Triple play rip-off

wimmy

I'm going mad at the state of Irish ISPs services, even if they have improved dramatically over the last 10 years in terms of speed and reliability, but what gets me is that the pricing is just wrong and insulting.

I pay 80 odd quid a month for a decent connection (30Mb) but drawbacks are that I can only get 40 something channels and "unlimited phone calls to 24 countries" (It is unlimited to 400 minutes...) What a joke.

In France and the UK, you get 100Mb, 200 channels, real unlimited calls (as in unlimited like) for 20 or 30 quid.

Here is a report I just found: (Well excerpts)

European triple-play services costlier & with sparser content

European triple-play services offer fewer TV channels than their US equivalent, and are "markedly more expensive" than in Hong Kong or Japan, according to a new report from UK firm Tariff Consultancy.

The bundling of fixed-line broadband, telephony and IPTV triple-play packages for households is set to become more complex with the introduction of mobile services, the report adds. "Triple-play operators continue to experiment with the right combination of fixed and mobile packages," said Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of Tariff Consultancy. "As a result the market for quad-play packages is highly fluid with more operators offering mobile services both as a promotional tool and as a separate service".

Operators are described as remaining uncertain whether to focus purely on mobile broadband or mobile calls as part of the combined package, and continue to fine tune their offerings, according to Tariff Consultancy. However, the trend in most markets worldwide is towards delivering quad-play, according to the report, either as a complete package or as an optional service.

The report, entitled 'TCL Triple & Quad Play Journal', finds that prices of triple-play bundles are lower in Europe than in the US by around 10%, but in the US these packages offer between 100 and 400 channels, significantly more than in Europe, where the largest number is from 70 to 90 channels as part of a premium package. In Asian countries such as Hong Kong, triple-play operators offer high broadband speeds of 200 Mbps or more for the same price as 20 Mbps services in Europe. The average price of a triple-play service in Japan or Hong Kong remains 40% less than its European counterpart.

And looking at this rather old (but still relevant I'm sure) table, Ireland is far far behind:

1. Sweden GBP 0.32 (EUR 0.48)
2. France GBP 0.83 (EUR 1.23)
3. Finland GBP 1.41
4. Italy GBP 1.71
5. Norway GBP 2.05
6. Holland GBP 2.19
7. Denmark GBP 2.50 (EUR 3.7)
8. Iceland GBP 2.54
9. Germany GBP 2.64 (EUR 3.9)
10. Austria GBP 3.04
11. Belgium GBP 3.40
12. UK GBP 5.60 (EUR 8.3)
13. Portugal GBP 5.84
14. Spain GBP 6.33
15. Poland GBP 6.60
16. Ireland GBP 7.02
17. Luxembourg GBP 9.39
18. Switzerland GBP 11.03 (EUR 16.8)
19. Czech Republic GBP 12.25
20. Greece GBP 16.86
21. Hungary GBP 24.48
22. Slovakia GBP 25.48 (EUR 37.8)
23. Turkey GBP 58.82 (EUR 87.3)

I wish we could lobby, complain, write letters and CHANGE this sorry state of affair.

lmimmfn

you should consider yourself very lucky that you can get 30Mb, i pay 55euro for 4Mb, not thats a sin

watty

Get a FTA or Freesat satellite receiver and 60cm dish.
Then you have free multichannel TV better than any of the US payTV. Only lacking SkySport.

The main issues here are
1) Broadband
2) Mobile miss sold as real replacement for Fixed Broadband instead of MOBILE interent
3) Line rental

We don't have hardly indigenous payTV. It's the UK's Pay TV on UPC or Sky. 3e hardly counts.

All the decent UK channels are free on satellite.

The first time I was in US was 1983. 80 channels of junk. In UK at the time four decent channels.

Multichannel in Europe has provided a few niche channels, but largely it has fragmented TV and pulled quality down to American levels. BBC & ITV competing in "reality TV" and "Celeb" TV markets. C4 not commissioning animation and closed film unit.

"Triple play" anyway is PROVIDER ploy to lock in customers and make higher profit margin on revenue. It's always been a bad thing for consumers actually.

Pick best ISP for fixed broadband. Best provider for Mobile Phone and Aerial For Irish TV channels (free) and Dish for all main UK channels (free) and only subscribe to payTV if you need Sports coverage not on RTE/S4C/BBC/ITV/C4/Five/TG4.

wimmy

Yeah definitely looking at that, along with a freesat, DTT able TV, then Skype is quite cheap and a fixed Broadband for the connection... But I'm a bit lazy and like to get all in one go for the moment.

But so many people are getting ripped-off. And they're not all tech-savvy/in the know. Irish ISPs should be pressured into lowering their prices as they are the most expensive in Europe, and offer the poorest packages.

Ireland is the new Silicon valley of Europe (seen in the news recently) yet its population suffers the same old cowboy rip-off strategies as ever.

Karmafaerie

Most ISP's in Ireland are the most expensive simply because we have the highest line rental charges in the world.

There's no question about it really.
Eircom can't afford to drop the price cause they're massively in debt, and only a few wireless options and UPC and Magnet in cetain areas can offer more.

Mountjoy Mugger

wimmy wrote: »

Yeah definitely looking at that, along with a freesat, DTT able TV, then Skype is quite cheap and a fixed Broadband for the connection... But I'm a bit lazy and like to get all in one go for the moment.

That's how providors sell triple play.

BrianD

Most of Europe enjoys economies of scale. We have 4m people - many of them living in low density urban sprawl and the remainder living in one-off homes up little lane ways. The cost of servicing unsustainable development at the level we have in Ireland is ridiculous and impacts on everything including telecoms provision and pricing.