Imagine offer free broadband (kind of)

jwt

Press Release
11th July 2006

Imag!ne is first Irish company to offer FREE BROADBAND to Irish consumers

Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources welcomes Imag!ne's offer


Imag!ne, the Broadband and Telecoms company, spear-headed by Entrepreneur Sean Bolger, has today announced it is offering FREE Broadband to Irish consumers.

Almost one year ago, Imag!ne marked its aggressive presence in the Broadband market by launching Ireland’s cheapest broadband offer at €9.99 a month. This resulted in ownership of 4% of the growing Irish Broadband market. Today’s announcement, offering free broadband, is expected to entice the remaining 330,000 Irish internet users who currently use the dialup process to access the internet and those who currently use Eircom’s broadband service.

Sean Bolger, CEO of Imag!ne said: ‘Finally, in Broadband terms, Ireland is catching up with the rest of the world. Imag!ne is delighted to be leading the Irish Broadband revolution.’ He continued: Imagine's FREE Broadband offer saves Eircom customers a massive €240 per year on the equivalent Eircom package and also offers cheaper calls saving a minimum of another €60 per year. It’s the most competitive offer on the Irish market.’

The Irish broadband market presents a huge opportunity for companies like Imag!ne. ‘Ireland has only reached approximately 20% of the potential broadband market. 80% of the market is there for the taking. Imag!ne is capitalising on this by offering free broadband first.’ said Sean Bolger.

Minister Dempsey today welcomed the launch of Imag!ne's free timed broadband offer. Commenting on the launch, Minister Dempsey said "this is a sign that Irish consumers are benefiting from increasing competition and more choice of broadband provider". The Minister pointed out that "Increasing competition is central to driving up broadband take-up in Ireland. The Government's regulation and infrastructure policy is supporting the private sector developing a competitive, affordable and rapidly growing broadband market that offers choice of products and providers to Irish consumers." The Minister encouraged "consumers to shop around to get the best broadband product for themselves" and added that his "Department has funded a broadband price website (www.broadband.gov.ie) and a TV awareness campaign to help the consumer get value for money".

About Imag!ne
In the last two years the Imag!ne Communications Group has taken a significant position on the Irish market. The telecoms business division Access Telecom, recently re-branded as Imag!ne Business Services, is now the third largest provider of services to Irish business and the fastest growing SME provider in Ireland with partnerships like ISME. This major announcement follows on from Imag!ne’s announcement on the 26th of May, in conjunction with InvestNI, of the creation of 300 jobs at the new Imag!ne Armagh contact centre. Gaelic Telecom, another division of Imag!ne, is the Official Telecoms Partner of the GAA – an innovative telecom service that supports local GAA clubs. Imag!ne’s combined group services represented 58% of the movement of customers from Eircom in 2005 while others like Tele2 have left the competitive market.

How can Imag!ne do this commercially?
‘This is not a promotion. There are no gimmicks. This is the Irish market moving to a new place and fat cats with high prices will lose out or learn to compete,’ said Sean Bolger. He continued ‘Imag!ne is a business that does not suffer from old legacy systems and so operates very efficiently. Being only available on-line at www.imagine.ie offers a seamless web-order service, cutting costs for Imagine and passing on the saving to the consumer. Imag!ne’s low cost model is set to have a major impact in the Irish market and is set to seriously test some of the pretenders to the broadband crown.’

Free broadband is only available at www.imagine.ie

-Ends-


About the Free Broadband deal
The offer .....................Imagine............................Eircom
Broadband....................Free................................€19.99 per month
.................................20 hours per month.............20 hours per month
.................................4c per minute thereafter......4c per minute thereafter
Always on Broadband.....€9.99...............................€29.99
Calls......................All Local & National calls €9.99 per month......All local & national calls cost €14.99 per month
Line Rental....................€24.16.............................€24.16
Router** optional Can use your own or €2.99 per month rental Can use your own

Note the Imagine offer (which vbulletin has mangled above) is....


Broadband free for 20 hours per month
4c per minute thereafter

However always on broadband is 9.99 per month


John

damien

You need to get their Talk package with them which is €9.99 a month for free local and national calls. You also need to get line rental off them at same price as eircom line rental.

Then you can get either broadband package. Let's hope it encourages price reductions with other ISPs. Well done to Imagine for dropping prices without eircom wholesale dropping them first.

Blaster99

If you're not interested in a call bundle, then BT is cheaper.

crawler

It would be unfair/unwise for me to comment directly on the offer here given who I am.

I would say however, that in general "free" does not exist - there is rarely a business case for "free". Real "free" means that you dont get a bill.

I could argue that €19.95 for our metro lite product for always on 1Mbps broadband and phone line is either free broadband or free line rental but to be honest, that is just marketing and we decided just not to go that route. In reality it's a bundled product for a fee that represents good value.

