General Discussion

[PatC_PSN]

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fenian wrote:

Probably because it is a different company, BT Northern Ireland is also BT Republic of Ireland, or just BT Ireland and its run as an all island irish comany.

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Although it is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT of course.

And with Eircom in such a financial mess they should be doing well really.

[fenian]

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PatC_PSN wrote: 

Although it is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT of course.

And with Eircom in such a financial mess they should be doing well really.

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Its not really about profit or loss, do you think Ryanair are the best airline in the world? 

Its about service, Eircom provide local call centres, they have Irish people answer the phone to you, they are efficient with their business clients. So thats the minimum BT Ireland would have to offer. That kind of thing is standard in Ireland, from insurance companies to banks.

Its not until I have to deal with english owned companies that I get put through to India.

As for Eircoms financial troubles, thats from various reasons, its not like they are vodafone or anything and writing off billions, they are under strict regulations that BT Ireland is not, and they tried to re-enter the mobile phone market at the wrong time, something BT Ireland does not, and also they have to run and maintain 80+% of BT Irelands network at cost price, something BT Ireland or UK does not have to do for Eircom. Either way, their revenue far outweighs that of BT Ireland.

[PatC_PSN]

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fenian wrote:

As for Eircoms financial troubles, thats from various reasons, its not like they are vodafone or anything and writing off billions, they are under strict regulations that BT Ireland is not, and they tried to re-enter the mobile phone market at the wrong time, something BT Ireland does not, and also they have to run and maintain 80+% of BT Irelands network at cost price, something BT Ireland or UK does not have to do for Eircom. Either way, their revenue far outweighs that of BT Ireland.

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Any capacity that Eircom provides to competitors is at rates regulated by ComReg and based on their costs - but not at cost. The same as in every other country in Europe, and for the same reason.

My comment wasn't meant as anti-Eircom though, or to suggest that British companies are in any way better. But Eircom is effectively in administration, and needing protection from creditors mainly because of their high debt. Their revenue is largely academic.

[fenian]

And my comment wasnt that BT Ireland wasnt owned by BT, just that when its run by locals for locals a company will usually get better reviews.

As far as I know Eircom has agreed settlement with all creditors, and its because revenue is not academic and of real monitary value that they were able to do it by transfering shares. True they were protected by examinership which allowed them to restructure the debts over 70days but that was just a formality under Irish regulations.

My point was, I phoned up an Irish mobile phone company because my phone wouldnt send multimedia messages, I got a local girl who asked me what phone it was, i told her. She pasued for a moment then told me they dont sell the phone, have no plans to sell the phone, and dont have any settings for it. She told me there were no engineers on at the moment but she would let them know abou it. 

The next day I had an email from her with the settings and how to put them in, and was told a text message would be sent from their system later that day to auto setup the phone if i had any trouble or confusion to wait for the message.

I phoned up 3 to find out why text messages were not sending, a woman in a heavy pakistani voice answered me and asked me if i was prepay or bill, I said best of both, she paused and said "sorry i dont know what best of both is" tried to explain it, didnt get any joy, any help, and ended up having to go to a 3 store.

So thats what BT Ireland would have to match, and what BT UK would have to match.