Ireland has highest phone bills in Europe

bealtine

(from todays Sunday Tribune - Business section)
Ireland has highest phone bills in Europe
Niall Brady

IRELAND has the biggest phone bills in Europe, averaging £520 in 2005 compared with £350-£450 in other countries. Only the Japanese, who enjoy the world's most technologically advanced phone system, pay more.

According to a major study by Britain's communications regulator, bills in Ireland for both landlines and mobile phones are way out line with the eight other European countries, plus the US, Japan and China, covered by its research.

Landlines cost an average of £205 in 2005, exceeded only by Japan which came in at £248. Mobile bills were even higher, averaging £291 compared with Japan's £301. Despite the high costs, Ireland was among a group of countries, including Britain, Spain and Italy, with more mobile phones than people.

Ireland lags the world in broadband penetration with only 18% of homes having a high speed internet connection in 2005 compared with 40% in Britain and almost 60% in the Netherlands.

The only bright spot was in wireless connections where Ireland leads the world with more than 18 Wi-Fi hot spots per 100,000 people. However, the study notes that this is a crude measure because it fails to take account of how well the hot spots are dispersed around the country.

Television stations in Ireland serve up a very different mix of programming that in other European countries, the study found, with much more drama and far less factual programming or arts coverage. Some 54% of the output from RTE and other Irish channels was classified as fiction compared with only 15%-33% elsewhere.

Much of the drama served up to Irish viewers is imported soaps, with the survey noting the prominence of British programmes such as The Bill, Hollyoaks and Eastenders in RTE's schedules. Overall, some 46% of Irish TV output is imported, a figure that is way out of line with other European countries.

This may be why we watch less TV than our neighbours, averaging 180 minutes a day compared with a European average of 218 minutes. The Japanese are the world's biggest couch potatoes, sitting through four-and-ahalf hours of TV every day.

The good news is that only the French, Italians and Spanish have to endure more repeats than Irish viewers, although one-third of what appears on our screens has been broadcast before.

Despite recent hikes, the cost of an Irish TV licence is low by European standards, coming in at £106 in 2005 compared with £132 in Britain, £140 in Germany and £144 in Sweden.

The result is that the licence fee accounts for only 29% of TV funding in Ireland, far lower than in the UK or Germany.

bealtine

Source data:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/icmr06/

The International Communications Market 2006 [pdf]
Full Print Version - 1MB

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/icmr06/icmr.pdf

1huge1

I was quiet suprised that we had a high number of wifi spots per 100,000 then i read on and ya there mostly in dublin...
some interesting facts but i would of thought more than 46% of our tv was imported
i would of said 75%

watty

They simply count % hours of programs, not just Drama etc. A high proportion of local is current affairs, chat show, news, documentary.

75% or higher might be right if you measure films, drama only.

a line failure

Biggest phone bills in Europe...nearly zilch broadband penetration...nothing new then.:(

Little off topic but I tried and failed to get Last Mile Broadband. You guessed it...no line of sight.:(

bealtine

Todays Irish Times have run with this story today (Thursday 7th).
(If anybody has IT access could you please paste the text here?)

What fascinated me was Comregs comment:
"people were spending more on telecoms services than they were a decade ago because of the availability of new services such as the internet and the arrival of large numbers of migrants who were heavy phone users"

Can the spokesman possibly be for real? What planet does he live on?
Why do all the telcos use the same pathetic excuse and why do Comreg parrot it out with no independent thought?

Finally why have we had to rely on the UK regulator (to tell us what we knew all along)?

Where have Comreg been the last few years, are they not the consumers watchdog? If not, then they should be abolished and replaced with a body that is also consumer focused.

viking

Article by Paul Cullen

Irish phone bills among world's highest

Irish consumers are spending more on their phones than almost anyone else, according to a new survey, but the phone companies say it is because we're so keen on talking and texting.

Last year, telecommunications companies made an average of €776 from every Irish person, the survey of 11 countries has shown. Only Japan showed higher telecommunications revenues, at €882 per person.

Irish consumers spent more than average on both fixed lines and mobile phones, and both voice and data calls on mobiles, the survey by British telecoms regulator Ofcom showed.

Consumer groups said yesterday that the figures showed that phone users deserved a better deal. "These figures show we're getting a bad deal. In every other facet of business, you get some credit or reduction for buying in bulk, but not so in Ireland," said Dermot Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland.

