Rail Users Ireland Forum

Go Back   Rail Users Ireland Forum > General Information & Discussion > Rail Users Ireland Canteen
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Unread 09-09-2006, 13:34   #1
PaulM
Really Regular Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 826
Default Government failures and privitisation

I have been reflecting on the terrible things our government has done with state run companies. Here is my brief findings.

Eircom: We currently have the highest line rental in Europe (possibly the world). Our broadband take up is second last in the EU-15 only to Greece, some of the ascension states have better telecoms infrastructure than us. Eircom / the government will constantly highlight our successes in this area but it is all using statistics that suit the cause. I find it embarrasing that we are meant to be the "E-hub" of Europe and approximately 35% of our population can not get broadband from the national carrier. Compare that to the North where 99.9% can get broadband...

ESB: Since the deregulation of the electricity market electricity prices have shot up. In the past 5 years ESB have made 1.5bn profit (I think it is profit, maybe turnover). Meanwhile electricity prices have gone up every year and are set to do so again. Electricity is fundamental to businesses running. In one of the most expensive countries in the world, how this is going to help our global competitiveness or the average consumer?

My fear is that should any privitisation of any public transport go ahead, what sort of mess will happen then? I am not against privitisation of anything, I feel consumers generally benefit but under this government we have been the big losers of privitisation.

There are alternatives for most things. I have cable based broadband with an IP phone, no Eircom line and more benefits. Too techie for most yet but I pay considerably less per month than the average Eircom customer.

I am currently in the process of changing over to a renewable electricity provider. I'm not sure if there is much savings to be made but I will be doing my bit for the environment and getting away from ESB on principal.

The sad thing is, few people know of these alternatives and more are afraid to change. I think our public transport is pretty bad and needs improvement, I also thought Telecom Eireann were the worst phone company imaginable, I had not idea how much worse it could get.
PaulM is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09-09-2006, 16:52   #2
Maynooth_Line
Regular Poster
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 54
Default

Re the situation woth Eircom: The reason the line rental has increased so much is because there is competition is providing the call service, ie you can change provider, but you still have to use Eircom owned lines. So Eircom make it so they make maximum profit from line rental while they (and all the other service providers) make smaller profits from actually providing the telephone calls and other services like broadband. Whatever about selling of the part of Eircom that provides the service, selling the infrastructure (cables and exchanges) was a mistake.

As for the ESB, ironically the price increases have been the result of EU directives which say we must have competition in the market. Basically, to lure competition into the market the regulator had to ensure that they would make a big enough return on their investment to warrent the risk. Only way of doing this is to increase prices. While the ESB could survive with a smaller price increase, independant generators cannot, as most of them use gas which has seen the biggest increased in price. If prices didn't go up they'd be scared out of the market, which would look very bad for the regulator and the government. Its the exact same story with Bord Gais.

What company are you going to Paul if you don't mind me asking? Most other electricity suppliers aren't bothered with residential users.
Maynooth_Line is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09-09-2006, 17:45   #3
Navan Junction
Really Regular Poster
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Navan
Posts: 305
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maynooth_Line
What company are you going to Paul if you don't mind me asking? Most other electricity suppliers aren't bothered with residential users.
Was thinking the same thing..

Re Eircom, they are a disaster. I'm not going to go into the saga which has seen me leave them again, but they are unbelievable.
Navan Junction is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09-09-2006, 21:16   #4
PaulM
Really Regular Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 826
Default

I don't want to go off topic. If you want to know about my Broadband / phone service / electricity supplier PM me.


EDIT: Curse my feeble spelling.

Last edited by PaulM : 09-09-2006 at 21:42.
PaulM is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10-09-2006, 01:05   #5
James Shields
Member
 
James Shields's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Drogheda, Ireland
Posts: 1,275
Default

Despite being one of the few people to make a smallprofit out of the Eircom floatation, and I still have a few Vodafone shares to my name, I have to agree the whole affair was very badly handled. Because the only thing that Eircom have a virtual monopoly on is the last mile, line rental has gone throuth the roof. I also think that Eircom deliberately delayed the availability of broadband as they knew they'd make more money out of slow diall-up charged per minute.

Regarding ESB, it seems that they're making excuses to keep wind power off the national grid, when this presents no problems in other countries. We should be able to generate a significant portion of our power from renewable sources. The argument has been made that if we can't meet demand 100% of the time, renewable power is useless. In my opinion, this is nonsense. We are now connected to the European grid, and if we were to feed a portion of our wind power to other European countries (where it is in demand for carbon credits), we should be able to trade back our shortfall when the winds drop off.

In addition, to the best of my knowledge, there are no electricity providers in the residential sector.

It's not hard to see why these issues would make people cagey when it comes to public transport.
James Shields is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10-09-2006, 12:37   #6
Maynooth_Line
Regular Poster
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 54
Default

Basically I think what we're all trying to say is that the government and the civil servants involved:

1. Made a mess with Eircom and the opening of the telecoms market

2. Are making a mess with the ESB and the opening of the energy market

So it easily follows that they'll make a mess of public transport if they try opening that. If it was done right they could make things so much better but they won't do it right and they'll end up make things so much worse (I know - its hard to imagine!).
Maynooth_Line is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10-09-2006, 12:43   #7
PaulM
Really Regular Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 826
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by lostcarpark
In addition, to the best of my knowledge, there are no electricity providers in the residential sector.
Yeah there are.
PaulM is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10-09-2006, 15:53   #8
ACustomer
Really Regular Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 767
Default

My tuppence worth:
(i) Eircom line rentals. Sure they are high, but there is now much more competition, even the in the domestic sector. The new callcosts.ie website set up by Comreg is brilliant, and will put the skids under Eircom. About 20% of domestic landlines are now via non-Eircom serviceproviders, and increasingly there are packages which include line rental. Inless peoplare are totally governed byinertia, then Eircom are in for a hard time.
(ii) a lot of people who bought Eurcom share have been put off privatisation in general. Blame those who sold them a pup (Ma O'Rourke?). Also in 2001 there was a worldwide bloodbath in IT and telecom shares, and Eircom shares were not immune. A lot of the bad experience which people had with Eircom share were due to global factors, and were not specific to Eircom. Now if Eircom had been privatised 10 years earlier, then everyone might have had a good run for thier money.
(iii) the real problem when it comes to service is monopoly whether state or privately owned. With state-owend monopolies, the big problem is that the owner and the regulator tend to be one and the same (or at least it is difficult to separate them). Classic case: CIE: who owns it, who regulates it? (SIPTU, NBRU ?? !!). Please don't tell me it is run in the interests of the travelling public.
ACustomer is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10-09-2006, 17:30   #9
PaulM
Really Regular Poster
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 826
Default

Eircom still get revenue from most of their "competition" I have no Eircom line in my place but have a fully functioning phone. Only stuff like that is competition. Eircom even said how BT Ireland are one of their biggest customers.

I think call costs is pretty bad. It says for cable broadband you need an Eircom line for one!
PaulM is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 06:30.


Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.