Eircom to charge for 999 calls

jbkenn

According to the Limerick Post, Eircom plan to charge other operators for 999 calls, and, boy do thy want to charge them http://www.limerickpost.ie/

Eircom to charge for 999 calls

By Claire Connolly Doyle

PHONE users can expect another hike in their bills if Eircom presses ahead with its intention to charge network providers/service providers for handling 999 calls.

Up until now, Eircom has borne the cost of handling 999 calls, at their 24 call centre, that are made by customers of all service providers, be it 02, Meteor, Esat, etc.

But now they want to charge service providers the premium rate of 1.47 euro for every 999 call. Service providers cannot legally pass this charge on to their customers directly, but according to a local Telecom provider, "it is obvious that the charges will be passed on indirectly”.

"If they were proposing to charge us only 20 or 30 cent no-one would be complaining,” said the owner of Elive, Seanie Ryan. "But 1.47 per call is extravagant!

"That’s the equivalent of the cost of a half long local call. We cannot charge the customer directly, but if we were bear the brunt of this massive new charge ourselves, it would reduce profits significantly.”

ComReg, the Commission for Communications Regulation, confirmed that under the Universal Service Obligations (USO) directive, individuals cannot be charged directly for making an emergency call. ComReg public relations manager Tom Butler, said that he was not in a position to comment on the possibility of the charges being passed on directly.

In a statement issued to the Limerick Post on Wednesday, Eircom said that it was introducing the charge because of "the critical nature of emergency services, the heightened profile of security matters since 11 September 2001 and fundamental changes in the telecommunications market with growth of mobile phone ownership”.

Their statement said that his had "changed Eircom’s role in the provision of 999/112 emergency services and that they had now initiated discussions with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources”.

Labour Deputy, Jan O’Sulllivan said that while she accepted that Eircom would charge something for providing the 999 handling service, she said that 1.47 per call "sounded like too much”.

"Surely what they charge should be in line with what it costs them and this is ComReg’s role to ensure that Eircom doesn’t over charge.”

Service providers first learned of the plans last December when Eircom and ComReg called a private meeting with the National Licensed Operators.

At this meeting, Eircom cited research that showed that the majority of all 999 calls originate from mobile phones and they pointed out that the precedent has been set by the incumbent (original provider) in the UK, British Telecom, which is already charging service providers in the UK for 999 calls.

The charge was to come into effect in Ireland on January 1 but according to Elive’s Mr Ryan, has now been "put on the back burner”. However, the statement from Eircom asserted that the charge was already in effect, and when we questioned them about this, they failed to offer a clarification.

All phone customers, regardless of which service provider they subscribe to, be it Vodafone, Esat, Smart Telecom or Telecom, could potentially find themselves affected by new hikes in their bills so that the 999 costs can be absorbed.

ComReg is the statutory body responsible for the regulation of the electronic communications sector (telecommunications, radiocommunications and broadcasting transmission) and the postal sector. It is the national regulatory authority for these sectors in accordance with EU law which is subsequently transposed into Irish legislation.

jbkenn

Sponge Bob

McRedmond demanded €7m a year off tyhe Government to run the 999 / 112 service 'for them' late last year. It look like he didn't get it

Eircoms reading of the USO is that while they must provide 112 /999 on net they are not obliged to host it for others. Another reason to revisit that USO .

Slutmonkey57b

Remind me, if I'm ever fortunate enough to come across an eircom director in mortal danger, to lean gently over him and say:

"I'm sorry mate, I'd call you an ambulance, but I can't afford it."

BrianD

Perhaps it should be subject to a government tender? Maybe Smart will win it and Eircom will have to pay them 1.47 a call!

lomb

i think its good they are charging actually. the cost of overstaffing a 999 sevice including a physical person, building etc are worth at least 1.50 a minute.
they provide this for their customers, why should they provide free for esat or smarts customers? this is the free market not a socialist republic.

lomb

BrianD wrote:

Perhaps it should be subject to a government tender? Maybe Smart will win it and Eircom will have to pay them 1.47 a call!

yes i believe eircom would be happy to tender it. 999 services are not part of any telecoms income stream. someone has to pay for it at the going rate+10%. a tender would sort it out easily. im sure 1.47 is roughly the cost of it actually give or take 20 cents (most likely take 20cents)

Slutmonkey57b

lomb wrote:

i think its good they are charging actually. the cost of overstaffing a 999 sevice including a physical person, building etc are worth at least 1.50 a minute.
they provide this for their customers, why should they provide free for esat or smarts customers? this is the free market not a socialist republic.

Why would they have to provide a separate department or building to run 999? All that happens when you ring 999 is the phone monkey asks you what service you want, then hits the button. That's hardly a huge overhead. Their existing staff can cover it with a little retraining.

Capt'n Midnight

they can't have it both ways, this is just another example of them sitting in the manger.
yes 999 calls have to be paid for
but considering we have one of the highest line rentals and call charges and lowest broadband provision in the OECD, the only reason the money isn't there already is that the company has been asset stripped already

it's just another stealth tax / anti-competition idea , it's about the money not the service (should be an eircom motto) - another example of eircom trying to wriggle out of any universal service obligations.

Morally bankrupt or wha?

lomb

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

Why would they have to provide a separate department or building to run 999?

nah theyd have to provide a seperate department, as 999 calls can be life or death. this costs money, and they need to many staff than too few. 1.50 a minute is fair imho.