However, phone companies said Irish revenues were higher because consumers here used their services more than in other countries. "It's simple - we talk more," said a Meteor spokeswoman.

A spokesman for ComReg said people were spending more on telecoms services than they were a decade ago because of the availability of new services such as the internet and the arrival of large numbers of migrants who were heavy phone users.

For fixed lines, Ireland ranked second of the 11 countries in the Ofcom survey, with an average spend of €306 per person. Only Japan, where revenues reached €370 per person, was higher.

Mr Jewell said it was "abysmal" that Eircom still in effect controlled fixed lines, leaving consumers with "outrageous" rental fees before they even made a call.

In the mobile sector, Irish consumers forked out an average of €434 each last year, just behind the €449 spent by Japanese phone users. In contrast, British users spent just €324 a year and Americans €301.

Revenues tend to be lower where there is more competition, the survey found; Ireland and Japan, in contrast, were found to have less diversified markets.

Mobile phones now account for more revenue than fixed lines, according to the survey. Mobile revenue grew from 45 per cent of total telecoms revenue in 2001 to 56 per cent last year.

Just one Irish person in two has a fixed phone line, but there are 106 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people, up from 74 in 2001.

However, Ireland lags behind other nations for broadband access. Only China and Poland have less than the 18 per cent of households with broadband in Ireland. More than half of all Dutch homes have broadband and in Sweden, Spain and Japan, the figure is over 40 per cent.

Overall communications revenue - for telecoms, radio and television - were among the highest in Ireland, with per capita revenue of €985 just behind Japan and the US. The report suggests Ireland's economic buoyancy explains the profitability of communications here.

Yet the Irish telecoms industry's growth rate of 5 per cent a year is lower than that in television (10 per cent) and radio (8 per cent).

The print industry still captures about 60 per cent of advertising revenue in Ireland, but there are signs of change in other countries; in the UK and the US, for example, internet advertising is a multi-billion euro business.

The Irish television licence fee of €158 compares favourably with that in the UK (€197), Germany (€209) and Sweden (€215) but is higher than in France (€119) and Italy (€101).

The Irish also watch less television than other nationalities; 180 minutes a day compared to 281 minutes in Japan.

damien

This is what the trained parrots on the ComReg consumer panel said in front of the EU when they came to Dublin in November. It's a nice little trick ComReg have trained them to do. Pay them 1500 euros to attend a meeting once they come out of the meeting repeating the mantra that everything is fine and that there are valid reasons for the high prices. Emperor and new clothes comes to mind.

paulm17781

If we're so keen on talking and texting, should we not be charges less per unit than other places, to keep in par? No reports ever seem to suggest this. It's not like the price of calls / texts is a commodity.

watty

bealtine wrote:

T

Where have Comreg been the last few years, are they not the consumers watchdog? If not, then they should be abolished and replaced with a body that is also consumer focused.

They are 1) Controller and hader out of spectrum, 2) an industry regulator. Consumer is a tiny part of remit.

bealtine

watty wrote:

They are 1) Controller and hader out of spectrum, 2) an industry regulator. Consumer is a tiny part of remit.

right...if they are the regulator why do they not regulate?
They refer to themselves as being for consumers.
Why oh why do they parrot out patent nonsense that the mobile telcos use as the "excuse du jour".
Why on earth do we need to go to the UK regulator to find out the real facts?

Does the UK regulator not fulfill a similar function?

damien

paulm17781 wrote:

If we're so keen on talking and texting, should we not be charges less per unit than other places, to keep in par? No reports ever seem to suggest this. It's not like the price of calls / texts is a commodity.

The "we talk too much" stuff is an eircom, DCMNR and ComReg lie. I was listening to the Last Word discussing this tonight. I'm sure the ComReg funded Consumers Association might side with ComReg on the talk too much thing but at least they are off message when it comes to line rental. Plenty of the Scandanavian countries talk more and their prices are much much less.

paulm17781

damien.m wrote:

The "we talk too much" stuff is an eircom, DCMNR and ComReg lie. I was listening to the Last Word discussing this tonight. I'm sure the ComReg funded Consumers Association might side with ComReg on the talk too much thing but at least they are off message when it comes to line rental. Plenty of the Scandanavian countries talk more and their prices are much much less.

