What about a name & shame campaign?

Corko

I think, that if there was fierce competition between Irish phone companies – Internet phone charges would drop. BT (/Esat/Ocean) has gobbled companies like Spirit & Yap up. We effectively have 2 players in the mobile & fixed line market.

They are more than 2 phone companies
See www.bestvalueireland.com
But other phone companies are pretty small scale.

UTV Internet offers pretty good deals in the North – BT offer pretty good deals in the UK. Where does the problem lie? I think, We have to do, price comparisons between here & the UK for everybody to take notice.

Could somebody draft a table comparing various companies and then circulating it to the media. Shame them into action.

ru1nzx

Sorry thats just the worst plan I've ever heard of

DeadBankClerk

never trust anyone who uses numbers instead of letters to spell their handle.


sounds like a good idea to me.

Urban Weigl

Although your intentions may have been good, you completely ignore the fact that basically 100% of all phone lines here are owned by Eircom, thus making it impossible for companies such as UTV Internet to offer unmetered access without Eircom first offering a FRIACO-based system.

Edit: Bard, please close this thread; it's not going to lead anywhere.

Bard

intentions good-

proposed plan flawed- ... unfortunately.

--

no point in closing the thread though - discuss this idea, or alternatives if you wish... your initiative IS appreciated.

tHE vAGGABOND

you completely ignore the fact that basically 100% of all phone lines here are owned by Eircom

Eircom built them, its not like they marched in on William of Orange's coat tails and stole them...

It these companies want to offer great net access, and make a fortune, then pay the price or get their own lines

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
Eircom built them, its not like they marched in on William of Orange's coat tails and stole them...

Actually the lines were paid for by the tax payer. Meaning that they were paid for by you and me. When Eircom was privatized, they just handed them the lines without any preconditions, and now see what a mess we're in...

It these companies want to offer great net access, and make a fortune, then pay the price or get their own lines [/B]

Fair enough. Let's say UTV Internet offers unmetered Internet access, and has an average bill to pay Eircom of £300/month per subscriber. Of course they need to earn a little as well, so they end up charging the end-user £310/month. I'm happy for you if you have that kind of money just lying around, waiting to be spent. Many people don't however.

And why should UTV Internet for example put in their own phone lines in the Republic, when we already have phone lines here!? It would be a waste of money. WHY CAN'T COMPANIES SHARE LINES THAT ARE ALREADY THERE? That's like saying every car owner should build their own roads.

tHE vAGGABOND

paid for by the tax payer

Eircom paid for them. Eircom was funded by the government. Eircom/TE was also funded by people/business paying for services, remember. If I buy a mars bar from a newsagent, that does not give me the right to question where that newsagent spends all his/her money.

Im not a huge fan of the 'every single bit of spending the government makes is up for question forever, as its taxpayers money' idea.

We do, and should, know where the governemtn spends money - the budget and indeed the dail public accounts committee serve that function <no matter what plonkers are on it>

SkepticOne

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
It these companies want to offer great net access, and make a fortune, then pay the price or get their own lines

Do you really believe this? Are you against LLU and all that? I want to know if you're serious about all this stuff.

Corko

Eircom/TE built up the telecom infrastructure of this country. Telecom Eireann used charge a fixed amount for local calls. This was the case in the late 1980s. If you made a local call stayed for 10 minutes or 1000 minutes you were charged the same.

Today, we don’t have much competition in the telephone market. In the Fixed line business – you have BT & Eircom. If you make calls from BT or Eircom. The product is the same.

Why is there no rush for Eircom to introduce flat rate products? Because, people believe that there is competition in the telephony market. We need to compare prices of Internet access between here & the north. We need to highlight the fact that Internet access here in the Republic so expensive.

There have been similar comparisons with dentistry. We need to, let Eircom explain their position. How can they justify not having flat rate products? Why is there no Local Loop unbundling? Why should Ireland offline be doing all the running?

Eircom is the Aer Lingus of telephone companies. Ryanair offers cheaper flights. Ryanair is valued at a multiple of what Aer Lingus is valued. Charging high prices for a product does not work, when you have competition.

Eircom does own the network. RTE owns the transmission network , but it has to allow TV3 and Today fm to transmit. Eircom needs to adopt to change. As an Eircom shareholder (for the next few days anyway) – the transission network is the most valuable asset they have. They will be forced to allow other companies use it. By doing such, they will continue to make profit.

dahamsta

If I buy a mars bar from a newsagent, that does not give me the right to question where that newsagent spends all his/her money.

That's a gross oversimplification, and it's also incorrect. A newsagent is a free agent, his business is entirely his own responsibility. When the national comms infrastructure was built, it was done by Telecom Éireann (actually it was the P&T, but we won't go into that), a semi-state body, sponsored by the Irish government, and so sponsored by the Irish population, using the taxes they pay. Or to rephrase, the Irish national comms infrastructure was built using Irish people's money, period, end of story.

You're right *now* because the government decided to sell that off, which in hindsight was a huge error in judgement. Hindsight is useless though, and as I've said before, there's little we can do now except try and fix it or buy it back. There no point in arguing about what's done. And if you're wondering why I'm arguing now, it's because I have no doubt there are people out there who will read your posts and believe you. And they shouldn't.

Im not a huge fan of the 'every single bit of spending the government makes is up for question forever, as its taxpayers money' idea.

Ah, so you want to live in a fascist state is it, I see now. Think about what you're saying now for a second. Did you see the investigation into the CIE/Íarnród Éireann signalling project on the television? Or read it in the newspapers? CIE/Íarnód Eireann went IR£36m over budget on a project that was supposed to cost IR£14m. They're a semi-state body, should we have asked them about that?

vAGGABOND, I don't often say this on Boards, I usually reserve my disdain for Joe22/Gladiator/Whatever, but you are talking utter ****e man. Would you at least think before you start writing?

adam

Urban Weigl

I couldn't agree more with what adam just said. Well put.