Article on Telcos in Ireland - rates etc

Sleipnir

on unison.ie

Link

Páid

Could you quote please, it for those of us that don't want to register?

dahamsta

If it was anything but a Tony O'Reilly publication, I'd say no...

Cheaper phones: It's your call

The home phone market has never been so competitive, and that means better value and better deals for everyone, writes Eddie Lennon

IN an era where prices are rising all the time and consumers are getting ripped off left, right and centre, it is very refreshing to come across an area of spending where the exact opposite is true.

Welcome to the world of cheap calls from your home phone, where prices are dropping constantly. And why, you might ask? The answer is quite simple - competition.

The home phone service is carved up among almost 20 providers, and it's dog-eat-dog at the moment, with prices being slashed by one or several companies every few months. The result is that better value than ever can be enjoyed by anyone with a phone in their house.

There is less reason than ever before to assume that Eircom, or even its biggest rival, Esat BT, are giving you the best value in phone calls. Because as our survey this week shows, it's the small phone companies that are offering many of the big bargains - astonishingly, up to ten times cheaper than the bigger companies for some phone calls.

Many people opt for the larger phone companies since they feel they feel more secure with a well-known business which is backed by billions in assets and is in the public eye most of the time. If anything goes wrong, they will at least know about it pretty quickly.

Past performance of smaller phone companies bodes well, however, for the future.

Only two phone companies closed in recent years (Spirit Telecom and Switchcom Connect) and only because they were taken over by rival companies. They were respectively absorbed into the company that took each one over, and customers who had credit with them did not lose out.

Besides, even if there is a small risk of a small company going belly-up, the amount of money you can save by using one of them even a few times can be considerable, while the amount you have to spend to avail of such savings can be as little as €10.

One myth about smaller phone companies that really needs knocking on the head is that you have to sign up lock, stock and barrel if you change from your existing phone provider. Thanks to technology, even if it is usual for a company to say you have to make all calls through them when you sign up, there is nothing contractual or technological standing in your way if you want to make some of your calls through another company.

You can easily do this by calling the relevant freephone, which is either a 5-digit access number or a 1800 number. In short, you can choose one company for calls to Irish mobiles for example, and another for other types of calls.

It's really that simple.

The inescapable conclusion from our survey is that now, more than ever, it's your call when deciding what company to use when you pick up the phone. But it's also starkly clear that you'd want to be several digits short of a phone number not to pick and choose between them for the cheapest calls possible.

Local calls
During the day, the best deal appears to come from Cinergi, at just 3.42c a minute. However, Euphony's Talk3000 package gives you 1,500 minutes of local and 1,500 minutes of national calls free every month. That's up to 50 hours' free talk time, for a monthly service fee of just €5. After that, Euphony charges just 4c a minute for local daytime calls.

Vartec Telecom charges just 3c a minute during the day - but the company levies a minimum charge of 15c a call, which considerably offsets the apparently cheap per minute call.

For evening and weekend calls, UTVip appears to be the cheapest, at less than 1c per minute per call.

National calls
For long daytime calls, Vartec Telecom is the cheapest - but again, given its 15c minimum charge per calls, it is less than economical to use Vartec for shorter calls. For those calls, you can choose between Atlas Telecoms, NTL, Direct Dial Telecom and IFA Telecom.

In the evening, Atlas, Direct Dial and Euphony are among the cheapest, while on weekends UTVip appears to be the best overall, at .95c a minute per call.

Calls to Irish mobiles
During the day, Swiftcall is by far the cheapest, at just 17c a minute. Best value in the evenings is provided by several providers, including Direct Dial Telecom, Vartec and Swiftcall. On weekends, some of the best deals comes from Vartec, NTL and Atlas.

Calls to the UK
Daytime: Atlas offers the best deal, just 6c a minute.

Evening: Direct Dial Telecom (5c a minute) just shades it over Atlas (6c a minute).

Weekend: Yet again, Direct Dial Telecom, with Atlas close behind.

