In a case before the commercial court, Imagine claims it had contracted Motorola in 2009 to provide an end-to-end broadband network nationwide.

Imagine alleges Motorola failed to meet its contractual obligations and as a result Imagine has suffered losses of €17m to date with the total cost expected to run to €90m by the end of 2013.

Motorola’s networks division, which Nokia Siemens Networks acquired last year for US$1.2bn, contends it has abided by its contractual obligations.

Imagine alleges that since last October, Motorola has been unwilling to remedy financial and technical problems and directed Imagine towards Nokia Siemens Networks to resolve the issues.

The WiMax rollout

Imagine’s business plans envisaged 234 base stations would be installed by the end of 2010.

However, so far Imagine says that 125 base stations have been installed.

The delay is understood to be having a withering effect on Imagine’s working capital. It says that potentially 100 staff may be made redundant as a cost-saving measure.

(Via Silicone Republic)

The changes announced by Eircom yesterday will allow affected residential customers to get out of contracts early without penalty under EU regulations.

The call connection fee for calls made outside Eircom packages will increase by almost two-thirds for home and business customers, from 5.95 cent to 9.5 cent.

Charges per call will also be rounded up to the nearest cent.

The start time for making cheaper off-peak calls will also change from 6pm to 7pm for most customers. The peak call window will widen to between 7am and 7pm from Monday to Friday.

The changes, which are being introduced from March 11th, will mean an average increase of 3.1 per cent for customers who do not stay within their call package, Eircom said.

Prices of monthly packages will stay the same, but calls made outside these plans will increase.

One-third of Eircom’s almost one million residential and small business customers do not have a package.

A spokesman for Eircom said the decision was “not taken lightly and the company had to think “long and hard about it”.

“It’s a challenge for everyone in the current economic environment. We are seeing revenues decreasing and we feel this is able to help us to generate more revenue to put into new and exciting services,” he said.

He said that customers would be unaffected if they stayed within their packages.

The change in off-peak hours from 6pm to 7pm was “significant” and would be a “big inconvenience” for many customers, Dermot Jewell of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland said.

Consumers needed to start to become aware of the change in daytime hours, he said. “For many people, 7pm will be a big inconvenience,” Mr Jewell added.

“The subtlety of the manner they introduced the increase was quite extraordinary,” he said.

Mr Jewell was also concerned that other operators would follow.

The National Consumer Agency was also “disappointed to see yet another price hike for consumers who have been hit hard recently”.

It advised consumers to compare costs on ComReg’s consumer website, callcost.ie.

Residential consumers who want to get out of their Eircom contract without penalty will have to give the company written notification within a month of being notified of the changes.

The company’s service cancellation policy has also been changed from immediate to 30 days for consumers who are not in contract.

Eircom advises customers who want to get out of their contracts to call 1901 for further details.

Affected customers with bundles can withdraw both their telephone and broadband services if they wish.

Eircom last introduced a new pricing structure in July, when customers also saw their bills rise by an average of 3 per cent.

Separately, the company’s 11811 directory enquiry prices will also increase by 31 cent from April 11th to €1.99 per minute.

Taken from theirishtimes.com Friday, February 11, 2011

The companies were charged with making unsolicited marketing phone calls and sending unsolicited marketing messages.

UPC was convicted of the largest number of offences and received the biggest fine, having pleaded guilty to 18 counts of breaching the Data Protection Act in relation to four separate complaints.

It is understood that after a letting agent cancelled 56 accounts UPC attempted to contact one of their employees 225 times within three weeks.

UPC was fined €7,100 for the offences.

Vodafone was convicted on five counts of breaching the Data Protection Act for sending unsolicited marketing calls and text messages. It was fined €3,850.

Eircom pleaded guilty to one charge of breaching the Act after a door-to-door salesman contacted a former customer who had been told their name was removed from Eircom’s marketing list. Judge Bridget Reilly imposed the Probation Act and Eircom was ordered to make a donation of €2,000 to charity.

O2 pleaded guilty to one charge for sending a text message to a customer three years after the customer asked not to be contacted. The Probation Act and a €2,000 fine was imposed on O2.

(via Silicon Republic)

It also wants a reduction in labour costs of €90 million over the next three years to make the business more competitive.

This is all against a backdrop of declining sales across the group. Revenues fell by 8.5 per cent in the year to the end of June to just more than €1.8 billion.

On a positive note, Eircom trimmed its operating costs by 11.5 per cent. This helped the company to keep the reduction in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) – a key metric for its lenders – to just 3.3 per cent at €669 million.

Eircom lost 70,000 fixed-line customers during the year – more than 1,300 a week. Fixed-line revenues fell by 8.5 per cent to €1.4 billion.

Its Meteor mobile phone business also suffered “tough” trading with revenues down 7.7 per cent at €458 million.

In the fourth quarter, Meteor’s average revenue per unit (Arpu) fell by 15 per cent to €31.69. Its Arpu has declined almost every month for the past two years.

Eircom chief executive Paul Donovan is battling to stabilise Eircom’s Ebitda to avoid triggering a default on its debt covenants.

When asked about the potential for a debt default, Mr Donovan told The Irish Times: “We’re saying this is something that may occur if we don’t take action during the next 12 to 18 months.

“Clearly, some of those actions are relating to the business in terms of it running better.

“Equally, there are other things we can do. We can engage our lenders in a dialogue around those covenants and seek to achieve some relief.

“Or, under our senior [debt] financing arrangements, we can work with our shareholders on some kind of equity cure where they put in equity and it counts as Ebitda.”

Mr Donovan declined to comment on whether its shareholders, Singapore-based STT and the employee Esot, would provide fresh equity for the business.

The company is being advised on its financial options by JP Moran and Gleacher Shacklock.

“We haven’t reached any definitive conclusions; it’s an incredibly complex exercise with many different ways forward,” Mr Donovan said.

“It’s not something that has to happen next week or next month because a likely covenant breach would be some time down the road. We have plenty of room to manage that.”

Mr Donovan said Eircom has close to €400 million in cash available to the business.

In terms of reducing its labour costs, Mr Donovan said no target has been set for jobs cuts. The matter is under discussions with its unions.

By the end of June, Eircom had reduced its headcount by 1,531 staff – well ahead of the 1,200 target set for March 2011.

“We have to have a cost base which is competitive and we are some way away from that yet,” he added.

Eircom plans to launch a new mobile brand in the coming weeks in what is already a crowded market.

“Meteor is an incredibly strong brand but its core target market is effectively 16 to 20-year-olds,” Mr Donovan said.

“The Eircom brand also has inherent strengths and we are really lacking a meaningful option in terms of triple play.

“So the ability to bundle Eircom mobile together with voice and DSL [broadband] makes absolute sense and enables us to appeal to a broader demographic.”

Eircom had 140,000 next-generation broadband customers in June and expects this to rise to 280,000 by the end of 2010.

Taken from irishtimes.com Wednesday, September 1, 2010