BRITISH Telecom (BT) is to compete with Telecom Eireann for voice telephone business for the first time.
BT, which previously offered data services in the Republic, will now bid for international telephone business from corporate customers through Concert, its global joint venture with the giant US telecommunications company, MCI.
"We want to be the first choice alternative supplier," said Mr George McGrath, the general manager of BT Worldwide Ireland. Three Irish companies - Esat, TCL and Stentor - already compete with Telecom Eireann to offer international and long distance telephone services to corporate users. Esat, which also has a 40 per cent stake in the new GSM licence, says that it has 1,700 customers and is growing at 15 per cent a month.
BT claims that, in general, its tariffs are 30-40 per cent cheaper than those of Telecom Eireann, but said that the exact saving a particular company could make depended on the nature of its telecommunications use. "Certainly, its international bills, and calls to Britain and the North would be reduced dramatically," Mr McGrath said.
A Telecom Eireann spokesman said that it welcomed any new competition in the market but claimed that by offering a "total solution" to customers, it could still provide "the best value".
BT plans to focus on winning business from major multi national companies, and indigenous Irish firms which have a large telecommunications spend. "There are about 1,000 major multi nationals in all (in the Republic) and that is really the primary target base," according to Mr McGrath.
Mr McGrath said that BT had invested £500,000 to fit out its new office in Dublin and that further services would be added as deregulation continued in the Irish market.
The growing tele marketing sector will also be a key area for BT's Irish operation, as the company plans to sell its Concert Inbound Service to call centres. BT claims that, with the Concert alliance, which has partners in 12 countries, tele marketing companies can use one carrier throughout to handle its service, billing, and regulatory issues.
A medium sized call centre has an annual telecommunications bill of up to £1 million, according to industry sources. There are currently 31 tele marketing companies operating in the Republic, employing more than 3,000 people continuing to close on the EU average, according to figures "produced by the European statistical office Eurostat.
Figures for 1995 show that the Irish living standard - measured in terms of Ireland's gross domestic product per head in purchasing power terms - was 90 per cent of the EU average in 1995, compared to 82 per cent of the average in 1994.
Luxembourg, at 165 per cent of the EU average, has the living standards in the while Portugal, at 60 per cent, has the lowest living standards. Britain has living standards of 99 per cent of the average, according to Eurostat.
Total output in the European Union rose by 2.4 per scent in 1995, down from the 2.8 per cent advance seen the previous year, Eurostat reported.
For the second consecutive year, Ireland registered the largest gain in gross domestic product (GDP) at 8.6 per cent. At the bottom of the ladder was Austria, with a growth rate of only 1.8 per cent.
The biggest fall in growth was seen in Denmark, which produced a 2.6 per cent advance in GDP, down from 4.4 per cent in 1994.
Germany, France, Italy and Britain accounted for some 72 per cent of total EU output.
At the other end of the scale, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Finland contributed only around 4.5 per cent.
