O2 Ireland to enter Irish broadband market

28-08-2006

by Emmet Ryan

O2 Ireland is to invest EUR250 million in a next generation mobile network over the next 18 months as it positions itself to offer a broadband product.

With this significant investment the mobile operator said it intends to provide broadband services over its mobile network that will match the bandwidth of those currently available from both fixed and wireless operators.

O2 Ireland's investment means Telefonica, the Spanish telecoms giant which owns O2, will now have a broadband service available in all of its territories. O2's moves to launch a broadband product in Ireland were reported by ENN in June, when an O2 Ireland spokesperson said the company was hoping to "leverage the experience of our broadband activities in Germany and particularly in Czech Republic, both of which are doing very well."

O2 Ireland said its network will support broadband for over 60 percent of customers nationwide by the end of the year, with that figure expected to rise to 80 percent of consumers by the end of 2007. O2 Ireland said that this will make broadband available to many consumers who currently cannot avail of broadband through DSL or over fixed wireless networks.

The next generation mobile network will support download speeds of 3.6Mbps by December of this year. O2 Ireland said this will rise to 14.4Mbps by the end of next year. The service will have upload speeds of 1.5Mbps in January 2007, rising to over 5Mbps by the end of that year.

Ericsson Ireland has been awarded the contract to build the network with trials taking place over the next two months.

"This new investment will allow our customers to enjoy broadband services at home and/ or on the move at unprecedented speeds, while also allowing us to rapidly develop new and competitive services to meet Ireland's increasingly sophisticated mobile communications requirements," said Oliver Coughlan, O2's chief technology officer, in a statement.

The announcement comes in the wake of the operator losing ground to rival Vodafone Ireland last month; O2 Ireland announced an increase of only 6,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year, bringing its total to 1.6 million. Vodafone on the other hand gained 15,000 new subscribers over the same period bringing its customer total to 2.1 million in total.

O2's announcement on Monday will move it into competition with its main rival Vodafone in this broadband sphere too; in mid-June Vodafone introduced a flat-rate 3G internet service, and said it will launch a HSDPA 3G broadband network in Ireland later this year.

O2 employs 1,700 people in the Republic and was voted the best employer in the country early this year at the "50 Best Companies to Work for in Ireland" Awards, which are compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute of Ireland.