Single Billing now available

kevinmcc

Single billing is available from today with Smart Telecom although their website at http://www.smarttelecom.ie hasn't been updated yet.

Gaelic Telecom http://www.gaelictelecom.ie also have single billing in place according to their website. Depedning on how much you spend you can get 10 - 20% off your line rental. I rang Esat to find out if theirs was available but was told not to August/September.

watty

A piece of cosmetic nonsense to give illusion of competion.

Since it is eircom lines and eircom exchange and eircom pricing, what is the point other than to create the illusion of competion.

Without *REAL* competion we would be better off with a semi-state Eircom and Minister deciding the QOS. As it is the "market place" won't make any better Quality O f Service available while in reality there is only one supplier (mostly).

dahamsta

Originally posted by watty
A piece of cosmetic nonsense to give illusion of competion.

Well, yes, but I imagine it's a couple of quid out of Eircom's pocket every month, and the more I can hold back from them the better I'll feel. Even pennies (ok, cents) are important and should be fought for. The convenience of single billing shouldn't be pushed aside too readily either, and of course there's a significant psychological factor involved too (imho).

adam

Eurorunner

I imagine it's a couple of quid out of Eircom's pocket every month, and the more I can hold back from them the better I'll feel.

Amen.

If everyone made the switch, it would make a significant impact and stop eircom spam getting into every household in the country.

eth0_

It's better than nothing isn't it. It'll be so much handier for their customers to just have one bill for the phone every 2 months.

I'm surprised it wasn't Esat who offered this first though!

MarVeL

Have to agree here. It's very annoying getting the eircom bumf dropped in the door every 2 months with details of their "great new pricing" or "fantastic" broadband packages. Hopefully UTV will be running with this soon and then think of all the trees who won't die a needless death

seamus

Originally posted by eth0_
It's better than nothing isn't it. It'll be so much handier for their customers to just have one bill for the phone every 2 months.

That's the key here. The amount of people who won't change carrier because of the two bills is staggering. Of course, it's typically Irish isn't it? We'll happily pay more so long as we have a little less hassle.

Da Man

Sorry if this has been covered before, but what's the wholesale line rental rate? I looked on Eircom's wholesale site and couldn't find any details there.

zod

1. Do they offer a flat rate internet bundle for dialup ( no bb in my area)

2. Is there a minimum contract term?

thx

zod

Neither have a flat rate internet package....

So near and yet so far.

Will I ever be able to move away from Eircom, sheesh!

zod

Just rang Esat - no single billing product until end of August.

Boston

Originally posted by watty
A piece of cosmetic nonsense to give illusion of competion.

one of the main reasons people give for not getting CPS is that they don't want two bills. So it will have an impact.

P45

Can't, for the life of me, understand what the benefits are to single billing. Is it a fast food type thing? Just curious.

It doesn't bother me to get three bills every two months. What bothers me is that Eircon's happens to be the same value as the other two put together.

seamus

Originally posted by P45
Can't, for the life of me, understand what the benefits are to single billing. Is it a fast food type thing? Just curious.

It's so Bridie from Ballyslapdashamuckery only has to pay the one bill at the post offish, thereby allowing her more time to chat with Molly behind the counter.

LFCFan

Originally posted by zod
Will I ever be able to move away from Eircom, sheesh!

YES! Christ, are 2 bills that much of an inconvenience if you hate €ircon so much?

Spunog UIE

do you think that it will allow other operators to subsidize the cost of line rental? I know for some it may just be appearance, i.e. cheaper line rental over cheaper broadband product. But is there a chance that a company could reduce line rental across all their services, and gain it from other areas. Maybe help people who only want the bare min. :S

SkepticOne

90% of the bill still goes to Eircom it is just that the other provider acts as Eircom's billing department. Apart from not seeing Eircom on the bill there is not much benefit to the consumer.

