The Irish telecommunications operator with global ambitions

Being a relatively small market with a technologically savvy population and workforce has allowed Ireland to advance by leaps and bounds in the mobile telecommunications sector. The most striking event in the highly

STEPHEN BREWER Chief Executive of Eircell

competitive industry came earlier this year when Eircell, Ireland’s leading mobile operator, teamed up with Britain’s Vodafone Group, the largest mobile telecommunications company in the world. The deal was the largest ever in Irish corporate history and gave Eircell a virtual market capitalization of some US$3.3 billion, positioning it as one of the top 10 Irish companies.

While announcing the deal in May, Eircell Chief Executive Stephen Brewer said, “Eircell has enjoyed tremendous growth and success in the past few years across all key indicators. Now, as a subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, we will be positioned to further drive that growth while continually improving customer value and quality of service.”
Currently, Eircell employs some 1,350 people and has a customer base of 1.5 million; a staggering figure considering the entire population of Ireland is less than 4 million. Nearly half of Eircell’s staff works in the area of customer care, providing 24-hour, seven-day-a-week customer support.

Coverage, Care and Choice is the company’s corporate philosophy, and to back that up, Eircell invests an average of US$2.3 million a week in network upgrades and enhancements, making it a consistent innovator in the Irish market.
Eircell was the first to introduce WAP technology to Ireland, bringing the power and functionality of the Internet to mobile phone users.
“Undoubtedly our success is due in a large part to the young people who are computer literate, and WAP contributed greatly to our achievements,” Mr. Brewer says. “The existence of WAP allowed us to move into information services and gambling. At the moment Ireland is the only country in the world to provide ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ on both WAP and SMS, which already accounts for 40% of our information service revenue even though it has only been up and running less than a year.”

When asked what Eircell plans to get from Vodafone, Mr. Brewer confidently replies that, “Vodafone is going to get a lot from Eircell. Ireland is a perfect test center and test market where things can be redeveloped and resold back into the market. I believe our industrious and ambitious young employees will quickly infiltrate Vodafone. Furthermore, Ireland has languages, technological expertise and a willingness to be flexible."