EIRCOM TO OFFER EXTRA-FAST FIBRE BROADBAND - The battle between network providers in the next-generation super-fast broadband stakes will step up a notch later today when Eircom announces the rollout of a new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in 66 towns across the State.
The new network can achieve speeds of up to a gigbyte or 1,000MB - fast enough to download a high-definition movie in less than one minute - which is 10 times what is available on Eircom’s existing fibre network. The announcement comes a day after the European Commission green-lighted a similar FTTH joint venture between ESB and Vodafone that will build a €450 million super-speed network across ESB poles in regional areas, writes the Irish Times. FTTH achieves this by running fibre directly from its main fibre network through the walls of subscribers’ homes and businesses, bypassing the slower copper lines that deliver its regular services in the final stretch to buildings. Eircom is billing its FTTH announcement, which also covers parts of the major cities, as its “strategic response” to the threat from ESB-Vodafone, raising the prospect of a rollout and price war between both sides as demand for super-speed broadband services picks up in coming years. Eircom has selected 66 locations across the country for the new “hands up” FTTH service, which will require a sufficient number of customers in a locality to order the service before its engineers will run the fibre directly to buildings. The network will include parts of the major cities, every county town and major regional urban areas. Work will begin next month on the first three locations in the rollout: Cavan town, Kilkenny city and Letterkenny.
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CHILD BENEFIT IS RULED OFF LIMITS IN DEBT DEALS - Personal Insolvency Practitioners (PIPS) have been told that they can not include child benefit payments as debtors' monthly income because it wrongly inflates their ability to pay their banks, says the Irish Independent. Child benefit is payable to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age, or under 18 years of age if the child is in full-time education. Some PIPS, who are authorised to manage debt settlement and insolvency arrangements on behalf of struggling debtors, were including child benefit payments as monthly income for the purpose of proposing debt deals to banks and other creditors. This month's Budget increased the rate of Child Benefit by €5 to €135 per month for each child from January 2015. The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) has written to PIPs to tell them that child benefit can not be used as part of any debt repayment plan. The ISI has told PIPs that child benefit is already deducted from the living expenses of a child under its guidelines on reasonable standards of living and expenses. "This is done on the basis that child benefit payments are intended to be spent on a child," said the ISI in a circular.
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€370,000 A WEEK PROFITS FOR M3 - The operators of one of the most controversial road schemes ever built in the country generated over €370,000 per week in operating profits from the route last year. Figures show the M3 motorway generated €19.25m in operating profits for its private operator, Eurolink Motorway Operation (M3) Ltd. The documents lodged with the Companies Office show that the firm recorded the operating profit of €19.25m in 2013 after recording an operating profit of €30.2m in 2012, reports the Irish Examiner. In total, the firm recorded €29.5m or €80,843 per day in revenues in 2013. The revenues recorded last year represent a major slump on the €39.88m recorded in revenues in 2012. However, daily traffic volumes increased by 2.35% on the route last year to 23,000 vehicles - the firm’s revenues are made up of road tolls and operational payments from the National Roads Authority (NRA). The road tolls are generated by a €1.40 charge to motorists at each of the two toll plazas on the route. The payments from the NRA include traffic guarantee payments that are paid if sufficient volumes of motorists don’t use the tolled route. The guarantee was put in place due to the high cost of the route.
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CITY FACING MORE THAN ‘A FEW BAD APPLES’ - The scandals buffeting the financial markets are not down to a “few bad apples” and authorities are ready to impose more regulation on the sector to regain public trust, a senior Bank of England official has said. Minouche Shafik, the deputy governor for markets and banking, said the industry urgently needed to come forward with its own proposals to reform a system recently tarnished by allegations of the rigging of foreign exchange trading. She was speaking to the Financial Times before delivering a blistering speech in which she attacked the past behaviour of some traders as “truly shocking” and warned that bad practices in markets may be re-emerging as memories of prior scandals fade. Addressing an audience at the London School of Economics, she said much had been done to strengthen the financial system, but some of the benefits were “offset by a long tail of outrageous conduct cases. These are like salt rubbed into the wounds to public confidence in financial markets.” Ms Shafik is overseeing the UK Fair and Effective Markets Review, launched by chancellor George Osborne over the summer after allegations that traders had rigged interest-rate and currency benchmarks. The scandals have damaged Britain’s reputation as a key global financial capital.
