iesy Repository GmbH - Irish Stock Exchange

Telephony
ish has operated its telephony service business since September 2001. The number of telephony subscribers was
approximately 5,000 as of December 31, 2004 and 7,000 as of March 31, 2005. ARPU for the three months ended March 31,
2005 was €26.62 per month.
In 2003, ish discontinued marketing “ish Telefon” as a stand-alone service. Since the third quarter of 2004, ish has
marketed its telephony service only in a bundle with high speed Internet access under its “ish Zusammen” brand for an
additional €5.00 monthly charge on top of the respective ish Internet tariff, as a way to increase ARPU at low additional cost.
Since February 2005, ish has offered free on-net calls between subscribers on its network.
The following table sets forth the per minute telephone tariffs fees related to ish’s telephony service:
Monthly line rental fee (including VAT): €5.00
Tariffs for calls originating on the combined network and terminating at: Regular (1)
176
Rate Saver (2)
(in €s)
On-net calls free free
Local fixed-line calls 0.02 0.02
National fixed-line 0.03 0.03
National mobile 0.25 0.20
(1) International calls start at €0.045 per minute (e.g. Belgium, France, UK).
(2) A “rate saver” package is available for a monthly fee of €3.90, which leads to discounted calls on mobile and
international networks.
ish’s telephony services use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) as a method of transporting voice over the cable
network. Analog voice information is digitally encoded and converted into packets, and those packets are moved to ish’s own
telephony switches, from where they are sent to their destinations. The primary advantage for ish of these VoIP connections
is that they use ish’s upgraded bi-directional cable network.
Other
ish also offers, as an additional service to housing associations, a product that combines a service plan for housing
associations covering the maintenance of their in-house networks.
Marketing and Sales
Marketing
ish’s marketing department is responsible for designing and promoting new products and services to customers. The
department is divided into the following four groups:
Brand and Communications. This group of the department focuses on the production of marketing and other
materials required to brand and sell ish’s products and services.
Marketing Research and Database Marketing. This group of the department focuses particularly on the latest
technology and consumer preference trends. This group also tracks the latest pricing developments and churn rates. Regular
research includes brand tracking, customer satisfaction surveys and usage and attitude tests.
Product Marketing, Broadcast and New Services. The key responsibilities of this group are the product development
of ish’s basic cable and premium cable television services. This includes optimizing the programming line-up, acquiring
content from different sources and creating thematic packages for individual customer needs. Furthermore, the product
development and marketing for all high speed Internet and telephony products resides within this group.
Marketing Support. This group provides data and logistical support for all marketing and sales channels.
One of ish’s main marketing strategies is to offer bundled services to subscribers. ish offers its high speed Internet
services to subscribers of its basic cable television services. At low additional fees, subscribers can extend their high speed
Internet subscription to include telephony services. Bundled services offer ish the opportunity to strengthen its customer
relationships and to reduce churn. ish has various promotions, which includes set-top boxes, where customers agree to
subscribe to its services for periods of one to two years on average. ish does not dictate set-top box specifications.