TELECOM Eireann has announced a wide range of price reductions which it says will save consumers a total of £80 million in a full year. The company has also promised to introduce further cuts during the year, including additional discount schemes for business users.
The price reductions were criticised yesterday by Telecom's rivals for international business traffic, who questioned why the State operator had not introduced them years ago. Esat Telecom claimed that the reductions were a direct result of competition in the telecoms market.
The chief executive of TCL Telecom, Mr Sean Melly, said Telecom had announced price reductions only where it faced competition. "It has done nothing" to reduce local or trunk call charges," he said.
The price reductions mainly involve calls made to Britain and the US, which account for 75 per cent of all calls made from Ireland, although there have also been reductions on calls to South Africa. There is also a new 10 per cent discount scheme for people who nominate their five most frequently dialled numbers.
From tomorrow, all calls to the US and Canada will be reduced by 25 per cent. This brings the cost of calling down to an average of 36p per minute at the standard rate, 34p at the reduced rate and 31p at the economy rate.
The cost of calling Britain is to be reduced by 17 per cent at the standard rate to 24p per minute, with evening and weekend rates falling by 10 per cent to 22p per minute.
Telecom's chief executive, Mr Alfie Kane, said the reductions constituted the largest ever cuts package announced by the company.
Mr Kane said trunk call costs would be reduced later this year. The company also announced that it was reducing the basic telephone connection charge by almost one third, from £145 to £99. About 114,000 new customers connect to Telecom each year.
It has also abolished reconnection charges for existing customers who move house or transfer accounts. These charges ranged from £18 to £121.