Eircom criticised on charges, single billing

Eircom has come in for criticism at an Oireachtas Committee hearing today.

The chairman of the Consumers Association, Dermot Jewell, said eircom's land rental charges were far above the European average price.

Jewell told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources that the average European line rental cost was about €16 whereas eircom is charging €22.49 a month.

Jewell added that line rental was the only element of the eircom services package that had never gone down and consumers were now finding it impossible to budget for it.

The association representing alternative operators in the communications market, ALTO, also criticized eircom today.

Addressing the Oireachtas, ALTO Chairman Iarla Flynn said that eircom had failed to introduce a wholesale line rental service, even after telecom regulator ComReg stipulated it must do so after controls on line rentals were relaxed.

"We told ComReg not to relax the price cap until single billing had been introduced and was seen to be working," he said. "Since the relaxation of the price cap, eircom has increased line rental three times but has failed to introduce the promised single billing," he added .

He said that single billing was promised a year ago and he feared the March deadline set by ComReg will be missed also.