Comms Line rental in rural areas could rise to €40 under new proposal

Cheerful Spring

This is a disgrace if it happens? We in rural Ireland most get together to stop the crazies in Eircom and Comreg.

Urban areas have twenty times the speed we can available of. No way i am picking up the tab for someone else!

Line rental for consumers in rural and suburban areas of Ireland could rise from €26 to €40 a month by 2014 if a proposal by Ireland’s telecoms regulator ComReg to allow Eircom to compete in selected urban areas is enacted, a lobby group has warned.

IrelandOffline said this morning that its analysis of ComReg document 12/63 indicates that ComReg's proposal to allow Eircom to compete in selected urban areas could occur at the expense of rural users.

The proposal follows a consultation on price regulation of bundled offers.

Under the proposal, in select urban areas no line rental (currently at €26 per month) is to be paid by Eircom customers.

IrelandOffline argues this will lead to an inevitable rebalancing of the line rental pot and rural areas could end up making up the shortfall.

It warns that as a result, line rental in rural and some suburban areas could reach €40 a month by 2014 if the proposal is enacted.

Who’s gonna pick up the tab?
Eamonn Wallace, chairman of IrelandOffline, said: “We in IrelandOffline wonder what exactly this has to do with ‘bundled offers’. The ComReg analysis was conducted despite the complete lack of a Regulatory Impact Assessment of any sort whether beforehand or as part of the overall document.”

Wallace said that in the document, ComReg is attempting to define what it terms a “Larger Exchange Area”, a euphemism for urban areas and as such should be termed “Urban Area Exchanges”.

Wallace continued: “Tinkering around with regulatory details in urban areas will not alter anything. Compared to cable, Eircom no longer has a competitive copper-based product, no matter what the price.

“UPC will continue to eat Eircom's lunch until Eircom introduces a fully fibre to-the-premises product that is capable of delivering true triple play and at least 100Mbps speeds and at a competitive price.

“In the meantime, it is not the job of hard-pressed rural customers to pay for the consequences of over a decade of bad regulation. ComReg should not force rural customers to pick up the tab for Eircom's bondholders where Eircom's urban customers are no longer prepared to pay exorbitant prices and have access to superior alternatives,” Wallace railed.

Last week, ComReg fined Eircom €520,000 for failing to meet certain targets agreed under its Universal Services Obligation (USO).

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/30170-line-rental-in-rural-areas/

lowelife

Considering Eircom can't even be arsed to even be able to give me a phone service, considering they are running fibre in the first and third sections of the road where I live.

I think I would be grateful of paying over the odds if they ever filled in the middle section where I live....but not that grateful where I have to pay for a **** service

lockup35

Nothing would suprise me in this country. Comreg have been divorced from reality for a long time..

Nermal

Cheerful Spring wrote: »

No way i am picking up the tab for someone else!

As it stands, urban areas are picking up the price for you. Do you think it costs the same to provide a phone line to a one-off house in the middle of nowhere as to an apartment in the city centre?

Praetorian

I actually think it is kind of fair. I live in an urban environment. My line is underground and never has a problem. I have been paying line rental for years. No line work has ever been necessary on my line. My aunt & an uncle live in rural Ireland. Storms and trucks have taken down their lines on numerous occasions. Why should I be contributing towards their costs. This is a selfish position of course.

Perhaps a fairer approach would be that rural costs went up a bit and urban prices came down a bit.

colm_mcm

Could this be the push needed for providers to provide VoIP and faster Internet wirelessly in rural areas?

Dazza

Living very rural myself, eircom providing a phone and broadband line is vital for us really. Isolation is a big issue out here and with broadband and phone you're able to communicate a lot easier with people.. For rural areas communication is vital in this era and if the line rental were to go up to that price it wouldnt be feasible for many families around here.

Cheerful Spring

Nermal wrote: »

As it stands, urban areas are picking up the price for you. Do you think it costs the same to provide a phone line to a one-off house in the middle of nowhere as to an apartment in the city centre?

What you on about? The only reason i have a phone line in my house is because i need broadband with suitable speeds. I'm paying way too much for the service i get already.

I pay 32 month plus tax + line rental to have broadband? I feel its an injustice in 2012 that i have no place other than Eircom or digiweb to turn too.

Asking me to pay another 15 Euro a month is ignorance at its finest. Now if the broadband quality was not so far behind what currently been offered in around urban areas. I might be willing to pay a little extra, but no way i am going to pay for Eircoms incompetence and unwillingness to invest in rural Ireland. Line rental goes up they can shove their line and phone up their hole.

colm_mcm

Would that mean the dsp allowance would go up if you lived in the country?

It all seems a bit odd.

Does this system exist in any other country?

Cheerful Spring

colm_mcm wrote: »

Could this be the push needed for providers to provide VoIP and faster Internet wirelessly in rural areas?

Eircom owns meteor and has Partnership with 02 -This is bound to hinder the speed of a 4G rollout.

4G isn't a fix unless speeds are way above what Eircom offer today to most of rural Ireland. There hasn't been a trial of this technology yet anywhere in Ireland.

smileyj1987

Why should people who live in Rural areas have to pay more for Broadband ? That is really taking the p*** , so we get inferior broadband and probably won't ever get fibre but we have to pay more .

ED E

smileyj1987 wrote: »

Why should people who live in Rural areas have to pay more for Broadband ? That is really taking the p*** , so we get inferior broadband and probably won't ever get fibre but we have to pay more .

Because its much more effective to wire up urban estates than scattered houses in the countryside. They make far less money/a loss on you guys.

colm_mcm

From the comreg definition of Universal Service Obligation

Geographically Averaged Pricing ensures that basic telephone services are available at an affordable price, irrespective of geographical location in Ireland.

Isn't this supposed to level the playing field for everyone, would it be ok for the ESB to charge more for electricity if you live in the country?

Dsl has a footprint much bigger than cable, instead of a UPC price war, maybe they could focus on actually fulfilling their obligations and signing up more culchies.

D'Peoples Voice

colm_mcm wrote: »

Isn't this supposed to level the playing field for everyone, would it be ok for the ESB to charge more for electricity if you live in the country?.

they already do....Esb networks charge Electric Ireland/Airtricity & BGE a higher wholesale rate to the best of my knowledge.
my issue is that it costs the same to send a letter within cork city or even Dublin city as it does to send a letter from urban to rural.
take South Mall to patrick street as opposed to South Mall to say Glengariff. you cannot tell me the cost should be the same.

eirator

Nermal wrote: »

As it stands, urban areas are picking up the price for you. Do you think it costs the same to provide a phone line to a one-off house in the middle of nowhere as to an apartment in the city centre?

I had to pay a contractor 400quid to put a line in for me before Eircom would lift a finger and connect me so how exactly did urban areas pick up the price for me?

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Isn't this supposed to level the playing field for everyone, would it be ok for the ESB to charge more for electricity if you live in the country?

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

they already do....Esb networks charge Electric Ireland/Airtricity & BGE a higher wholesale rate to the best of my knowledge.

Yes, the standing charge is higher in rural areas.