Probably a crazy idea.....

K!LL!@N

but is there anyway that eircom can be forced to hand back the infrastructure( phone lines etc. ) with which they are maintaining their stranglehold on the telco industry?

Can the government impose some kind of compulsory purchase order on them and buy back the phone network? It was effectively stolen from us anyway and it seems ridiculous to have to buy back something which taxpayers have already paid for in the first place.

What about the possibility of some kind of legal proceedings being brought against the government for having sold the infrastructure in the first place? The infrastructure should have been left in the hands of the people so to speak. Eircom had a big enough head start without letting them control the whole show as well.

Anyway, apologies if it's been mentioned before or if it's totally infeasible. It was just something i was thinking about.

Killian

ednwireland

the government have the power to nationalise anything they want (it wouldn't be seen to be very industry friendly ) but it would also conflict with their thacherite economic policy, no public services, low tax rates etc basically if you can't afford it you can't have it and if you live in the regions then tough sh*t. we'll scam some sweatshops (sorry callcentres and sorry for people who work in them) to open in your area and call them high tech jobs.
from friends in the states i understand hicksville usa is much the same (i could be wrong) - they just have better infrastructure in the towns cos they have a critical mass of people to provide services.
I too beleive that the distribution network should be state owned and run as not for profit and the esb i beleive comms and power are as essential (if not more so) than trains (none of those in donegal either) and roads which are payed for the gov.

anyway could go on ( i lived through thatchers britain and it was a disaster for anyone outside greater london)

pork99

If I screw up a job my employer or client replaces me, you are out on yer ear, no second chances. If the company I work for fails to provide satisfactory service to a client they find the contract is given to someone else.

Its harsh but you accept it as part of a competitive marketplace. Its also a big incentive to do good work and provide value for money.

Eircom apparently live in a world were there are no such consequences to their actions - or inactions. It brutally simple, if we want to achieve our goals and catch up with the rest of Europe we need to sack eircom but I can't see any government in this country ever having the cop-on or guts to do that.

No they prefer to look the other way and splash out 250,000,000 on the Potemkin Village, I mean Digital Hub. In other European countries I think people are are better informed and more sophisticated and the politicians they elect reflect that. Here, unfortunately the mass of the population are in the "dont know - dont care" camp when it comes to technology etc and just look at gormless gobsheens they vote for.

K!LL!@N

Can eircom not be forced to break up?
Seperate the services part from the network part.
Perhaps the government could actually do something for the good of the nation, for once. :rolleyes:

Killian

billy the squid

Given the current economic climate, I personally dont think that the government would serve eircom with any sort of compulsary purchase order,

Just think how much wouldeircom sell it for would be in the hundreds of millions.

pete

Originally posted by K!LL!@N
It was effectively stolen from us anyway and it seems ridiculous to have to buy back something which taxpayers have already paid for in the first place.

... paid for twice, in the case of the poor saps conned into buying overpriced shares.

milltown

What Pete said!

K!LL!@N

You're totally right pete.
The government conned people into buying the shares.
They basically told everyone it was a sure thing.
Which obviously it wasn't.
Actually when you think about it, the prospect of making a quick buck is what blinded people to what was really going on.

But anyway, no has been able to tell me whether or not anything i have mentioned is possible.
Is it possible to slap a compulsory purchase order on them?
Is it possible to break up the company into two distinct and seperate units?
I'm not really asking if it will happen, just querying the possibility that such action could be taken.

Killian

billy the squid

Is it possible to slap a compulsory purchase order on them?

I dont know, but I thought that CPOs could only be applied to land. eircom's copper network would be considered more of an asset rather than land. I guess they could buy the land that all their telephone poles are on and stuff but eircom dont own that land anyway.

Is it possible to break up the company into two distinct and seperate units?

If some court somewhere feels that they are in breach of some monopoly legislation they could always put that legislation to the test.

and as we have seen from the past eircom dont seem to be doing too well when it comes to court cases with the ODTR so i would say yes it is possible

jd

Originally posted by K!LL!@N
But anyway, no has been able to tell me whether or not anything i have mentioned is possible.
Is it possible to slap a compulsory purchase order on them?

I doubt it..
They could make an offer to buy the infrastructural part of the company to the present owners, but I don't think they could make it mandatory

Is it possible to break up the company into two distinct and seperate units?

My understanding is that the competition authority can get involved if a company acquires another company, if it is possible that such a move is anti-competitive. You really need a lawyer to answer these questions though. Otherwise all you get is uninformed speculation, (eh,what am I doing ) which can be quoted as informed comment, or worse, the definitive truth.

MrPudding

There was an idea floated in Europe that there should be a separate LoopCo. This would be a very cool thing, you would have a separate company which owned the local loop and had nothing to do with actual delivery of services. This LoopCo should then charge service providers for use of the last mile. The main thing is it should have no connections to any of the service providers and should treat and charge all equally. Idealy this would be run as a not for profit concern. I think this would be the ideal situation but unforntunatly it is probably very unlikely to happen.

K!LL!@N

That's exactly what should have happened, Mr. Pudding.
It's so simple yet it obviously passed way above the heads of the people involved in the sale.

So, no legal experts willing to give an informed opinion?

Killian