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What does the STT takeover of eircom mean for Irish businesses and consumers?

KEVIN RYAN MANAGING DIRECTOR, SATELLITE BROADBAND IRELAND

THE TAKEOVER OF EIRCOM by STT will hopefully mean some form of stability coming back into the market place after a number of takeovers in the last ten years. This sale marks the first time the company has been taken over by a telecoms operator since 1999, having been controlled by private equity groups for a decade. STT have proven themselves within this sector and have the expertise and vision to stabilise and see the long-term potential of the marketplace and invest accordingly. In the future, STT will have to invest in this infrastructure, as Eircom had not been able to invest in the technology previously and were not thinking proactively enough about setting up an exemplary technological network. So, I would personally hope that STT can bring a level of focus to the sector that has not been there in the past. This move can be seen as a positive if it results in an improvement in the level and delivery of services to the Irish consumer.

We have to remember that as an incumbent, Eircom has the lion’s share of the market, any derogatory effect on the sector or bad press affects everyone in the industry across all platforms. So STT’s investment is showing us that they are serious about the telecommunications sector in Ireland which will hopefully bring a heightened level of stability and confidence to the sector.

All levels of investment across the various platforms by each of the providers is a step forward for the sector in Ireland. However, we

40 InBusiness May 10

Kevin Ryan.

still need significant investment in broadband rollout across the country as broadband will undoubtedly play a fundamental role in the future success and competitiveness of the Irish economy. Also, we need to build next generation networks and utilities multi-platform approaches in order to compete and develop our smart network for our smart economy. Hopefully STT’s track record will serve us well in that regard.

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Will STT’s recent takeover of Eircom provide real benefit for business?

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CAMERON ROSS MANAGING DIRECTOR, NEWMEDIA

THE TAKEOVER OF Eircom by STT can only be viewed as a positive, ideally resulting in an enhancement to the delivery of broadband services to Irish businesses.

I think it’s clear that any business operating in Ireland can occasionally find fault with their broadband service, and should STT’s venture into the Irish market encourage further investment into the telecommunications and broadband infrastructure, this can only lead to increased competitiveness and an improved service being passed onto the consumer. It’s the fifth change of ownership for Eircom in the past ten years and this has delayed the development of a robust and nationwide broadband network. The hope is that STT will commit to rapid improvement and real development of what has, to date, been an underfunded and unsatisfactory structure and supply. As a multimedia firm based in Dublin, we’ve certainly suffered from outages to our broadband service. Despite having used several suppliers over the years, this is unfortunately a problem with all of the suppliers we have used. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82
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