INTERNET
NTL denies roll-out has been cancelled
16-01-2001
by Aoidin Scully
Telecommunications company NTL has denied a report that it has abandoned its plans to offer digital TV, Internet and telephony services to its Dublin customers.
Tuesday's Irish Independent alleged that NTL took the decision because it underestimated the cost of introducing the new services which, the paper said, had spiralled from an estimated IEP200 million to IEP450 million.
However, a spokesperson for NTL, Anna Maria Barry, has slammed the story as 'totally incorrect', and said the company still plans to go ahead with the services.
"NTL announced at the end of last year that we were undertaking a detailed business review, like any other telco operator at the moment, with the view of integrating the companies that we have acquired over the past 18 months," Barry explained.
"This review means that while we remain committed to becoming provider of digital television, telephone and Internet services, we are considering the most cost efficient and effective way of achieving this by taking advantage of the very latest developments in technology."
Barry pointed out that NTL is still looking for a return on the investment of IEP535 million it made last year to acquire the Cablelink business, and that it would not make commercial sense to abandon the services plan.
Last year the company stated it would spend over IEP350 million to build a new digital broadband network in Ireland, rather than the IEP200 mentioned in the Independent article. Sources close to the company say this was a conservative estimate, however.
NTL formally launched at the end of September last year and has already begun to install its service offering in a number of its 370,000 customer's homes.
The company is expected to make a formal statement about its continuing business operations later.
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