Calls to UK mobiles
Daytime ad evening - yet again, Direct Dial Telecom shows keen pricing, at just 22c a minute. On weekends, Direct Dial is closely followed by Smart Telecom which (unlike Direct Dial) offers a highly attractive introductory package to new customers who sign up via direct debit - 18 hours' free local or national weekend calls.

Calls to France, Germany and the Netherlands
Daytime: Congratulations to newcomer Vartec Telecom, which charges just 8c a minute to all three countries. (The only down side is the company's annoying 15c minimum charge per call). In the evenings and on weekends, it's basically a fight to the last between Direct Dial Telecom, Esat BT and Vartec itself, all at just 8c a minute.

Calls to Spain and Italy
Again, at a very cheap 8c a minute, it's Vartec during the day, and in the evenings and on weekends it's Esat BT, Direct Dial Telecom and Vartec (albeit handicapped by that 15c minimum charge).

Calls to North America
For daytime calls to the USA, Century Home certainly looks the cheapest overall. Even though Vartec also charges just 8c a minute, it doesn't offer anywhere near as generous a discount as Century Home does (see discounts).

In the evening and on weekends, Direct Dial Telecom stands out from the pack - just 6c a minute.

As for daytime calls to Canada, Vartec is cheapest at 8c a minute. But Bubble and Century Home, just 9c a minute, enjoy the superior advantage of really generous discount schemes. A very close call indeed.

Calls to Australia and New Zealand
The most expensive phone calls in our survey are to Australia and New Zealand. But you don't have to pay stomach-churning prices to call Down Under.

Australia: During the day the best deal comes from Century Home which charges just 8c a minute and gives a discount as well. In the evening and on weekends, Century Home, Esat BT and Vartec are the cheapest.

New Zealand: Opt for Vartec during the day at 8c a minute, and Vartec or Esat BT at other times.

Seeing the wood from the trees: Minimum charges - most phone companies have a minimum charge for all calls, which you pay once you are connected, even if you only spend a few seconds on the phone. This is only relevant if you make a lot of calls that last only a few seconds, or when the minimum charge is considerable.

Vartec is a notable example of a company whose minimum charges of 15c per call, or up to a whopping 66c minimum charge for calls to Irish mobiles, could easily be regarded as a form of stealth charge that could add massively to your phone bill.

Set-up charges: Not to be confused with the minimum charge, the set-up charge is an extra charge added to the cost of the call, and can add considerably to the cost of your calls.

Discounts: These can make a lot of difference in the value you get from a company. And, when they are as generous as those offered by the likes of Century Home and Bubble, it can make calls using these companies cheaper than through other companies that are marginally more expensive but which do not offer discounts. However, be careful not to let introductory sweeteners or bulk discounts blind you to the big picture - i.e. the cost of the calls themselves.

[...]

dahamsta

[...]

Discounts and introductory offers
Atlas Telecoms: Customers get 50 minutes' free local or national calls for each €60 they spend per month.

Bubble: €5 worth of free calls for new customers (minimum €30 to open a new account). Free €5 to existing customers who top up by €50.

Century Home: All new accounts opened for €35 get €5 worth of extra calls free. Existing cus tomers who top up their account get the following amount of free credit: €60 gets €6 credit; €100 gets €12 credit; €130 gets €20 credit. In addition, the company's Refer-a-Friend Scheme gives customers €7 free call credit for each new customer they refer. The new customer also gets €7 free credit.

Chorus: No discounts given.

Cinergi: Same as Eircom's 'Options' discounts (below).

Direct Dial Telecom: Referrals from existing customers earns the new customer referred and the existing customer €6 each.

Eircom: If your monthly call spend is more than €12.80, €25.60 or €51.21 (including VAT), you are eligible for Options Bronze, Silver or Gold respectively. To join Options Bronze, you must commit to a minimum monthly call spend of €12.80 on your calls. You get up to 150 minutes of free calls.

For Options Silver, you must spend at least €25.60 a month on calls. For this, you get up to 250 minutes of free calls. With Options Gold, once you spend €51.21 a month on calls, you get up to 350 minutes of free calls.

