TELECOM Eireann should honour its commitment to introduce special deals for local call users, according to the latest report issued by the Telephone Users' Advisory Group (TUAG).
The report says 150,000 residential customers with a high proportion of local call traffic have lost out as a result of tariff "rebalancing" introduced in 1993. Their charges have gone up by an average of 14 per cent or £6.40 per bill.
Telecom Eireann had indicated its intention to introduce a wider range of billing choices by the end of last year but this has not happened, says the report.
It says the company should give "renewed urgent attention to introducing deals such as lower rental, discounts for frequently called numbers and a sliding scale for long calls".
However Mr Gerry O'Sullivan, Telecom Eireann's head of corporate affairs, said 750,000 users have had their bills reduced by an average of 8 per cent overt the past three years. The cost of international calls which had been reduced by up to 66 per cent in the same period would be halved again over the next three years he said. Telecom had given £130 million in price cuts over the past 15 months.
Mr O'Sullivan promised that rental reductions for low usage customers and discounts for frequently called numbers would be available with the flexible billings system to be introduced by the end of the year. He said further price cuts for local calls would not be possible as the sector made losses, but he added that the local charge zones in the Republic were the largest in Europe.
The TUAG report, the sixth to be issued, shows that while Telecom Eireann has some of the lowest charges in Europe for international calls since "rebalancing", local calls are still more expensive than average.
Ireland also has the highest rental charges for residential telephones in Europe - 40 per cent higher than the average the 15 countries surveyed. It has the third-highest connection fee and the third-highest VAT rate.
Telecom is also urged to expand local call areas "on a priority basis". The report states that county boundaries and community boundaries do not appear to have been taken into account in setting up charge zones.
While a resident of Dunboyne Co Meath has access to 500,000 lines at the local rate, a customer in Youghal, Co Cork can reach only 20,000.
The report observed: "It is difficult to envisage any real competition in the foreseeable future in the local call market. Thus the group would re-emphasise the importance it attaches to ensuring that particular group or sub-group of users have to bear a disproportionate burden of costs".
Although total call traffic fell by around 10 per cent following the introduction of "rebalancing" in 1993 it has since recovered and is now 8 per cent higher than before. Non-local calls have increased from 13 per cent to 17 per cent of all traffic and some customers have switched peak-time calls to off-peak.
TUAG expects the mobile phone market to increase at the annual rate of 40 per cent with GSM getting most of the extra business. The group says there is a lack of awareness about the high cost of calls from fixed phones to mobile phones - they peak at just under 22.8p per minute compared with 3.1p to another local
All telephone directories should highlight the different costs of these calls and fixed phone customers should have calls to mobiles shown separately on their bills, the report says.
TUAG also says that calls to bodies such as health boards, hospitals and schools should bed available at a local rate from all over the State.
It says the new Regulatory Authority for the telecommunications industry must continue to operate as an independent entity, even after it becomes part of a new multi-sector body next year when electricity, energy and transport will be also subject to independent evaluation.