The charge was due to come into effect from March 31st but has been delayed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Customers of Eir will be glad to know the telecommunications operator has made the decision to postpone the planned subscription charge for its email service amidst the ongoing outbreak of Covid-19.
The planned charge of €5.99 a month for the use of its eircom.net email service was due to come into effect from Tuesday March 31st but will now be delayed indefinitely due to the virus.
Why charge?
The introduction of the subscription fee was planned on going towards the maintenance and development of the existing service for Eir customers.
However, with the ongoing developments around Covid-19 the company has decided to delay the charge and put it on hold in response to calls from consumers.
An Eir spokesperson said:
"Last month Eir announced the introduction of a subscription charge from March 31st 2020, to enable investment in the maintenance and improvement of the [email] service.
In light of the outbreak of Covid-19, Eir has taken the decision to put the subscription charge for the the email service on hold for the foreseeable future.
Eir's priority during these challenging times is the maintenance of essential communication services for all Eir customers. The Eir network provides services to two thirds of the broadband customers in Ireland and more than 1 million mobile customers.
Our focus in these challenging times is to ensure that these essential services can be safely maintained and faults can be repaired while we protect our customer-facing staff and team of more than 1,000 engineers who operate across the country."
Roll back on charges
Eir is now the latest company to roll back on planned charges this year due to the novel coronavirus.
Only a few days ago AIB announced that it was postponing a planned increase in its contactless fee due to Covid-19.
As well as the above changes, following a recent meeting with the five major banks, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohue announced a deferral of the collection of the €30 annual stamp duty on credit cards from April until July 2020.
The announcement followed a suite of measures agreed by the banks for the first time, which include payment breaks for mortgage customers for up to three months.
What do you think?
Are you an Eir email customer? What do you think about the latest developments? Will you still be moving email provider?
Let us know in the comments below or else get in touch with us over on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
