The Commission for Communications Regulation (Comreg) has been forced to delay the introduction of two innovative schemes aimed to kickstart competition in the mobile and fixed telecoms sectors.
A single billing system to encourage competition in the fixed telecoms sector will now be delayed until May, Comreg confirmed yesterday.
The service, which enables consumers to rent their telephone lines from rivals to Eircom for the first time, was due later this month. But a bitter dispute arose between rival operators and Eircom over the type of product the incumbent firm planned to offer its competitors.
Because Eircom's network enters almost every house in the State, rivals need to rent a product wholesale from Eircom to supply to their own customers.
The Commission will next week issue a direction to Eircom setting out the details of the product it must offer its rivals, and setting a new start date of May.
Director of regulatory affairs at Esat BT, Mr David Taylor, said the company was disappointed about the delay. But it is understood Esat BT and other operators such as WorldCom will be pleased that Eircom has agreed to provide a wholesale ISDN product under the plan as well as telephone lines.
Eircom would not comment on the issue when contacted.
The delay in the introduction of a single bill product will disappoint consumers, who currently have to pay a separate bill to Eircom for line rental even if they are customers of a rival operator.
It may also delay the ability of competitors in the telecoms sector to compete effectively with Eircom in the residential market - a sector which has seen tens of thousands of consumers go back to Eircom. Official figures show rivals lost 150,000 customers from 2001 to mid-2002 to Eircom as the telecoms market slumped.
The Commission also said that a scheme to enable consumers to change their mobile phone numbers - including the prefixes 085, 086 or 087- when they change network operators will not be introduced until July.
Initially, the mobile firms Vodafone, O2 and Meteor had planned the system for the fourth quarter 2002 but the Commission said the firms had now said they would not start the system until June.
In a tersely worded statement, the Commission said Irish consumers would be among the last in Europe to have the facility, which promotes competition by lowering the costs for firms to change mobile phone operators.
The Commission said it would order the introduction of mobile number portability to advance the issue as effectively as possible. It has set a date not later than July 25th, 2003 for the new service. This date is significant as it coincides with the introduction of new EU laws which could bolster the powers of the new Commission.
But a spokesman for Meteor - the firm with most to gain from the new system - was disappointed at the delay and would like to see a working mobile number portability scheme as soon as possible.
The Commission has formally intervened to implement certain schemes that would benefit competition several times in three weeks.
This week, it issued a direction forcing Eircom to introduce a wholesale flat-rate internet product by July. The firm had opposed introducing this product for rivals such as Esat BT because it believes it would be uneconomic.
