Calls to reduce high-speed Net charges

DSL, which enables PCs to connect to the internet at speeds up to 30 times faster than normal connections, is considered a vital technology that can increase companies' competitiveness and create an information society for citizens.

Eircom and Esat BT have connected just 900 customers to their new high-speed internet services, prompting lobby groups yesterday to call for a reduction in charges.

The low initial take-up of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology follows a 12-month delay in the introduction of DSL here due to disputes over pricing. This delay caused at least one international report to describe the Republic as laggards in internet technologies.

Eircom charges a €199.65 connection fee for its i-stream DSL product, plus a €107.69 monthly fee. Esat, which has just introduced the service in Limerick, charges a similar monthly fee for DSL. In comparison, the monthly charge for a DSL product from BT in Britain can be as low as £27 sterling (€42.25) per month.

The slow take-up of DSL technologies here mirrors the experience in several other EU countries where firms introduced services at prices that were too high for consumers. However, recently firms in many states, including France, Britain and Belgium, have lowered their prices to increase demand for the services.

Despite ongoing criticism from lobby groups, Eircom and Esat said yesterday they would not reduce their DSL charges until at least next year.

Figures obtained from the two operators show Eircom has made 800 DSL connections - a proportion of these are former DSL trial customers - while Esat has connected just 100 customers to DSL.

The low take-up places the Republic among the least connected states in Europe in terms of broadband connections.

Lobby groups yesterday used the figures to call for more affordable charges for internet services to boost consumer demand.

Mr David Long, chairman of the consumer lobby group Irelandoffline, said consumers were clearly not willing to pay the €1,700 it costs to get DSL in the first year, and firms should offer a reasonably priced product here. "Because there is not yet a cheap flat-rate internet product here there is a conceptual gap in the way we use the internet, with most people just using it for e-mail," he said.

Meanwhile, in a further blow to the concept of the Republic as an "e-commerce hub", Eircom has reiterated its opposition to introducing a flat-rate dial-up internet product that is already available in many European markets. This product, which is available in the UK for about £15 sterling, gives consumers unlimited access to the internet for a monthly fee.

In an interview in today's Irish Times, Mr Cathal Magee, managing director of Eircom Retail, says the firm already has a flat-rate product on the market in DSL. He says a flat-rate dial-up service would only mean customers who use the service more than average were subsidised by users who use it less.

Mr Magee also says it is early days for Eircom's DSL roll-out and the firm will not consider lowering the price of its DSL service until next year, after it has conducted research on the market.

Meanwhile, Mr David Taylor, director of regulatory affairs at Esat BT, said it wanted to introduce an Irish flat-rate dial-up internet service but could not do this until Eircom offered the firm a wholesale price for a service.

Neither could Esat BT lower the price of its own DSL service because of the high input costs charged by Eircom for access to its network, he added.

A spokeswoman for the telecoms regulator said the office was aware of the take-up of DSL and was monitoring demand for the service on an ongoing basis.