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Connection fees have risen from EUR125 to EUR165 ex. VAT, but monthly rental for Eircom's I-stream solo product for individual users is down to EUR89 from the EUR99 fee Eircom had proposed last autumn. That product was delayed following a challenge from Ireland's telecoms regulator, and the new retail prices were published on Tuesday following resolution of the dispute.
Customers on the solo product will connect to the Net at 512kbit/s, or around 10 times faster than a normal dial-up modem, but they will be limited to three gigabytes of downloaded data each month. Eircom said it would charge EUR0.03 per megabyte over that limit. Extra charges also apply, including EUR145 for a special high-speed modem.
Eircom has two other packages connecting to the Net at 1Mb/s: I-stream multi for up to four computers costs EUR139 monthly ex. VAT, with a download limit of six gigabytes; I-stream enhanced for a network of computers costs EUR169 monthly ex. VAT, with no limit on the data to be downloaded. I-stream multi users will also need a EUR270 Ethernet modem, while equipment fees will vary for I-stream enhanced customers.
Eircom said customers can register interest for the product now, but the service will not be available until 14 May.
An Eircom spokesperson was not available for comment on the pricing, which was quickly criticised by pressure groups as too high for Ireland's residential market.
"We are happy to see a broadband product out there but we'd question the demand from the consumer side with that pricing -- it's still too high for take-up," said David Long, chairman of Ireland Offline. "I'd like to see Eircom raise their game as BT have in betting on broadband, making a broadband product available at a reasonable price for everybody across the country. Hopefully there is the opportunity now for other operators to come in with more competitively priced products that will be suitable for consumers and SMEs."
Eircom faces little competition on high-speed services apart from NTL, which is rolling out cable modem services to Irish homes for around EUR35 monthly. NTL is aiming for 25,000 Dublin area homes with its service this year, while Eircom's reach is much greater.
Eircom said on Tuesday that I-stream will reach 500,000 customer lines around its major exchange centres in Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Galway and the northwest this year. By the end of 2003 Eircom said the reach will extend to around one million lines and will include customers in the midlands, northeast and southeast.
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