Delay over leased lines criticised

Telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, has strongly criticised Eircom for long delays in the delivery of leased lines and circuits to businesses.

The provision of telecoms circuits which carry voice and data traffic is considered vital to promote economic growth and enable competition in the telecoms market.

Ms Doyle's comments follow compilation of a draft report by the European Commission which shows Eircom had one of the worst delivery records of all European telecoms firms during the year 2000.

The draft report shows Eircom had delays of up to three months for the delivery of analogue lines for voice traffic and ISDN lines which carry data.

This ranks Eircom behind 10 EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway for voice analogue lines. Only operators in the Netherlands and Austria recorded delays longer than Eircom.

Delays in the provision of higher capacity circuits including two-megabit lines were similarly high. The typical delivery time for 95 per cent of these circuits from the date of a request was 100 days, compared to just 21 days for British Telecom.

An Eircom spokeswoman said yesterday the company could not comment on a confidential report to the European Commission which it was not privy to.

The Commission report is based on Eircom's submissions to the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation for the months November and December 2000.

The delivery of telecoms circuits by Eircom to other telecoms companies has been a constant bone of contention among other telecoms operators.

Last year Esat joined the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation in a court case against Eircom on the issue.

Under a settlement reached between the parties Eircom has to deliver circuits within 26 to 30 days and is subject to uncapped penalties if it fails to deliver.

However, it is understood the telecoms regulator has had to intervene to enforce fines on a few occasions already this year.