PERSONAL opinion is that anything that drives uptake of services is good for the industry and hence good for us all....competition leads to innovation and innovation leads to better things for all...

Think I am being fair here? feel free to crush me and my sensitive spirit if not!

ozt9vdujny3srf

crawler wrote:

It would be unfair/unwise for me to comment directly on the offer here given who I am.

I would say however, that in general "free" does not exist - there is rarely a business case for "free". Real "free" means that you dont get a bill.

I could argue that €19.95 for our metro lite product for always on 1Mbps broadband and phone line is either free broadband or free line rental but to be honest, that is just marketing and we decided just not to go that route. In reality it's a bundled product for a fee that represents good value.

PERSONAL opinion is that anything that drives uptake of services is good for the industry and hence good for us all....competition leads to innovation and innovation leads to better things for all...

Think I am being fair here? feel free to crush me and my sensitive spirit if not!

Ahh People arent that stupid, everyone always looks at the bottom line...

I really thnk using the word free is stupid froma marketing perspective because while it does spark curiousity for most, it also leads the majority of peopel to wondering what the catch is.

damien

crawler wrote:

I could argue that €19.95 for our metro lite product for always on 1Mbps broadband and phone line is either free broadband or free line rental but to be honest, that is just marketing and we decided just not to go that route.

From the Digiweb website:

Free phone rental
Free phone number
Free calls



This is the route you didn't go down?

Sponge Bob

damien.m wrote:

From the Digiweb website:

This is the route you didn't go down?

thats not free broadband its free everything BUT broadband

Basically its easy to find BB/LR bundles on the Digiweb and BT sites that do what they say on the can. With imagine you are fully signed up before you realise that the BB is not free but free if you pay

€24.20 line rental + Talk €9.99 + Router Rental €2.99

Thats Free AFTER they take over €37 out of your wallet that is. Blaster99 is correct.

kaizersoze

damien.m wrote:

From the Digiweb website:

Free phone rental
Free phone number
Free calls



This is the route you didn't go down?

HeHe:D
BTW, didn't I read some where on Boards that Smart were holding a press conference today to announce some new BB innovation? Any word on that or did I imagine it?

viking

Seeing as Imagine are not passing on the charge that they receive from Eircom for the timed product to the customer, I think its safe to describe this BB "add-on" as free for imagine customers.

At the moment, the equivalent "add-on" product from other companies is chargeable and therefore not free.

Good find on the Digiweb site there Damien...

kaizersoze

Ah. Thanks.

[Edit]Where is the post I replied to gone? Between me and viking?

Mountjoy Mugger

Heh, yw. I deleted the OP because I looked at Smart's website and saw something about a Broadband Plus product for 45.99...

Error 404 when you click on the link though.

http://www.smarttelecom.ie/broadband.php

EDIT: Just thinking it might include the new phone product.

damien

kaizersoze wrote:

HeHe:D
BTW, didn't I read some where on Boards that Smart were holding a press conference today to announce some new BB innovation? Any word on that or did I imagine it?

That was the Imagine press conference as far as I know.

kaizersoze

Mountjoy Mugger wrote:

Heh, yw. I deleted the OP because I looked at Smart's website and saw something about a Broadband Plus product for 45.99...

Error 404 when you click on the link though.

http://www.smarttelecom.ie/broadband.php

EDIT: Just thinking it might include the new phone product.

Thank God. I thought I imagined that aswell.

okidoki987

All these offers are starting to make NTL's always on service at 25 Euro a month look expensive

Mountjoy Mugger

kaizersoze wrote:

Thank God. I thought I imagined that aswell.

Smart's link now working. It's as I imagined...ties in with the new Smart Talk promo.

crawler

damien.m wrote:

From the Digiweb website:

Free phone rental
Free phone number
Free calls



This is the route you didn't go down?

Touché!!

Sorry - we didnt promote it as free....

Good spot Damien, hats off on that one! Cheered me up on an otherwise long and difficult day!!

damien

Oh I just heard they charge €25 if you order by phone.

shoegirl

Its not a bad deal, as it happened I have been looking at their offering as I've just moved house. I was also looking to get everything on one bill, and decided against EsatBT because of past billing nightmares, and the fact that I am still trying to get my money back from them for billing me for a cancelled service. I am a fan of free national calls as I live 160 miles from home but many of the providers who do this don't include rental (was with Euphony for 3 years but would prefer a single provider).

As of two days ago the 20 hours package would have cost 48 euros, now its just 34 which is good or 44 for always on. I think thats a very good deal.

Unfortunately for me, I mi**** the mouse and ordered the metered product, and trying to get it fixed by phone meant being passed around on the phone and having to explain the same thing 4 or 5 times to different people. Will be interesting to see how quickly they can fix my problem granted they couldn't even find the order this morning!