Finally eircom becomes a broadband company.

Sponge Bob · 26-11-2010 7:36pm #1

Not so long ago we had to listen to Dave McRedmond excusing eircoms ridiculously slow broadband rollout by saying there was no demand for Broadband.....he charged around €99 a month for 1mbit back in those days.

Now it is all change. For the first time ever, during the June September Quarter over HALF of ALL eircom lines are Broadband lines. That will never change.

http://siteassets.eircom.net/assets/static/pdf/IR/ERCIF1stQuarterResultsReportto30September2010.pdf

Total lines 1.452m ( and falling 20k punters a quarter nowadays)
Total DSL 697k + 38k LLU lines = 735k Broadban Lines ( and rising still) just over half of all lines.

The number of non broadband lines will in my opinion drop drastically next year. They could lose up 200,000 lines.

100,000 to economising by households and business and 100,000 from loss of market support.

That is because around 1 in 4 lines out of these 1.452m lines is paid for by the state. 340,000 of them out of 380,000 household benefits package recipients. The other 40,000 have Mobiles or UPC.

http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2010-11-23.1269.0&s=telephone+allowance#g1271.0.r

Eamon O Cuiv (Minister, Department of Social and Family Affairs;)The current Government policy in relation to pensions is laid out in the National Pensions Framework which was launched in March of this year. The Government is committed to seeking to maintain the State Pension at 35% of average earnings. The framework includes a number of changes to the State pension in order to make it more transparent, simple and equitable for those who reach pension age.

That is the core pension, of course if average earnings drop ...like the minimum wage just did , then the ration can be maintained by cutting it. He went on.

In Budget 2010 ( December 2009 Budget) , the Government avoided any cuts in the State pension. Weekly rates of payments to pensioners (those 66 and over) were not reduced and neither were other supports such as the household benefits package which includes the free TV licence, electricity/gas allowance and telephone allowance. The living alone and over 80 allowances were also retained at existing levels. In 2010 more than €4.5 billion has been made available to support over 400,000 pensioners.

No guarantee there I see, just a historic statement. Cutting FUEL allowances in the middle of a cold snap like we have now looks mean, so what does that leave ??

CIE are tearing the arse out of free travel with over 50% of long distance train tickets being Free Travel tickets. I reckon that and the telephone allowance are being eyed up and that the telephone allowance will be cut by 15-20% along with the Travel .....they will ban pre 9am morning travel I'd guess.

Meteor have a €20 package which is a lot cheaper than €26 line rental ( these vat includive) and that is where they will cut towards I reckon. Sure you can keep your landline number and all if eircom let you

O Cuiv went on.

The Government has already made difficult decisions and the next steps towards recovery will require further such decisions. Social welfare expenditure for 2011, including expenditure on State pensions, will be considered in the context of the forthcoming Budget, having regard both to needs and to the resources available to meet those needs. In an uncertain economic environment, my priority will be to ensure that the Government strategy to stabilise the financial position is advanced and to protect those most in need in a manner which is sustainable in the years ahead.

And subsidising a rich Singaporean company is not high on that priority list. Nor is subsidising a broadband company that misses its rollout targets like eircom does AND one which has a lot of previous lying to Oireachtas members.

Telephone Allowance    2004    2005    2006    2007    2008 
Customer Numbers    297,967    311,353    318,828    327,336    351,924
Cost    &#8364;85,697,000    &#8364;89,143,000    &#8364;90,333,000    &#8364;98,855,000 &#8364;112,196,000

O cuiv has been inexorably banging out answers over the last month or so. Here is a detailed breakdown from elsewhere

http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2010-10-21.962.0&s=telephone+allowance+2009#g968.0.r

The total cost of the household benefits package for 2007, 2008 and 2009 is as follows:
Year Total Cost€000
2007 313,111
2008 340,252
2009 359,106

The household benefits package comprises the electricity or gas allowance, telephone allowance and free television licence. The allowances are paid as a direct credit on customers’ bills where possible. Where this is not possible, monthly cash payments are made directly to customers’ nominated post office or financial account. The amount paid direct to each service provider for the period 2007, 2008 and 2009 is set out in the following table:
Service Provider 2007€ 2008€ 2009€
Telephone Allowance
Eircom 89,003,295 91,612,894 91,287,267
Imagine Business 25,546 27,105 29,613
Gaelic 987,492 1,260,203 1,319,726
Imagine Broadband 334,117 499,201 530,456
Cinergi 56,989 1,677,158 2,005,672
BT 1,047,357 3,953,182 4,270,100
BT Resellers 2,709,446 1,122,580 1,139,995
Talk Talk 1,151,068 59,504 55,598
Verizon 64,894 619,247
Cable & Wireless 111,543
Electricity Allowance
ESB 144,556,885 153,433,353 163,769,944
Airtricity 130,134* 41,345*
Gas Allowance
Calor Gas 55,901 17,456 2,014
Flogas 45,109 63,433 76,151
Bord Gais 14,851,882 14,700,487 14,344,080
Cash Payments to customers 6,483,779 16,021,205 23,832,594 ( alt gas and electricity)

watty · 27-11-2010 3:08pm

My mobile is €15 a month (50min, 50 texts included, excess charged at normalish Mobile rates). I've saved over €1,500 since ditching Eircom.

I expect others and the Government to be as sensible with money.

If Line rental was lower (about €9) I'd consider DSL broadband.

How many people realise they can apply the welfare phone subsidy to Mobile Voice, or even simply Broadband without phone line UPC (via TV cable, no TV sub required), Magnet (fibre), or Digiweb/Smart (Metro or Fibre) "VOIP" based phone on Broadband?

dazdrog · 29-11-2010 11:46am

whats needed to get the phone allowance?

bealtine · 29-11-2010 12:01pm

dazdrog wrote: »

whats needed to get the phone allowance?

Old age pension and disability allowance are two ways I know of.

watty · 29-11-2010 2:05pm

Really OAP freebies such as Medical Card, Travel, TV licence, Phone shouldn't apply to to everyone. Though how you cheaply, fairly and honestly decide who is "deserving" of such largess, I don't know. Or should it be equally for all and compensate by taxing income of better off more? Probably cheapest and fairest.

Vunderground · 29-11-2010 4:55pm

People with disabilities are likely to suffer the same fate as those on Jobseekers Allowance, but if their secondary benefits are cut it would really hurt them. It could lead to such people loosing their internet and the social isolation that would go with it.
Remember, the vast majority of people on Disability Allowance have never worked and may never work so have no savings and are in a worse position than OAPs.
Loosing the landline allowance would really be destructive but it could happen as there are no votes in disability.
What a nasty little country this can be!

Cantona's Collars · 29-11-2010 7:26pm

The 'landline allowance' is not restricted to landlines as a lot of people mistakenly believe,it can be claimed for mobile phones aswell because it is paid out by social welfare dept.It's amazing how many older people believe it's a payment by Eircom.With regard to Eircom becoming a broadband company I believe they've missed the boat and are being left behind by the likes of UPC.
Look to the UK for dsl broadband and phone pricing-just goes to show how expensive it is in this country in comparison.As for NGB-'uncongested broadband' with a pitiful download cap.

Finally eircom becomes a broadband company.

Comments