Eircom cuts broadband prices

mayto

from siliconrepublic.com

11.09.2006 - Eircom yesterday unveiled plans to cut broadband prices across its 300,000-strong user base by 27pc. The company has also revealed that an additional 10,000 customers who previously could not get broadband now qualify for the service.
Under the new price range, which comes into place on 2 October next, Eircom customers who use the 1MB Home Starter product will save €5 a month (16pc) as the price drops from €29.99 to €24.99.

The price of Eircom’s Home Plus Product, will drop by €10 to €29.99 a month. Eircom says this will save customers €120 off their annual bill.

Eircom customers who use the 3MB Home Pro broadband product will receive a reduction of €15 from €54.99 down to €39.99.

The company said the price reductions will also apply to its wholesale customers.

In terms of the 10,000 additional customers who qualify for broadband, the company said the expansion applies to customers who are located near broadband enabled exchanges but whose line test failed due to distance from the exchange.

Eircom’s new CEO Rex Combs said that as broadband demand in Ireland grows, the company’s chief objective is to make broadband accessible to who ever wants it.

“The introduction of cheaper broadband prices coupled with the extended reach will further enhance growth in the Irish broadband market,” Combs said.

skywalker

mayto wrote:

from siliconrepublic.com Under the new price range, which comes into place on 2 October next, Eircom customers who use the 1MB Home Starter product will save €5 a month (16pc) as the price drops from €29.99 to €24.99.

Thats good and everything, but BT are still €5 cheaper for the 1MB.

Gonzo

thats brilliant, now im gonna save €15 a month from next month. My only worry now is are these price cuts instead of the planned upgrades in a few months time. Will see we speed upgrades/cap increases from early next year?

Sponge Bob

Shows that eircom are feeling the pain and losing out on the consumer packages to the competition.

The difference between eircom and the cheapest (BT) for 1Mbit was €10 , it will be €5 in future.

The difference between eircom and the cheapest (Digiweb and BT) for 2mbit was €10 and it will be €0 in future.

The difference between eircom and the cheapest (BT) for 3mbit was €15 and it will be €0 in future.

And thats not even factoring in the BT bundles which reduce the monthly cost even more.

There ARE no planned speed upgrades in the pipeline.

HelterSkelter

If the prices apply to wholesale customers as Eircom say, does this mean we can expect BT to decrease their prices as well?

Sponge Bob

These are retail prices , no changes have been announced for Wholesale prices , see the list of specials here .

HelterSkelter

Sponge Bob wrote:

These are retail prices , no changes have been announced for Wholesale prices , see the list of specials here .

But the article says

The company said the price reductions will also apply to its wholesale customers.

I thought the wholesale customers were BT, UTV, etc etc.

Sponge Bob

I cannot find anything on wholesale or in presss releases .....not that your are wrong helterskelter

This could mean €25 a month for 2Mbit if you are a BT or Digiweb customer , w00t

kaizersoze

Good news, but...get ready for the line rental increase.

Sponge Bob

kaizersoze wrote:

Good news, but...get ready for the line rental increase.

€27.88 a month line rental is the figure they sent into Comreg . Comreg will agree it like the poodles they are.

jor el

This is nice, I'd like to see an announcement from BT as to whether their prices will drop too, which they should if Eircom decreae the wholesale prices. But since they already sell at a fairly low price, and discount the line rental in the bundled product, I can't see a full €15 coming off the top package, even €5 or €10 would be nice though. Still, I'd rather keep paying the €50 and get an increase in the cap instead.

Sponge Bob wrote:

€27.88 a month line rental is the figure they sent into Comreg

And that will surely negate just about all of the wholesale rate discount :mad:

dub45

Given that Smart are under the cosh a bit these days it might be nice to remember the part they have played to date in bringing down prices and upping speeds not just for their own customers but for everybody.

Zith

At the bottom of the news item on eircom.ie it says

Extended Availability
We are also extending the reach of eircom broadband availability resulting in an additional 10,000 customers who now qualify for eircom broadband. The improvement applies to customers throughout the country already connected to eircom broadband enabled exchanges, but who’s line test previously failed due to the distance from the exchange.

I guess this refers to the change from 5KM to 5.5KM seen already? Or is this a further relaxing?

Cabaal

skywalker wrote:

Thats good and everything, but BT are still €5 cheaper for the 1MB.

Hehe, just been looking into getting a very basic Broadband package for my parents, saw BT's setup was 1MB/128K for 20e a month and was just going to compare it to everyone else

Guess I won't bother visiting Eircom now

Foxwood

Cabaal wrote:

Hehe, just been looking into getting a very basic Broadband package for my parents, saw BT's setup was 1MB/128K for 20e a month and was just going to compare it to everyone else

Guess I won't bother visiting Eircom now

Get the line rental and broadband bundle for €35, and you're effectively only paying a little over a tenner for the broadband. If their phonebill includes more than a tenner a month in calls to landlines, then the €45 bundle that includes line rental, broadband and free landline calls to Ireland and the UK is unbeatable.

