Call charges between Britain and Ireland are set to fall further following the announcement yesterday that CableTel Northern Ireland is to invest £30 million building a new network linking the two countries. The move will increase competition on one of Europe's busiest telecommunications routes.
CableTel is to build three fibreoptic links connecting Northern Ireland, Britain and the Republic. CableTel managing director Mr Owen Lamont said last night that the company was very excited by the potential which the Republic offers, especially through the growth in call centres and Internet providers. He said the company was taking advantage of further liberalisation of the telecommunications market.
Under recently introduced EU rules, Telecom Eireann's rivals can now build their own networks for supplying corporate customers.
Call traffic between Britain and Ireland is said to put it among the top 10 busiest routes in the world. It accounts for more than 50 per cent of all international calls from the Republic. Various estimates say that telecommunications traffic between Britain and the Republic is worth more than £600 million a year. Traffic between the North and Britain is said to be worth more than £400 million a year.
Mr Lamont said CableTel was breaking the "stranglehold" that currently exists in telecommunications traffic between the North, the Republic and Britain. He said the company would be able to provide alternative fibre optic links for other telephone carriers as well.
CableTel currently carries some traffic for Esat Telecom, switching it through the North and Britain for the company. Esat itself is building a fibre optic submarine cable between Ireland and Britain. It will be laid from Wexford to Land's End and will allow Esat to offer a wide range of services to its corporate customers. It is costing £7.5 million and will be operational during the first quarter of 1998.
A spokesman for Telecom confirmed traffic to Britain accounted for half of all Telecom's international traffic. "It has always been a key route," he said, "and our prices have always been very competitive."
He said the costs, which are 24p a minute on average, are the same as British Telecom's charges and are cheaper than Mercury.
The spokesman added that, in the last four years, call rates to Britain had fallen from 60p a minute to 24p a minute. "It simply represents another element of competition which is par for the course at the moment," the spokesman said. CableTel's new service is to be in operation by May 1998. Mr Lamont said it would be designed so that, if there was a break in the link, the calls would be automatically rerouted around the system.
CableTel, which set up in Northern Ireland 16 months ago, has spent £600 million there so far. By 2002, it says, more than 80 per cent of the population will have access to its services. It provides an alternative telephone service, multi-channel television and Internet access to homes and businesses.
