(Irish Times) Eircom seeks limit on its duty to provide telephone lines

SkepticOne

Irish Times reports that Eircom is seeking to remove the 'universal' aspect of their Universal Service Obligation in their submission to ComReg.

Eircom says it wants to abandon its obligation to provide telephones to all homes and businesses in the State. The former Telecom Éireann says the provision the universal service required under its licence currently costs €40 million a year.

The company has proposed setting an upper limit on the amount it will spend to connect new users. The customers will then have to pay the balance.

This new measure, contained in a proposal put to the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), would hit residents in certain rural areas who are not already connected to Eircom's network.

Full story here.

Political reactions have been swift. From a worried Simon Coveney:

"Should the obligation be removed it would be the people in the most disadvantaged regions of the country - from a telecoms infrastructure point of view - who will suffer most," Mr Simon Coveney, the Fine Gael spokesman on communications, said.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, needless to say, is outraged:

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, said he had no comment to make "at this time". The matter was for the regulator to decide, she said.

IOFFLs submission is here.

jd

It's an interesting topic which is related to the whole debate on sustainable development. An argument could be made that existing houses should be exempt.

MDR

Poor Poor Eircom,

its costs you alot of money to lay copper to rural areas doesn't ,
yes it does. That why we like splitters so much, yes it is. Pity you couldn't be more innovative and adopt technologies like WLL in partnership with the regulator, then the whole world wouldn't seem quite so against you, true true. But I suppose its probabily better to cry poverty, and hope the regulator takes pity and lets the 2,400bps USO farce continue ... but somehome I don't think they will ....

jd

Originally posted by MDR
Poor Poor Eircom,

its costs you alot of money to lay copper to rural areas doesn't ,
...adopt technologies like WLL in partnership with the regulator,

I agree. I just think it's an interesting topic which goes beyond provision of telecommunications services.

spongebob

Lets see if Comreg can get Eircom to comply with the next one. They constantly seek to undermine the current (1999) one , it is a Denial of Service Obligation the way that the Rat carries on.
Comreg are grossly negligent in their enforcement of the 2400bps obligation to which we are all entitled for data purposes.

In fairness Eircom had to submit something in response to the consultation . IrelandOffline got its retaliation in first with this submission Here which was in the public domain from the start (EG. even Jamie Smith could have found it without it being leaked) .

dahamsta

Eircom's mobile phone accusations are idiocy and hypocrisy of the highest order. But anyway, I say grant them their wish, and stick a throughput USO of 64k on them. See how they like them apples.

adam

longword

I say grant them their wish by returning the local loop to the public domain at no cost to the tax payer.

Lemming

I suspect this attempt to weenie out of it's responsibilities for owning the national infrastructure is because they shot their own foot over the line-rental increases and ComReg stating that it expects to see improvements in line quality accordingly for these increases.

They'll get their increase, and can then cherry-pick what to upgrade (ie. the cheapest/least hassle-prone areas)

Boston

Originally posted by MDR
Poor Poor Eircom,

its costs you alot of money to lay copper to rural areas doesn't ,
yes it does. That why we like splitters so much, yes it is. Pity you couldn't be more innovative and adopt technologies like WLL in partnership with the regulator, then the whole world wouldn't seem quite so against you,

By wll do you mean wireless local loope. If so i know of an area in dublin where they where trialing that. Even though you didnt actually have a phone line they still charged you line rental, think calls where more expensive to, no wonder it failed really.

K!LL!@N

Originally posted by longword
I say grant them their wish by returning the local loop to the public domain at no cost to the tax payer.

All in favour, say "Aye!".

Aye!


Killian

SkepticOne

Irish Times, March 1, 2002.

The worst fears of those opposed to the flotation of Telecom Eireann as Eircom three and a half years ago appear to have been realised. Eircom's moves to wriggle out of its obligation to provide a telephone for every home in the country is, for many, the unacceptable but entirely predictable consequence of the privatisation of the state phone company.

Eircom, of course, makes a cogent argument in its recent submission to the Commission for Communications Regulation as to why it should no longer shoulder this burden. It points out that it now has only 38 per cent of the market for voice telephony - the mobile phone companies and its other rivals account for the balance.

Yet, Eircom argues, it is the only company obliged to provide a universal service at a cost of something in the region of EUR 40 million a year. Not surprisingly Eircom believe this cost should - at a minimum - be shared with other phone companies, or else passed on to the consumer. The latter measure would hit those living in isolated rural areas the hardest.

Plausible though Eircom's arguments may be, they have to be seen against the background of the company's history and place in Irish Life. The legal obligation to provide a universal service is something that Eircom inherited from its previous incarnation as a State monopoly.

The much more significant part of the Telecom Eireann legacy is the domination that the company still enjoys in the Irish Market. It is this dominant position which made the company so attractive to Valentia Telecommunications - its current owners - that they were prepared to pay EUR 3 billion for it a year ago.

In doing so, they brought to an end Eircom's short and rather unhappy life as a stockmarket company which left something in the region of 400,000 small shareholders out of pocket.

Valentia are entitled to protect their investment and challenge any aspect of the regulatory regime which they feel unfairly discriminates against them. But they should bear in mind that by trying now to get out of their obligation to provide a telephone to every home, they leave themselves open to allegations of bad faith.

It is for Eircom to decide whether persuing this issue and the bad feeling it will almost certainly generate is worth the EUR 40 million a year they believe it will save them.

BigEejit

It is for Eircom to decide whether persuing this issue and the bad feeling it will almost certainly generate is worth the EUR 40 million a year they believe it will save them.

I think that the columnist thinks that Eircon give a sh.it what the consumer thinks ... if they gave a damn about the consumer they would not have increased their line rental ...and so on and so forth

oscarBravo

Originally posted by Boston
By wll do you mean wireless local loope. If so i know of an area in dublin where they where trialing that. Even though you didnt actually have a phone line they still charged you line rental, think calls where more expensive to, no wonder it failed really.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I have WLL here in Mayo from Eircom. It's just a phone line, with the same line rental etc, it's just "beamed" in instead of being "piped" in.

Stonemason

The former Telecom Éireann says the provision the universal service required under its licence currently costs €40 million a year

Anyone else see something completely wrong with this ?.FFS can you imagine any other company having the shear cheek of getting a licence possible on the basis of the above then turning round and saying hey we decided that dosent work for us anymore.Simple solution take away there license and make them work out a new deal for a new one.

Boston

Originally posted by oscarBravo
I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I have WLL here in Mayo from Eircom. It's just a phone line, with the same line rental etc, it's just "beamed" in instead of being "piped" in.

I'm referring to a situation where eircom still a receiver on your roof and that's how you receive your telephone line. Allot like chorus and there powernet type offering. I just found it funny that it was a wireless local loop where you got charged line rental.

oscarBravo

Originally posted by Boston
I'm referring to a situation where eircom still a receiver on your roof and that's how you receive your telephone line. Allot like chorus and there powernet type offering. I just found it funny that it was a wireless local loop where you got charged line rental.

It only makes sense that you pay line rental. A service is being provided and has to be paid for (much as I hate having to pay Eircom for it). The cost of calls is not, and may not be, higher than a wired line.