NTL set to exit residential telecoms market as part of group restructuring........

spanner_head

Taken from todays Irish Times........

I'm on a two way network. Doesn't really say if they are gonna ditch that telephone service. Just says CPS..........


NTL set to exit residential telecoms market as part of group restructuring
By Jamie Smyth



NTL is on the verge of withdrawing from the residential telecoms market in the Republic in a bid to cut costs as its parent NTL Group prepares to emerge from bankruptcy protection in the US.

The company, which supplies almost 10,000 homes with a telephone service, is conducting a final review of its budget, and is expected to announce it is withdrawing the service within weeks.

A decision to withdraw its residential telephony service would affect NTL consumers who transferred from Eircom in the past two years.

It would also represent a significant blow to the domestic market which has seen several high-profile telecoms firms exit the Republic during the most severe industry crisis in history.

Spirit Telecom, one of the biggest firms which stopped offering telephony to consumers last year, complained it was not possible to compete against Eircom, which holds 90 per cent of the market.

An NTL Ireland spokeswoman refused to comment on the issue yesterday, but senior industry sources believe NTL will exit the market for carrier pre-select telephony (CPS), a type of technology which the company uses to offer its customers a service using Eircom's network.

Its CPS telephony service - which is used by under 10,000 customers - is a loss-maker for the firm, which has had to cut back severely on its capital spending following its parent's bankruptcy.

The firm has conducted a trial with a different type of telephony technology called voice over internet protocol which could utilise NTL's existing network to offer a service. But this type of technology is not expected to be commercially available for years.

NTL Ireland is expected to continue to offer telephony service to business customers, a sector in which it is possible to maintain better margins and make profits.

NTL will also concentrate on offering cable television service to customers, and is also considering restarting the roll-out of its high- speed internet service. The roll-out of this service, which is available to just 8,000 homes over an upgraded cable, was halted in 2001 when NTL ran out of cash.

Industry sources told The Irish Times yesterday that the company was investigating ways to upgrade its cable system in areas where it won't have to dig up the streets.

The Irish division is expected to follow its parent's new corporate strategy announced earlier this year which focuses on boosting earnings, reaching cash break-even point and turning a profit.

NTL Ireland's latest financial accounts show it reported a pre-tax loss of €24.2 million in the year to December 31st, 2001, up from €11.9 million in the previous year.

The losses were caused by higher operating expenditures which jumped to €89.3 million in 2001, up from €77 million in 2000.

A new Commission for Communications Regulation will report to the Minister for Communications Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, next month on the issue of making flat-rate dial up internet available. The Commission, which was formally established yesterday by the Government, has been directed to report to Mr Ahern on the progress made to mandate telecoms providers to offer a flat-rate internet product at cheap prices.

spongebob

Jamie Smyth should know better by now . SHAME on you for uncritically reprinting this guff Jamie.

Its CPS telephony service - which is used by under 10,000 customers - is a loss-maker for the firm, which has had to cut back severely on its capital spending following its parent's bankruptcy.

AND

NTL will also concentrate on offering cable television service to customers, and is also considering restarting the roll-out of its high- speed internet service. The roll-out of this service, which is available to just 8,000 homes over an upgraded cable, was halted in 2001 when NTL ran out of cash.

AND

The Irish division is expected to follow its parent's new corporate strategy announced earlier this year which focuses on boosting earnings, reaching cash break-even point and turning a profit.

Quote number 1 should have read

It had cut back on capital spending LONG BEFORE the bankruptcy

Quote Number 2 then admits it had cut back in 2001.......was NTL bankrupt in 2001 Jamie? or was that 2002?

Where did the 8000 homes figure appear from, NTL themselves told the Sunday Tribune in an article Less Than 2 weeks ago that the figure was 2900 and Not 8000
A Good Journalist can check his facts and quote Attributable facts .....non ????

