Vol. 414 No. 2
11 Mr. Pattison asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications if he is currently examining the possibility of licensing a competitor to Telecom Éireann in the provision of mobile telephone services; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The possibility of introducing and increasing competition in telecommunications services is kept under continuous review by me. At present I have received no firm proposals for the provision of a competing service in the mobile area.
A new digital mobile radio telephone service known as GSM, Global Standard for Mobile communications, is just now emerging on world markets. This will permit subscribers to use their mobile phones anywhere across Europe without technical difficulty. As part of a co-ordinated pan-European introduction of GSM, Telecom Éireann plan to offer this service, initially on a limited basis, in 1993.
I would not rule out the possibility of licensing, in time, the provision of GSM services to compete with Telecom Éireann. While I have no plans at present to license a competitor to Telecom Éireann, I am empowered under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, 1983, to grant such licences and, as I have indicated, I am keeping this matter under review.
Will the Minister confirm or deny that he or his officials have had discussions with a British company on the possibility of setting up a mobile telephone network by that company or their agents in Ireland?
My officials and I, from time to time in the last year or so, have had many approaches from a number of groups interested in providing competition to Telecom Éireann in the mobile area. However, we have received no firm proposals from any group in that regard.
Is the Minister aware that the introduction of competition and the privatisation of British Telecom resulted in price increases? Is he satisfied that this will not happen if competition is introduced into the Irish system?
We are talking here about mobile cellular telephone systems and not about the entire Telecom system which we dealt with earlier. It is open to us to license operators in that sector but I have no proposals at present from anybody in that area. The Deputy knows my interest in encouraging competition in the Irish economy.
I thought I detected a slight change of emphasis in the Minister's voice when he referred to the fact that he had received no proposals in the mobile area. Does that infer he has received proposals regarding other sectors of Telecom Éireann's work and, if so, will he tell us about it?
My work is a very broad matter and I would need to have——
Are we going to start parsing our words?
The Deputy is parsing my words. I have no proposals with regard to the privatisation of Telecom Éireann.
In any respect?
None in any respect.
Was that matter set aside?
Bearing in mind that the Irish taxpayer had to bear the cost of setting up the system, and considering the experience in Britain that privatisation led to increased charges for calls, can the Minister assure the House that there will be no increase in charges as a result of any arrangement we are likely to enter into?
This is a separate matter.
We are running much too far ahead in discussing the likely outcome of possible privatisation when——
There have been discussions with companies.
——there are no proposals for privatisation of that type.
