Broadband pricing - Recession

zoro

Considering how so many of us are now finding it harder to make ends meet, what are the odds of ISPs dropping the prices of their services?

I've been a (generally) happy subscriber to Digiweb's Metro package for quite some time now, and I'm forking over 60e every month for a 12meg line - which has a pretty frustrating rolling cap of 50 gigs.

Having received a letter through the door recently telling me that NTL digital & broadband is now available in my area (Phibsboro, Dublin 7) I've been seriously considering jumping ship.
Their comparable product has 10megs down, with no cap (FUP applies) and is half the price of the Digiweb offering.

And if I decide to go for one of their package deals I can save even more (if I want digital TV, that is)

So anyway, back to my original question - should/are ISPs doing everything they can to keep their customers, while also attempting to appear as good value to prospective new ones?
Which ones have lowered prices, now that people have less disposable income in their pockets?

Xcellor

Don't hold your breath I'd say chances slim to zero.

zoro

Reading my post again, it really sounds like I'm hoping for one of the Digiweb employees to see it and decide to cut my bill by 50%
I was actually trying to highlight the fact that no one seems to be even considering either dropping their prices, or providing more value for money

watty

eircom line rental and eircom llu costs(not just the line rental but all the other costs) really set all the prices, including fibre, wireless and cable. eircom want to put up prices


The Mobile Internet needs to rise in price at least x5 as the data is cross subsidized by voice calls about x100 to x500 to 1!

If eircom don't cut line rental to about half, they will end up with only 40% lines. It's down from 82% + before privatisation to about 66% now and 1/3rd are paid for by Governement Social Welfare. Since 120% of people have mobile phones and you can get mobile under similar scheme, eircom has a problem if Gov ditch the landlines. eircom has over 5 Billion debt (including pension deficit) to service with the 800M revenue. So they can't do the needed cuts in line rental (most expensive in world).

So at the minute there won't be any price cuts. Once Mobile operators have achieved Data customer saturation (about another 150k to 200k) they will start raising prices. Already the €200 to €500 per gigabyte excess on Mobile makes extra cap with Digiweb or DSL look very cheap. Vodafone is the most realistic cap & pricing for mobile, but they too are massively cross subsidising the data from voice calls.

Since the "real" cheapest you can get DSL is about €50 if you don't want land line calls (inc Line rental), I can't see UPC or Digiweb lowering prices. Magnet, IBB/Imagine and Smart may never have made profit (perlico lost 17M the year before Vodafone bought them), so I can't see them justifying price cuts.

paulm17781

I'd just get UPC (NTL) if I were you.

These are my results, just taken.

lmimmfn

if things are much much worse here in another year or so, i can see a lot of people disconnecting their BB service. Sounds extreme, but its still around 700EUR a year after youve been taxed to the hilt on that. Eircom will be in serious trouble then, especially if what Watty says about the number of welfare lines is true.

Wonder if it would be good if the government bought back eircom, a feckin better deal than what we're getting with each of us funding the removal the element of any risk from banking in Ireland

bobbbb

Eircom could do with improving BB for people living a distance from the exchange. Those who can get a max of 1Mb because they live too far away will jump the second a decent wireless provider knocks on their doors.

Alter-Ego

Digiweb will offer you absolutely no incentive to stay with them. Been there done that.

Get UPC if you can and just hope nothing goes wrong with it.

Marlow

We see a lot of people downgrading their packages, but surely not disconnecting.

Everybody knows, that if you want to stay up to date, search a new job etc., the Internet is the way forward nowadays.

I'd say broadband is the last thing most people will disconnect, they might go for cheaper packages or better value though.

/M

dxhound2005

I'm on the Eircom 7.6 meg service. I have Eircom BB since 2003 and before that an ISDN line for a while which was major expensive. When I got BB it was 512/128k for more money than I pay now so looked at that way we are getting a bargain but of course I know it's still way too expensive. If times get worse I would consinder moving to a lower speed but the line rental is the real killer and it will probably go up again if anything.

Marlow

dxhound2005 wrote: »

so looked at that way we are getting a bargain but of course I know it's still way too expensive. If times get worse I would consinder moving to a lower speed but the line rental is the real killer and it will probably go up again if anything.

Well. The line rental is exactly the problem. Especially when you can get alternative connections (fixed wireless etc.) at nearly the price of the line-rental alone.

And a lot of people don't need the landline anymore, because they have a cellphone or they moved into a house that didn't have a land line in the first place and they only wanted broadband.

/M

Merch

Its up to you to seek out the best deal, perhaps you could call customer support and ask are there any offers you could avail of as other service providers costs are better and you like to close the margin.
If they dont offer/care/whatever then look for service provider with the best price.
Its always hassle to change and thats what loads of them rely on, that the few quid extra isnt worth the hassle and most people cant be bothered to look/change.
Had this discussion with someone regarding UPC as in their customer service is terrible should they go with them, In my experience while the wait on the phone is long it is free and the callout to hook you up can be a pain but otherwise I find the service reasonably priced, plus cheap phone and DVR to be honest no worse service than what I have heard of from other SP
and the bill is all in one.

sexmag

Marlow wrote: »

Well. The line rental is exactly the problem. Especially when you can get alternative connections (fixed wireless etc.) at nearly the price of the line-rental alone.

And a lot of people don't need the landline anymore, because they have a cellphone or they moved into a house that didn't have a land line in the first place and they only wanted broadband.

/M

people will always require landlines,as handy as mobiles are,landlines are lot more useful,like people who want a monitored alarm,cable broadband and sky digital also its is a lot handier if youve lost your phone or have no credit and you need to make a call and what about the old woman who's terrified of mobiles and has to make an emergency call haha there more of a necessity for security reasons than a luxury anymore,just my opinion

Marlow

sexmag wrote: »

people will always require landlines,as handy as mobiles are,landlines are lot more useful,like people who want a monitored alarm,cable broadband and sky digital also its is a lot handier if youve lost your phone or have no credit and you need to make a call and what about the old woman who's terrified of mobiles and has to make an emergency call haha there more of a necessity for security reasons than a luxury anymore,just my opinion

And all that is worth 26 quid a month for you ? I see that trend changing rapidly.

Monitored alarms can be supplied with a gsm option instead. No landline needed.

Sky will soon get the clue themselfes using the internet connection instead of a landline, seeing that they roll out broadband offerings themselfes. Also even though they try, they can't enforce you to connect one in the end. They often don't even charge you extra, even though they say, they do.

DSL based broadband requires a landline, true, but that was exactly my point. You can get other broadband offerings, that don't

The old lady, that is scared of a cellphone, can actually get a regular phone that uses a cellphone module or voip instead. Can be done, just need somebody to set it up in the first place. She won't know the difference. And you know, that a cellphone can make emergency calls (112) even without credit or sim.

Honestly 26 EUR/month for a landline is one of the bigger positions on your monthly bill and you get feck all for it.

/M

_Sidhe_

They don't need to, so won't.

zoro

Some pretty interesting discussion going on here.

My own thoughts are that broadband connections won't be simply cut off, but will be cut back to the lowest offering provided, in order to save money but remain connected.
Jumping ship to other providers isn't an option for alot of people