Eircom cuts broadband rates

Ricardfred

From The Examiner online. Good news at last.

Eircom cuts broadband rates

Eircom has announced it will cut its monthly rental fee for high speed broadband services from the beginning of March.

The decision is subject to regulatory approval, and if approved, the company's broadband customers will pay €40 per month including VAT, a drop of €14.

This news comes on the heels of rival Esat BT's announcement last week that its new 'mix and match' phone and internet service, was 37.5% lower than that of eircom's.

The wholesale rate to be charged to other operators who sell on services under their own brand will fall from €27 to €23 per month.
Eircom hopes to sign up 100,000 broadband customers by the end of the year.

The company's commercial director David McRedmond, said that Ireland is set to reach the average EU broadband penetration rate of 6-7% by the end of this year.

Eircom also said it would soon announce plans for a new range of broadband retail products.

Ripwave

Originally posted by Ricardfred
The wholesale rate to be charged to other operators who sell on services under their own brand will fall from €27 to €23 per month.

Now the fun starts. Eircom aren't going to get approval to cut their own retail rates by €15 while only cutting their wholesale rate by €4.

Tazzle

Any response from the other isps?

seamus

Originally posted by Mr.Taz
Any response from the other isps?

I doubt there will be any response until regulatory approval comes through. If it does.

If this goes through, the competition begins. €40 is down at the reasonable level. Now we just need reasonable coverage, and Esat and UTV can really start hammering eircom on subscriber levels.

MarkR

Is it a case that Eircom are claiming a €4 drop across the board, and out of the good of their heart thay are droppig their own rates to bring it down to €40? Let the price war commence.

Samba

But when will see the day when this is all uncapped?

ADSLUSER

Does this reduction apply to existing customers who are currently paying 50 a month or only after the 1 year contract ends?

Ripwave

Originally posted by Samba
But when will see the day when this is all uncapped?

As soon as it makes financial sense. As long as there are people complaining that 8G isn't enough, there will be people willing to pay more to get more. If people are willing to pay more, then the telcos aren't going to give it away free.

Ripwave

Originally posted by ADSLUSER
Does this reduction apply to existing customers who are currently paying 50 a month or only after the 1 year contract ends?

There is no "reduction". There's an application in to ComReg for permission to change the range of DSL services oreillycom offers.

If/when the application is approved, and the new services are introduced then existing customers will be "upgraded" to whatever the equivalent new service is.

dahamsta

Originally posted by Samba
But when will see the day when this is all uncapped?

Irish ISP's started as the mean to go on; if an uncapped product does come along, it won't last long.

adam

mag

Originally posted by ADSLUSER
Does this reduction apply to existing customers who are currently paying 50 a month or only after the 1 year contract ends?

I dont get this capping lark. Maybe its my feeble brain but is it not technically possible to set the bandwidth for a customer, e.g if theres a 10mb backfill then that can handle 20 customers @ 512kBs. So is it not possible for the provider to set this bandwidth & let the customer download as much as they want cause theyre paying for this. Am i missing something ?

Nitrox

Funny how other EU countries like fx. Denmark and Sweden have no problems offering DSL without the CAP at fair prices and still the speed is not lacking due to contention....

Samba

That question was rhetorical Ripwave j/k


Personally I did not go with their service purely because of the cap and I feel that this is the case with many other potential customers....until the service is improved in terms of bandwidth, I really find it hard to see eircom signing 100,000 Customers, then again I know of a few customers who only realised it was capped after the service was installed(Stupid on their behalf)

Ripwave

Originally posted by mag
Am i missing something ?

Apparently. Oreillycom offer a range of "products", including ones that meet your description.

Ripwave

Originally posted by Samba
....until the service is improved in terms of bandwidth, I really find it hard to see eircom signing 100,000 Customers, then again I know of a few customers who only realised it was capped after the service was installed(Stupid on their behalf)

Quite the opposite, Samba. By the time they get up to 100,000 customers, they'll be dealing with people who will use less than a gig a month.

ozmo

Originally posted by Samba

Personally I did not go with their service purely because of the cap and I feel that this is the case with many other potential customers....until the service is improved in terms of bandwidth

So far I've tried UTV Clicksliver, Netsource Solo and in December moved to Eircom IStream. I said I'd never go to Eircom - but had to because the other networks just werent up to standard.
I have to say Eircoms service rocks - ordered on 23rd Dec Installed by New Year- and the XBox and free ethernet modem was a nice bonus. Yes its got a low cap - but if you want speed and pings and can do your big downloads in work its brilliant.

ps. A longer article on price drop can be found at:

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2333056?view=Eircomnet

Also says the current free connection will not be reimplemented when the current promotion ends.

mag

Originally posted by Ripwave
Apparently. Oreillycom offer a range of "products", including ones that meet your description.

Riiigghhttt - youre obviously taking the piss, but can anyone expalin to me why any reason, beyond incompetence, that its isnt done as i have outlined.

Ripwave

Originally posted by mag
Riiigghhttt - youre obviously taking the piss, but can anyone expalin to me why any reason, beyond incompetence, that its isnt done as i have outlined.

