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More competition - and less revenue for EIrcom ?

  • 22-01-2004 2:03pm
    #1
    Mr_Man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 638 ✭✭✭


    In the business section of today's Irish Times there is a short column which says that the Dept of Social, Community and Family affairs has begun talks with mobile firms to allow them to participate in the discount scheme for pensioners and social welfare recipients.

    This apparently follows agreement from Comreg that such firms should not be excluded from the scheme which is worth around Euro 100m per year to Eircom. Apparently the scheme will also be opened up to other fixed line operators following successful talks with these firms.

    This is good news as it will enable people to get more for their allowance, and also damage another one of Eircom's cash cows.

    M.


Comments

  • #2
    Ripwave
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,188 ✭✭✭Ripwave


    Last July, the Department told me that they had modified the scheme so that other land line operators could avail of it. It's good to hear that they are willing to extend the scheme to mobile users, but in reality, it's extremely unlikely that significant numbers will switch - calls to and from mobiles are just way too expensive, and even a tenners worth of "free calls" will only get you about an hour, which is less than the 1 euro worth of calls included in the current package will get you (at evenings and weekends). And for someone who is used to receiving calls on their "free phone", the extra cost for callers will also be a factor.

    The package is no longer linked to the cost of Line Rental, so even if every single recipient in the country switched over to ESAT or some other OLO, oreillycom would still receive the vast bulk of this "eircom dole". The one company that could benefit significantly from this is NTL, if they offered telephony over their cable network. Which might explain why they have apparently upgraded their network in Crumlin and Kimmage, areas with a relatively high number of pensioners. (Though at the rate NTL move, a lot of these pensioners will have been replaces by their grandkids by the time a telephony package is available).

    The other move that might make a difference would be local loop unbundling. If oreillycom was forced to permit this at a reasonable price, then an OLO would be able to put together a package in an area that had enough S/W recipients to make it worth while. But it's unlikely that ESAT would do it, because they wouldn't be able to do it nationwide, and make money on it. It would have to be done on an exchange by exchange basis.


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