Smart Telecom broadband service signs up 20,000 users in two months

MORE than 20,000 customers have signed up for Smart Telecom’s broadband high-speed internet package in the eight weeks since it was launched, the company said yesterday.

The sign-up rate has catapulted Smart up the table in the race to sign up new broadband customers and means the company will easily beat its original target of 30,000 customers by the end of the year. Smart’s product has the advantage of being faster than most rivals’ basic broadband offerings.

It is one of the small number of broadband providers that do not rely on Eircom’s technology to reach customers. Chief executive Oisin Fanning said Smart offered cheaper broadband access that was up to four times as fast as other providers.

The company offers a 2 megabyte per second package for €35 per month, but it will also waive the €24 monthly line rental charge for customers who also sign up for its telephone service. Most standard broadband packages offer connection speeds of just 512 kilobytes - around a quarter of the Smart speed - although most providers will double their standard connection speeds to 1 megabyte this week, at no extra cost to customers.

In a separate development yesterday, Eircom turned up the heat in its attempts to sign up more customers by launching a new introductory package. The former state-owned monopoly will provide new customers with a free device to enable them to access the internet without the need for wires or cables to connect their computers to their phone lines.

The company has also made its products more user-friendly by easing the requirement to sign up for a 12-month contract. Customers who sign up from now on will only be locked in for six months. Connection fees will be waived for customers who order online, while those who order over the phone will get a 50% discount.

Eircom said its latest promotion would run until June 4 and would continue to provide a two-month free trial for prospective customers. Its standard monthly package costs just under €40.

“These latest changes offer customers greater freedom and value when purchasing broadband,” the company said. According to Eircom’s most recent figures, the company has around 120,000 broadband users but aims to get this above the 500,000 mark by the end of 2007.