Isn't it time.....

pleba

.....we stopped talking about the 'significant market share' that O2 and Vodafone have and high prices in the Irish market caused by O2 and Vodafone.

A quote by Labour TD Tommy Broughan....

"Reports last week that Ryanair was considering establishing a pan-European mobile operation are to be welcomed if it helps to end the cosy stitch-up of the Irish mobile phone market that Vodafone and O2 have operated to date,"

The above quote to me shows that this particular TD has not done any research himself on the subject and said the above to appeal to popular opinion. Unfortunatly this quote is reflective of the opinion of many of our (misinfomed) public representatives, however it does highlight their lack of knowledge of the subject.
Do our TD's not realise that Meteor have in excess of 350,000 customers now and increasing rapidly?
Why are Meteor always being left out of the equation when it comes to slating Irish mobile operators. Meteor now have their 99% coverage and have had since their agreement with O2, so basically there is nothing to stop anyone moving to Meteor.

If the public (Mr. Broughan included) is unhappy with the cost of using Vodafone or O2, then they have the choice to move over to Meteor.

Why doesn't he do this? Well maybe he has, however giving a quote such as the one above gets him into the papers, albeit making him look a tad silly to the people who know the facts.

I completely welcome any competition in the Irish mobile market. Anything that might bring down prices has to be a good thing, right? But hopefully not at the expense of quality of service.

And remember, it was the FG/Labour coalition that only awarded 2 GSM licences!
It's about time we stopped highlighting 'pricing issues' in a market where there IS competition, and concentrated on highlighting 'pricing issues' in markets where there is no choice for the Irish consumer.....ESB, Bord Gais, Dublin Bus, IronRod Eireann, Eircom Line Rental etc etc etc....need I go on? I spend more on these services individually than I do on my mobile phone charges. But of course by diverting attention away from these on to other areas beyond a TD's control, maybe the 'public' will think they are wonderful for championing the cause of Joe Public and give them the vote!

I'm not a bit cynical, eh?

BuffyBot

Do our TD's not realise that Meteor have in excess of 350,000 customers now and increasing rapidly?

I think the point is, that until it grows a considerable amount more, Meteor doesn't have the nessecary clout to make that much of an impact. You may notice that Vodafone and O2 aren't exactly crapping themselves and undercutting Meteor's prices as of yet.

rondjon

BuffyBot wrote:

Meteor doesn't have the nessecary clout to make that much of an impact.

This is a nothing statement in fairness. Clout means nothing.

If Meteor provide better value than other operators, and if people know that they do, and their service is as good as the other operators (all of which I believe are true), then Meteor would get more customers.

The fact that they don't is down to the market itself, and nothing to do with their relative size versus their competitors.

Maybe it's because of the following that they're still a minority operator -

1. Because they're cheap (in cost), they're viewed as cheap (as in tacky).
2. To be cheap, they sell phones that aren't viewed as being as cool as those of the other operators
3. It's purely just not cool to have an 085 number
4. Their added services are rubbish - if you just want calls and text, fine, otherwise, they're not worth it.

BuffyBot

If Meteor provide better value than other operators, and if people know that they do, and their service is as good as the other operators (all of which I believe are true), then Meteor would get more customers.

I don't nessecarily agree. O2 and Vodafone have a big section of the market in terms of the corporate/government sector who tend to stick to the big two and a lot legacy customers from the Eircell/Digifone days who haven't switched or won't switch over. It's not as simple as how you've laid it out. Meteor has always been the one playing catch up since they came into the market, and it's only now that they are beginning to make an impact. It will be a while before they are strong enough to really pose a threat to Vodafone/O2, and even then they may need some new backers.

rondjon

BuffyBot wrote:

O2 and Vodafone have a big section of the market in terms of the corporate/government sector who tend to stick to the big two and a lot legacy customers from the Eircell/Digifone days who haven't switched or won't switch over.

Sorry BuffyBot, but I still don't get your point.

If these corporate/government customers stick to whomever their using, what can anyone do about this? This is a market determined commercial decison.

Whether or not Meteor get this business is purely up to the pitch and offers provided by Meteor in their attempts to win away this business from the other 2.

Surely isn't it the case that if they're not winning the business, and therefore growing, it's down to their own efforts and their marketing of their products and benefits over and above their competitors.

pleba

rondjon wrote:

If these corporate/government customers stick to whomever their using, what can anyone do about this? This is a market determined commercial decison.

Surely isn't it the case that if they're not winning the business, and therefore growing, it's down to their own efforts and their marketing of their products and benefits over and above their competitors.