Quote Number 3 is Risible, they have reached breakeven and ARE making a profit in Ireland for chrissakes. They are then repatriating it to the UK...a point you noted NOT.

The rest of your article is mainly padding and speculation.

Cop yourself on ........bring back Karlin pleeeeeaaaaaseeeeeeee

M

dahamsta

NTL may quit Irish phone market: report

NTL is refusing to comment on media reports which claim that the cable company is considering withdrawing from the Irish residential phone market.

A story in Tuesday's Irish Times said that the firm was considering exiting the residential telephone sector in Ireland as part of a cost-cutting exercise and following on NTL group's expected emergence from bankruptcy protection.

When initially contacted by ElectricNews.Net on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the Irish arm of the British cable TV group said that there was "no basis" to the Irish Times report. However, the company has subsequently retracted that comment, and now says it has no comment on the issue.

[...]

It has also been reported that NTL is about to resume the rollout of its high-speed Internet service. Currently this service is available to around 8,000 homes, in Terenure and Tallaght, where NTL has implemented its 2-way cabling system, which offers broadband access at 512kbps for EUR35 per month and 128kbps for EUR25.

When asked whether the company would resume rollout of its cable modem service, the spokesperson said that "the cable modem product has gone down well and that the company is currently looking for ways to add to the services it provides."

dahamsta

On the topic of Jamie's writing style, it has to be said that he's just not an Op/Ed reporter, he's a factual reporter. I think he takes it a little too far, but he could very well see that as my problem, not his.

adam

Hannibal_12

Spirit Telecom, one of the biggest firms which stopped offering telephony to consumers last year, complained it was not possible to compete against Eircom, which holds 90 per cent of the market.

Says it all really doesn't it. As regards the rest of the article I would say that NTL, as Muck said, will likely prioritise their UK market which is obviously much larger and better developed. I think it will be a very long time before Ireland sees any extensive cable internet rollout/availability. A shame really because I was always of the impression that if NTL had rolled out broadband on a wide basis for those prices quoted on their website then we would be in a very different situation now. (Who would pay huge setup fees and €107 a month to the RAT if cable was avaliable)

SkepticOne

The cable situation in Ireland is proof that allowing incumbents to charge extortionate fees does not stimulate the development of competitive infrastructure.

SkepticOne

"The firm has conducted a trial with a different type of telephony technology called voice over internet protocol which could utilise NTL's existing network to offer a service. But this type of technology is not expected to be commercially available for years."

... and would only be available in those areas already upgraded to two way cable.

"NTL will also concentrate on offering cable television service to customers, and is also considering restarting the roll-out of its high- speed internet service. The roll-out of this service, which is available to just 8,000 homes over an upgraded cable, was halted in 2001 when NTL ran out of cash."

... when they stopped the upgrade, they had approximately 25,000 homes upgraded according to press reports at the time. The 8,000 figure probably refers to those areas they have been intensively marketing the service. They may expand this to the remainder of the upgraded area.

spongebob

Originally posted by SkepticOne
... when they stopped the upgrade, they had approximately 25,000 homes upgraded according to press reports at the time. The 8,000 figure probably refers to those areas they have been intensively marketing the service. They may expand this to the remainder of the upgraded area.

Their press releases, you can blame the journos for not getting in a car with a pair of binoculars I suppose but the lies were told by NTL.

I am not sure where this 8000 figure came from.

The Tribune story on the 23/11 actually quoted an NTL spokesperson as having given the 2900 figure for upgraded 2 way customers with Broadband capability. The spokesperson said they were sticking at that too.

The extra 5000 may be stranded cable. These stranded assets wuld include new housing estates in .....probably.....Lucan or Clondalkin or Clonee that have 2 way cable installed by the builders which is technically capable of carrying broadband.

