PC Live!‘s most loyal readers and Ireland’s most enthusiastic and informed technology users have delivered their verdict on the quality of Internet service provision in Ireland. Our survey, the first on Ireland’s ISPs since September 2001 does not aim to present the definitive state of Internet access in Ireland but rather to contribute to this lively debate by providing a platform from which the country’s most tech-savvy consumers and home workers can voice their opinions on the quality of Internet service provision. In all, 263 readers took the time to fill out our online questionnaire. Read on for an analysis of the results.
Perhaps not surprisingly at a time when everybody is looking for more bang for their buck, price (according to 71 respondents) is the major determining factor when it comes to one of our respondents choosing an Internet service provider. But magazine articles also influence the purchase with 38 readers relying on magazines such as PC Live! to help them make an informed decision. Altogether, 51 readers relied on advice from a friend to help them choose their ISP while 17 were swayed by a print ad they had seen. Only two readers said that they chose their ISP based on a radio advert they had heard. Other reasons for choosing their primary ISP ranged from advice received on Internet bulletin boards (www.boards.ie), from basing it on a recommendation by a computer technician; a free CD ROM that was picked up in a petrol station to one that arrived through the letterbox, or one that was used in the respondent’s place of work.
At a time, where consolidation among dial-up ISPs has been the dominant business theme — there are only three big players in the market: Eircom Net, Esat BT and UTV Internet — it is hardly surprising that user loyalty to individual ISPs is high: where 74% of respondents have subscribed to their primary ISP for more than one year and 60% of respondents have remained for more than two years.
Eircom Net still the largest
Eircom Net with its suite of subscription-based and free services — Eircom Net Subscription, Free, and Indigo Go Free — is still the most widely used dial-up ISP among the respondents to our survey. A total of 113 readers indicated to us that it was still their primary ISP.
Esat BT with its Oceanfree.net, Netsmart, IOL Free and IOL Gold suite of services follows in second with a combined total of 56 respondents subscribing to one or other of its services.
UTV Internet is also a major ship on the radar with five respondents using its subscription-based service, 14 using its free service and 22 using its off-peak flat rate product, UTV IP.
Free for most
With three service models available from the dial-up ISPs, most respondents (126) have opted for a subscription-free service where they pay a local call rate to go online. A premium subscription service is used by 64 respondents for Internet access at reduced call rates, while 57 intensive Internet users have moved to one of the new off-peak flat rate models offered by either Esat BT or UTV Internet.
Dial-up is still the primary method of Internet access even for these most tech-savvy and enthusiastic of tech users. Only 18 respondents were accessing a broadband service with 10 subscribing to Eircom’s DSL product, iStream, six to NTL’s cable broadband service and only two subscribing to Chorus’ broadband alternative.
Our survey indicates that although respondents were familiar with broadband technologies such as cable and DSL, and indeed were using these services, broadband alternatives such as point to multipoint wireless from Leap and satellite Internet access from Digiweb didn’t seem register with them. In fact, these companies didn’t show up in any part of our survey despite the fact that they were featured in the questions. These vendors and magazines like PC Live! clearly need to do more to raise awareness of these alternative methods of access.
Price the barrier to broadband
Our survey also tells us that price is a major barrier to the consumer and home office/small office broadband adoption. One frustrated respondent says: “I was glad to hear that ADSL was being made available but I was less impressed when I heard the price of EUR50 excluding VAT. Ireland is the most expensive place in Europe for this. Yes, I am interested in DSL, but I fear that I will have to wait a year or two more for the price to fall”. Another respondent who we interviewed over the phone, Barbel Richter, works as a translator and teleworks from home on the northside of Cork City. She told us that she “couldn’t justify the expense of paying for DSL when the price is still too high. EUR35 to EUR40 is the maximum amount I would consider paying,” and this she said is the common consensus among other teleworkers that she has spoken to.
Barbel currently subscribes to the UTV IP service where she gets 150 hours of off-peak connection for EUR30 per month and she estimates that the cost of subscribing to this new service is equivalent to paying for 70 hours on a ‘free’ dial-up service. But, in truth, unlimited off-peak surfing is but a stopgap measure for a home worker like Barbel. She still needs to use a free account to go online during the day to send and receive work-related e-mail. She enthuses that she cannot wait for a true flat rate service (FRIACO) to be launched by the ISPs in June.
Indeed there are many users like Richter who use a dial-up account for work purposes but most (164) use their dial-up account at home for both work and leisure; only four use the account for work purposes exclusively; 95 use the account for pleasure surfing alone.
Obviously, those depending on a dial-up account for work purposes require higher levels of service quality and technical support to match. We would always advise such users, in the absence of a broadband service, to subscribe to a subscription-based account where obviously intensive access at peak times is less expensive, technical support costs less and service levels are higher.
ISPs rate for service
When it comes to quality of service, for both subscription-based and free services, the ISPs, according to our survey offer a relatively high quality service. Impressively, 134 readers told us that their connection to the Internet is never terminated until they turn it off themselves, while 77 only experience a premature termination just one 0r two times a week on average.
When it comes to technical support the news is also good for the ISPs: 138 respondents told us that they were able to resolve their connection problems with three phone calls or less to the tech support desk, while 92 respondents told us that they were holding for less than two minutes on a call before getting to talk to a tech support representative. And 128 readers told us that the technical support representative they spoke to was knowledgeable and appreciative of their problem.