SkepticOne

lomb wrote:

yes i believe eircom would be happy to tender it. 999 services are not part of any telecoms income stream. someone has to pay for it at the going rate+10%. a tender would sort it out easily. im sure 1.47 is roughly the cost of it actually give or take 20 cents (most likely take 20cents)

Do you mean Eircom would be happy to tender it out to a third party? I think what was being suggested is that the government offer it up for tender, not Eircom, though Eircom could be one of the bidders. This would make a lot of sense. Any number of companies could do the job. Eircom, a company with a history of overcharging, should not be setting the price for this sort of thing.

Paddy20

God we have really become a really UN-CARING Capitalist pig of a society :mad: Welcome to modern Ireland, and thank God I am not starting out in life in what used to be a truly sharing caring little country.

How sad.

P.

lomb

SkepticOne wrote:

Do you mean Eircom would be happy to tender it out to a third party? I think what was being suggested is that the government offer it up for tender, not Eircom, though Eircom could be one of the bidders. This would make a lot of sense. Any number of companies could do the job. Eircom, a company with a history of overcharging, should not be setting the price for this sort of thing.

the reason eircom have traditionally overcharged, is it was never a well run company, their overheads were very high even when they floated, with tremendous union control.
i dont think it matters what eircom charge, as ones provider will pay for it anyway and will factor it into the cost of services. it really is a small amount of money, i would think eircom would be glad to get rid of their problem quite frankly.

jimmycrackcorm

eircom are right though - why should they bear the brunt of the cost of the service. The mobile oeprators /other Telcos should be forced to run their own 999 service. After all arent O2 and Vodafone absolutely creaming the bprofits and can well afford it. Not only that but they would have the facilities to triangulate mobile calls and provide better locaiton information.

1.47 might seem excessive but for a personell based answering service it would be cheap compared to some of the dialup chatup lines.

jimmycrackcorm

Paddy20 wrote:

God we have really become a really UN-CARING Capitalist pig of a society :mad: Welcome to modern Ireland, and thank God I am not starting out in life in what used to be a truly sharing caring little country.

How sad.

P.

GOD be with the days of black and white Tv and then the 80's with the mass unemployment and near bankrupt country. To hell with modern Ireland where I don't have to emigrate and can earn a really decent living.

Sponge Bob

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

eircom are right though - why should they bear the brunt of the cost of the service. The mobile oeprators /other Telcos should be forced to run their own 999 service. After all arent O2 and Vodafone absolutely creaming the bprofits and can well afford it. Not only that but they would have the facilities to triangulate mobile calls and provide better locaiton information.

My atttude is that Eircom O2 and Voda all have SMP and control almost every access channel (line or sim) in Ireland. They should share the cost pro rata the access channels , about 40% eircom 40% voda and 20% o2 .

Free access to all other carriers until they get SMP, Smart and Meteor are the only ones at the mo

Paddy20

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

GOD be with the days of black and white Tv and then the 80's with the mass unemployment and near bankrupt country. To hell with modern Ireland where I don't have to emigrate and can earn a really decent living.

Just try living in the North West, especially Donegal ! which most of the rest of the Republic thinks is in Northern Ireland. It's as bad as it was in the Fifties, which is probably long before you were even a Twinkle in your fathers eye.

To be able to dial 999 from a public phone box Free of charge in an emergency is a humane right that should be available as of right in all Christian societies ?... :rolleyes:

P.

The Insider

Paddy20 wrote:

To be able to dial 999 from a public phone box Free of charge in an emergency is a humane right that should be available as of right in all Christian societies ?... :rolleyes:
P.

You will still be able to do this Paddy, the charge is not been directly handed down to the customer.

Sully

Im lost here. Are you telling me if I call 999 from a payphone I need to insert money? From a mobile, I need credit? And from a landline im going to get charged for it?

WTF like? I cant ****ing believe the shower of ***** are doing this ****ing thing? ****ing ****.

- Sully

cgarvey

Sully, please read the thread before mouthing off like that.

BrianD

Could be farmed out to a third party like the directory enquiries so that all operators would pay for the calls. Only problem is that in other countries where this has happened the quality of service has been questioned.

Sully

cgarvey wrote:

Sully, please read the thread before mouthing off like that.

lol sorry about that - I cant make head nor tail whos being charged. :S

- Sully

penexpers

It might also discourage people from making hoax 999 calls. This can only be a good thing.

Mohanned

Thats ridiculos. Just say you have no credit eh :mad:

jd

Can you change title of thread- to something like "other operators must share cost of 999 calls"
People aren't reading the content of the thread...

cgarvey

jd wrote:

Can you change title of thread- to something like "other operators must share cost of 999 calls"
People aren't reading the content of the thread...

Good idea, done!

Sully04, penexpers and Mohanned.. the bit you're looking for is

Service providers cannot legally pass this charge on to their customers directly

Mohanned

cgarvey wrote:

Good idea, done!

Sully04, penexpers and Mohanned.. the bit you're looking for is

Ok fair play for linking that never saw that

PiE

penexpers wrote:

It might also discourage people from making hoax 999 calls. This can only be a good thing.

Eh, wha? Most people won't even know about it.

Sheeit, if it was eircom being forced to pay for it, I'd be making extra hoax calls.

cgarvey

Can we drag this back on topic again, or let it rest... we now know that the end-user is not being charged for 999 calls, so put those misunderstandings to the side.

.cg

d-j-k

It's quite reasonable that every operator should contribute towards the cost of 999 / 112 service.

I've used it once and I have to admit, despite their policies on DSL and their pairgained phone lines, eircom's emergency service operators are second to none. Really excellent service and I was answered instantaneously and the emergency services arrived very promptly.

cgarvey

Agreed