Smart and UPC unveil new download speeds

03-03-2008

by Emmet Ryan

Competition in the residential broadband market heated up on Monday with both UPC and Smart Telecom unveiling new packages with faster download speeds.

Smart's new 15Mbps package was the fastest of the offerings announced, with customers able to purchase the product for EUR70.36 a month including line rental. The broadband provider's new range also includes offerings with speeds of 4Mbps, 6Mbps, 8Mbps and 10Mbps.

UPC Ireland also made a big splash on Monday with its new products. The top speed on offer is a 12Mbps package costing EUR40 a month with no line rental charges. UPC's other packages are a 1Mbps offering which costs EUR20 a month and a 6Mbps offering at EUR30 a month.

Both companies were keeping their cards close to their chest in terms of the customer numbers they hoped to achieve as a result of these new offerings. Smart had approximately 15,000 residential customers in September last year, while UPC Ireland had 80,500 broadband customers by the end of 2007. Both however were confident that the new packages would aid competition in the market.

"The problem consumers have had to deal with to date is a lack of competition. Anything that increases speeds and improves pricing is good for consumers," Pio Murtagh, chief operating officer at Smart Telecom told ENN.

The speeds available look set to increase even further as UPC Ireland told ENN that the firm plans to look at its offerings again over the next few months. "We are looking at the possibility of introducing higher speeds later in the year," said Ronan Gallagher, product manager of UPC. "We're operating in 10 countries and some of these offer speeds of up to 24Mbps."

The activity by its competitors has not gone unnoticed by former incumbent Eircom. The biggest dog in the yard is working on upgrading its own offerings so it too can offer a 12Mbps product, double its current top residential offering of 6Mbps. "The upgrades are starting this month and should be completed by June," Paul Bradley, spokesman for Eircom told ENN. Eircom is aiming to have 12Mbps and 10Mbps products available within a month.

Despite the increasing competition in the market from the likes of UPC and Smart, Bradley said the former incumbent was happy with its recent progress in increasing its number of broadband customers and was confident these new offerings would help to continue that trend. "We've been signing up over 3,000 customers a week and we've seen those numbers sustained over the past half year," he said.