Smart Telecom up for sale

Dasilva94

http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=28143&email=html

Brendan Murtagh, controller of the investment group which owns Smart Telecom, has appointed advisers to find a buyer or strategic partner for the telco, reports the Irish Times. The newspaper states that a number of companies have expressed an interest, including Magnet Networks, Digiweb, UPC Ireland and Sky Television. The move follows a failed attempt last year to offload the company, which offers voice, broadband and television services to residential and business users.

I wonder what this holds for Smart? Is it going down the tubes?

seanybiker

Doesnt the father of the magian from waterford keith barry own that place. thats what I thought anyways.

Kensington

I doubt it's going down the tubes tbh. If someone like Sky were to take it on, it could be a pretty bright future for Smart. I would imagine sky are interested in entering the broadband market here, like they've done in the UK with Easynet. It would certainly help them if they chose to launch a real-time Video On Demand service for Sky+HD, which many rumour to be one of the main reasons they took on Easynet.

And if you've got a huge company like News Corp taking over Smart, Eircom would want to watch out! ComReg might not have the resources to give Eircom a good boot and take them to court, but sky certainly do...

MunsterCycling

If that Ozzie pigmy takes over then I'll be recinding my contract, not giving the King of Crap anything, not even the stream from Pi$$

Scoti

Kensington wrote: »

And if you've got a huge company like News Corp taking over Smart, Eircom would want to watch out! ComReg might not have the resources to give Eircom a good boot and take them to court, but sky certainly do...

I doubt it, BT Group is a bit bigger and they havent bother either. I think they are just waiting for Eircom to falldown... it will happen sooner or later.

It will be good to see companies such Sky around

Dopey

Smart is owned by one of the owners of Kingspan I believe.

They are an excellent broadband provider. The best one I have used to date.

I sincerely hope they stay afloat.

robo

I heard this on Friday and as a happy Smart customer since they first started rolling out Broadband, I would be sad to hear if they merged with some unfavourable companies or change anything that is currently working well - I have never had an issue with their service.

Scoti

robo wrote: »

I heard this on Friday and as a happy Smart customer since they first started rolling out Broadband, I would be sad to hear if they merged with some unfavourable companies or change anything that is currently working well - I have never had an issue with their service.

If they are selling it could probably be because is not doing so well, giving good service is not always profitable... wont be a first time for them

Another reason for selling could perfectly be the oppossite.... but I dont think is the case here

bk

I can't understand why UPC would be interested, Smart don't offer anything that they don't already have. I suppose UPC may only be interested as a way to block Sky from entering the market.

Magnet would be great, they seem to offer excellent BB packages (50mb) to their fibre customers. If they bought it, as a Smart fibre to the home customer, I'd hope Magnet would rip out Smarts system and use Magnets instead.

Sky in the UK are one of the best BB providers with excellent speed for very cheap price and good customer support, it is a very well regarded service in the UK. It would be interesting to see what Sky would do with Smarts IPTV customers. Sky versus UPC could really start some sparks flying and some real competition here finally.

toby83

Smart has been reported and rumoured in the media for some time now and the usual suspects have been speculated.Wasn't it only,last year Mr Fanning ( ex smart ceo ) put "The Fly in the Ointment "over legal debacles and disputes with brendam murtagh on Shares and the like when it was speculated Smart was in discussion with potential buyer(s)?
Smart's new mpeg4 residential tripleplay,( bb tv and voice )was launched in 2007 , but the only new residential developments they appear to have added to their existing portfolio of residential sites was charlestown in finglas and with the severe downturn in the house market , the up-take will be slow at best.

I fail to see Upc's interest in Smart's existing residential customer base and network as it cat5e based technology and not coax.

Sky , I suspect would have to do significant upgrade to Smart's residential legacy cat5e , residential sites and as a multiple coax network with distance limitations as a sky centrally distributed network may also make that solution an economical and technical nightmare.

