Irish Broadband (Bored band?)

So, what’s broadband then. Here, in Ireland today (where Intel invests billions of Euro, or perhaps dollars) we hear on the radio, see on the telly and the web that we should get it. Here in Ireland we surf to Eircom, IOL, EsatBT, and others, but eventually we’re stuck with… (you should hear a drum roll here) Eircom. And what’s the response? Well, normally you only get to listen to recordings on a computer “Press 1 to pay your bill; Press 2 to go to hell” (sorry, I might have misheard that one). If you eventually get through to a human being, or, find the right web page, you’re told that YOUR particular line cannot be used for broadband and there are NO PLANS for YOUR area to get it. And if you ask them where to move to get this, they don’t know. If, by any chance, you dare to try somebody else’s phone number (who lives 50 meters from the telephone switch) you’re offered a 128k ISDN line. That’s not broadband. I want megabits! At no cost! They should be honoured I even try to use their lines! They should send me a bottle of free wine for every gigabyte I download or upload. Hey, that’s the next problem. I normally upload more than I download. They can’t handle that. And I’d like to resuscitate an old PC as my house gateway (you know, they say Internet – always-on connection) so that I can be in my office and pick up a file by FTP from home – no, they can’t do that. Perhaps they don’t know what FTP is… F***k Telecom Providers, perhaps.