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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 (as Esat Digifone) |
| Headquarters |  Dublin, Ireland |
| Key people | Danuta Gray (CEO) |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Products | Mobile communications services & related goods |
| Parent |  Telefónica |
| Website | http://www.o2.ie/ |
Telefónica O2 Ireland Limited (formerly O2 Communications (Ireland) Limited, and before that, Esat Digifone) or O2 Ireland is a GSM and 3G mobile telecommunications operator in Ireland. It is a subsidiary of Telefónica-owned Telefónica Europe Plc.
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Products and Services
Currently the company is the second largest mobile phone operator in Ireland with approximately 40% market share or 1.6 million customers (see communications in Ireland). The company's STD prefix is 086, but following the introduction of full number portability, some O2 Irish mobile numbers now feature prefixes starting 087, 085, 089 or 083.
The company provides WAP and GPRS services under the O2 Active brand. In October 2005, O2 Ireland launched a version of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service. The company holds a UMTS licence, and was the third Irish operator to offer 3G services, after Vodafone Ireland and 3 Ireland, offering services in some built-up areas in late 2006.
Structure
O2 have recently gone through a restructuring phase, seeing it implement a number of cost-cutting measures which involve outsourcing internal divisions to external companies. O2's IT division was outsourced to IBM Ireland, while the Network Operations division may be outsourced to BT Ireland (who also run the network operations for 3 Ireland). The deal with BT has not yet been finalised.
O2 Broadband
In July 2007, O2 launched its mobile broadband offering in Ireland using HSDPA technology over its 3G network. They provide speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s and claim to cover 85% of the population on the 3G network. Parts of Dublin, Galway and Cork city achieve up to 7.2 Mbit/s per second since early 2008 following a recent network upgrade [1]
Speak easy
Speak easy is the name of O2 Ireland's prepaid service. In 2007 they became the first Irish operator to offer free text messages to all Irish mobile numbers, although it only applied for weekends. However in early 2008 they introduced a new tariff which offers unlimited free text messages to all networks at any time, for life. Unlike similar offers from Vodafone and Meteor at the time, the offer is not restricted to messages sent to their own network.
Sponsorship
O2 over the years has entered into some very high profile sponsorship arrangements. In 1998 then ESAT Digifone committed it's support to the Hurlers & Footballers of Cork. They have remained proud sponsors of Cork GAA for the past ten years.
Another high profile sponsorship agreement is their association with the IRFU & the Irish Rugby team. Building on their rugby links with Shannon RFU, O2 joined forces with the top level of Rugby in Ireland. They also sponsored the West stand in the Landsdowne Road stadium.
Following in the foot steps of their UK counterparts they are also the title sponsor of one of the country's most high profile venue, the Point Depot, now re-named "The O2" (as with the Dome in UK).
History
The company was originally a joint venture between Esat Telecom Group, headed up by Denis O'Brien, and Telenor, and was originally known as Esat Digifone. In 1997, it became the second company to be awarded a GSM licence in Ireland. In 2000 BT took over Esat Telecom (at the same time, taking over the Telenor shareholding in Digifone) and later demerged the mobile unit from the fixed line system which is now called BT Ireland. For a brief period the company was simply called Digifone, but following the spin off of mmO2 from BT, the company was renamed O2 Ireland.
Telefonica takeover
On 31 October 2005 it was announced that Telefónica SA, the Spanish telephone operator, had made a recommended takeover bid for O2 Ireland's parent company, O2 plc. This has been approved by shareholders and O2 was officially purchased in mid February 2006. The O2 brand is now used in several countries for Telefónica's mobile opearations outside Spain and Latin America, where Telefónica mobile is known as movistar. Rebranding to O2 is currently taking place, enabling Telefónica to create a global brand. Countries where O2 is present are: the United Kingdom, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia
Criticisms
In May 2007, O2 Ireland management announced that the entire O2 Ireland technical staff were to be outsourced to a single Managed Service Provider. [2]
As of August 2008 over 50% of the Technical staff have been outsourced to IBM. The remainder of the Technical staff were due to be outsourced to BT but this deal has now run into some difficulties.
See also
External links
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