Consumers and businesses are being asked not to use the Internet on Friday, November 16th as a protest against the high cost of Internet access.
IrelandOffline, a pressure group formed when Esat cut off 2,000 Internet users in May for using its "No Limits" Internet service too much, is organising the protest.
Business groups and Internet service providers, which provide customers with access to the Internet, said the protest would damage business yesterday.
IrelandOffline, which recently met the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, to discuss the lack of cheap Internet access, said consumers were disillusioned with current Internet services.
An IrelandOffline spokesman said Irish consumers still did not have access to flat-rate and high speed Internet services. These were readily available in other European countries, he added.
Last week, Eircom delayed the launch of its new low-cost high speed Internet service, i-stream, for the second time. Likewise, the major cable operators have not yet deployed new high speed Internet technologies here.
IrelandOffline is asking organisations to take their web pages offline on November 16th and replace them with a notice explaining the reasons for the "blackout" protest.
The group, which has more than 1,000 registered members, is collecting messages of support for the protest. It is also lobbying businesses and universities.
However, the protest was criticised by business groups yesterday. Mr Pat Delaney, director of the Small Firm's Association described it as a "ludicrous idea".
"The Internet is a powerful medium for them [business]. There is absolutely no way that businesses should support this," he said.
Eircom, which supplies Internet access to thousands of Irish users, said yesterday it would not make any comment about the protest day.
However, it said wholesale flat rate Internet access was currently not a viable business here.
"As it stands, Eircom's Internet access call charges are among the cheapest in Europe," added an Eircom spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, said the goal of widespread access to the Internet and broadband access at affordable prices is one that her office shared.
The issue of low-cost access to the Internet made headlines when Esat cut off 2,000 users of its "No Limits" Internet service in May.
Although the company marketed the service as a flat rate product without usage limits, it later cut off users for staying connected to the Internet for too long.