Eircom accused of misleading customers

dahamsta

ET strikes again!

Eircom accused of misleading customers
16/05/04 00:00
By Eamon Quinn, Business Editor

Eircom has been accused of misleading customers through its "trigger" programme, by which small communities, previously bypassed by broadband, can vote for its delivery.

Under the scheme, Eircom has divided the country into 150 sites of towns and townlands of less than 1,500 people. Eircom has assigned the towns a so-called ``broadband trigger number'' of between 200 and 500 telephone subscribers who can vote to bring broadband to their area.

Critics have pointed out that, in many low populated areas, every Eircom subscriber household would need to vote in

order to avoid having their community bypassed by broadband. Peter Weigl, who has set up a communications watchdog site called Com- Wreck, said it would be impossible for his home area of Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, to vote for broadband under the scheme.

The programme has attracted widespread favourable coverage in the regional press and was mentioned by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a major report, the Development of Broadband in Remote and Rural Areas, published last week.

The OECD's own figures again make it clear that the Republic of Ireland has one of the lowest penetrations of broadband services in western Europe.

A spokeswoman for Eircom said the company rejected claims that the programme was misleading.

She said Eircom could not say how many communities had successfully voted for broadband through the programme, as the company is in a closed period ahead of its earnings statement.

Last week, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, led by minister Dermot Ahern, launched a e25 million initiative to help isolated community groups to combine together to access broadband services.

Our man in Havana

Well done Peter!

Urban Weigl

"She said Eircom could not say how many communities had successfully voted for broadband..."

Eircom's ingenious new way of saying saying none at all, zero, zilch.

spongebob

...who have a campaign on the go for ages , long before Eircom or the Government brought in their sites.

Kinnegad were told 100 signups by Eircom (1500 people or so and about 500 households and business max in the town/surrounds) . No big deal, plenty of lit Eircom fibre runs thru Kinnegad so it would be a lot cheaper to do than say Dingle (which is being done) .

Kinnegad managed to get them on, thats 100 out of the 500 or so. c.20% were on for it and prepared to back the campaign.

They therefore go back to Eircom , justifiably delighted with their efforts , who suddenly said that 200 was the number c.40% , just like that , no reasoning or apologies for wasting peoples time.

Eircom then publish the trigger levels on the Trigger site , Kinnegad has gone up to 304 or about 60% of all homes and businesses. . The Campaigners in Kinnegad have been lied to by Senior Eircom managers TWICE in the past year and then presented with an insult . Search through Viking s posts for the nitty gritty details.

"Make your voice heard " said Eircom on the DSL trigger site , so we can tell you to **** off three times .....a tad biblical that non ?!

M

eircomtribunal

Go to the Eircom Trigger programme site and put in a Kinnegad number, like 044 75294 and watch for the result for the Current level of interest!

Eircom will probably not hesitate to claim they cannot release updates because they are still in a closed period, according to stock exchange rules!

Peter

dahamsta

They did Peter.

She said Eircom could not say how many communities had successfully voted for broadband through the programme, as the company is in a closed period ahead of its earnings statement.

viking

I've posted this before but this is proof of the sham that is the DSL triggers program. Its a response I received in February from Eircom's PR dept. regarding whether their triggers site was working correctly or not (my highlighting of text):

Yes Gareth the site is working correctly and we have received your vote and I think two others from Kinnegad. It was never envisioned at the time of the launch of the site that there would be immediate feedback as to the number of votes cast, however that information will be there we anticipate within a couple of weeks and it will be updated frequently thereafter. Meanwhile, I think Kinnegad still has some way to go...

Regards

As you can see, a PR stunt plain and simple... No intentions of making this a proper programme.

There not lying about Kinnegad "having some way to..." not to mention the other towns "involved" in the programme...

viking

eircomtribunal

viking,
would you mind looking up your pm box or mail me: info at eircomtribunal dot com ?

P.

greglo23

hey guys check this !!!
http://comwreck.com/blog_20_may12.html

watty

I voted on the trigger site for my village after I got an Eircom line (which doesn't work properly) after changing from the Chorus Wireless loop (which did work).

The vote did appear a few hours later. Of course there are not 362 PEOPLE, never mind households with Eircom accounts that would want broadband here

The Real B-man

Broadbands a rip off at the mo whould settle for €20 a month nothing higer lower whould be better thow

LoBo

Originally posted by greglo23
http://comwreck.com/blog_20_may12.html

Very damning red percentages - perhaps the dead will sign up for those towns needing 507% of households to reach the trigger level?

bk

Originally posted by The Real B-man
Broadbands a rip off at the mo whould settle for €20 a month nothing higer lower whould be better thow

Don't hold your breadth so, BB is unlikely to ever go to €20, well they might bring out a crippled version of BB (very small cap, etc.) at €20, but don't expect miracles. €30 is the best you can hope for really.

BB prices are actually in line with most other countries at the moment. It is just that most other countires get much more for their money (higher speeds, no caps, etc.)

Cabaal

Originally posted by The Real B-man
Broadbands a rip off at the mo whould settle for €20 a month nothing higer lower whould be better thow

How can you say that?
Its somewhat good value @ €30 for 512K (but the cap is a issue imho)

In the UK the prices average in as the following:

256K DSL for £19.99 (€29.74)
512k DSL for £25.00 (€37.19)
1MB DSL for £30.00 (€44.63)

so €20 for 512K is a crazy idea at present imho

If I could get 512K at UK prices in Ireland I'd be happy as hell, instead I gota pay €110 for 512K Esat Business DSL, which is equal to the average 512K product in the UK