Sir, - Recent media coverage of Telecom Eireann's response to a Microsoft request to supply a high-speed network link has obscured the principal issue. Many articles speculated as to whether TE were capable of supplying a "broadband" link and to what extent investment was required in the national network. The public could be forgiven for concluding that Microsoft's request could not be satisfied as a result of TE's failure to invest in state-of-the-art network technology.
As I understand it, Microsoft requested a high-speed digital link, commonly referred to as an €3 circuit. These links have been in use by phone companies around Europe for more than 20 years now. They were originally designed for the phone companies themselves to carry a large number (up to 960) of telephone conversations between exchanges, but more recently they are also used to carry data by organisations building large networks, such as the Internet.
At a technical level, Telecom Eireann should have no difficulty in supplying one of these links. Their problem is that if they sell such a link to a company like Microsoft to carry Internet traffic, they will also have to offer the same terms to companies that compete with Telecom Eireann like Esat Telecom or Swiftcall. These companies will use the link to carry cut-price telephone conversations, thereby taking business away from Telecom Eireann. In order to protect their core business (phone calls), TE, in common with many other monopoly operators around Europe, choose to set unreasonable prices for such links.
The inflated prices for highspeed circuits are the single biggest inhibitor to the growth of the Internet in Ireland. The introduction of competition will eventually remove this obstacle, but not soon enough. More urgent measures are needed to allow Irish companies and multinationals in Ireland to access these links at a fair price. - Yours, etc., Dr. Donal O'Mahony.
Networks and Telecommunications Research Group,
Computer Science Department,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.