Cabaal

Foxwood wrote:

Get the line rental and broadband bundle for €35, and you're effectively only paying a little over a tenner for the broadband. If their phonebill includes more than a tenner a month in calls to landlines, then the €45 bundle that includes line rental, broadband and free landline calls to Ireland and the UK is unbeatable.

Sounds good, however I'm curious to know how much this would work out as since my parents don't pay line rental as their over 65

Foxwood

Cabaal wrote:

Sounds good, however I'm curious to know how much this would work out as since my parents don't pay line rental as their over 65

Doesn't matter - the DFSA allowace will be credited against the BT bill instead of the eircom bill, so they aren't tied to eircom to get free line rental.

Cabaal

Foxwood wrote:

Doesn't matter - the DFSA allowace will be credited against the BT bill instead of the eircom bill, so they aren't tied to eircom to get free line rental.

Ok so let me get this stright...

Allownace will be paid regardless I know that

But if they moved to the 35e product and spent over 10e on landline calls per month they'd be effectivaly be paying around 11e per month for Broadband?

Is this confirmed on the BT site?

Foxwood

Cabaal wrote:

Ok so let me get this stright...

Allownace will be paid regardless I know that

But if they moved to the 35e product and spent over 10e on landline calls per month they'd be effectivaly be paying around 11e per month for Broadband?

Is this confirmed on the BT site?

If they get the €45 package, they'll get line rental, 1MB broadband and all landline calls to Ireland and the UK.

That's be a bill of about €20 after the DSFA credit.

If they're currently spending €10/month on landline calls, they'll now get those calls and broadband for that €20. If they're currently speding €20 on landline calls, then the broadband is effectively free.

It's almost impossible to do a direct comparison, because monthly bills vary, and because eircom put customers on "options" packages, but don't explain what they include, or what the rates are on those plans, etc, but the bottom line is that bundling line rental with your BT broadband is the best deal around.

Go to btireland.custhelp.com and search for DFSA for more details.

Cabaal

Thanks for the info, I'll have to have a chat to them in relation to their call costs and see wehats the best option....I believe most of their call costs are made up of mobiles...they'd never spend 20e on landlines but they prop do spend 10e on landlines I'd imagine.

Foxwood

Note that the "free calls to landlines" excludes 1890, 1850 and 0818 or any other non-geographic number (don't know about 076 - it'd be ironic if they weren't free). So when looking at the previous bills, just count the local and national calls.

Sponge Bob

my ma has teh €45 bundle.

she pays €24 for 1Mbit BB and all landline calls in ireland (up to one hour duration anytime ) after the social pays her rent .

Peanut

Any word on reductions on the business packages?
I can't seem to find the updated info on Eircom's site..
(except for this.. eircom Significantly Cuts Broadband Prices )

taoiseachjoe

According to a Press Release on eircom.ie, the new price for the Home Pro 3MB is going to be 49.40, NOT 39.99, stated by the first poster.

"The price reductions for eircom retail broadband prices:


Product
Home Starter Home Plus Home Pro
1MB 2MB 3 MB

Current monthly price €29.99 €39.99 €54.45

New monthly price €24.99 €29.99 €48.40

Saving €5.00 €10.00 €6.05"

Nick_oliveri

taoiseachjoe wrote:

Saving €5.00 €10.00 €6.05"

:mad: Thats not really consistent is it? You would think the discount would grow as the price went up...

I had a bad dream last night that i was downgraded to 1mb with digiweb!! Thats my nightmares for ya!

Gonzo

Sponge Bob wrote:

There ARE no planned speed upgrades in the pipeline.

how do you know this? I hope this isnt true

mukki

The price of Eircom’s Home Plus Product, will drop by €10 to €29.99 a month. Eircom says this will save customers €120 off their annual bill.

hmmm, let me think about this

€10 over 12 months
10x12 on the calculator is just a sec..

oh my god they are right!!

Pacifico

mukki wrote:

hmmm, let me think about this

€10 over 12 months
10x12 on the calculator is just a sec..

oh my god they are right!!

lol

rogue-entity

Well I can look forward to a price drop on my broadband, thankfully I dont pay Line rental as I dont own the line.. thats for the parents to worry about.

That line rental increase is a joke, but if the new owners are sincere about wanting to drastically improve the LL, then I think it may be worth paying, after all, some people dont even get a proper line ¬_¬ .

