TELECOMS COMPANY EIR has said that customers who use the eircom.net email service will face a monthly charge to continue using it from the end of March.

As reported in the Irish Independent this morning, customers who don’t pay the €5.99 per month will have access to their account restricted after two months and eventually deleted.

The service was introduced by Eir – then called Eircom – for customers to use email and is still used by individuals, businesses, schools, voluntary organisations and others.

It has been in operation since the early 2000s.

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, an Eir spokesperson confirmed that the €5.99 a month will be introduced from 31 March.

“The charge will be used to invest in the maintenance and improvement of the service going forward,” the spokesperson said.