JT’s competition is blamed for cuts
Thursday 12th November 2009, 2:59PM GMT.
Tim Langlois of the GMB union
TOO much and unfair competition is to blame for Jersey Telecom laying off a fifth of its workforce, union leaders said this morning.
Tim Langlois, of the GMB union, described the amount of competition the States-owned utility faced as ‘madness’.
It was announced to staff yesterday that up to 80 jobs are to go over the next year at the JT Group as the company seeks to slash £7 million from its operating costs.
Mr Langlois said: ‘This is a very sad situation with Christmas on the horizon. It has come about because of decisions made by politicians to introduce competition which in an island this small is madness,’ he said.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee
JEP Jubilee Editions
Saturday 2 June: Guide to Celebrations
Wednesday 6 June: Souvenir of Events
View The Queen in Jersey supplement
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals/Departures
Harbours Arrivals/Departures
Bus Information/Timetables
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
Competition was inevitable. For years JT charged outrageous prices and caused major upset to its customers.
If JT bosses and shareholders could self-restrict own greed it would not happen.
Viva free market!
Report abuse
JT could of reduced its prices and become more competitive and also improved it services to Joe Pulic. They have no customer service skills or even any intention of pulling consumers back to their service as they are uncompetitive. JT also managed to increase the income of seven directors in June.
Report abuse
Couldn’t agree more, we should never have had competition, it’s unfair. JT have had to let competitors rent their infrastructure of cable and phone masts at a rate chosen by them and have been undercut by firms renting hardware from them.
JT were perfectly OK when they were the only telecoms supplier, I remember when I got my first mobile phone, £4.99 from British Telecom at a time when JT were charging £200 for the same phone, then they went and closed down the roaming satellites to prevent people from buying UK phones.
You don’t see this type of unfair competition in retail, no siree Bob, no UK supermarkets allowed in here offering more choice for less money, no such competition allowed.I hark back to the days when Frank Walker owned the island, it was so much simpler then, you wouldn’t have had any of these foreign Johnnies providing value for money.
Report abuse
When the going gets tough the tough get going. Competition keeps everyone on their toes.
Report abuse
No such thing as unfair competition in telecoms its called trimming off the fat and making yourself leaner to offer your customers (the people who pay)a better deal.
Report abuse
smaller ,local firms are competing against, outside , shipped in for the job agency workers, and face a tougher time than telecoms.
we are all in the same boat competition wise.
Report abuse
Well if telecoms had made there price’s more reasonable in the first place ,then there would not have been the need for other suppliers,its the same old thing on the island,youv’e got the monopoly,so you think it’s a licence to rip the people off all the time.
Report abuse
I worked for JT for some time and left just after competition came in to Jersey, JT made no effort to safeguard their market share simply choosing to move into expensive premises rather than concentrate on being competitive themselves and look what happens!! and go Jedward!
Report abuse
Service at JT has never been great. WELL DONE to the competitor. leaving JT without a competitor would provide the bosses with an even bigger salary and bigger bills for me to pay through my post box!
I think the cut of jobs is rediculous, the profit margin is there! why be so greedy and leave 80 people jobless? Its outragous.
Report abuse
One can inevitably respect this response from a company that enjoyed a total monopoly for many years.
Jersey Telecom was a fat and complacent organisation, whose senior management did not have the business nous and commonsense to have taken a prudent look over the commercial parapet at its commercial future.
Report abuse
I am sure that more than 80 jobs have been created because of the competition! Looks like JT simply haven’t cut their cloth accordingly thinking nothing would change since competition was introduced. Redundancies could have been avoided through natural wastage had the senior management had the foresight to think ahead! Someone at the top should go for this avoidable mess!
Report abuse
Has anyone explained the impraticalities of a MONOPOLY or do they just think this is a board game. The prices charged and service provided by JT have been far from satisfactory.
Report abuse
Sorry Mr Langlois you are doing your members a disservice.
Since my return from the UK I have regarded JT as an expensive luxury I could do without. I am now a former JT customer for whom your JT members will never work. The job cuts are a reflection of a changed market place; no customers, mo jobs, no GMB members.
Report abuse
this means a further £7 million taken out of the local economy.
Report abuse
I suggest Mr Langlois and his members forget about paying their union subs and club together to buy a copy of the Collins Concise English Dictionary.
‘Competitive’ is defined as ‘sufficiently low in price or high in quality to be successful against commercial rivals’.
There are two states; a monopoly or competition. The former is unfair practice reserved for nation states who fail to recognise the rights of their citizens (oops…. which countries/islands might that be applicable to?), and the latter does what it says on the tin…allows consumers to make decisions based on price and quality.
