Smart and credit where credit is due has managed to outmanover Eircoms blocking DOG IN A MANGER methods
which seem to have sent BT packing off to more sunny climes
and on a small scale they seem to offer a sevice indepedent of the Eircom stranglehold and were probably instrumental in the present fire sale of Eircom as the encrumberant managment saw less easy picking
and decided to exit with fat cheques to Carabeen beeches
But Smart is tiny compared to Eircom so its not realistic to expect them to replace Eircom outright in a few months but if givin no real opposition by Eircom that might be attainable in a decade by Smart or some other competitor by a steady proccess of erosion and attrition against Eircom
The other senario is Eircom enters the Telcom buisness in the more correct manner and expands the size of the Telecoms cake
Ok its not inconsevable that Eircoms position where it gets some 70% of todays market cake might be reduced to 55% but that should be in a market that has quadrupled or more in size rather than a repeat of this slow drawn out death of Eircom where its sold asset stripped sold asset stripped ...and the smaller players have to to try with more meagre resourses to try to set the pace in a static or barely growing telcoms cake
The later option risks to impact severly on the total health of the Irish economy and is not an option any realy concerned citizen can quitely stand by idly and not have reason to comment on or even consider lobbying to make it a voting isssue in a election similar to if ESB or Irish airports infrastructure were sold off
Flyingpinkelephants