Rural Ireland left with no phone lines , as well as no broadband

Sponge Bob

The IFA (fair play) have today highlighted the scandal of the inadequate repair service in rural Ireland. We all pay the highest line rental on the planet but rural people get no service for it.

Up to a few years ago there was a 2 day repair standard, that was change d to 5 days with the connivance of Comreg in either 2005 or 2006.

5 days in meaningless however when people living along the main Cork-Dublin road are left with no phone line since before christmas as the IFA told morning Ireland today (last item before 9am) . They are not on an island cut off by storms , not by any means.

Anybody left with no service for 5 days or longer can ring 1800400000 and get their line rental refunded for that complete billing period ....but its not automatic and you must ring eircom to get your ' lack of service ' rebate.....and then only after they fix it and then only for the period you make the claim in.

If you line is out for 2 weeks they may as well make it 12 because it still only costs them an 8 week refund if you claim . If Comreg had any backbone or cojones they would double the refundable line rental every 10 days and then we would see proper rapair targets being met.

But that would imply that Ireland is a developed country with a proper telecommunications service and not the 3rd world crudheap it is .

http://www.ifa.ie/

latestnews section .

EIRCOM’S BACK-UP AND REPAIR SERVICE TO RURAL HOMES AND BUSINESSES TOTALLY INADEQUATE - IFA
Two months of continuous high winds, a creaking Eircom network starved of lack of investment for years and a totally inadequate emergency repair plan has left tens of thousands of Eircom customers without a phone service for days on end in the December-January period.
With many homes having no phone service over the last two months, IFA is now calling on the Government and ComReg to sort out this issue once and for all.
Consumers pay way above average in monthly line rental to Eircom and the least they can expect when there is a fault on their line is for it to be fixed within an acceptable time. Not alone are thousands of customers being left with an inadequate phone repair service for days, but they are finding it almost impossible to get through to Eircom to report a fault or get an update.
An IFA spokesman said despite the best efforts of Eircom’s line repair staff across the country, they simply do not have the staff or resources to deal effectively with the crisis created by two months of stormy conditions.
Across the country the very Eircom poles that were supposed to support the phone lines are held up by the lines themselves. Eircom saying that they could not envisage such storms is not acceptable and they should have part time contract staff on standby to deal with these emergencies.
He said “at a minimum all Eircom customers should have a service agreement that dictates that a fault is fixed within three working days. If it is not possible for the Eircom repair team to do that then Eircom should have the responsibility to phone the customer to explain why and give them a fair idea of when the problem will be sorted and also pay punitive compensation to the customers affected.”
He said “no other country would tolerate such a poor level of service and it is now time that the Government and ComReg took action to ensure that rural homes and businesses are not further disadvantaged to a point where eventually the service across the country collapses for a want of investment and a properly resourced back up and repair service.”

Calling on Comreg to do anything is like calling in a plumber to fix the Titanic with PTFE tape, utterly pointless.

If Comreg are invited on radio to explain their utter failure to enforce the USO they will simply lie through their teeth and try to pretend the telecoms network is adequate for the developed world . It is because of this crap attitude and their tendency to lie and back eircom to the hilt that they should be abolished.

Today. :P(

smellslikeshoes

Fair play to them for actually standing up and saying something seems like everyone else is burying their heads in the sand.

Nody

Sponge Bob wrote:

Calling on Comreg to do anything is like calling in a plumber to fix the Titanic with PTFE tape, utterly pointless.

If Comreg are invited on radio to explain their utter failure to enforce the USO they will simply lie through their teeth and try to pretend the telecoms network is adequate for the developed world . It is because of this crap attitude and their tendency to lie and back eircom to the hilt that they should be abolished.

Today. :P(

You miss the target by about a mile. Comreg does exactly what it is told to do by their management (read the people you voted into power). Get a hostile Eircom party in and you'll see Comreg starting to use some teeths.

Sponge Bob

Nody wrote:

You miss the target by about a mile. Comreg does exactly what it is told to do by their management (read the people you voted into power).

No, Comreg does as its told by those who provide its considerable income, eircom , voda , o2 supply most of that income and not the minishter.

The minishter makes a noise every now and then and Comreg tells the minishter that they are an independent regulator and that shuts him up.

Comreg and/or eircom **** up all the time so the punters go to the minishter for help . The minishter tells the punters he can do nothing because comreg is an independent regulator

Its a Mexican standoff where nobody does anything and the punter is milked .