Mr. Kevin O'Brien:

No, I would not agree because the retail price of approximately €25 for a fixed line anywhere in Ireland remains unchanged. If Eircom reduced or increased that price it would have to do so for absolutely everyone in the country. We are never afraid to take compliance cases with Eircom if we need to. The wholesale price change relates to Eircom's roll out of its next-generation service and the fact that it needs to reduce its prices in order to be able to compete with the likes of UPC. It needs to be able to reduce its wholesale prices so that other operators can compete with it. That change is happening and is something that ComReg welcomes but it is not a change that we have approved. It is within the rules of regulation under which Eircom operates.

Specific reference was made to Amazon. We have an ongoing dialogue with the IDA and larger businesses, rather than availing of the residential-type broadband services in Ireland, tend to avail of leased line services and more bespoke services. Ireland has a good record in terms of the price, availability and quality of those big-business services. However, where there are any specific issues, we are always happy to talk to the IDA and other industry representatives.

Deputy Phelan made reference to quality and that is certainly one of the big issues vis-à-vis broadband. As I explained earlier, it is a reasonable presumption that broadband is now available to everybody in the country but in a lot of cases it is at very low speeds. The problem is how to ensure that we get higher speeds and a very reliable service for everyone. The solution is always a mixture of technologies. Where people can avail of fibre and cable networks, the platforms are upgraded. Fourth generation mobile technology will also help. The fixed wireless access service I mentioned earlier has also been important in this context.

A lot of what we do in ComReg on the consumer side focuses on transparency. We have a website, callcosts.ie, where people can input information on their location and their telecommunications needs. They are then given information on the service providers in their area and the speeds and prices on offer. I mentioned that we are starting to put together a broadband speeds pilot scheme where we will have people around the country sampling products in their local area and reporting to us on the real experience. Obviously, there is often a difference between the advertised speed and the real experience. We want to get some genuine user experience data that we can make available to the public.