New provider for telecoms market

Details of a flat-rate charge for business calls made within Northern Ireland will be announced today by Belfast-based firm nevada tele.com, in a move to introduce fresh competition into the North's telecommunications market.

The company, which will be granted an operating licence by British telecommunications regulator Oftel today, was formed in May 1999 as a joint venture between Energis, the FTSE 100 business and telecoms and Internet company, and Viridian, Northern Ireland's largest electricity supplier.

The company, which traded under the name EV Ltd until today, will provide integrated voice, data and Internet services to customers and will focus purely on Northern Ireland's SME, government and corporate business sectors.

CBI director Mr Nigel Smyth said the launch of a new telecommunications provider in Northern Ireland was evidence that the market in Northern Ireland was "hotting up" after a slow start following deregulation in 1991.

He said there was evidence that Northern Ireland was well behind other parts of the UK in terms of telecommunications, but the entrance of a new "emerging player" in the telecoms and Internet service was good news for the local economy.

"New competition will help stimulate this important market and also introduce more innovative products and services," he said.

According to a spokeswoman for the telecommunications advisory service in the Chamber of Commerce in Belfast, the four largest telecoms companies providing land-line access in the Northern Irish market are British Telecom, Cable and Wireless, Mercury and NTL. These companies offer a comprehensive range of services to business customers.

But there are also a number of smaller companies who operate by leasing telephone lines from British Telecom and offering cut-price calls to the corporate sector. These include Telco, Telecom Plus, Telnet and Telecom Ireland, the subsidiary of Eircom, which entered the Northern Irish market almost a year ago.

However, the number of operators in Northern Ireland is still only a fraction of that in the south of England, according to the Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman. The managing director of nevada tele.com, Ms Irene Cackett, said the company would offer a complete package for the business sector, from telecoms to Internet solutions.

In August 1999, nevada.com acquired the Internet service provider, Creative Online Media (.COM). It has announced that it will invest £20 million sterling and create 200 jobs in Northern Ireland over the next three years.

The company will aim to make profits by cutting the cost of business calls made within Northern Ireland. Whereas British Telecom charges a basic regional business rate of 6.73p per minute for long-distance daytime calls made within Northern Ireland, nevada tele.com will charge business customers a local rate of 2.5p per minute.