The usual suspects have all been metioned yet again in irish times today and I supect it's Smarts - T50 ring infrastrcuture and what SME business customer base they have left , would be its sum value ?

The Broadband market has become too fragment since the deregulation of the telco market in 2002 , and with the housing and economic recession and negative growth where is the growth for survival and critical mass .

There can only be further consolidation of such small fixedline broadband companies but whether SmartTelecom features in such consolidation remaims to be seen as the magic appears to be lost ! Was it ever really there

bk

toby83 wrote: »

Smart's new mpeg4 residential tripleplay,( bb tv and voice )was launched in 2007 , but the only new residential developments they appear to have added to their existing portfolio of residential sites was charlestown in finglas and with the severe downturn in the house market , the up-take will be slow at best.

This to me is the biggest indicator that something is up at Smart. Smart have just updated their website this weekend, but now there is no mention of the new MPEG4 Smart Vision Plus service, only the old MPEG2 Smart Vision service. Also they have been promising existing MPEG2 customers for the past year that they would upgrade them to MPEG4, but have only done one location so far and no news over the last 6 months about any upgrades.

toby83 wrote: »

I fail to see Upc's interest in Smart's existing residential customer base and network as it cat5e based technology and not coax.

I wish, it is actually fibre to the basement, with ADSL2+ Dslams in the basement, and a phone line up to each apartment, with an ADSL2+ modem in each apartment, which only then goes cat5e around the apartment.

Magnet uses a fully ethernet based solution which is far superior.

Again, the only reason I'd see UPC being interested is maybe for some of the fibre network and to block Sky from entering the market.

toby83 wrote: »

Sky , I suspect would have to do significant upgrade to Smart's residential legacy cat5e , residential sites and as a multiple coax network with distance limitations as a sky centrally distributed network may also make that solution an economical and technical nightmare.

I'd guess Sky would just update all the apartment buildings with a community satellite system and drop the TV part of the service. Sky are already wiring up many Smart only buildings with this system, my own included.

I think Sky would be more interested in Smarts fibre and LLU network to launch their own phone and BB network to bundle with Sky satellite service as they do very successfully in the UK to compete with cable.

Smart Vision customers like us would be a second thought for them and would probably just be dumped onto sat, which would be better anyway, Sky+ and HD, the only problem being issues with multi-room.

Victor

bk wrote: »

I can't understand why UPC would be interested, Smart don't offer anything that they don't already have.

I was talking to a guy in Smart. They have about 6 different sections:
Broadband
Payphones
Business, including mobile
Corporate/Government
TV

I think they got out of the residential phone-only service.

watty

They got out of ordinaray Residential and Bitstream DSL reselling because eircom cut them off for non-payment of bills.

Copper line/Exchange/eircom costs are too high. Smart isn't profitiable with current Debt, eircom costs and the service offered vs price to customer.

Their payphones have been for sale a long time, AFAIK they all got cut off at the time all the non-LLU got cut off.

Their Schools, Goverment and some Buiness customers may be profitable, in isolation, but not in overall costs.

Sponge Bob

They just launched uncapped 24 mbit broadband for €55 a month ( incl line rental and VAT)

http://www.smarttelecom.ie/product_details/Broadband_24_for_24.aspx

lmimmfn

would be great if sky bought them, at least there would be some chance of investment and it would be nice for UPC to get some competition so they get the finger out and cover more towns

Paul007

Sponge Bob wrote: »

They just launched uncapped 24 mbit broadband for €50 a month ( incl line rental and VAT)

http://www.smarttelecom.ie/product_details/Broadband_24_for_24.aspx

Is this just for businesses?

Oracle

I think the most obvious buyer for Smart is O2. They are the only mobile operator, besides 3 Ireland, who are not also in the fixed telecom and broadband market.

Sponge Bob

Paul007 wrote: »

Is this just for businesses?

Not at all, thats why I added VAT to equivalence it to residential rates. It costs less than eircom 3mbit residential with line rental .