"The first thing he talked about was broadband availability, " said Mulley. "It's what we've been pushing for the last three to four years, an issue that ComReg, the Department of Communications and Eircom have ignored . . . the white elephant in the room. "So I'd say he's off to a good start. Mentioning customers quite a bit."

Mulley said he was contacted Friday afternoon by an Eircom customer who had an issue with his phone service. After receiving no satisfaction from the frontline customer service call centre, the customer sent an email to the company's top brass.

"He got a reply email from [Babcock & Brownappointed Eircom executive chairman] Pierre Danon, to whom he hadn't even sent the email. That's customer service, " said Mulley.

If it's a charm offensive, it seems to be working.