Smart going belly up?

Diver79

Taken from http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1003/smart.html

Smart Telecom has asked the AIM market in London to suspend trading in its shares, pending clarification of its financial position. Communications Minister Noel Dempsey has called on Eircom to reconnect a full telephone service to around 45,000 Smart customers.

Not looking too good for Smart...

fatherdougalmag

inode wrote:

look what eircom have already got up on their page http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/mainPage.jsp

Although the link is still there, the content has vanished

bk

From http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1003/smart.html

Management from Smart Telecom and Eircom met at the offices of the communications regulator ComReg this morning, following the removal of a full service from Smart's land line customers last night. Further discussions between all sides are taking place this afternoon.

It is thought the discussions are focusing on how Smart customers will be dealt with in the likely event that the firm announces it is to go into liquidation.

Still worried about what happens to SmartVision if Smart liquidates, I'd assume that the service and customers would be sold to the likes of Magnet or BT

ixoy

bk wrote:

From http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1003/smart.html



Still worried about what happens to SmartVision if Smart liquidates, I'd assume that the service and customers would be sold to the likes of Magnet or BT

Count me as worried as well, I'm stuck on SmartVision out in Smithfield (p'raps where you're moving to?) and would go most likely insane with no BB or TV access.

Bards

Full text of statement to London Stock Exchange
====================================


Company Smart Telecom plc
TIDM SMR
Headline Suspension of Trading
Released 07:00 03-Oct-06
Number 8390J


RNS Number:8390J
Smart Telecom plc
03 October 2006



Smart Telecom plc ("Smart" or "the Company")

3 October 2006

EMBARGOED UNTIL 7.00AM 3 OCTOBER 2006

Update on restructuring process and suspension of shares


As previously communicated, the Company is undergoing a significant
restructuring process to focus the Company on profitable and high-growth market
segments. This process has already reduced the workforce from 348 people in
August to 180 currently and disposal processes have also been initiated on the
WLR / CPS residential business, the payphone business and the prepaid card
business. This restructuring will result in a Company focused on corporate and
residential broadband.


Unfortunately, the Company regrets to announce that at 5.00 pm last evening,
eircom commenced the implementation of Termination Notices in respect of its
Interconnect and Access Agreements. Termination Notices were served upon the
Company in recent weeks and deferred on a weekly basis while the Company
commenced implementation of the Strategic Review announced on September 8th. The
execution of the restructuring as detailed above was proceeding to plan and the
associated short term refinancing of the Company was and is at an advanced stage
of negotiation.


In this context, the Company deeply regrets the action taken by eircom at this
juncture which has the impact of shutting down a substantial element of the
Company's residential telecoms services, in particular, the Company's WLR / CPS
business. The Company is endeavouring to engage in further discussions with
eircom and Comreg to find a solution that returns service to its customers as
quickly as possible and minimises any further impact.


Additional short term funding remains necessary and the Company is having
further discussions with key shareholders on the provision of that funding. The
Board remains confident that this funding will be obtained. However, there is no
certainty that this will happen.


In these circumstances, the Board has requested that its shares are suspended on
the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange pending
clarification of the Company's financial and operating position.


Enquiries:

Smart Telecom plc

Ciaran Casey

Brian Timmons

Iarla Flynn

Tel: +353 1 469 9300



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

Hamilcar

Blub2k4 wrote:

Does anyone know what the possibility of starting a class action suit against Eircom would be?
I mean if Comreg don't have the Cojones to do it possibly we as customers can punish them for their uncompetitive behaviour, which I might add has been quite obvious since day one.

Class Action????

Yes me Lud eircom had the cheek to cut us off just cos we didn't pay them.

Me Lud: Disgraceful behaviour. Who do they think they are?. A private company?.

It's not SMART me Lud it's MAGIC
Maybe Keith Barry could help them out

JJDoherty

dub45 wrote:

If you ran a small business and you had a resource that a new competitor opening beside you needed wouldnt you do your damndest to make it as difficult as possible for him to get it?

Ah well there you have it, the reality is that this is not a small business, this is a company that controls the telecommunications network of the whole country, a company who once operated a monopoly and still do with respect to the infrastruture but most worryingly Eircom are seeming attempting to reinstate the complete monopoly of old! And that is extremely bad news for all customers. I, for one, remember Telecom Eireann!

This mess is also not only an issue of monies owed to Eircom but also an on-going dispute over the amount of mony owed, which SmartTelecom registered with ComReg when the issue arose. Regardless this is not how such disputes should be dealt with.

