Call to split Eircom to increase competition
Telecoms giant Eircom should be broken up in a bid to end its monopoly of the telephone network, it was claimed today.
With the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) noting that the firm could be split in two to improve competition Bernard Durkan, Fine Gael TD, said Eircom’s market dominance had to be cut once and for all.
A ComReg report revealed many telecoms customers felt the company should be sub-divided into a wholesale and retail division.
But Mr Durkan said the move would not be a cure-all for the problems of a lack of competition in the telecommunications sector.
“If the separation of Eircom were to take place, it is vital that the two new companies would be under entirely different ownership – not just two firms both controlled by the same giant operator,” he said.
“It is also vital that if the network were to be sold off that no existing market player, no matter what size, would be allowed to seize control of it - such a move would leave us exactly where we started.”
Mr Durkan said Eircom should be cut up and new owners brought in to run each arm of the firm.
ComReg said it was consulting the industry and public on the measure as a way to stop Eircom discriminating against its rivals.
The commission’s Forward-Looking Strategic Review of the Irish Telecoms Sector said feedback from alternative operators suggested they were being treated unfairly by Eircom.
But the review noted: “Given the complex nature of most wholesale products, it is impossible for the regulator to anticipate all the ways in which access-seekers can be discriminated against.”
Mr Durkan also criticised the huge costs mobile operators had imposed on its Irish customers and he attacked the half-hearted attempt to privatise Telecom Eireann and open up the market.
“The botched privatisation of Telecom Eireann has left us in a situation where one company still has a near-monopoly on landline telephony in this country, while the telecoms infrastructure remains below par thanks to a lack of investment,” he said.
“While ComReg are merely opening this issue up for discussion, I hope in the future they will seek to further this debate by coming up with solid proposals to break Eircom’s dominance of the market once and for all.”
