Not so "Smart" after all
A few years ago, after experiencing considerable frustration with eircom, the dominant landline 'phone service provider in Ireland (a very long and tragic story that I won't go into here), I signed up with Smart Telecom, who'd launched amid a blaze of high-profile TV advertising and publicity. Their rates were competitive, and they had a nice feature called "Smart-to-Smart", which allowed all Smart customers to call other Smart customers free of charge, regardless of where in Ireland they lived. This suited me well.
Last Monday evening I picked up the 'phone to call my special "Smart" friend. I got a recorded message saying that Smart were no longer operating in the Irish market, and that I should contact ComReg, the regulator of the Communications industry in Ireland, for a list of other providers. No warning whatsoever! I contacted some newsrooms of national radio and print media outlets and heard different stories, some of them were not yet aware that tens of thousands of customers had had their phone service curtailed that evening and were unable to make any outgoing calls save for emergency ones.
The late evening news told us that Smart were in a dispute with eircom over not paying for their fixed lines, which eircom still controls. ComReg are supposed to monitor and try to solve such problems. So, as far as I'm concerned, they're all in the wrong: Smart for not paying their bill, eircom for abusing their position as fixed line providers to disable one of their high-profile competitors, and ComReg for not sorting it out before it reached crisis point.
Now Smart are no more, our lines have been temporarily restored (for local and national calls only), and we're faced with a choice: do we go back to eircom or plump for another private 'phone service provider? There are several such providers in the Irish market, each one claiming to have a better deal than the others. There is a site set up by ComReg which is helpful: www.callcosts.ie: here you can key in your usual usage and they'll come up with a list of the most competitive packages to suit your needs. A good service.
But there are other factors: do I want to support an Irish firm, for instance, rather than a UK or internationally-owned one? One Irish firm allows you to donate a percentage of call costs to your local GAA club (gaelic football & hurling); a nice idea and a worthy cause, as all players and trainers work voluntarily. Another friend of mine is an agent for another provider. She makes part of her living out of these commissions. Should I go with them and help to support her this way? Are these two "causes" more important than getting the best rate for my calls? And, if so, which one? Can I do both? These are questions I'll have to answer over the next ten days or so.
Watch this space!
Last Monday evening I picked up the 'phone to call my special "Smart" friend. I got a recorded message saying that Smart were no longer operating in the Irish market, and that I should contact ComReg, the regulator of the Communications industry in Ireland, for a list of other providers. No warning whatsoever! I contacted some newsrooms of national radio and print media outlets and heard different stories, some of them were not yet aware that tens of thousands of customers had had their phone service curtailed that evening and were unable to make any outgoing calls save for emergency ones.
The late evening news told us that Smart were in a dispute with eircom over not paying for their fixed lines, which eircom still controls. ComReg are supposed to monitor and try to solve such problems. So, as far as I'm concerned, they're all in the wrong: Smart for not paying their bill, eircom for abusing their position as fixed line providers to disable one of their high-profile competitors, and ComReg for not sorting it out before it reached crisis point.
Now Smart are no more, our lines have been temporarily restored (for local and national calls only), and we're faced with a choice: do we go back to eircom or plump for another private 'phone service provider? There are several such providers in the Irish market, each one claiming to have a better deal than the others. There is a site set up by ComReg which is helpful: www.callcosts.ie: here you can key in your usual usage and they'll come up with a list of the most competitive packages to suit your needs. A good service.
But there are other factors: do I want to support an Irish firm, for instance, rather than a UK or internationally-owned one? One Irish firm allows you to donate a percentage of call costs to your local GAA club (gaelic football & hurling); a nice idea and a worthy cause, as all players and trainers work voluntarily. Another friend of mine is an agent for another provider. She makes part of her living out of these commissions. Should I go with them and help to support her this way? Are these two "causes" more important than getting the best rate for my calls? And, if so, which one? Can I do both? These are questions I'll have to answer over the next ten days or so.
Watch this space!
posted by Dolores at
9:19 AM
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