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Will there be free Broadband?

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    #2
    BendiBus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,074 ✭✭✭BendiBus


    Well, if airlines can offer free (or €0.01) seats, then why can't a telco offer free broadband? But, just like the airlines, read the T&Cs very carefully! They'll have to earn their money somewhere.


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    #3
    BrianD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,221 ✭✭✭BrianD


    I don't think there should be. Anything that is supplied for free is rarely valued by either the consumer or the supplier and there is normally poor levels of service ("yeah, I know your BB has been down for a week but aren't ya getting it for free? Stop complaining") At the end of the day if it is bundled in as a freebie with a phone service then that service must subsidise the BB and the consumer just ends up paying for it via a different means.

    Competitively priced and widely available BB is what we want.


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    #4
    watty
    Registered Users Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭watty


    A universal service obligation would indeed me more useful than free. I suspect it will be a temporary marketing gimick.

    Note how aggressively Eircom/Meteor is doing special offers that actually negate early Meteor customer's "free texts for life".

    Another year and hardly anyone on Meteor will have "free texts for life".


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    #5
    SkepticOne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,718 ✭✭✭SkepticOne


    "Will there be free Broadband?"

    No. Everything has to be paid for.


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    #6
    cgarvey
    Registered Users Posts: 3,886 ✭✭✭cgarvey


    BendiBus wrote:
    Well, if airlines can offer free (or €0.01) seats, then why can't a telco offer free broadband?

    In short, because there is a significant ongoing cost in Broadband provision.

    The extended version:
    That 1c is close to the actual cost to the airline. There's only ever a handful of seats at that price, and they're targetted at low-volume routes/times, whether 10 extra people travel or not makes little difference to fuel/handling costs. Of course it makes some, but the value of that cost is far exceeded by the value of marketing/brand-awareness the offer generates. (i.e. the South West / Ryanair model!).

    So how could that be applied to Broadband provision? Maybe in large developments where builders have done all the internals/civils, a provider could offer free broadband to the first X connections.. but then the cost of providing it to those customers is the same as to the paying customers, so the above model doesn't really apply in that case. Also, as there is an ongoing cost (IP Backhaul, billing, support), which there isn't in the case of airline.


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