Unfortunately it is very definitely a ‘must do better’ report card for ISPs when it comes to the ways in which they make support accessible from their Websites: 51 respondents told us that they found it difficult to find the help they needed on their ISP’s Web support site. Moreover, it’s worth relaying the sentiments of one respondent when discussing this point: “Web-based support is not applicable if your connection is down and you want to fix it”.
Altogether, 106 users admitted to having used e-mail support at one stage or another but alarmingly, nine readers had to wait over seven days to get an initial acknowledgement of receipt of their e-mail. Only 35 readers got an acknowledgement in less than a day.
Far from satisfactory, 17 readers had to wait over seven days to get a resolution relevant to their problem and 20 were waiting two to three days for a relevant reply.
Alternative healing
Web-based and e-mail technical support is fast catching up with phone support when it comes to troubleshooting the most common Internet problems. Out of the 260 readers that responded to the survey, 151 still used the traditional method of the phone while a combined total of 184 readers indicated that they had used e-mail or the Web in an attempt to resolve their problems. These results are more or less consistent with those gleaned when we last conducted this survey in September 2001.
In summary
Based on an analysis of respondents’ comments, it is clear that consumers and home office workers aren’t necessarily looking for speed when it comes to choosing an Internet connection. An affordable price, reliability of connection and high quality technical support seem to be much more important issues to these users. Broadband is either UNAVAILABLE — one respondent said: “I have contacted Eircom on many occasions over the last two years with, ‘When are we getting DSL in Ashbourne?’ enquiries. It is most disappointing that just 12 miles from O’Connell Street, Eircom has no plans to roll it out there;” or TOO EXPENSIVE — another respondent said: “even with current broadband price drops, prices in Ireland are still far above the European average”.
Since our last survey in September 2001, new dial-up Internet access products have arrived and — off peak, flat rate services are proving popular. One respondent said of UTV’s off-peak flat rate offering: “the UTVip Lite package is absolutely perfect for my usage. There is no punishment for making frequent short connections as opposed to less frequent long connections. The speeds are consistently good and I can’t remember any dropped connections since I connected”. Roll on June and the roll out of full flat rate.
Topline results:
1. Respondents are most influenced by price when choosing an ISP.
2. Respondents are extremely loyal to their ISPs with most having subscribed to one for more than two years.
3. Eircom Net’s range of free and subscription-based Internet services are the most widely used services by respondents, followed by those of Esat BT and UTV Internet.
4. The ‘Free’ model is most widely used by respondents, followed by subscription-based and off-peak, flat rate — in that order.
5. Uptake of broadband Internet access is still in its infancy with only a minority of respondents accessing DSL and cable services.
6. Respondents say that broadband services are still too expensive for consumers and teleworkers. The price needs to come down under EUR40 per month to stimulate widespread adoption.
7. True flat rate, scheduled for launch in June, is eagerly anticipated by the home workers who participated in our survey.
8. Respondents in general are happy with quality of service and levels of technical support they get from their chosen ISPs. But the ISPs still need to work to improve Web-based self-help resources.
User views:
Michael Buyks, Castletownbere, Co. Cork:
Michael uses a dial-up connection for both leisure and business: he is a building contractor and uses UTV’s off-peak flat rate service to access the Internet. It offers 30 hours for EUR10.99. It suits his needs as it offers reliability — usually connecting first time. He tried Esat NoLimits before, but he describes it as a disastrous experience where once you were disconnected, you would be disconnected permanently for that session. He also tried IOL but found that he got much slower download speeds than with the UTV service. Broadband isn’t an option in his area at the moment.
Barbel Richter, Northside, Cork City:
Barbel teleworks in her capacity as a translator and subscribes to UTVIP with 150 hours per month for EUR30. She sees significant cost savings in switching to this service from standard dial-up where she estimates that the cost of the new service is equivalent to 70 hours on a free service. She is eagerly looking forward to the launch of the full flat rate service in June. At the moment, she couldn’t justify the expense of paying for DSL when the price is still too high — an opinion shared by all of the teleworkers Barbel has spoken to — EUR35 to EUR40 the maximum she would consider paying. She is definitely waiting for flat rate or for the DSL services to come down in price.
John Shorten, Limerick City:
Employed as a computer tutor for ECDL and MOUS, John subscribes to IOL’s off peak flat rate package. But he finds it slow, averaging out at 30Kbit/s and worse between 7 and 8pm. He is seriously considering upgrading to DSL at the moment. “For dial-up, providers need to look at the cost versus the speed available and improve for their customers.”
M.J Scannell, Blarney, Co. Cork:
For personal use, Michael subscribes to IOL Gold, the subscription-based dial-up service. It costs EUR152 per year. He subscribed originally to get Web hosting support but finds the service ‘terrible’ at the moment as he is constantly locked out of the service with software freezes. He has tried re-installing the software dialler several times but still encounters the same recurring problem. When he experiences this type of problem, he switches to Eircom Net Free as a workaround.
As for broadband in the home, he says: “good quality dial-up is fine for consumers so it’s time the ISPs delivered it”.
20/06/2003
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