Eircom Group Ltd. (aka "Eircom") is a fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications company in Ireland, and a former state-owned monopolist. It is currently the largest telecommunications operator in the Republic, with some presence in Britain. As Bord Telecom Éireann, the company was state owned until 1999; as a private company it continues to dominate many areas of Irish telecommunication.
Eircom currently operates the fixed-line telephone network, a HSDPA (3G) and GSM/EDGE (2.75G) mobile telephone network Meteor (acquired from AllTel (Western Wireless) in 2005) and acts as an internet service provider (ISP) Eircom.net. The company has a property-alarm installation and monitoring unit called Eircom Phonewatch. Eircom broadband had a 49% share in 2006, and Eircom fixed voice lines 72% in 2006. Current market share analysis is at comreg's site. By late 2007 Eircom added their 500 thousandth DSL subscriber but broadband share may have fallen to 44% due to growth of fixed wireless, cable and fibre services.
Its main competitors are UPC Ireland (which operates a cable TV & Broadband network), Vodafone Ireland (which bought BT Ireland's residential customer base on 22 July 2009 and is accessed through Eircom's network and BT Ireland's fibre), Imagine Communications (Irish Broadband & Gaelic Telecom) and Magnet Networks and Smart Telecom, with a mix of LLU/GLUMP from Eircom and fibre.
Since its privatization in 1999, the company has been repeatedly loaded with debt and asset stripped by domestic and foreign speculators. As a result, despite the company annually generating a profit, it is currently enacting wage cuts and redundancies.
Read more about Eircom: Services, History, Competition, Controversy, Broadband Roll-out, OneVision Irish DTT License Application, Eircom Defaults On Debt Obligation - Application For The Appointment of An Examiner