UNDER an innovative pricing policy to be announced today and designed to encourage a more widespread use of Irish, Telecom Eireann is to offer a tariff discount on calls made partly or wholly in the language.
Eligible calls can be made outside recognised Gaeltacht areas but Telecom's initial survey has indicated phone users in Gaeltacht areas are most likely to reap the greatest benefit from the new policy.
Such discounting is already common in the US, where competition for long distance telephone services is intense. Some carriers have boosted profits by targeting the growing Hispanic and LatinAmerican communities.
The cost will be partly under written by the EU through its programme for the promotion of minority EU languages. It is hoped the policy will become self financing as more calls are made in Irish. An 18 month pilot project in the Basque area of Spain has already been successful on that basis.
The entire administration and billing of the Minority Language Price Adjustment (MLPA) scheme will be automated using digital voice recognition technology - again a system already tested effectively in the Basque experiment. The telephone lines of registered MLPA customers will by monitored by a computer programmed, to recognise the distinguishing sounds of the language and to measure the proportion of Irish used during each call.
The software for Telecom's scheme has been developed from the basic technology used by IBM for its computer assisted dictation systems. Yesterday, a Telecom spokesman emphasised that customer confidentiality would be preserved. "The MLPA Irish software will not translate words," he added. "The computer will merely identify the language used, measure the extent to which it makes up the caller's conversation and then adjust the billing."
Telecom customers can register individually from today to take advantage of the scheme. Their calls will be monitored with immediate effect.
The new policy was devised by the Department of the Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in conjunction with Bord na Gaeilge and Telecom and is part of a broader package to encourage the everyday use of Irish. "We are also part funding Irish language computers and working with the banks to offer bilingual ATM services," a Department spokeswoman said.
The scheme has already been criticised by the Telephone Users Association, formed to highlight customer problems with high bills. "In effect, this is a tax on the use of English," a statement from the association said. "If Telecom has funds available for gimmicks like this, the money should be used to reduce charges across the board."
RTE broadcaster Cynthia Ni Mhurchu yesterday welcomed the scheme as "imaginative, different daring, direct and very Irish".
Speaking at the MLPA launch in Connemara, she added: "I welcome any move to encourage people to use everyday Irish. And we all know how much young people like to talk on the telephone."