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Responding to comments made by the ODTR that the roll-out of its DSL service may be delayed by two months because of a lack of information, Eircom said it had provided sufficient detail and remained "fully committed" to launching the service on 28 September 2001.
DSL provides users with high-speed "always-on" Internet access. Eircom has said for some time that it intended to provide the service to its users and to give its competitors bitstream access, which is one of the ways other telecoms can access the local loop. Access to Eircom's local loop by its competitors is designed to create greater competition in the market and keep prices down for consumers.
The ongoing debate regarding local loop unbundling has led to the war of words which has now broken out between the ODTR and Eircom regarding the timing of supplying cost models and details for the high-speed Internet access service.
The ODTR has said that there have been "substantial delays" over the last few months in the provision of pricing information by Eircom. It also said that its initial review of the information raised possible concerns about cost orientation.
Eircom, on the other hand, said that it had given the ODTR detailed information in a timely manner, but the ODTR had to be prompted on several occasions by the former state owned telecom to respond in a similar fashion. An Eircom spokesperson also said that the company was "very confident" that its pricing model was cost oriented as required.
According to the ODTR, Eircom first committed to provide pricing proposals to the ODTR by 11 June 2001. Eircom, it said, only provided these in full on 09 August 2001.
Unsurprisingly in this situation of claim and counter-claim, Eircom denied those claims. An Eircom spokesperson told ElectricNews.Net that due to changes in the product required by the telecoms industry, it had to make amendments and review its pricing structure. This delay meant it could not supply detailed information until 20 July. When it had not received a reply from the ODTR to its proposals by 31 July, Eircom contacted the ODTR and requested a meeting.
"Due to the commercially sensitive nature of the information that we would be discussing we asked for certain confidentially agreements and it wasn't until 09 August that the ODTR agreed to conditions that we could be happy with," said the spokesperson. The spokesperson added that following that meeting it did not hear from the ODTR until 22 August.
On 23 August, the ODTR said in a statement that its initial review of the Eircom proposal raised possible concerns that cost orientation had not been proven. It said that a schedule of these concerns would be provided to Eircom.
"The responsibility remains with Eircom to ensure cost orientation of the proposed bitstream charges, and Eircom is requested to furnish an adequately and appropriately cost oriented submission to this office in full by close of business 05 September, or before if possible," said the ODTR statement.
Eircom said that it responded to these concerns within two hours of receiving them.
In that statement the ODTR said that it would treat the review "as a matter of utmost priority" and that it would look to complete it "by two months (or earlier) from the date of receipt of a complete submission."
In response, Eircom said that it "totally rejected the claims made by the ODTR that any delay is Eircom's fault." The company added, "The reality is that the ODTR has had Eircom's pricing information since 20 July and has had sufficient time to complete its review," said an Eircom statement.
Eircom also said it is "on target" to launch its own consumer DSL services in early September.
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