funds for those pesky unprofitable exchanges

What’s even better from eircom’s point of view was not having to give time lines, any indication whatsoever about failure rates (a bit of an issue as you enable rural exchanges) and most importantly, good will from Dempsey as the tender for the final exchanges is put together or target any particular areas of Ireland.

10 out of 10 eircom, top of the class.