Telecom Eireann, Ireland's soon to be floated state telecoms company, has been somewhat reluctant to implement ADSL. Despite all the hype and various announcements last year that it would be available in the middle of 1999, it has not materialised. Even in TE's experimental Information Town, ISDN is the order of the day. So what is TE playing at?

TE love to conduct technical research by press release - the Flat Rate fiasco was a prime example. It is the equivalent of vapourware in the software industry. The fact that it has not got the technology working or does not have adequate resources to implement it never deters it. One posting on an Irish newsgroup claimed that TE still has not installed an ISDN line requested in January. The apparent location is Dublin and it looks like TE does not have the infrastructure or the resources to implement ISDN there. This is very ironic for TE and potentially lethal for the people who are going to invest in TE. Dublin has the second biggest cable net in Europe. NTL, the owner of Cablelink, is very serious about competing in both the  cable telephony and cable internet markets. If NTL/Cablelink finally manages to roll out cable internet in the Dublin area, it will act like a steam roller over TE's ADSL plans. There is nothing like getting there fastest with the mostest. All those wonderful technological arguments about how great ADSL can be are not worth a penny when the user has an existing cablemodem connection. NTL/Cablelink also has nets in Waterford and Galway. Other cable companies have seen the futures of their networks - digital television, internet access and telephony.

Ireland has one of the highest cable penetration figures in Europe. Each of these cablenets represents a potentially massive loss of subscribers to TE. Such a deluge of subscribers from TE to these cable companies will take a few years to happen but eventually TE will be a shadow of it's monopolistic self.

When can people expect ADSL? Nobody including TE is sure since in some areas they cannot even implement ISDN. A phonecall to TE's local office proved that nobody had even heard of ADSL. They were still trying to flog ISDN and the price for the installation on ISDN was still £348 plus VAT. TE's battles for Dublin, Waterford and Galway may be already be lost or will be as soon as NTL/Cablelink manages to roll out cablemodems.

Of course for the moment, the cargo-cult press is filled with TE fuelled stories about how Ireland can be the E-Commerce hub of Europe. These cargo-cult "technology journalists" and the politicians need a serious attitude adjustment. TE can spend all the money they like on fast internet connections for it's E-Commerce hub but it is no good if the people cannot get there to buy. To put it bluntly TE does not have a clue about E-Commerce or the internet.