Exactly! How come then our public representatives insist on sticking their noses in and blaming O2 and Vodafone. Obviously the 'big two' are going to try to win as many customers as possible but if that's being made easier by Meteor not trying hard to win customers then the blame can hardly be laid at the feet of O2 and Vodafone. That said, Meteor are signing up a lot of customers.

I still maintain (in my typical cynical manner!) that its to deflect attention away from the real areas of no-choice rip-off service providers as mentioned in my initial post.

rondjon

pleba wrote:

I still maintain (in my typical cynical manner!) that its to deflect attention away from the real areas of no-choice rip-off service providers as mentioned in my initial post.

Don't think anyone can argue with that really. We've got the government of "low hanging fruit".

Consistently picking on the easy targets for the quick wins (normally for the benefit of themselves, their supporters, and the unions).

It's just unfortunate that the majority of the voting public are conned by this.

We'll see more of this behaviour later today when the airport policy is announced.

Pythia

The reason Meteor aren't mentioned that much is that they don't have many post pay customers. Most of their customers (not all but most!) are on pay as you go and are generally young people or foreigners. O2 and Vodafone get big business contracts and the likes. Until Meteor start getting things like that, they won't be taken too seriously.
Don't get me wrong, they're a great network btw!

pleba

referring to my original post in this thread.....it saddens me to see that yet again the ESB and Bord Gais will be granted price hikes upwards of 15% each. Where are our 'great politicians' now? Why arent they jumping on the 'rip-off ireland' bandwagon when it comes to these essential monopolised services?

It really baffles me to see them harping on and on and on about mobile phone operators (of which there are shortly to be 4) and prices when the above mentioned Electricity and Gas service providers are completely fleecing us. And we dont have a choice but to use them. So effectively they can charge us whatever they want. There isn't one thing we can do about it.

Compare this to the mobile phone area where we DO have choices. We can change operators or not make many/any calls, or not use a mobile phone.
We dont have these choices with light and heat.

Things will never change.....

parsi

pleba wrote:

Compare this to the mobile phone area where we DO have choices. We can change operators or not make many/any calls, or not use a mobile phone.
We dont have these choices with light and heat.

Things will never change.....

We can:

we can turn off devices when not in use, ban the "standby" light from your house, use CFLs, only boil the water you actually need, put the lids on the spuds when your're boiling them (one of my mothers bugbears).

We can turn down the central heating to 18 degrees, put it on a timer, increase insulation etc.

You wouldn't work for one of the Big 2 would you ?

This whole prices thing is a pain - the Government doesn't have a responsibility to reduce prices despite what they bleat on about. We have to combat them ourselves - its easier to blame the Gov than to go out and do the work yourself.

jesus_thats_gre

RachG wrote:

The reason Meteor aren't mentioned that much is that they don't have many post pay customers. Most of their customers (not all but most!) are on pay as you go and are generally young people or foreigners. O2 and Vodafone get big business contracts and the likes. Until Meteor start getting things like that, they won't be taken too seriously.
Don't get me wrong, they're a great network btw!

Simple as this, Meteor know their service is not reliable enough to complete with Vodafone and O2 for large customers..

Meteor have marketed themselves as the cheap and cheerful company and there is only so far this approach can get you. They adopted this approach to gain a dramatic increase of customers who are more likely to accept a lower quality service to make themselves look more appealing to prospective buyers..

The fact they did not buy a 3G license also suggests this.

pleba

parsi wrote:

We can:

we can turn off devices when not in use, ban the "standby" light from your house, use CFLs, only boil the water you actually need, put the lids on the spuds when your're boiling them (one of my mothers bugbears).

<snip>

This whole prices thing is a pain - the Government doesn't have a responsibility to reduce prices despite what they bleat on about. We have to combat them ourselves - its easier to blame the Gov than to go out and do the work yourself.

without wanting to get into the argument of which mobile operator is the 'best'!, my point is that in the mobile sector we have choices of what operator to use, and we are soon to have more choices...all very welcomed.

despite this our public representatives insist on giving anti mobile operator quotes to the media....probably because it's the popular thing to do, yet they wont say boo about the monopolies of Bord Gais and Eircom.

bonkey

pleba wrote:

despite this our public representatives insist on giving anti mobile operator quotes to the media....probably because it's the popular thing to do,

Headline News: Politicians in popularity-move shocker!

Come on....you're not actually surprised at this, are you?

yet they wont say boo about the monopolies of Bord Gais and Eircom.

Maybe because those particular monopolies are natural monopolies, whereas the mobile-phone arena arguably isnt?

I can't see how the cost of introducing a second fixed-line network, and of maintaining two, would in any way benefit the end-consumer. The same applies for a second gas distribution network. I'm open to correction, if someone has actually run the numbers, though.