Eircell made an early foray into the Christmas market yesterday, promising to unveil a new pay-as-you-go mobile phone that would be given as a gift by some 60,000 people. The company's chief executive, Mr Stephen Brewer, would not say how much the product would cost, but predicted that it would revolutionise the market in the Republic.
The mobile service provider will put on sale a package comprising of a phone, a charger and a card allowing the user to make a certain amount of calls. Customers can buy top-up cards from Eircell as they go. There will be no contract, no connection fee and no monthly charge, Eircell said last night.
To prevent customers from simply buying one card and using the phone to receive only incoming calls, the cards will run out after a number of months, a spokeswoman for Eircell said.
"Eircell's mission is to enable every Irish household to have access to a mobile phone. I expect there will be 500,000 customers by the end of 1997," Mr Brewer said.
Last year, Eircell connected 30,000 customers in the Christmas period. The company said yesterday it expected the pay-as-you-go scheme to help double that figure. A similar product offered by Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), the Italian equivalent of Eircell, had been responsible for 50 per cent of all new business.
The TIM product, not counting the phone, costs L50,000 (£22). Although Eircell would not say yet how much its package will cost, industry observers said last night that, to attract Christmas shoppers, the price would have to be below £100.