If there are any planned speed increases, I am all for it, I wouldnt mind a nice 2x speed boost, 4Meg would be nice... although it still cannot compare to the colleges 30Meg Up 30Meg Down fiber connection

byte

An upload speed increase would be better than a download speed increase IMHO.

Yakuza

B'stards! I had the savings spent already! I'll have to make do with a €6.05 ivory back-scratcher rather than a €15 one.

(I'd love to see what the figures are for numbers of punters on the 1mb, 2mb and 3mb packages - are they giving the largest discount to the smallest body of people?, to minimise revenue loss while being able to claim offering price drops of (up to) 25%?

€6 is a bit stingy, seeing as they can afford to drop the mid-range product by a tenner.

Sponge Bob

relatively and in % terms the 2mbitters get the best deal.

jor el

Gonzo wrote:

how do you know this? I hope this isnt true

Well unless Eircom upgrade all their equipment to ADSL2+ then there'll be little or no more speed increases. I believe they are trying out ADSL2+ in some exchanges so a change could be on the way, but this is likely to take quite some time given their track record.

lucernarian

If ADSL2 was brought in, then they would be able to stretch to 6 km (a line with 72 dB attenuation) and probably keep the 1 Mbit speed or at least 768 kbit. I'd expect 512 kbps at 6.5 km.

Eircom still refuse to enable lines up to 7 km, even though they would pass for eircom's minimum guaranteed speed, with plain ADSL if an engineer twiddled with the wiring.

They still have a mile to go before they can use their copper pairs' full potential.

The price reduction for the 2 Mbit package is suprising. They are cheaper than BT for broadband separate to line rental, but only by a cent:p

Foxwood

To_be_confirmed wrote:

The price reduction for the 2 Mbit package is suprising. They are cheaper than BT for broadband separate to line rental, but only by a cent:p

BT have just been notified about the wholesale price reduction (they heard about at the same time you did), so it's hardly surprising that they haven't had a chance yet to come up with new prices for their services. Just another example of the ant-competitive nature of eircom, with the wholesale arm giving the retail arm preferential access to sensitive pricing data that isn't available to competitors.

Dellas

Zith wrote:

At the bottom of the news item on eircom.ie it says



I guess this refers to the change from 5KM to 5.5KM seen already? Or is this a further relaxing?

Can anyone tell me what the new upgrade will allow eg:: max distance from exchange to house I thought it was 7km

Sponge Bob

5.5km or so there has been no further relaxing since early august , 7km would imply c.300k max and eircom have no 512k product unless you know someone senior who will sell you a 1mbit 'best effort' and 'no guarantees' DSL line. They exist if you know the 'right' person in eircom

Cuauhtemoc

5.5km or so there has been no further relaxing since early august , 7km would imply c.300k max and eircom have no 512k product unless you know someone senior who will sell you a 1mbit 'best effort' and 'no guarantees' DSL line. They exist if you know the 'right' person in eircom

We're 6.4 km from the exchange(i can follow the poles from our house to the exchange). Eircom were replacing poles and lines up to our house recently and the line is now passing for broadband.

Sponge Bob

you must be somewhere posh like Enniskerry or Delgany where those eircom biddys have moved with their ESOP share windfalls

lucernarian

Cuauhtemoc wrote:

We're 6.4 km from the exchange(i can follow the poles from our house to the exchange). Eircom were replacing poles and lines up to our house recently and the line is now passing for broadband.

Interesting.

That clearly shows that eircom's statistics for line distance can be crap. With eircom's measurements your line distance is 5.5 km at most.

Eircom can also overstate the actual distance aswell. In my case, they tell me my line is a km longer than the distance the line actually takes.

It's all about the thickness of the wiring...

Drapper

side point guys, anyone know what the Eircom pings are like in D15?

dub45

I will do devil's advocate here:) and say that apart from the cost of the product there is a very strong argument for claiming that Eircom are the best bb provider out there - how often (and particularly given how many customers they have) do you see complaints on boards about either speed pings or billing in relation to Eircom. I know several people who have Eircom BB and they rarely if ever have trouble. Now thats my devil's advocate piece done!:)

Drapper

dub45 wrote:

I will do devil's advocate here:) and say that apart from the cost of the product there is a very strong argument for claiming that Eircom are the best bb provider out there - how often (and particularly given how many customers they have) do you see complaints on boards about either speed pings or billing in relation to Eircom. I know several people who have Eircom BB and they rarely if ever have trouble. Now thats my devil's advocate piece done!:)

Thats the exact reason I'm going back to them. Well put Dub45. :p:p I've had them all now IBB, NTL and Eircom and Eircom were the best by far! Never ever callled thier customer care when I had 'em