Job cuts at O2 Ireland
14-03-2007
by Ciara O'Brien

Mobile network O2 Ireland is expected to announce up to 100 job losses on Wednesday.

It is seeking the redundancies as part of a cost-cutting plan.

It is not yet known which divisions the job cuts will affect, or whether they will be voluntary or forced redundancies.

It is believed that staff will meet management on Wednesday afternoon and details will be discussed then. O2 Ireland had no comment at the time of publication.

The operator has been keeping tight lipped about the proposed cuts, although rumours have been doing the rounds since last week, when a post appeared on discussion forum Boards.ie, claiming to be from a spouse of an O2 worker affected by the decision.

The user in question is now banned from Boards.ie, although the thread was allowed to remain. However, a number of other posters claiming to be involved in some way with O2 backed up the original poster's claims.

The new announcement is not part of a wider plan across parent group Telefonica's business, but is thought to be part of the O2 Ireland's bid to remain competitive in an increasingly tough Irish market.

With the entrance of Three Ireland and the increasing strength of Eircom-owned Meteor, competition has intensified dramatically. O2's move follows similar announcements by Vodafone Ireland, which announced late last year that it was to review its Irish operations with the possibility of 100 job losses.

Already, the networks have seen their average revenue per user fall, with O2 Ireland's latest figures showing that although monthly blended ARPU (post- and pre-paid combined) only fell EUR1 to EUR45 year-on-year during the fourth quarter, ARPU from post-pay customers was down by EUR2 to EUR83 when compared with the third quarter, and down EUR8 year-on-year.

There may be further revenue cuts coming down the line, with the EU making noise about cutting mobile operators' international roaming costs significantly. The network's are resisting the moves, claiming they are already cutting roaming charges without the need for EU regulation.