The government in this case is completely at fault by not giving ComReg the teeth they needed in the first place to force Eircom into a fair and open market economy and this is something that ComReg have asked for on numerous occassions.

bk

ixoy wrote:

Count me as worried as well, I'm stuck on SmartVision out in Smithfield (p'raps where you're moving to?) and would go most likely insane with no BB or TV access.

No, moving to a new development off Griffith Avenue.

From the above announcement it looks like they want to keep their LLU and SmartVision business while dumping the others. So hopefully we will be ok.

Diver79

Bards wrote:

Full text of statement to London Stock Exchange
====================================

Unfortunately, the Company regrets to announce that at 5.00 pm last evening,
eircom commenced the implementation of Termination Notices in respect of its
Interconnect and Access Agreements. Termination Notices were served upon the
Company in recent weeks and deferred on a weekly basis while the Company
commenced implementation of the Strategic Review announced on September 8th. The
execution of the restructuring as detailed above was proceeding to plan and the
associated short term refinancing of the Company was and is at an advanced stage
of negotiation.

So, Smart knew about the termination notice weeks ago and just ignored it? Am I reading this right? This just beggars belief!!!

Blub2k4

Hamilcar wrote:

Class Action????

Yes me Lud eircom had the cheek to cut us off just cos we didn't pay them.

Me Lud: Disgraceful behaviour. Who do they think they are?. A private company?.

It's not SMART me Lud it's MAGIC
Maybe Keith Barry could help them out

It's called the free market, for a reason, part of that freedom is the freedom to demand true competition is it not, if Comreg can't do it what's to stop the consumer demanding that there is a levelling of the playing field?

<edit> it's also quite telling that you don't see the irony of your statement regarding the private company statement.

Mountjoy Mugger

fatherdougalmag wrote:

Although the link is still there, the content has vanished

Content is still there. You might need to refresh the session by clicking on the eircom logo and revisiting.

JJDoherty

Hamilcar wrote:

Class Action????
Yes me Lud eircom had the cheek to cut us off just cos we didn't pay them.
Me Lud: Disgraceful behaviour. Who do they think they are?. A private company?.
It's not SMART me Lud it's MAGIC
Maybe Keith Barry could help them out

I think taking a case to the European courts based on the anti-competative stance of Eircom as the dominant player in the market would be quite possible.

Latest news from ComReg is that neither side have been able to reach a compromise on the disputed monies owed but discussions will continue and a further statment will be made later this afternoon.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/10/03/story279413.html

Blub2k4

JJDoherty wrote:

Ah well there you have it, the reality is that this is not a small business, this is a company that controls the telecommunications network of the whole country, a company who once operated a monopoly and still do with respect to the infrastruture but most worryingly Eircom are seeming attempting to reinstate the complete monopoly of old! And that is extremely bad news for all customers. I, for one, remember Telecom Eireann!

This mess is also not only an issue of monies owed to Eircom but also an on-going dispute over the amount of mony owed, which SmartTelecom registered with ComReg when the issue arose. Regardless this is not how such disputes should be dealt with.

The government in this case is completely at fault by not giving ComReg the teeth they needed in the first place to force Eircom into a fair and open market economy and this is something that ComReg have asked for on numerous occassions.

I agree with this totally.
Competition in the market place is supposed to take place on the basis of the offering, not on the basis of an unfair advantage.

bk

It looks like what is happening is that Smart want to keep their Fibre and LLU business, while selling off their CPS and WLR business and customers to another company.

Unsurprisingly few companies are interested in the low margin and debt heavy part of the business and they haven't been able to sell it yet and therefore Eircom has cut them off and let the customers completely f**ked.

Gadgetman496

Should all Smart customers cancel their "Direct Debit" mandates immediately?

Let's face it, nobody had the decency to notify us we were being disconnected. :mad:

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

paulm17781

bk wrote:

It looks like what is happening is that Smart want to keep their Fibre and LLU business, while selling off their CPS and WLR business and customers to another company.

Unsurprisingly few companies are interested in the low margin and debt heavy part of the business and they haven't been able to sell it yet and therefore Eircom has cut them off and let the customers completely f**ked.

If this is the case, could they not just give the customers back to Eirscum?

bk

paulm17781 wrote:

If this is the case, could they not just give the customers back to Eirscum?

Well that is probably what they should do, but I'd say that the problem is they would rather sell them to another company (BT probably) or even sell them back to Eircom?

