The real price to eircom for DSL

Xterminator

Hello,

A work collegue has a faimily member working in eircom. They both live in the family home

They are getting eircom ADSL for €37 per month.
Now he says its one of the residential offerings not a business one, and it will have a cap.

But at that price it woild actuall be good value!

I'm deliberaltely being vague here (to protect privacy), but if they can provide it to employees, and family at that price, why is the wholesale figure so much higher?

It beggars belief.

X

MDR

*must control fists of death*

I wonder if we could get our hands on a phone bill of an Eircom employee, take a few simple step to protect the employee's identity, we could use it to our advantage.

tribble

Emmm...

This is NOT being offered to all Eircom employees by a long shot!...

(otherwise i'd have a postcount in the millions...)

b

Saruman

"Damn them, Damn them all to Hell"

I feel like the Hulk is gonna come out in me...grrr...

Thorbar

Erm what's wrong with eircom giving perks to their employees? When I worked in an internet cafe I could use the internet for free, while everyone else in the joint was paying £5 an hour for the pleasure, how's that any different from eircom giving their employee's a cheaper rate?

Saruman

Eh Thorbar i think you are missing the point.. if Eircom can provide it that cheaply to its employees then how can they justify extorting the rest of us like that??? I mean you can expect a discount of 10% maybe 20% at most.. They are charging the public MORE than 5 times what they charge their employees and i bet they STILL make a profit off their employees.. thats what we are not happy about.

Gorthaur

eircom are not doing that. I was on the technical trial and if I want to keep it I have to stump up the exorbitant 100+ euro a month as well.
It was nice after the bugs were worked out but not that good!!!

Thorbar

Eircom can afford to give them cheap rates as a perk, because their employees only make up a very small proportion of their customers. Most companies do this, like airlines giving their employees free/cheap flights or internet cafes giving their workers free internet access. Its just a perk of the job that the vast majority of companies use. They probably take a loss on giving their employees this bonus but see it as worthwhile because its improves recruitment and worker's moral. What your saying is because Eircom can afford to give say 5% of their customers free phone calls ie the amount of people working for them and using their services, then why can't they give the other 95% of us free phone calls too. Erm nice logic.

Xterminator

Your logic is flawed Thorbar.

If Eircom take a loss by providing the service at a loss to it employeees, it must make up this loss by charging there customers enough to subsidise the employyee perks.
Now where on your telephone bill do you see 'subisdation of employee perks'?

However if, as i suspect, this is close to the 'real' price it costs to provide the adsl service in ireland, then it shows how much we are being ripped off.

X

jd

Originally posted by Xterminator
Your logic is flawed Thorbar.

If Eircom take a loss by providing the service at a loss to it employeees, it must make up this loss by charging there customers enough to make the difference.


X

It's a perk for some employees. So what, if they are making a loss of 10 Euros a month off the wholesale price..

Thorbar

I'm not saying Eircom aren't ripping us off, I think dsl over priced in Ireland when you compare it to what our european friends are paying.

But the fact that Eircom are giving their employee's a cheap rate on dsl is no proof that this is real price for dsl. Eircom will take a loss on their employees using cheap dsl because they see it as a bonus. This is exactly the same as any type of company giving their employees and bonus. You really think because Air hostesses get a few free flights ever year that Air lines could afford to ship the lot of us around for free?

If Eircom take a loss by providing the service at a loss to it employeees, it must make up this loss by charging there customers enough to make the difference.

And your point here is? Every business gives their employees perks, its just another way of paying them. And they have to make up the overhead of paying their employees by charging for the service their providing, how is that logic flawed?

Tazzle

The question if eircom's prices are a rip off shudnt be debated. It's a proven fact already. Just look elsewhere in europe, seems like Eircom are offering those employees the reasonable price.

yellum

If they give a lossmaking product to their employees so what ? I don't think theres anything illegal with how they sell their product and the ODTR is happy how they price it.

Praetorian

I dont think Eircom are making a loss even selling to their employees at this "cheap rate".

They do intend to rip the rest of us off however.....as they always have done

timod

Here's the service details of Eircom's Wholesale ADSL offering:

http://www.eircom.ie/bveircom/pdf/adsl.pdf

The first 16 pages are just legal jargon, pages 17-30 provide an interesting read.