According to a report in the Irish Independent newspaper, Telecom Eireann are to cut the price of accessing the internet even further. The peak time rates had been cut by TE in July as they increased the number of minutes per call unit during peak time from three to five minutes. The move had been intended to make the use of the internet by businesses economically viable. The new cuts have not been confirmed by TE though it is expected that peak time rates will be cut again in order to encourage businesses to take to the internet in greater numbers and for longer.

The new charges will apparently be announced when US President Bill Clinton visits Ireland in September. The intention is to make Ireland a hub for internet E-Commerce. Though call charges have fallen considerably over the last few years, accessing the internet in Ireland can be expensive during peak time. If a company accesses an ISP on an anlogue line, up to 30 seconds of the five minutes can be taken up with modem negotiation. This leaves only four and a half minutes for the first unit. ISDN is faster on connections but the initial investment and the ISP subscription is higher.

ISDN is an obsolete technology that has been radically surpassed by developments like cablemodems and ADSL and xDSL. However for Telecom Eireann, it is the best that they have at the moment. Unfortunately for the public the cost of installation of an ISDN line is £348 + VAT (£421.08). The monthly rental for an ISDN line is £29.00 + VAT per month (£35.09). The installation cost of an ordinary phoneline is less than a third of that for ISDN. The monthly rental is slightly over one third that of ISDN. This is one of the areas that may be included in the new round of cuts. It is possible that the installation cost could be brought closer to that for an ordinary phoneline and the monthly ISDN line rental may be cut to half the existing rate.

In addition to the new round of price reductions, TE may take advantage of the publicity to announce the introduction of ADSL in some areas. The recent announcements by Cablelink and CMI about cablemodem access stole the spotlight from TE and their aging ISDN star.

To date the relatively high price of telecommunications services in Ireland has been high enough to deter many companies from entering the market in depth. Most seem to have only a passing interest such as a basic website and perhaps e-mail. The oft quoted 15 minute online time per day is reflection of this uncertainty. Leased line access is probably the lowest in Europe. The blame for this can be laid firmly at the door of Telecom Eireann and its anti-internet actions over the last ten years.

The erratic management of Telecom Eireann has always been perceived as the greatest threat to the internet and indeed telecommunications in Ireland. When Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) were beginning to become popular a few years ago, TE switched from the local flate rate charge structure to a timed call structure. The net effect on the scene was fatal for most BBSes as callers were deterred from calling BBSes due to the extortionate levels of TE's phone charges. It should be remembered that the BBS users in Ireland were effectively the first generation of internet users in Ireland and there were cases of some companies, particularly anti-virus ones making updates available via BBSes. It is a tribute to those who established the BBSes and the first internet companies in Ireland that they survived despite the parasitic and bumbling incompetence of Telecom Eireann management. The question now is whether they can redeem the situation before the deadline of deregulation in December.