A thread on boards.ie covers the to and fro about the eircom strike. Seems eircom wants the staff to sign new terms and conditions of employment which will mean staff cannot object to any eircom business units being sold off. eircom’s owners are Babcock and Brown who traditionally are an infrastructure investment company. They don’t like retail arms. No siree.
The new programme for Government talks about encouraging eircom to be split into a wholesale and a retail arm. “encourage”. Heh.
Also consider that eircom will be launching “eircom mobile” soon which will work almost like an MVNO. Perhaps they’ll turn it into a full MVNO (virtual mobile network piggybacking off Meteor or maybe Voda?) and then sell off Meteor too, once they have the 3G network up and going. One thing is for sure, the debts they have for eircom since the purchase are considerable and I’m sure they’d like to get rid of some of them.
Not sure if this is relevant to this post of yours but have you seen this?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6900697.stm
Apparently, Ireland’s among the lowest priced for “entry level” broadband, according to an Oct ’06 OECD report – there’s a lot more there though…
Here’s a link about something closely related.
http://www.eire.com/2007/07/17/comreg-has-to-make-the-right-choice-for-the-future-of-broadband/
This breakup thing is on the cards and it is going to happen now, later or sooner.
This guys comments are right if you consider the prospect and economic feasibility of Sub Loop Unbundling. As we live in a market oriented regulatory framework practically all of the Core NGN and a high proportion of the Access network (fed by the core) will remain outside of the direct ambit of the regulator unless equivalence fails or some change in regulation propages movement.
I have a problem though with this “ComReg should decide” I can’t see that happening any time. Effectively we all know where we are with LLU in Ireland. The NGN at present is a move purely designed to stave off competition from the new cable operator who has had relative success in markets such as the Netherlands. The recent OECD report was interesting reading to that end. Also certain regulations have been rolled back in that market.
They may broker or foster, but I can’t for one second see ComReg deciding anything. Much as I’d see that as an aspiration.
Well, if they don’t decide anything, then LLU is definitely over. ComReg can’t legally stop eircom rolling out NGN.