Sunday Times Article

Delphi91

The Business section of todays Sunday Times has an article headed "Esat targets government and top Irish companies". Buried down inside the article is the following paragraph:

According to industry sources, Etain Doyle, the industry regulator, is expected to announce a package of measures later this week that will make it easier to compete with Eircom for internet-related business. One source said the regulator was "shocked" by as yet unpublished figures that show the level of competition in the Irish marketplace falling dramatically.

Could be promising?


Mike

Dr.Seagull

One source said the regulator was "shocked" by as yet unpublished figures that show the level of competition in the Irish marketplace falling dramatically

it makes it sound like the regulator is just after finding this out now

sceptre

Originally posted by Dr.Seagull
it makes it sound like the regulator is just after finding this out now

As the regulator has had access to the subscriber levels of all the telcos and ISPs, I also find it difficult to believe that Etain DOyle has only now figured out that there's a low level of competition in the Irish marketplace. Eircom have ten times the number of phone subscribers that Esat (and all the other telcos put together added) have. Ditto with ISP customers - again about a 10:1 or 9:1 ratio (even considering that Esat bought IOL, long the biggest ISP in the country)

Gloves off: Etain - wake up. I'm not in business, I don't run an ISP, I'm not employed by a telco, on a telecommunications level I have all the technical knowledge of a cocoanut. I'm just an ordinary Internet user. And even I know that the barriers to competition in the Irish marketplace are such that the second-biggest telco in the Irish market can't even pay its own way in the normally highly-profitable business market, let alone in the home consumer market. If you did a little more than the least you could do (somewhere between "nothing" and "ooh, we set up these cool access numbers for flat-rate and Mary O'Rourke now says Eircom love me and I love them") and went about managing to bring about a playing field that would actually allow competition in the Irish telecoms and Internet market (competition being one of the cornerstones of the Treaty of Amsterdam) you might bring about a situation where you're actually a valued addition to the civil service and the country as a whole. If you were working for me, you'd get a bollocking every three months in a staff review. Given that I'm a citizen and a taxpayer and hence you are effectively working for me, I'm pleased to tell you that you give Humphrey Appleby's lethargic tendencies a bad name. Director of telecoms regulation? Bah.

Cork

announce a package of measures later this week that will make it easier to compete with Eircom for internet-related business

Let us wait what she comes up with.

We need to await her views & to make our views known.

Lobby Lobby Lobby - They will see the light

dahamsta

Are you sure that article wasn't in the Humour section of The Phoenix Delphi?

The old Homerism "it's funny because it's true" just doesn't strike a chord this time.

adam

Arboration

(I can only guess.)
Etain: I have put forth new ammendments which will mean Ireland will have a highly compedative marketplace by the year 2009'.
Flat-Rate 59k acess packages will also be upon the listed features on a slow roll-out plan.

Long live Ireland, hurra.

Delphi91

Originally posted by dahamsta
Are you sure that article wasn't in the Humour section of The Phoenix Delphi?

Nope, and just in case you haven't seen it, here's the article:

Ireland: Esat targets government and top Irish companies.

Tom McEnaney, Irish Business Editor

BRITISH TELECOM plans to focus on doing business with Ireland’s top 300 companies and its government in future, instead of targeting the entire market. After an initial review of its Irish operations, executives concluded that BT should remain in Ireland, while honing its approach.
Bill Murphy, interim chief executive of Esat, BT’s Irish subsidiary, said: “We are not going to pull out. We are trying to integrate the various businesses and, at the same time, refocus.”

Murphy, who was brought in to turn around the business, has just completed a 30-day assessment of the company that BT purchased from Denis O’Brien in 2000 for $300m.

Esat Home, which targets the residential market, and Esat Fusion, which services the small business sector, are to be replaced by a division known simply as Esat, which will market services to the top 20% of residential customers and the high end of the SME market.

It was expected that BT would quit these markets altogether, leaving Eircom in a near monopoly position.

According to industry sources, Etain Doyle, the industry regulator, is expected to announce a package of measures later this week that will make it easier to compete with Eircom for internet-related business. One source said the regulator was “shocked” by as yet unpublished figures that show the level of competition in the Irish marketplace falling dramatically.

Earlier this year, Esat announced it was seeking 200 voluntary redundancies from its 1,300 staff. Murphy said on Friday that although there would be further job cuts, the number would not be as great as expected. “Is it going to be 500? No. Is it going to be 200? Probably not,” he said.

Although the Esat brand will still be used to target residential and SME customers, Murphy plans to focus on government and large corporate business with the Ignite brand, which has been used by BT across Europe.

“The easiest thing to do would have been to kill off Esat, but that’s not what we’re going to do. There still a lot of value in the brand,” he said. “We won’t be putting any more capital into products which don’t give a return on investment.”

Murphy is expected to brief senior Esat managers on which products will be abolished at a meeting on Thursday. Residential and SME customers at the top end of the market will be offered a products including land-line and internet access. He said no decision had yet been made on whether to offer a mobile service to customers.

Murphy is planning more co-operation between Esat and BT Northern Ireland, although there will be no merger of the two companies. Instead BT has set up a joint board to cover the businesses north and south of the border. Having spoken at length to Eircom, the government and the telecoms regulator, Murphy said he is confident that Esat will remain the second largest telecoms company in Ireland.

Sorry for the long post - I'd have supplied a link, but you have to register (free!) to see the article.


Mike

sceptre

Originally posted by Delphi91
Murphy is expected to brief senior Esat managers on which products will be abolished at a meeting on Thursday. Residential and SME customers at the top end of the market will be offered a products including land-line and internet access.

Could be saying "goodbye to NoLimits" yet. Esat will always have a great deal of support from me as long as they don't kill off that product totally. They're facing an uphill battle with Eircom in a position as strong as they are in.

dahamsta

Nope, and just in case you haven't seen it, here's the article:`

Thanks Delphi. It's like a friggin fairy story or summat: Sleeping Beauty 2: Etain Wakes Up To Reality.

Sorry for the long post - I'd have supplied a link, but you have to register (free!) to see the article.

Well, some of us are registered, so you could have.

adam