Eircom’s market share falls amongst businesses


11 Apr 2008

Eircom’s market share amongst business users has fallen, particularly among corporates which have switched to alternative operators, a ComReg-backed study reveals.

The survey revealed that Eircom remains the main ISP in the Irish market, although its penetration overall has dropped in the past three years, from 66pc in 2005 to 63pc in 2008.

Corporate firms are more likely to use firms other than Eircom, with the majority using alternative ISPs.

The survey by Millward Brown found that 33pc of corporate businesses are prepared to switch provider, compared with 17pc of SMEs.

Awareness of voice over IP (VoIP) was near universal amongst corporates, among which 40pc claim to be using VoIP over private company networks. SMEs are less likely to use VoIP but this may change as internet speeds increase over the next 12 months.

Some 28pc of businesses admitted having to make complaints to their fixed line provider. Corporate firms are more satisfied than SMEs with how their complaints are dealt with due to dedicated account managers being assigned to lucrative accounts.

The survey found that adoption of mobile broadband via data cards and laptops is strong, with 16pc of SMEs and 55pc of corporates having adopted this service.

Some 24pc of SMEs claimed to access the internet via their mobile handsets.

Some 87pc of corporates and 85pc of SMEs with broadband said they are satisfied with their download speeds.

The study found that businesses contracted to receive speeds of greater than 2Mbps are more likely to believe the speeds they are paying for are being achieved.

However, 50pc of SMEs and 21pc of large corporates do not know what contracted download speed is really being provided by their broadband supplier.

Some 82pc of Irish businesses now claim to access the internet via a broadband connection, while 7pc are still relying solely on a dial-up connection and another 7pc are relying on ISDN.

The survey found that four out of five SMEs now provide their employees with mobile phones.

By John Kennedy