Small and medium-sized businesses should benefit from cheaper telephone calls, following the announcement of a discount programme by Eircom which, the company claims, could save the sector almost £40 million (€50 million) per year.
The Optimiser discount programme is targeted at Eircom's 160,000 business customers. If all eligible companies sign up for the programme, Eircom claims they will save £38 million.
The company claims an average small or medium-sized enterprise with a bill of between £80 and £100 per month can expect savings of about 20 per cent. Seven customised plans are included in the Optimiser discount programme, which are tailor-made for each individual business. Each customer will save on lower national, international and UK call rates, as well as a reduced minimum fee per call on all call types.
A company must guarantee a minimum monthly spend of £15 on the lowest package - Optimiser Value - and £1,500 on its largest package - Optimiser Extra - to sign up for the discounts.
Eircom has recruited 286 account managers to manage the new discount initiative. Some 80 per cent of these are new recruits and 20 per cent have been diverted from other sections of the company under an ongoing restructuring programme.
The Small Firms Association (SFA) has welcomed the reductions. SFA director Mr Pat Delaney said anything to reduce the costs of telephone calls was welcome, due to the phenomenal growth in the use of telephones by small companies in recent years.
The most recent report by the Office of Telecommunications Regulation placed the Republic 13th out of 19 OECD countries in terms of national business call costs and 9th for international business call costs.
