Irish consumers are weak and cannot get the deals that other countries do. I think mainly becasue we are give n little choice and if we raise the issue the powers that be row in behind the company and not the consumer.

The best response is to buy an unlocked phone, get a skype in number and become a network whore.

Eight years ago I had the pleasure of telling O2 to F off after being a customer with direct responsibility for 300 of their crappy lines. They couldn’t cut me a deal as a real person and I dropped them never ever to return.

I got my iPhone in Hong Kong and I will put any sim I want in it. Apple and O2 can go sing.

They cannot tell the difference between a customer and a ham sandwich. I don’t think they care and they have so many customers that they have the luxury of not caring. The mobile networks are as pleasant to deal with as the Social Welfare counter and they make you feel like you are stealing from them when in fact they are the ones stealing from you.

Eircom beats them hands down. I have tried unsuccessfully to get broadband for a company in Waterford Port. In spite of approaching Comreg, Eircom and senior officals in the Department of Isolation and Darkness we got nowhere. The nearest we got to an answer was to move the port closer to the exchange because the tiny village beside the port is not providing sufficient demand.

My point in a roundabout way is that the consumer and business that is small business kets a kick in the nuts from the operators and then to finish us off Comreg kicks us again in the nuts. Comreg denys that it works for the networks. I have my doubts.