Last day to shop smart as emergency phone service ends

THOUSANDS of customers who enjoyed cheap phone calls with Smart Telecom have until tomorrow to find a new telephone company — or their service will be cut off.

Now they are being urged to shop around for the best deals from Ireland’s 19 home phone companies after Smart hit financial trouble and pulled the plug on 40,000 home-phone subscribers.

Eircom has been providing Smart customers with a basic service since the start of October to give them time to switch to a new phone company.

The Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) said householders could still get cheap calls if they look at the deals on offer.

“Rather than just going straight back to Eircom it is important for people to see what deals are available,” said CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell.

“They must remember why they joined Smart Telecom in the first place (for cheaper calls) and move on to a new company now.

“There’s nothing to say that there aren’t good rates from the alternative phone companies out there,” he said.

The Government’s communications regulator ComReg has mounted a publicity blitz to get householders with Smart to switch to new phone companies by tomorrow.

Yet the latest figures available show 13,000 of Smart’s 40,000 customers have yet to sign up to a new company despite the campaign and also promotions by rival phone companies.

Firms like Eircom, TalkTalk and BT Ireland are already geared up to take on Smart’s customers by tempting them with similar deals for landline calls.

BT Ireland, the Republic’s second biggest landline company after Eircom, has attracted around 2,000 Smart customers since the start of ComReg’s switch-over campaign.

“ComReg did quite a lot of activity over the Bank Holiday weekend and we experienced quite a spike in the number of customers contacting us,” said Emer Kennedy, head of BT Ireland’s consumer division.

Among the deals that are catching the eye of Smart customers is BT Ireland’s €45-a-month package for line rental, broadband, and local, national and calls to Britain, she said.

The Consumers’ Association of Ireland is urging householders to visit ComReg’s www.callcosts.ie website to find the best deals.

ComReg is also urging householders to go to its www.askcomreg.ie website for advice on how to switch to a new firm.

Smart customers affected by the company’s problem are those with a landline-only deal and those who get broadband from another firm while using Smart for voice calls.

Smart broadband customers are unaffected by the problem, ComReg said.