Valentia sale may be referred to Competition Authority

SkepticOne

Article in the Sunday Times suggests that the Valentia sale may be referred to the Competition Authority.

EIRCOM shareholders expecting a pre-Christmas windfall from the sale of the company to the Valentia consortium are likely to have to wait until the new year before being paid for their shares. The tanaiste, Mary Harney, is expected to refer the takeover to the Competition Authority, which could cause a delay of up to three months.

R. Daneel Olivaw

Also, the back page of the News Review section (or whichever has the pisstakes on the back page) has info on the price increases on the phone handset rental as Eircom's "because of increasing costs in providing the service" reason.

They make the valid argument that once the phone is "installed" it really is not ever serviced, etc., . You have the phone, what makes it suddenly cost £1.whatever one month and £1.40 the next month (which of course will be 2 euros a month in January)

SkepticOne

I have a post about that on the 'poll' thread. About the Competition Authority article: I wonder will we see much about this once the shareholders are out of the way. Will Valentia/Eircom be ingnored by the press and left to monopolise?

P R O F A N I T Y

Knew it would happen, he will have to sell off chorus, and ntl look interested.

Giblet

Originally posted by R. Daneel Olivaw
They make the valid argument that once the phone is "installed" it really is not ever serviced, etc., . You have the phone, what makes it suddenly cost £1.whatever one month and £1.40 the next month (which of course will be 2 euros a month in January)

I think its due to the euro.

Everybodys worried about prices increasing after the euro coming in due to no-body really knowing how much things will cost.
But what about people raising costs BEFORE the euro gets here
Just to evenup prices so nobody can complain.(it makes sense in my head )

Eg: rental costs £1, (1.29 euro)
they bring it up to £1.40 (around 1.80 euro)
a nice number
i wouldn't be suprised if they brought it up to 2 euro

Cork

One of the best things out Eircom was they provided sponsorship to the rather excellent Ros Na Run. This has now ceased. The new sponsor is Foras Na Gaelige. Eircom seem to content sponsoring whether forecasts & the soccer team.

They are even advertising their off peak Internet rates. They have an ad on the radio that calls to Britain cost 12p per minute. I think the Valentia consortium obtained an asset – lines going into every home in the country. They will use this asset to generate profit. It is up to the ODTR to allow for the local Loop to be opened.

sceptre

Just on the phone rental, I'd be really interested in letting people know all the money they could save by just buying a phone and sending their handset back to Eircom. I've seen phones as good as the Comfort line supplied by Errorcom on sale in places like Argos for as little as 7 quid.

Eircom haven't been renting phones to new customers for about a year now - they're just milking the money from people who rented their phones from before that (I realise there's nothing at all wrong with Eircom as a company renting phones to customers - bit of a high price though, even before the new increase)

I kinow it's not anything to do with IrelandOffline and it's not something we're taking on (but I'd still like to see it as a footnote on any flyers we hand out, even if I have to knock out a few myself for the possible march)

dahamsta

Just on the phone rental, I'd be really interested in letting people know all the money they could save by just buying a phone and sending their handset back to Eircom.

I've been doing that for years. I had such a smile on me gob when I walked into my local Telecentre with the mammy's phone under me arm. I plonked it on the desk and told yerman in no uncertain terms what he could do with it, and I wouldn't leave until they gave me a receipt. Ah, that was a joyous occasion...

adam