The problem of course is that NTL will not run any fibre to the estate. I have reliably heard that 2500 houses in the Clonee area could be hooked up if NTL were to run 4.8KM of fibre with no further work required on the cable iself.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Muck
The Tribune story on the 23/11 actually quoted an NTL spokesperson as having given the 2900 figure for upgraded 2 way customers with Broadband capability. The spokesperson said they were sticking at that too.

I believe that the either the spokesperson is wrong (not unlikely) or that the journo picked it up wrong. If I remember correctly, around a year ago, NTL relaunched it's service to existing upgraded areas.

http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=7183698

This caused a lot of rumours at the time on this forum that NTL were resuming their upgrade process.

I believe that the very low figures of 1,2 and 3 thousand quoted really refers to marketing pushes within the upgraded areas.

I do believe that there is stranded assets out there. In fact, I'm in an area where they replaced old one-way cable with two-way grade cable but still don't provide two-way services. I was told various things as the reason for this.

spongebob

Originally posted by SkepticOne

http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=7183698
This caused a lot of rumours at the time on this forum that NTL were resuming their upgrade process.

The 3000 figure for 2 way upgraded and with backhaul sounds about right to me.

If a sizeable block (blocks) of the stranded 5000 came together and hassled the living daylights out of NTL up in East Wall then you may have some hope of getting the backhaul installed.

The rest of their customers have crap cable where NTL intend to do precisely nothing.

Journalists who work for reputable papers (of which the IT remains one despite its falling standards of tech journalism) should treat NTL with the contempt they deserve as a grasping bunch of patronising English incompetents.

Was it the same Jamie Smith who interviewed Stephen Carter the NTL MD 2 months ago where Stephen said to Jamie that the Irish were <paraphrase> only interested in telly and that's all NTL would give us so</paraphrase> . Jamie left his critical faculties at home that day too and published Carters patronising sh1te without so much as a 'do you think so Stephen'

M

SkepticOne

It may well be only 3000 that have full backhaul and two-way capability. This would mean that reports at the time quoting a figure of 25,000 referred only to upgraded coax cable.

We had a meeting with the director of broadband development at NTL and I got the distinct impression that cablemodem services were available to 25,000 homes in the Dublin 24 and 6W (small parts) areas of Dublin. This came as no surprise at the time since this figure had been widely reported. This would of course exclude Lucan, Clondalkin and Clonee which may well have coax of sufficient grade but without the fibre infrastrucure.

If there is evidence that it is in fact only 3000 or so homes capable of cable internet then that would be very interesting and of use to IOFFLs campaign.

pete

Originally posted by SkepticOne
This would of course exclude Lucan, Clondalkin and Clonee which may well have coax of sufficient grade but without the fibre infrastrucure.

If by "Clonee" they mean that part of Dublin 15 nestled between Huntstown and the Meath border that was developed over the last few years by Menolly Properties; which is a mile or two away from the village of Clonee, and which only estate agents and taxi drivers ('jaysis yer outside de dubblin taximeter areeeea - that'llll beee 25 quid, boss') and people who don't want the apparent social stigma of living in Dublin 15 insist on calling "Clonee", then woooo!

Otherwise, boo!

How much would 4.8km of fibre cost to lay, anyways?

spongebob

i assume it includes some of D15 too

fingal county council planning dept in swords may help ?

iI heard they are quite specific on high quality cable provisioning in recent years......which belongs to the homeowners if NTL wont do anything for ye, NTL have no actual title to the cable if you 'reposses' it for 'community' use like.

M

kamobe

THE Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) was surprised last night at the reasons given by telco NTL Ireland to move out of the residential telephone service it operates in competition with Eircom.


In a statement, NTL Ireland cited a high interconnect rate and termination costs charged by Eircom and a lack of a single-bill facility as reasons for the decision.

Last year Spirit Telecom, which provided a similar service, left the Irish market and complained it could not compete with Eircom.

And most ineresting of all.....

NTL is also expected to concentrate on the rollout of its digital TV and cable services and may also consider the reintroduction of internet services.

Article in full can be found here.