Legislation published today will grant "aggressive" powers to communications regulator Comreg to investigate claims against telecoms providers, the Minister for Communications has said.
Noel Dempsey will publish the Communications Regulation Bill 2007 later today and said the Bill would increase Comreg's enforcement and regulating powers.
"The ultimate aim obviously is to lead to more competitively priced communications services," he said.
Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the Minister added: "The powers that the regulator will get are akin to the Competition Authority powers. They will be able to aggressively investigate any claim that they have about abuse of a dominant position and be able to take very swift action."
Mr Dempsey was asked whether this would address situations such as that experienced by 40,000 Smart Telecom customers who were left without a service last year.
The customers lost their service without warning in October as a result of a row between the company and its wholesaler, Eircom, over a €4 million debt.
"It won't on its own change anybody's dominant position. The situation between Smart and Eircom was basically a matter of contract debt, it wasn't a communications matter," Mr Dempsey said.
"It was something that arose between the two companies. That can arise at any time, although there are now new protocols and regulations in place to ensure it can't happen as suddenly as it did."
Mr Dempsey said the legislation, if passed, will allow the regulator recourse to civil and criminal remedies. "It will put in place penalties of up to €4 million or 10 per cent of turnover for any company found to be in breach of competition law."
The Bill also contains a "whistleblower" provision to protect the identity of anyone providing information to Comreg about possible illegal practices.
Questioned on whether it would allow members of the public better and cheaper access to broadband services, Mr Dempsey said telecommunications companies are "basically shareholder-driven" and "profit-driven", and that they had been "consistent in their attitude that they are not going to provide broadband to areas that are uneconomic from their point of view".
He said the Government's current plan to open group broadband schemes under the Metropolitan Area Network plan was under way and was designed to ensure broadband coverage "throughout the country" within the next 12 to 18 months.