Eircom under fire over new call charge regime

EIRCOM has been accused of trying to hoodwink consumers after it emerged that the cost of some calls will go up by almost 70% under the company’s new pricing regime.

Customers will face an average increase of 3.8% on their telephone bill as a result of the changes, according to Eircom, but phone users with a preference for short local calls are set to be harder hit.

The price of one-minute local calls is about to go from 6.6561c, including VAT, to 11.12c from September 2 as part of Eircom’s new call cost schedule. That’s because the company has abolished its old “minimum fee” charge of 6.65c, including VAT, which would have covered a one-minute local call.