Lord Mayor seeks cut in phone charges

THE Lord Mayor of Cork is leading a campaign to reduce phone bills for local businesses who, he claims, are being charged far more than their counterparts in Dublin.

Lord Mayor Colm Burke employed researchers over a two-month period to confirm suspicions he’d always had that Cork businesses were being put at a disadvantage by phone companies. He said the research results showed businesses located in Cork only have access to 10% of the population at local call rates.

“This is in stark contrast to the 31% of the population that businesses based in Dublin have access to. Additionally those businesses based in Cork do not even have access to all of the county’s population at local call rates. This highlights the increased costs associated with running businesses based in Ireland’s second city,” said Mr Burke.

He said having to make a national call instead of a local call resulted in a 61% increase in the associated cost, based on eircom’s pricing policy. “This burden does not assist when attempting to attract enterprise to the Cork region. If Cork is to be treated fairly then business must not be forced to absorb this added expenditure.”

International practices suggest that Irish businesses are not receiving the same treatment as those located in other countries. Clients of New Zealand Telecom are charged at a rate that is lower than that charged per minute by either eircom or Esat BT. In Australia, Telstra provides local calls at a fixed rate regardless of their duration. Telstra’s charging scheme results in all local calls costing less than what Irish businesses would be charged for a two minute call.

Mr Burke said recent changes on the part of Esat BT to alter their pricing policy were a welcome improvement.

He was supported in the call for a cut in charges by Cork Business Association president James O’Sullivan. “Telephone charges, commercial rates and insurance now count for a substantial proportion of business costs. Any savings are welcome in this tough economic climate.

“We’re always disadvantaged in Cork. In fact it tends to be the way we’re treated by Dublin the whole time,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

An eircom spokesman said the company offers competitive rates for both local and national calls.

He claimed that within Cork the majority of business and residential customers were paying local call rates