Trouble is the tin and the label in JT’s case don’t match. Bit like buying tinned pears and then opening them to find you’ve got anchovies instead (waste of custard!). Mr Langlois says there is competition, but when you have a BT line in the UK that gives unlimited evening and weekend calls, you can dial anywhere in the UK on this tariff except to the Channel Islands. Ask BT why, and they say it is because of lack of competition on the island and that all calls are routed through JT at a higher rate (which has to be passed on to the BT customer).
Please Mr Langlois. Don’t use the ‘C’ word when in reality it is pseudo market-manipulation.
Report abuse
1 Chris,
Shareholders resist greed and maintain the free market?
You’re living in dream world.
Report abuse
JT was totally run by greed and it was not just the States that wanted competition introduced but the public. I currently have a mobile with another provider and do not pay a penny to send a text message. I have a faster and cheaper broadband connection and I also have a discounted land line through another provider. All joking aside I have saved a lot of money so it then begs the question as to how much money were they making in the first place?
Report abuse
What about other monopolies?
The JCRA needs to look at other areas where competition could save the tax payer a lot more money. When will it be doing this?
I would ask how much the JCRA is costing the tax payers and how much these people at the JCRA are getting paid? Are they actually providing a good service to the people of Jersey?
As per competition in telecommunications how is there going to be enough business for four telecos in Jersey long term? The answer is there isn’t.
JT’s profits will be hit more and more and it will return less and less to the states coffers meaning the tax payer will be making up the shortfall.
JT which was worth a lot more to the states as a viable business in 2002 pre-competition will become worth less and less. Any eventual sell off will again lose the tax payer yet more money.
As JT’s profits get hit their ability to maintain the infrastructure will also be hit. This will mean that the infrastructure will more than likely end up becoming worse as other telecos will not be interested in fixed line business for the general public, not enough money in it.
As with BT these new companies will only be interested in high worth customers and will cream off these leaving JT with the less valuable customers like the senior citizen down the road.
So we are going to have another 80 people looking for jobs when there are already about 1,000 out of work. Let us hope social security can cope with an increase in demand as at the end of the day it is social security who pays for those out of work. It will also mean a drop in tax revenues as more people end up below the tax threshold. Luckily the government can fall back on the regressive GST to further impoverish the lower orders to make up any shortfall.
Report abuse
I changed my phone saturday from JT to Airtel,shop was full of new customers.Now we need a decent broadband service and not the JT monopoly, if you check your download speeds its not as advertised ! Surprise. Competition rocks.
Report abuse
When Jersey Telecoms recently made a mistake on my bill and I complained, they tried to turn everything around to blame me for their mistake.
Report abuse
I’m sorry but that is completely ridiculous… competition ensures that the consumer is actually given a better chance of not being completely over charged for an average service… JT knew what would happen when Sure first came to Jersey, so they have had that time to properly prepare their business for that change… (i am sure they can afford accountants..)
The monopoly doesn’t seem to have really ended as aren’t JT the ones who own all of the masts… Toys out the pram more than anything that it hasn’t just been all their way… and instead of properly preparing, the people who have worked the hardest now suffer! Maybe Sandpiper could buy JT…
Report abuse
Let’s not forget that this could be led by the States to try to claw back some of the money wasted by the hair brain schemes. And let’s not forget the Depositors’ scheme It will be the tax payer who will be expected to pay when it goes belly up
Report abuse
Dick Dagenam – Now we need a decent broadband service and not the JT monopoly, if you check your download speeds its not as advertised ! Surprise.
Too right mate, not only ar we not getting the advertise 2 meg but the new 8 meg service is only available to about 15% of the island, ie St. Helier. I tried to sign up for it and was told the cable was not in place yet and wouldn’t be for another 2 years.
Why advertise a service that most people can’t get. Even those who can get it pay 6 times as much as you would in the UK and there you would be getting 10 meg not 8.There are people in the UK getting broadband, phone and satellite for less than I pay for a basic 2 meg connection.
Competition – bring it on.
Report abuse
Nice to see common sense prevails. I will be switching from JT as soon as I can get out of my contract, their response to the competition has been woeful. VOTE STACEY
Report abuse
A horrible Christmas awaits those poor staff affected.
However, as the posts above clearly outline the problem has always been the complacency of the people who run the company itself. I too remember buying my first JT mobile phone for a couple of hundred quid when they were giving them away in the UK with a new contract and then replacing them each year with a freebie to keep their customer happy and in contract.
Land lines in comparison with UK and European networks are vastly more expensive and the cost versus speed for broadband is totally unreasonable – unless you live in St. Helier. JT still control the majority of business ISDN lines which are up to ten times more expensive than some mainland Europe lines.
