How will Eircom respond to NTL?

dub45

With NTL apparently getting their act together, albeit it slowly, I wonder how people are expecting Eircom to respond? 1.5mb with the opportunity to get rid of a telephone line is a pretty attractive propositon for a lot of customers and must have the potential to threaten Eircom and their resellers big time so what will be the response wand when will we begin to see it?

gsand

i doubt they will do anything...

NTL are not a serious nationwide or even countywide threat to them. Their coverage is simply to thin and they don't have the finance to develop much further in any short scale of time.

But heres hoping for an improvement all around...

Moriarty

I doubt they will. NTL still has a very small catchment area compared to eircom.

OfflerCrocGod

I am hoping to see it later on in the autumn Sep/Oct an increase in the caps and maybe a fiver or some small amount off on the price - I just can't see €ircon increasing speeds or really competing until NTL have spread to the whole of Dub and the other main towns in Ireland, until then €ircon will sit on it's ass.

Moriarty

It's very unlikely we'll see any change in eircom products until the bitstream renewal comes up next march/april.

spongebob

We will see another offer around (or just after) christmas and we may see the introduction of a mingy 2Gb Cap product at €29.99 a month at the same time.

We will see some relaxation of the line test by March as well .

There will be no fast product at a reasonable price, the current D16 test is essentially a test of a streetside fibre cab .... a small telephone exchange that squats on Council land, the pavement, if you wish. These will be wdely deployed in certain areas but only if Eircom can sell off land currently use for telephone exchanges to compensate for the cost and pocket a profit on the upgrade . Dundrum Terenure and Whitehall have been targeted for this scheme next year. The exchange lands are valuable if the kit in them can be broken up and moved out first

M

maxheadroom

When I saw this thread title I thought "I'm sorry, but there's nothing that we can do to make your phoneline suitable for DSL..."

Blaster99

If/when NTL enable their entire network, Eircom will be in trouble. You have to remember that Eircom don't have much broadband coverage outside of the major cities and they're probably losing money on the rural network. Unlike UTV or IOL etc, NTL is a household name so they have the name recognition and a phenomenal customer database.

What will Eircom do to counter it? They have to effectively match NTL's offerings even if NTL only roll out in Dublin. Eircom will probably be slightly more expensive in the light of providing a bulletproof service, but the less discerning resellers will probably be in a position to match NTL on pricing and service quality.

dlofnep

Well, NTL have or are planning to fund 100m into their network which could see that nationwide rollout of broadband. Then the market may begin to become a little competitive - And competition can only be good for us.

Ripwave

dlofnep wrote:

Well, NTL have or are planning to fund 100m into their network which could see that nationwide rollout of broadband. Then the market may begin to become a little competitive - And competition can only be good for us.

NTL don't have a nationwide license to deliver cable television - it's extremely uinlikely that they'll be rolling out cable in areas that they don't have a cable television license.

dlofnep

Well almost nationwide. Waterford, Galway & Dublin.

Gonzo

you have to remember that if NTL do extend their bb to cover all of Dublin, Waterford, Galway that would be well over one third of the countrys population - thats quite a treat to eircoms bb uptake and continued subscriptions. Hopefully eircom will see this and respond with a decent offerings/major improvements to current packages soon.

Moriarty

Ripwave wrote:

NTL don't have a nationwide license to deliver cable television - it's extremely uinlikely that they'll be rolling out cable in areas that they don't have a cable television license.

Weren't the regulatory geographic obstacles all removed for chorus and ntl about 1.5 years ago? Afaik they were exclusivity deals made so that each company was guarenteed no competition in each of their areas. All that has been removed though, hasn't it? Chorus (or any other operator for that matter) could technically start cabling dublin up tomorrow, and ntl vica-versa in cork/limerick?

John R

Moriarty wrote:

Weren't the regulatory geographic obstacles all removed for chorus and ntl about 1.5 years ago? Afaik they were exclusivity deals made so that each company was guarenteed no competition in each of their areas. All that has been removed though, hasn't it? Chorus (or any other operator for that matter) could technically start cabling dublin up tomorrow, and ntl vica-versa in cork/limerick?

Technically yes although the cost of building a complete network particularly in an area with an already established operator would be prohibitive.

I am sure chorus will eventually jump on the bandwagon, this time last year it looked as if ntl had no plans to offer BB outside of a few easily activated areas.