Madam, - Just before Christmas, being heavy home users of the Internet, we installed a broadband connection - calculating that, even at €45 a month, it would reduce our telephone bill substantially. And so it has.
However, it has also had another interesting effect. With Internet calls removed, I see from my latest telephone bill that the charge for line rental is over 25 per cent more than my total spending on telephone calls. And this is before the latest rise in line rental rates. In this context, Eircom's claims of reducing the overall cost of calls is little short of laughable.
Eircom gouges its customers in those areas where it has a monopoly and uses the profits from this to subsidise those areas in which it has to compete. It is as simple as that.
I don't blame Eircom for behaving this way. It is a commercial animal. I do blame our regulator for letting them get away with it. - Yours, etc.,
FRANK E. BANNISTER, Morehampton Terrace, Dublin 4.