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    Wednesday, December 09, 2009

    Eircom's new contract for basic telephone lines


    So imagine that you move into a new house/flat and you need to get a phone line installed before you get ADSL Broadband, you plan on choosing Smart as your phone and Broadband provider.

    So as eircom basically have a monopoly in Ireland you first have to get them to install your telephone line (PSTN line) before Smart can give you any services, so you ask them to install the line/activate the existing line and they advise you that there's a 6 month contract.....your thinking this is new and has never existed before and your 100% correct!

    As per the eircom website
    6 month contract applies to residential lines


    As of approx two weeks ago Eircom have introduced a 6 month contract if you get a phone line (PSTN line) installed and your a residential customer, if you move your telephony service to another provider eircom will see this as breaking your contract.

    Such a move is anti-competitive and only serves to block LLU providers such as Magnet and Smart from competing with Eircom, in addition this will affect other providers such as Vodafone, UTV, Imagine etc if you choose to pay line rental to them instead of Eircom (This has been confirmed with eircom directly).

    Whats most concerning is some Eircom employee's appear to be clueless in relation to why eircom are doing this, accordingly to one user on boards.ie an eircom employee said the following when the user asked why eircom have introduced this new rule:

    How else can we make money? We don't get a cent of the line rental paid to other ISPs


    This is misleading to potential customers and is 100% incorrect, it would appear eircom need to train some of their employees better, a good general rule is if you don't know what to say put the customer on hold and check instead of giving out incorrect info.

    This new change by eircom is extremely concerning as it could affect consumer choice when it comes to which broadband provider a consumer chooses to go with.

    Thursday, August 20, 2009

    Eircom To Block Users From Connecting To The Pirate Bay


    Yourtechstuff.com is reporting that Eircom plan to block the pirate bay affective from 1st September.

    One wonders how they'll do this at the very least I'd speculate that they will likely be a restriction on their DNS servers, in which case simply changing your routers/computers DNS servers to another DNS provider like opendns.com should resolve this easily.

    Users on the popular Irish message boards boards.ie are already posting about this new decision by eircom.

    Read the Yourtechstuff.com story below or Irish Times story by clicking here.
    So apparently, Eircom is to block The Pirate Bay to its customers, starting September 1st. Or so claims the solicitors for the major music labels, who have sent a legal letter to rival ISPs asking them to do likewise.

    At least one of those ISPs, Chorus NTL, is to "firmly resist" the request by the record labels to block The Pirate Bay, according to people in there. Not sure of BT Ireland's reaction yet.

    Update (15.45pm): Eircom will indeed put the block on, a spokeswoman for the operator has just told me. She said that the company intend to hold a "briefing" on the matter on August 31st. I reckon that might change now.

    Update: here's a requested UPC (Chorus NTL) statement on the matter:

    UPC can confirm it has received a request from solicitors acting on behalf of the Irish divisions of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony music companies that UPC blocks access to the Pirate Bay website.

    This request is separate to ongoing court proceedings between these same companies and UPC with respect to their demand that UPC take certain actions in relation to subscribers allegedly involved in illegal music downloads.

    This latest request is apparently further to an unopposed court action between these companies and eircom whereby eircom was ordered to block access to Pirate Bay as of September 1, 2009.

    UPC has informed the rightsholders that there is no basis under Irish law requiring an ISP to block access to certain websites and that it will not agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently provided for under Irish law.

    UPC has always taken a strong stance against illegal activity and continues to work with rightsholders where there is a legal basis to do so. It takes all steps required by the law to combat specific infringements which are brought to its attention.

    Should the rightsholders proceed with their threat of legal action if UPC fails to block access to Pirate Bay, UPC has every intention of vigorously defending its position in Court.

    Singapore Technologies Telemedia to buy Eircom


    SiliconRepublic are reporting that STT are to buy eircom for 130m euro.

    STT to buy Eircom for €130m

    14.08.2009
    It has emerged that successful Far East telecoms player Singapore Technologies Telemedia is to buy Ireland’s incumbent telecoms operator Eircom for €130m.

    In June, STT originally offered €120m for Eircom, in a move that was strongly supported by the Eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOP).