LFCFan

If it means even 1 less cent going to €ircon it's fine by me. If I never have to deal with them again or see another bill from them for nothing it'll be too soon.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by LFCFan
If it means even 1 less cent going to €ircon it's fine by me. If I never have to deal with them again or see another bill from them for nothing it'll be too soon.

But one of the line rental increases was specifically in order that Eircom would not lose any money from single billing. Regardless of who you switch to, it has been rigged so that Eircom still benefit.

Eurorunner

Well, i still think its significant. If you remove them from the bill, then they no longer have direct contact with you as a customer - which would be significant for future promotion of new products/services.

It would mean lower call costs - the only thing that leaves eircom with is relying on the line rental charges.

seamus

eircom are very much aware that single billing is a huge factor in people's decision to change carrier. Line rental is easy money, but the bulk of the cash is in calls. If people start making calls with other operators en masse, eircom are up the swanee.

To prove the point, I got my first piece of eircom winback fluff in the door today, that said on the front - "Why pay two bills?". It's a massive issue for residential users.

P45

"Why pay two bills?" ...

... because I save a very tidy sum of money by doing so, thank you very much! My "two bills"* add up to a lot less than a bi-monthy bill from Eircon.

*It's actually three bills every two months.

seawolf1540

If you use the phone very little and just want broadband who will offer the biggest discount on line rental?

zod

For people who use their landline for mostly dialup internet access then single billing was not a reality - this is because the only two carriers offering to take over your Eircom line rental do not offer a flat rate dialup internet solution, ie to get a flat rate package you would have to use another provider and get two bills.

This was confirmed when I called both Gaelic and Smart Telecom a couple of weeks ago.

I checked again on Friday (11 June) and although Smart Telecom gave the same answer, Gaelic Telecom said that they will single bill for the same flat rate package you are on with Eircom (or any 1893 number). I asked the guy to double check this and he said that the sales manager confirmed this.

I told him I would double check this with Eircom, he said "don't be suprised if you get some mis-information"

I called Eircom and was initially told that "if you use the flat rate package from Eircom.net you WILL get a bill from Eircom", after asking them to double check and to ask specifically with regard to customers who have moved their line rental, they confirmed that yes - you will recieve NO bill from Eircom.

If this is true then yes we have at last single billing in Ireland.

I'm still dubious because there is still ambiguity over
1. do you keep your eircom email address
2. your web space
3. your ability to send relay mail over the Eircom smtp server.

why would eircom allow this?

does anyone know anymore?

Paddy20

Only believe anything Eircon states, if it is in writing and signed by someone who is not afraid to put their name and job title under their signature

seamus

Originally posted by Paddy20
Only believe anything Eircon states, if it is in writing and signed by someone who is not afraid to put their name and job title under their signature

This is not far from the truth.

As for your 3 questions zod - 1 & 2 I think should be no problem. You can sign up for a free account, use the email address and webspace, but never dial the 1892 number. The POP doesn't actually authenticate internet access (it's being paid for, so the're no real need), so there is no way for eircom.net to determine which pay-as-you-go customers are actually using them them for pay-as-you-go internet access.

I would be skeptical. Tread carefully is what I say. You will only be allowed send mail from the eircom.net smtp server if you have a 159.134.x.x IP address. In order to get on of these, you have to dial one of eircom's access numbers. I have CPS with UTV. Any time I've dialled standard calls wihtout prefixes, I've been billed by UTV. But anytime I've dialled eircom's 1892 number without a prefix (for testing purposes) it has appeared on my eircom bill along with my line rental.

My advice would be to get all the info, wait, and one week before your bill is due, dial a 30 minute internet call on 1892 150 150. If it doesn't appear on your Gaelic bill, don't sign up for eircom's flat rate.

I know it's slightly different, but eircom, and eircom.net are different entitities when it suits them. Your line rental will be wholesale from eircom, whereas your flat rate would be retail from eircom.net. I see no reason why you won't receive a bill from eircom.net for your internet access unless your carrier is offering retail flat rate.