I'm surprised Eircom is saying that it will take up to 14 days to go back to them, I thought WLR and CPS was much easier then that.

ellybabes

paulm17781 wrote:

If this is the case, could they not just give the customers back to Eirscum?

A lot of us don't want to go back! And chances are after the "leaving message" that I left for Eircom, they won't want me back either!

bk

ixoy wrote:

Count me as worried as well, I'm stuck on SmartVision out in Smithfield (p'raps where you're moving to?) and would go most likely insane with no BB or TV access.

BTW ixoy, is your Smart Vision service still all working?

Blub2k4

bk wrote:

I'm surprised Eircom is saying that it will take up to 14 days to go back to them, I thought WLR and CPS was much easier then that.

If they didn't claim it would take 14 days to go back the question would have to be asked why it took so long to go to smart and the game would be up.

Gadgetman496

Here's how Electronic News is reporting it.

http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9824948

Hamilcar

Smart had plenty of money to sponsor the Weather on all TV channels, the Rose of Tralee etc. Pity they didn't put a few bob aside to pay their bills. Have a look at their website http://www.smarttelecom.ie/ and their notice to their customers. Pretty lame I think you will agree.

Navilluso

Picture this....

...you own a small business - 13 staff, no 12, cos one left 2 weeks ago, yet to be replaced. This morning (having not heard or seen any news last night) you get a phonecall from one of the staff to say the office phone isn't working...you try with your mobile and sure enough...Network Error, yet you can ring out....
Last week, you didn't bother getting a temp for the front desk (remember someone left 2 weeks ago) but rang the agency yesterday and a temp was called in for today. You have just explained the phone system to her in great detail....but the phone won't be working today. You are located in a building where the phone service is provided by the 'authority' that runs the building. Our bills are calculated based on eircom rates...yet 'smart' comes up on incoming phonecalls on our handsets. However, we knew coming into the building (short-term thing) that we wouldn't be able to shop around for phone providers....one of the terms and conditions...
...can I send a bill to someone for the loss of earnings and my temp!?

Just need to find out if my broadband is about to go belly up...if so, I'm heading home...where I use a mobile that seems to work (as long as I pay my bills) and NTL broadband....probably not the cheapest, but as long as it's there.

Is is too much to ask in this day and age that we have a phoneline.....:mad:

machalla

Well they definitely made some mistakes in wasting so much money on marketing. Also the insane decision to head-hunt Eirscum midle-managment and set up that feet on the street BB sales division.

The crux of their problem is that they made the clearly insane decision that Ireland would at some point have a government who would appoint a competent minister, who would support a competent regulator, who would enforce a competitive market place.

bk

gadgetman496 wrote:

Here's how Electronic News is reporting it.

http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9824948

As I suspected. Smart tried to sell it's WLR and CPS customers to Eircom, but Eircom said no thanks, knowing that if they just cut off the customers, most would end up back at Eircom by default for little or no cost.

While this might seem like a good idea on Eircoms part, IMO it is short sighted and might end up hurting them much more in the long run.

It is possible that after this disaster there will finally be public outrage and a lot of questions asked of Comreg and Noel Dempesy and finally something might be done to sort out the whole mess.

I think this was a bad miss-step by Eircom, it would have been much better for them to quietly buy out the CPS and WLR customers. However I suppose Eircom is trying to break Smart before the court decision on the 3G license that Smart has and Eircom wants so badly is made.

matt-dublin

well its completly official....
smart have gone into liquidation...
eircom are not goinf to transfers smarts lines as a good will gesture

tba

despite the fact that this is not really my fault, why the sweet holy hell am I the one paying for it, what kind of system allows eircom to shut off another companys service without warning.

If eircom had sent me a letter saying,
Dear teebs,

Smart telecom are broke, fair warned be ye says I, we are pulling the plug on their services in the next month, here is a handy form that you can use to switch over to us, if not bugger off and recycle this paper. I might have considered going over to them.

BUT NO! they had to be jerks,



frickin jerks....

//looks into satelite bb

machalla

I would imagine there will be a lot of platitudes and it will be swept under the carpet as fast as possible before an election..

machalla

matt-dublin wrote:

well its completly official....
smart have gone into liquidation...
eircom are not goinf to transfers smarts lines as a good will gesture

Have you got a link for this? I can't see anything on enn.ie or rte.ie.

MOH

matt-dublin wrote:

well its completly official....
smart have gone into liquidation...
eircom are not goinf to transfers smarts lines as a good will gesture

Got a link to a source for that?