    STT, which is understood to have interests across Asia and owns fibre optic cable player Global Crossing, has bid €130 to buy Eircom Holdings, formerly known as Babcock & Brown Capital.

    The deal is expected to be concluded next week subject to a number of issues being addressed, namely the management fee that STT will p[ay to run Eircom.

    Eircom, which has debts of €3bn, still has an integral role to play in ensuring Ireland has the telecoms infrastructure it needs for the future of the economy and it is understood STT has met with the Irish Government about addressing infrastructure deficit.

    It has been suggested that Eircom may return to the stock market by 2011 to enable STT to get a return on its investment.

    By John Kennedy

    Monday, July 27, 2009

    Eircom Pole removal fees

    So I was browsing boards.ie the other day and I came across this interesting thread about a land owner looking for eircom to move a pole but eircom are looking for crazy money. (350e for plant survey and removal fees on top of this)

    Well it reminded me of this story Today FM covered back at the start of July 2009...

    Hi Ray and Gang,
    I thought I should forward you on this picture as possibly the worst location yet for a telecom pole, the pole is placed just in front of the window and door of my parents' new house, and was put in place after planning permission was granted but before houses were built, the best bit... Eircom are now asking for €16,000 to remove the pole. And my parents are unable to connect to water and sewage with the pole in place. The house is in Strand Street in Wicklow town.

    Love the show ,
    Jillian.



    So basically eircom erected a pole infront of this property on the basis that a house was going to be build and eircom failed to check where this house would have its windows.

    Clearly no eircom employee actually came to look at the house after it was built to see what a stupid mistake they had made.

    Tuesday, July 14, 2009

    Eircom receive Denial of Service (DoS) attack


    So Eircom are reporting that "hackers" have attacked their network, rte.ie reports


    A number of Eircom customers had no internet access or experienced delays in browsing due to a suspected attack by hackers last night.

    It is the second time recently that Eircom services have been affected by an 'unusual and irregular volume' of traffic directed at the site.

    Eircom acknowledged many of its customers have recently experienced significant congestion while trying to log onto the internet.

    Service was down for some customers from yesterday afternoon, but the company said it was fully restored by 11.15pm.

    Eircom said it is too early to confirm an attack by hackers, but it believes that an unprecedented volume of traffic was deliberately directed at its network in recent days.

    In the US, the Department of the Treasury and the Secret Service experienced similar problems when high volumes of traffic were directed towards its sites on 4 July - in what is believed to have been a coordinated cyber attack.

    Eircom said its technical specialists have and are continuing to work to restore service and determine the source of the problem.

    Friday, June 19, 2009

    ComReg plan to cut Eircom fees approved


    enn.ie report this week that Comreg has received EU approval to get Eircom to lower the price it charges competitors for access to its telecoms infrastructure.

    To sum things up this basically means the price that LLU operates have to pay each month to provide a service to a customer.

    ComReg has received EU approval for its decision to direct Eircom to cut the price it charges competitors for access to its telecoms infrastructure. The price cuts will also include charges by Eircom for migrating customers from one wholesale product to another.

    The European Commission said the proposed measures represent an important step towards facilitating direct investment in infrastructure and enhancing competition on the Irish broadband market, which should lead to lower prices for consumers.


    Now lets see how long it takes Eircom to fight Comreg on this!

    Thursday, May 28, 2009

    Eircom sees profit plunge



    Eircom's third quarter results show an operating profit of EUR69 million, down 27 percent from last year's EUR95 million.

    Meanwhile, revenue fell 5 percent to EUR488 million. The company lost 22,000 telephone customers in the quarter, but garnered an extra 19,000 broadband subscribers.

    On the plus side, profits at Eircom subsidiary Meteor jumped 17 percent to EUR35 million; however revenue at the mobile operator slipped 2 percent to EUR117 million.

    In line with the experiences of rival mobile operators Vodafone and O2, Meteor's average monthly revenue per user fell 6 percent to EUR37.52 over a year.

    Given that Three have been effectively handed the Governments Broadband Rollout contract this may hit Eircom hard in both the fixed line ADSL market and "Mobile Broadband" ala Midband market with Meteor's "Broadband" packages.

