UTV offers flat-rate access to internet

UTV's inability to negotiate a flat-rate price from Eircom for its UTVip product means its product will cost €9 more in the Republic, compared with Northern Ireland, where it is priced at €21.

Flat-rate, off-peak internet access is available for the first time in the Republic from today, according to UTV Internet which has launched an internet subscription service at €29.99 per month.

The new product - UTVip - will offer consumers at least 150 hours online per month or five hours per day. A signing-on fee of €30 would not apply for orders received before Christmas, the firm said.

The service, whose launch coincides with UTV's decision to offer telephony in the Republic, will provide consumers with the first flat-rate service since Esat cancelled its Surf No limits product.

The "no limits" product was cancelled last year when Esat complained it couldn't afford to offer the product because it was charged on a per-minute basis by Eircom for network connection.

Mr Scott Taunton, managing director of UTV Internet, said the firm would like to offer a flat-rate service to businesses available at all times of the day and night. But this may depend on the ability of UTV to negotiate a flat-rate deal for connectivity with Eircom.

Up to now this type of deal - known as FRIACO - has been resisted by Eircom. The company claims that it would not enable them to recover their costs and would result in clogging up its telecoms network with traffic.

Competing telecoms operators and lobby groups such as Irelandoffline have been lobbying Eircom for some time on the issue, and Esat is expected to renew its campaign over coming weeks.

Mr Taunton said this was something the company was "uncomfortable with" but reflected the regulatory and competitive environment in the Republic.

"We've been trying to put a flat-rate product together for some time in the Republic but it has proved difficult because of the environment. In Northern Ireland, there is more consumer choice in terms of internet service providers \ which are not owned by telecos. In the UK, ISPs have been able to gather large numbers of subscribers and force operators to open their networks."

Eircom and Esat control much of the ISP market in the Republic through their web portals, but UTV claimed its ISP had achieved more than its initial target of 60,000 users. Accurate figures for ISP market share are not yet available in the Republic. UTV is also considering launching a broadband internet product in the Republic, based on gaining bitstream access to Eircom's own digital subscriber line network.