It’s true that a few years ago the SoJ had the opportunity to sell the business but didn’t go ahead with the idea. If they had been purchased by a company such as BT we would all benefit from the infrastructure of a large player and the staff of JT would probably have more career opportunities with that organisation.
However I feel that aside from company mismanagement, we must also look at the JCRA who toothlessly aim their guns away from the real issues of day to day living (ie food prices) and concentrate on non issues as number portability.
If years ago, they had stepped in to have JT realistically price their products to a level where customers were satisfied then outside companies would have had no desire to come here, undercut the existing services and we would not be in this mess.
So unions, please don’t bang on about competition – people for years have put up with appalling customer service, the “where else are you going to go then” attitude of JT, high prices and the general monopolised attitude displayed by a poorly managed, undisciplined, State run dinosaur.
Oh, and Jedward for Christmas number one!
Report abuse
I think its clear that everyone is in agreement
Competition is never a bad thing. It promotes good services and products for consumers and competitive rates
While JT had a monopoly, I thought it was outrageous what consumers were charged in comparison to consumers on the mainland
Report abuse
Although I feel for the local staff, this was inveitable – I am this weekend going to change my own service provider as I am sick to the back teeth of my £60 phone bill being mainly service charges …. not calls or texts but charges …. enough is enough JT – Sorry.
Report abuse
Why is it that Newtel can charge considerably less than JT for their internet when Newtel have to use JT phone lines?
It’s their own fault, if they had better insentives and prices more people would stay with them. As this is not the case people are leaving in droves and why not? People want a good deal.
Report abuse
I amy sick of paying £35 a month for about £3 of calls and a pathetic broadband service. Tried to get landline cut off but you must have landline to get broadband. WHY ARE WE PAYING TWICE FOR SAME LINE and not getting speeds we are paying for. Who’s the cheaper provider please Jon (17)?
Report abuse
In answer to Jay because the states allow them to. If JT aren’t allowed to lower their prices what do you think will happen?
People are being hoodwinked into competition as far as I am concerned. They will eventually learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch. However at least they have a choice of where their money goes no. What do people prefer, back to the states or into private shareholders pockets? The choice is up to you.
Since the states will take less revenue as JT loses more and more market share all you lovely people can foot the bill via extra taxation. One has to laugh!
Report abuse
I moved over to Vodafone last month and I have hardly spent a thing. The Internet access on my mobile does not crash all the time either. So sorry Jersey Telecom, States owned or not – RIP.
Report abuse
The SEC may be finally doing something proactive. Just read SEC requested a copy of STOCK SHOCK–new movie about market manipulation and naked short selling of Sirius XM stock (among others). Amazon has the movie on DVD, or stockshockmovie.com has it.
Report abuse
Re: looby
Call C&W to go onto their billing for land line telephone calls.
Report abuse
All I can say is I’m not surprised. They’ve had the monopoly and blew it with overinflated prices. Just off to Airtel to change my number over for free and get a contract with unlimited free texts and lots of free minutes!
Report abuse
JT crying “wolf” again….
If they had good value mobile tariffs from day 1 then there would be no need for new competition. But no, the usual story of the “fat cats” in their pin-striped suits lunching or playing golf all the time…..
Shock , Horror .. when Airtel & Sure arrive & give the public value for money tariffs the JT big boys cry foul !!!
I do understand the point of Sure/Airtel just paying for airtime (not structure) but hey guys if you were fair to us public from day 1 then we wouldn’t leave in our hundreds each month when our contracts are up.
The saddest part is the majority of the workforce laid off will be “general workforce” ie not Mr FatCat who are on ridiculous £100k + salaries….. just hope they have a happy Xmas & don’t spare a thought for the hard working staff they’ve laid off.
And why oh why do they think that someone is going to go back on their tariffs for a Jersey Live ticket?
Time for the FatCats to grasp reality & think about the cost to the public…. or it’s goodbye JT very very soon…..
Report abuse
I sympathise with Looby’s comment no. 29.
My family have a flat in London, which has a BT line that we use almost exclusively for broadband connection.
The last quarter’s bill was £122.78.
We are now investigating the pros and cons of going to another, mobile, supplier and hiring a “dongle” for wi fi connection to the internet.
Report abuse
A few seconds ago – Saturday night, 11:07 p.m. – i was receiving the following broadband service@
Download: 2.98 Mb per second
Upload: 0.37 Mb per second.
You can check the data for your own computers via http://www.speedtest.net
For the avoidance of any doubt that may arise, I hold no shares in, nor am I employed by any telecommunications companies.
