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Ireland - Market Intelligence Report
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Market Intelligence Reports provide an invaluable mix of vital market data and background information, including telecoms regulation. Ireland's telecommunications market was completely liberalised on December 1, 1998, exposing incumbent fixed-line operator, eircom, to a host of would-be rivals. Nevertheless, despite having divested its wireless business in 2001, eircom remains the de facto dominant operator in Ireland's fixed-line market and is designated the operator with significant market power (SMP) in most of Ireland's electronic communications markets. With around 2.3 million access channels (PSTN, ISDN, and ADSL lines) as of September 2006, eircom is the largest fixed-line network operator in Ireland. The company also claims to have held a 69% share of the fixed-line traffic market as of March 2006, down from 71% in March 2005 and 76% in March 2004. Its major competiors in this field are BT Ireland, Energis, Verizon Business, ntl/Chorus Communications, COLT Telecom, Smart Telecom, and Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk). It also faces competition from a host of resellers. The Irish authorities have attempted to boost competition in the fixed-line market through the licensing of fixed wireless access (FWA) operators, but most licensees have either failed to start up, have ceased operating after a short duration, or have elected to offer limited services in small geographic areas. It would seem that the licensing of wireless local area network (W-LAN or WiFi) operators is proving more successful, although it is the mobile operators that are mostly benefiting from this success. In the fourth quarter of 2005, the Irish regulatory authority announced that it would seek to award three new national licences for the provision of wideband digital mobile data services. In December 2005, these licences were awarded to FWA operator Digiweb and new entrants Wirefree Communications and Mobisof. Vodafone Ireland - which bought eircom's wireless business in 2001 - and O2 Ireland are the country's leading cellular operators, and both companies also hold 3G UMTS licences. However, only Vodafone had begun offering commercial 3G services by the end of 2004, while new entrant Hutchison 3G Ireland (trading as 3) only launched its full service in July 2005. O2 has since begun offering 3G-style services. The country's fourth wireless operator is Meteor Mobile Communications, which trails Vodafone and O2 by a considerable margin. In July 2005, eircom won a contest to purchase Meteor from its US-based parent. The transaction closed in November 2005. Separately, eircom and Meteor submitted bids for Ireland's fourth 3G licence during the second half of 2005; however, they were beaten by a rival offer from alternative fixed-line operator, Smart Telecom, in partnership with Huawei Technologies of China. The licence was awarded to Smart Mobile in November 2005, although the licence was later returned when it was found that Smart could not afford to build its network and pay financial bonds guaranteeing that it would meet build-out targets. The licence could now be reassigned to eircom/Meteor. Meanwhile, Smart Telecom has been bought by its largest shareholder for a token €1 and has drastically foreshortened its national expansion plans.
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