UTV Talk

dec2000

Hey all,

So what do people think of this new service from UTV? Same price line rental as Eircom (now billed by UTV) and free off peak calls to anywhere in Ireland and the UK as long as its not over an hour.

Havent got a chance to read the T&C's yet but anyone see if theres a catch?

damnyanks

Sorry but is this just when you are with UTV or do you have to sign up with some sort of package. We currently have adsl with them would wanna get onto that deal.

sceptre

damnyanks wrote:

Sorry but is this just when you are with UTV or do you have to sign up with some sort of package. We currently have adsl with them would wanna get onto that deal.

Basically you sign your line rental over to them and continue paying the same amount. Twelve month minimum term though.

Thread here

MarkR

Hmm... And do UTV pass on the money to eircom?

chump

No Mark.
From what I've been told from a trainer in eircom, they do not pass the line rental onto eircom.

What happens is they pay a small charge everytime the phone network is used, they would be paying this anyway (as far as I know) whether they were also taking the line rental or not.

They benefit greatly from taking over the line rental, but at the same time, they now completely OWN the customer and can't fob them off or send them to eircom if problems exist.

They do, at the moment, hire eircom engineers to do a lot of their work for them, but this could change.

JTMan

MarkR wrote:

Hmm... And do UTV pass on the money to eircom?

Yes ... the majority of the line rental charge gets passed on to Eircom.

moconnor

"Free Minutes" are not always free ...

I've looked at the rates and terms and conditions of this new UTV Talk package and here is what I found :

- What you gain on the swings you may lose on the roundabouts ...

- The discount versus Eircom on PEAK calls are fairly minimal,
and there appear to be better rates with other operators.

- It looks like you are paying for your "free minutes" by more expensive
minutes at peak times

- The people who will really benefit are people who have the discipline
to use their phone evenings and weekends only.

- We all might hope we will have the discipline to do this, but the
reality is that people are creatures of habit and we will use the phone
when we need it, both peak and off-peak. I use the phone a bit
during peak times so this package doesn't appear to add up from my
perspective.

- All this and being tied in for 12 months ... it may be of benefit to those who
make mostly off peak and weekend calls and it looks better than Eircom's
offering.

- While searching the net lastnight I found this guide to Selecting your new
telephone operator in Ireland which I found somewhat useful :

http://www.fonevalue.com/phone-calls/new-phone-company-tips.htm

UTV are a commercial company and naturally this is a profit focused activity, and fair play to them. I like the way they have packaged and marketed this product, but for me it just doesn't add up.

JTMan

Do you work for Eircon or Cinergi (that website is just a Cinergi ad)?

Yeah they off set the losses on off peak minutes with other revenue but so what? The package from UTV is excellent value for money.

moconnor

No I don't work for either Eircom or Cinergi.

I was just expressing my opinion, which is that this package may be of benefit to some, but it doesn't add up for me. Good for you if it works for you.

I believe the originator of this thread asked for people's views on this package and so I shared my perspective ... why so defensive .... do you perhaps work for UTV ?