Report abuse
Ref Jon (17) it is not possible for you to have a faster connection than one JT could provide, as they provide the copper pair that provides your Broadband service. The speed is determined by line length and quality, which is still JT from beginning to end. All you get from your ISP is an IP address and inferior bandwidth. While it is cheaper, you don’t get 24/7 support, telecom engineers on hand to visit you should there be an issue. I visit friends and family often to help them with IT issues, and those on JT get a better service, it’s a fact!
Also with the sad demise of JT, how do you think there will be money to invest in upgrading their Network to keep improving broadband speeds. Their plan was to have 8 mb available islandwide by 2012. Don’t be fooled into thinking the service is superior in the UK because it’s not, unless you are on a fibre connection with Virgin Media.
No income, means no money for network development, so the technologly we have will have to do, while the UK and worldwide Telecom infrastructures evolve.
People are queing up at Airtel for their headline mobile rates, but without JT getting income from mobile (the major source of income) there will not be any funds for network development. In 5 years time the Island will look back and realise what a big mistake letting in so much competition was.
From next year % operators for a population of 90,000, the numbers just don’t stack up.
Sure must be the frustrated ones, because not many people I know are with them, it’s either JT becuse of loyalty and good service, or Airtel because of their free texts (which wont last once they have seen off JT and Sure)
Also, JT are the only telephone network in the world who have to subsidise senior citizens. £1.80 for a phoneline costs JT nearly £1m per year. Remember JT tried to get rid of this and introduce a £6 monthly charge, but the idiotic States voted en masse to reject this. Your States members STOPPED all of us from getting lower landline charges.
Report abuse
At the time the Guernsey States ‘gave away’ our telecoms company a lot of people thought they were mad.
But at least Sure /C&W is a global player and the small company i.e. JT/Wave was always going to be squeezed out.
Competition is a fact of life.
If JT had been run properly the number of redundancies could have been spread over a number of years.
Anyway, won’t be sorry to see the back of Wave and their sad offers
Report abuse
If JT gave customers a proper deal when they had no competition, and lowered their prices in anticipation of it, they would have kept more of a market share. Bad management. Did they not notice all the customers disappearing?
Report abuse
‘Competition’ is a human right.
When are you idiots going to understand this very simple concept? !
Report abuse
I do feel for the JT staff that have lost their jobs.
38. George I disagree with your comments, if JT do not have the capital to maintain the network, then I am sure the watchdog will intervene and spread the network out to the other providers. Airtel are owned by Bharti, sure by Cable and wireless both of these companies have the knowledge and money to quickly fix the network should it fail. Also how long do you truly believe it will be before the other providers are allowed to install their own lines?
I have just begrudgingly signed up to a year’s landline contract with JT so I can get broadband with sure.
Total cost:
Sure mobile 800 for two people £35 +£5 for an extra user
Sure 8meg broadband £20 with my sure 800 contract
JT landline £12.40 per month
Total cost: £72.40 per month
If I had gone with JT I would be paying
£33.99 per mobile for a rough equivalent with fewer minutes and texts
JT landline £12.40
JT Broadband averaged out £24.49
Total cost: £104.87
Now this is a huge difference between the two, which shows why they are in need of an overhaul.
Report abuse
The government should have sold Jersey Telecom as soon as competition was on the horizon. Many did not support the sale believing that JT could go on overcharging its poor customers and nothing would happen.
Let’s face it, JT made the most of it, and who can blame them when they poor customers could not go anywhere else? Remember it was only a couple of years a go when if you wanted a sim card JT charged £35.00!!! Yes £35.00!! Times have changed, and competition was long over due. JT had the chance to slash their costs and prices but did not do so.
Technology is changing yet again, JT could have adapted, and offered these up coming services prior to the competition but did not do so. So they can’t really complain for not being forward looking.
They continue call themselves Worldsmart, but sadly with 8mb broadband (that was a year behind the time), high mobile charges, cheap gimmicks, they are anything but. Again, they must cut the broadband prices, but fail to do so.
I do feel sorry for the staff involved, but its a fault of the management that take the fat cat bonuses.
The landline business also needs to be broken up.
Jersey Telecom must change or die. Competition has been good for the island, long may it continue – some may fall by the wayside, but that is business.
Remember get a better deal on your mobile and yes you can keep your whole number.
Report abuse
JT’s competition is blamed for cuts” is the headline to this article.
That neatly sums up Jersey Telecom’s approoach to its current problems: blame anyone except itself.
Report abuse
You lot above are hilarious.
Rosey bleed, human right?
Brill, let me know where I go for cheap electric? then cheap gas, then cheap ferries, then cheap food, then cheap milk, then cheap bread.
Competition in Telecoms and NOTHING else.
Well come on then answer my questions!
I bet you don’t because you can’t
Report abuse