Perlico/Imagine/Magnet etc - will they go belly up?

Richard Dower

Serious question here in light of recent events, is anyone else concerned about these companies and there financial situations?

Consider that Smart *was* the third largest telecoms provider, yet they folded. Companies i mentioned and others are much smaller with less deeper pockets and smaller margins.

Thus how can customers be assured that they won't go the way of Smart?...what is to stop Eircom targeting them next?

With Eircom and BT left both companies can afford to form a cartel and fix prices, always on the up of course. With no competition they have nothing to stop them hiking prices.

Thoughts?

byte

Out of the three, I think Magnet is the only one operating with LLU.

Also, I don't think they squander as much money on advertising and promo activities, something I think Smart overdid, and it has now cost them dearly.

jimmycrackcorm

Yes now that Bord Gais are increasing their prices by 33%, Smart were no longer able to afford the gas for that big balloon they have on the tv adverts.

If only NTR with their deep pockets owned smart - but wait, they are the greedy swine.

jor el

I can't see any other telecoms company folding to be honest. As mentioned, none of these companies are offering such good deals as Smart were. With line rental included in the €35 a month for broadband (I think the LLU rental price was about €16 to Eircom) it didn't leave a lot of scope for profit, considering what the infrastructure cost them. Also, the court cases with Eircom and the huge publicity campaigns couldn't have been cheap.

The only one I'd question would be BT. I currently pay €50 a month for line rental and broadband. Take out VAT and it's about €40 to BT. Of that, €20 is line rental to Eircom, leaving €20. Then out of that BT must also pay Eircom for the wholesale cost of 3M broadband. I don't know what the price on that is, but I'd imagine it's close to €20. In the end, BT make feck all from me. They are hoping to re-coup it in call costs, but I only make about €3 worth of calls every two months.

With the might of BT UK behind BT Ireland though, I can't see them ever going under. All the other operators, even Magnet, charge the full Eircom line rental cost on top of what you pay them.

Foxwood

WLR costs BT €17.98. Bitstream costs €10.29b (1Mb), €13.15 (2Mb) or €22.85 (3Mb).

Your 3Mb plus Line Rental costs BT €17.98+€22.85 = €40.83. You're paying €41.32 plus VAT. That's a slim margin, but it's better than it was last week, when the 3Mb bitstream was costing BT €26.55!!!!!

jor el

OK, so they were making a loss, now they will be getting a tiny profit. Makes you wonder how they can do this. I guess they're really hoping that people will take up the bundled call options.

Oh and thanks for the info Foxwood, good to know.

Dellas

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

Yes now that Bord Gais are increasing their prices by 33%, Smart were no longer able to afford the gas for that big balloon they have on the tv adverts.

If only NTR with their deep pockets owned smart - but wait, they are the greedy swine.

ballabooyeah

I know that in the business sector Magnet are offering prices less than Smart were.
I know they have deep pockets and don't waist money like Smart.
Smart employees were driving 1 and 3 series BMW's

For a laugh I just sent a mail to smart through there website asking to buy one of the staff cars as they don't have many staff now.
Lets all do it and see if we can grab a cheap BMW... hehe:eek:

Sponge Bob

Magnet is part of Columbia Ventures who own all this lot.

There is no question of their long term viability as they own 15% of all the transatlantic fibre on the planet amonst other things.

art

Sponge Bob wrote:

Magnet is part of Columbia Ventures who own all this lot.

There is no question of their long term viability as they own 15% of all the transatlantic fibre on the planet amonst other things.

That's good to know. However, they may yet decide that Ireland is not a viable market to be in whilst EirComReg are in control of everything.

obrienb

I have been trying to get Magnet since April (6Mb with no contention is to good to not take). I met block after block from eircom. I have no phone because I had to cancel BT to automatically switch back to eircom so I could be switched to Magnet. eircom just won't disconnect me from themselves. Magnet will not last long if this carries on for all their potential customers (as I have read, most potential switchers are having the same problem). Most are just reverting back to eircom to save on the hassle. Y'see, ya can't contact eircom about this because the exchanges are managed by eircom Wholesale who don't deal with the public. eircoms ploy is working. Not for me though... I have ordered FWA from Nova Networks in Cork and have mobile for calls. I'll probably set up a VOIP through the Nova broadband aswell. I'm not going to give those eircom c***s any money.