    Once Three begin rolling out their Midband packages across all of Ireland and they pump up advertising on it it will be interesting to see how this will hit Eircom's profit margins even further.

    We all think eircom sucks but compared to Three I'd rather see the people of Ireland receive a ADSL Broadband service instead of a Three Midband (Mobile Broadband) service which is frankly not suitable for on-line gaming, VoIP etc.

    Some content Taken from enn.ie

    Tuesday, May 26, 2009

    Electricity company to buy Eircom?


    Taken from ENN.IE
    The Irish Independent says that Bahrain-based private equity firm Arcapita, which owns electricity company Viridian, has emerged as a potential buyer for Eircom. The other private equity group involved in discussions that could lead to a sale of the beleaguered telecoms firm is CVC Capital Partners, which is housed in Luxembourg. Eircom executives are this week putting case-for-investment presentations to the two groups and Singapore Technologies Telemedia.


    Better a power/utility company take them over then the Irish Government!

    Saturday, May 23, 2009

    Irish Gov rules out taking over Eircom


    Thank feck for that!

    RTE.ie are reporting today that Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has ruled out State ownership of telecoms provider Eircom.

    If the government did nationalize Eircom it would cost them about 4 -5 billion euro's (debt + pensions) and they'd effectively get a outdated telecoms networks.

    If the Irish Government wanted to own a telecoms network they'd almost be better off starting a new agency and spend that 4-5 Billion euro on building new infrastructure such as fibre to the home.

    Minister Ryan went on to criticize what he called Eircom's short-term ownership model and said he would welcome and facilitate investors with the capacity to invest in a long-term business model for Eircom.

    The full story is below or can be viewed on RTE.ie:


    State ownership of Eircom ruled out
    Saturday, 23 May 2009 13:05

    Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has ruled out State ownership of telecoms provider Eircom.

    Speaking at the Telecommunications and Internet Federation's annual charity ball last night, the Minister said that while the Government attached significant importance to Eircom, State ownership of the company was not on his agenda.

    Mr Ryan criticised what he called Eircom's short-term ownership model and said he would welcome and facilitate investors with the capacity to invest in a long-term business model for Eircom.

    Friday, May 22, 2009

    Ireland drops in OECD Broadband rankings


    As discussed in the Ireland Off-Line forum on boards, Ireland has slipped in the OECD Broadband rankings PDF Available here.

    This is not a good thing for anyone and should be a major concern for the government, of course its hard for the general public to get the facts when journalists report everything arse ways!

    Will things improve in the short term....I very much doubt it!

    Thursday, May 14, 2009

    Eircom agrees job cuts


    Taken from enn.ie:
    The Irish Times reports that Eircom has reached agreement with unions on a restructuring plan that involves 1,200 job cuts and voluntary pay reductions of between 5 percent and 10 percent.

    The job cuts will be achieved by the end of June 2011. In addition, no performance-related bonuses will be paid before mid-2011, and subsistence and mileage expenses have been cut by 25 percent, along with other allowances.

    The moves are aimed at helping Eircom make annual savings of EUR130 million by the end of June 2011 as it struggles to service nearly EUR4 billion in debt and to cope with an estimated decline in its business of about 9 percent.

    Eircom also said it wants to reach agreement by the end of July on measures to tackle its EUR430 million pension deficit.

    CWU seeks Govt intervention to protect Eircom


    So The Communications Workers Union is looking for special treatment for Eircom by the Government for the good of the economy because they believe the company is part of Ireland's national infrastructure.

    While I understand where they are trying to coming from such a move would be anti-competitive in relation to holding up a private company, if a company has 3.8billion in debt and needs to cut costs then cutting 1,200 jobs is going to have to happen.

    I'm sure the CWU would be extremely happy if Smart Telecom or BT received Government backing and had some bad debts wiped off.

    My guess is the EU won't allow any such action by the government and rightly so in my view.

    Tuesday, May 05, 2009

    Help Wanted! :)



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    Story's about National Broadband Scheme, ADSL roll out etc in Ireland and industry commentary are welcome.