Eircom’s ‘regressive’ broadband deal comes under fire

EIRCOM’S new broadband package aimed at light users came under fire yesterday, as critics attacked it for being too restrictive.

The new deal aims to encourage customers who currently rely on slower dial-up technology to switch to broadband, which offers connection speeds up to 20 times faster.

Users of the new service will face a bill of €20 for up to 20 hours’ internet access every month, or the equivalent of €1 per hour.

Those who go over the limit will pay an additional 4c for every minute online, the equivalent of €2.40 per hour. Many dial-up packages cost up to €4 per hour for connecting to the internet at peak times.

But rival Smart Telecom said the new package was “extremely misleading”.

Smart chief executive Oisin Fanning said the new offering failed to take account of three key features: the need to be fast, always on and at a fixed price.

Mr Fanning said the eircom deal failed to match Smart’s pricing and that the Smart product was twice as fast, offering a connection speed of two megabytes per second, against eircom’s 1MB offering.

“Broadband is about always being online,” said Mr Fanning. “Broadband services like email and messaging work best when you’re always online. That’s the point of broadband.”

Mr Fanning said eircom had “shot themselves in the foot with this product”.

“Rather than advance Ireland as a broadband nation, Eircom have managed to mangle the idea of broadband with this product,” he said.

Labour Party communications spokesman Tommy Broughan said the package may be “a regressive step”.

“While I entirely welcome any decrease in broadband charges for Irish consumers, this package is not the way forward for escalating broadband roll-out in Ireland and promoting greater usage and knowledge of broadband technology,” he said.

Mr Broughan called on Eircom to slash the price of its standard broadband package, which offers unlimited high-speed internet access for €40 per month, to €20.

Eircom announced plans this week for a promotional rate of €30 per month for new customers who sign up for the standard package between July and September, but existing customers will not benefit from the deal.