UPC IRELAND has turned up the heat on its rivals in the broadband market by significantly increasing the speeds for its entry-level product and by becoming the first telco here to offer a 100 megabyte speed.
From May 9th, UPC will offer 25MB as the standard speed for customers. This is three times faster than Eircom’s offering and the fastest entry-level speed offered in the Irish market by some distance. The new speeds will be promoted through a €5 million marketing campaign fronted by broadcaster Craig Doyle.
UPC said it will charge €60 a month for a bundle comprising its 25MB broadband, value digital-plus TV and Freetime World telephone voice package.
Customers will be able to double their broadband speed for an extra €5 a month and move to 100MB for an additional €10 a month.
UPC is upgrading its network as part of a €400 million investment that will be completed by the end of 2013. Its broadband product is available in about 41 per cent of Irish homes.
The product launch was made on the day that UPC announced its first-quarter results. This showed that its broadband customer base has increased to 214,900, up 34 per cent year-on-year. Home phone subscriptions grew by 58 per cent to 108,900.
“This has been a fantastic quarter for UPC,” said Dana Strong, who recently took over as chief executive of the Irish business. “We expect that 2011 will be a very exciting year for us. We are growing, we are hiring and we’re really in a position of strength.”
Ms Strong said the competitive bundle prices now available to consumers should benefit its TV business, which has stagnated in the past few years and slipped behind satellite broadcaster Sky.
She said sister companies in other parts of Europe would be relaunching their TV offerings in the next year or so and UPC Ireland would probably piggyback on these developments.
These might include 3D, video-on-demand and internet TV.
She said offering a mobile phone service was also being considered. “We have started conversations here with the [mobile] carriers. But it’s early days.”
Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte attended the media launch in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel yesterday. He welcomed UPC’s upgraded broadband speeds and said it would benefit businesses here. “We need to ensure that our businesses can compete on the global stage. Bigger bandwidth is essential to our SMEs.”
Mr Rabbitte confirmed the Government would announce the details of its rural broadband scheme next week. This is aimed at plugging the gaps in broadband coverage in rural areas. He also plans to convene a meeting of the next-generation broadband task force in the coming weeks.
This will include representatives of the various telcos in the marketplace.