With all three discounts, the free minutes consist of evening and weekend local calls, and internet (1891) calls, only. So, with Options Gold for example, the 350 minutes' of free phone calls add up to 23 free phone calls.

Esat BT: For the month of August, Esat BT is giving new customers who sign up (through the number listed below) €25 off each of their first two bills.

IFA Telecom: All new customers get a 10pc rebate on all national and international calls after 12 months.

NTL: No discounts given.

Smart Telecom: New customers who use direct debit get 18 hours' free local or national weekend calls. There are no discounts for existing customers.

Swiftcall: If you open an account for €15, you will receive €7 free calls. In addition, customers who sign up for Easysave receive a €200 holiday voucher. The company is also currently running a "refer a friend" promotion.

If an existing customer refers a friend and that friend opens a Swiftcall account, both customers receive a €200 holiday voucher.

Swiftcall also has a promotion running with supermarket receipts from Tesco, Dunnes, Superquinn and Lidl.

UTVip: No discounts offered.

Vartec Telecom: The company runs a number of promotions for new and existing customers. For example, existing customers who agree to pay by direct debit by September 15 will receive 100 minutes of free calls. These calls must be made by November 15.

Useful numbers:
Atlas: 1800 20 11 90

Bubble: 1800 929 273

Century Home: 1800 928 928

Chorus: 1890 417 888

Cinergi: 1850 923 023

Direct Dial Telecom: 1800 930 338

Eircom: 1901

Esat BT: 1800 923 111

Euphony: (01) 676 0033

IFA Telecom: 1890 924 851

NTL: 1800 321 321.

Smart Telecom: 1800 931 300

Swiftcall: 1800 929 000

UTVip: 1890926000

Vartec: 1800 300 064

STaN

Do we still have to use carrier preselect with the "other" guys?

dahamsta

Originally posted by STaN
Do we still have to use carrier preselect with the "other" guys?

Eh? You mean any telco other than Eircom? Yes, of course, Eircom control the lines.

adam

STaN

hah! what else could i have ment.

Paddy20

Me thinks that UTVip give up to 25% off telephone call charges.
Therefore that article above stating "UTVip no discounts offered" is not quite correct and U.TV should demand a retraction!, and a front page apology.

maxheadroom

Paddy, UTV's rates are 25% less than eircom's. This doesn't count as a discount in the sense of the article, as they are talking about the discount offered by a particular carrier against its own rates - IE, if you spend €25, you get €5 free calls, or something similar. The fact that UTV is 25% cheaper than eircom would have been taken into account in the price comparison section of the article

Paddy20

maxheadroom,

Still misleading though?.. EH, What!.

MDR

During the day, the best deal appears to come from Cinergi, at just 3.42c a minute. However, Euphony's Talk3000 package gives you 1,500 minutes of local and 1,500 minutes of national calls free every month. That's up to 50 hours' free talk time, for a monthly service fee of just €5. After that, Euphony charges just 4c a minute for local daytime calls.

Does anyone have an experience of Cinergi or Euphony, what is their customer service like, was there any problems with setting up the CPS ?

Dawg

Vartec Telecom charges just 3c a minute during the day - but the company levies a minimum charge of 15c a call, which considerably offsets the apparently cheap per minute call....
.....Vartec is a notable example of a company whose minimum charges of 15c per call, or up to a whopping 66c minimum charge for calls to Irish mobiles, could easily be regarded as a form of stealth charge that could add massively to your phone bill.

A friend of mine was in yesterday talking about VarTec, and their EurExcel package. He dropped off a flyer with the various costs etc. and it very clearly states that there are no minimum call charges or connection charges. They charge €5 euro monthly, then all local and national calls are 3 cents per minute at all times. Mobile calls are 22 cents daytime, 16 evenings and 12 cents on weekends.
Calls to the states are 6 cents at all times.
Kinda goes against that articles take, the reference to no minimum call charges is unmissable on the flyer..