That's my point. The "we talk more" thing implies that we are all paying the same per unit as the rest of the world which we are not. Mobile tariffs are lower in UK so bills will be cheaper. Surely if we are such heavy users we should be getting better value services???

bealtine

paulm17781 wrote:

That's my point. The "we talk more" thing implies that we are all paying the same per unit as the rest of the world

It's a "purple sky" type excuse. It sounds entirely plausible when presented quickly and glossed over and also it makes for a nice sound bite.
It's not until the excuse is examined in detail that the methodology becomes clear and the excuse is exposed for what it is : a lie.

We still need the UK regulator to put us straight and to actually present the facts in a clear and unequivocal manner as opposed to the "purple sky" nonsense that comes out of Comreg. How can they constantly show that Ireland is the cheapest in "this and that" price basket when in fact we are clearly being ripped off and with the acquiescence of our regulator.

Why have Comreg not publicly commented on this report?

paulm17781

Did anyone see the "comment" from Gerry fahey from Vodafone in the IT business section today? He went on about all this horse crap and how great vodafone are and it is the consumer who is wrong.

bealtine

paulm17781 wrote:

He went on about all this horse crap and how great vodafone are and it is the consumer who is wrong.

Rule no 1 (in the old world) the customer is *always* right.

jesus_thats_gre

Am gonna introduce some facts into this discussion lads I know you aren't a big fan of them when their is some bashing to be done but sure I will see if I can surprise ye all. These facts are top secret and very recent too - 30 September 2006

Forgive me if this is slightly simplistic:

http://www.vodafone.com/assets/files/en/VOD_KPIs_30092006.xls

Country - Total mins - Customers - Avg mins/customer

Germany - 7,979 - 29,622 - 0.26
Italy - 8,050 - 19,337 - 0.41
Spain - 7,533 - 14,024 - 0.53
UK - 7,579 - 16,287 - 0.46
Albania - 166 - 868 - 0.19
Greece - 2,216 - 4,755 - 0.46
Ireland - 1,422 - 2,119 - 0.67
Malta - 55 - 184 - 0.29
Netherlands - 1,711 - 3,894 - 0.43
Portugal - 1,606 - 4,437 - 0.36

Just look at the ratio in Ireland compared to every other OpCo. Unforunately lads, it is a FACT that Irish people do use their phones considerably more than nearly every other nation in the world.


There are alot more figures in the public domain that show the same info. A recent article can be found here:

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9846228.html

mobile phone users continue to perform above the European average, using 225 voice minutes and 114 text messages each month in the quarter compared with a Vodafone European average of 137 voice minutes and 59 text messages.

In total, voice minutes in the 12 months ending September 2006 increased by 9.8 percent to 5,393 million, but average blended revenue per user (ARPU) for the period dropped 4.9 percent compared with a year earlier as prices and offerings became more competitive.

Not exactly gospel I know lads but in fairness..

Someone else can go check APRU figures across those OpCo's and see how they line up in relation to usage.

damien

Just to be clear and to reference the charter, do you work for a mobile company or are you a contractor for one?

I get my facts from EU reports, not internal vodafone marketing mailshots.

wba88

Our phone upgrade prices r very expensive aswell!

jesus_thats_gre

damien.m wrote:

Just to be clear and to reference the charter, do you work for a mobile company or are you a contractor for one?

I get my facts from EU reports, not internal vodafone marketing mailshots.

Internal mailshots? I wouldn't be that foolish. Those fiigures are directly from their recent financial report. That spreadsheet can be found in the investor relations section of [url]www.vodafone.com:[/url]

http://www.vodafone.com/article_wide/0,3041,CATEGORY_ID%253D403%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D230852,00.html?

But yes, I do work a mobile company. Am perfectly happy to criticise on many other fronts - choice of handsets available here would be one.

watty

The amount talked is of secondary relevance. The actual charges should be main comparison.

Without funny exchange rates, but real ones. OK staff in Czech Republic might be cheaper than in Ireland, but for a Moble Company, most of the staff could be anywhere and they all have the same price roughtly for the gear. (I'll admit again that actual install labour costs might be higher here).

watty

If subsidy was phased out and prices better rflected real costs then there would be better handset choice. No operator does the handsets I'd like, but they are easily purchased. The "in shop" subsidies on new accounts and upgrades incourages waste & un-needed consuption and limits choice by market distortion.

At least Vodaphone wants to move away from subsidy.

For an ISP that is introducing a 4G service the existing subsidies of phone handsets limit what can be offered to potential 4G customers.

The cost of subsidies goes somewhere and stifles innovation and customer choice