How is arranging their service so that people who want a different service pay more money for it "incompetent"?

jd

Originally posted by mag
I dont get this capping lark. Maybe its my feeble brain but is it not technically possible to set the bandwidth for a customer, e.g if theres a 10mb backfill then that can handle 20 customers @ 512kBs. So is it not possible for the provider to set this bandwidth & let the customer download as much as they want cause theyre paying for this. Am i missing something ?

Technically possible, sure..but most isp's products are contended (no just in Ireland)
dialup->broadband..Backhaul costs money.

OfflerCrocGod

4 miserable euro!!! is that the price drop what a joke:mad:; my main prob is with the cap anyway it's ridiculous they may aswell stop calling it BB - it's like being on dialup I'm constantly monitoring my cap level it's like looking at your timer on a 56kb dial-up, what a disappointment:(.

Ripwave

Originally posted by ozmo
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2333056?view=Eircomnet
Also says the current free connection will not be reimplemented when the current promotion ends.

€60 for the connection fee isn't too bad, but it doesn't say anything about the modem.

Minimum coontract cost under the existing contract is €598.95 (11 months * €54.45 + free connection, + free modem).

Minimum contract cost under the new scheme (pending approval by ComReg) will be €539.88 (12 months * €39.99 + €60 connection) plus possibly a modem?

That's only €60 cheaper, or €5/month.

If you sign up with Esat today, your first 12 months will cost you (11 * €49.99) €549.89, and include a free ethernet/USB modem.

If you sign up with UTV today, it'll only cost €495, and includes a free (USB?) modem.

Funny how oreillycom have to introduce a cut of 26% to match their competitors existing prices :-)

ozmo

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
4 miserable euro!!! is that the price drop what a joke:mad:;

4 or 5 for the Wholesale side - 14 for us.

"The decision is subject to regulatory approval, and if approved, the company's broadband customers will pay €40 per month including VAT, a drop of €14. "

It all adds up over the year...

mag

Originally posted by Ripwave
How is arranging their service so that people who want a different service pay more money for it "incompetent"?

Well. im presuming incompetence on the part of Eircom due to my many experiences with them.

So, basically, the reason that this is not offered is because it would cost more per head to equally share the bandwith based on the package you have signed up to.

Its just that Ireland is the only country that i know of that caps & im trying to understand why.

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by ozmo
4 or 5 for the Wholesale side - 14 for us.

"The decision is subject to regulatory approval, and if approved, the company's broadband customers will pay €40 per month including VAT, a drop of €14. "

The Eircon ppl will pay 40 euros; but since IOLBB get there BB from Eircon and all they are cutting off that (Wholesale price) is 4 euros I'll pay 45 euros (if I get ALL of the price cut fowarded to me); also with a cap it's pointless having 512kb cause I can't use it!! - THE CAP MUST DIE:ninja:.

Ripwave

Originally posted by mag
Its just that Ireland is the only country that i know of that contends & im trying to understand why.

I wonder is Ireland the only country where people who haven't a bulls notion about things call other people incompetent? Probably not.

The notion that Ireland is the only country using contention ratios is so silly as to be laughable.

rymus

4 or 5 for the Wholesale side - 14 for us.

Anyone want to bet how long it'll be before the line rental charge is increased to recoup the 'losses' they're making by lowering the dsl rental?

Iago

The €60 connection charge is the wholesale charge according to that article, that means that the actual connection charge will probably be higher than that again!

If you want an uncapped product, you can pay extra for the higher end eircom products or for the Esat BT business service (if you're on an enabled exchange!)

Or of course you could go to Netsource and get an uncapped product with your speed rather than your downloads capped (although I think they have stopped selling their residential product)

capistrano

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
4 miserable euro!!! is that the price drop what a joke

The wholesale rate in UK is £13 (€18.6) and it has had pretty good ADSL competition for several years now. So Eircom at €24 is now approaching that. And with our population level and distribution I don't think we can get as low as the BT rate.

As regards the cap, I never reach the 8gb limit wiht IOLBB anyway - and I use it a lot. I know the KPN in Holland don't have a cap but they have a "fair use" policy and if they think you are abusing this they will disconnect you. Would the no-cappers prefer this?

mag

Originally posted by Ripwave
I wonder is Ireland the only country where people who haven't a bulls notion about things call other people incompetent? Probably not.

The notion that Ireland is the only country using contention ratios is so silly as to be laughable.

Hehe..........the troll speaks, you must lead a meaningful life........extensive knowledge of the innards of the telcom industry is all.

Ripwave

Originally posted by Iago
The €60 connection charge is the wholesale charge according to that article, that means that the actual connection charge will probably be higher than that again!

IS it? Though I suppose it refers to a current connection price of €20, and that's definitely not the retail price, so I suppose you're right.

So if the connection price is passed on in full (with VAT), it'll mean that the cost of the minimum contract under the new oreillycom price scheme will be exactly the same as ESAT are currently charging.

Doesn't sound like there's much point in waiting until March, folks - IOLBB and UTV are cheaper now than oreillycom will be in March, and include a modem (which might or might not be included in oreillycoms new "products").

Ripwave

Originally posted by mag
Hehe..........the troll speaks, you must lead a meaningful life........extensive knowledge of the innards of the telcom industry is all.

How many .ie sites did you get when you typed "contention ration" into google?