Perlico doubles broadband speed free of charge


24 Mar 2005

Perlico has announced that from 4 April it will be upgrading all current and future DSL broadband customers from 512Kbps to 1Mbps at no extra charge.

Commenting on the upgrade, Perlico’s chief executive Iain MacDonald, said: “Ireland has been lagging behind its European counterparts in broadband usage and this improved offering will make it an even more attractive product for home and business use.

“With increased speed, our customers can, not only be continually connected to the internet and their email, but use the internet more efficiently and save even more time when downloading,” MacDonald said.

Perlico’s broadband DSL service is available to residential customers at €34.95 (including Vat) per month, compared with €38.95 for the equivalent service from Eircom. Perlico’s business rate for broadband is €45 per month (excluding Vat) for unlimited users across a company’s computer network. In addition, the company claims to offer the country’s cheapest dial-up internet access at one cent per minute at evening/weekends and 3.8 cent during the day.

Perlico was formed in 2001 by MacDonald, who was a significant investor in Irish call centre Solar Marketing before it was sold to US company IMS. Perlico’s board of directors and private investors include Dr Jim Mountjoy, co-founder of software firm Euristix. Perlico’s chairman is Malcolm MacDonald, former senior manager of corporate finance at ICC Bank. Other directors include Roger Bannon of chartered accountants Bannon & Co and former financial director of ThirdForce where he headed up the flotation process.

By John Kennedy