BT hands Vodafone 87,000 Irish customers
VODAFONE has bulked up its Irish operations after agreeing to absorb BT’s residential and small-business customers in the country, writes NIC FILDES.
Despite its roots in the mobile market, Vodafone is now the second-largest fixed-line operator in Ireland, with 170,000 customers and a 15 per cent market share.
It has taken on 84,000 residential customers who were previously serviced by BT, as well as 3,000 small businesses.
BT has decided to leave the Irish residential market to focus on winning larger corporate and government contracts.
The move represents a strategic U-turn as the British company had previously considered Ireland to be a growth market due to slow broadband take-up among residential customers.
Chris Clark, chief executive of BT Ireland, said the company’s strategy had been evolving over a number of years and Ireland was the only country outside the UK where BT had residential customers.
He said BT remained confident that it could grow its business in Ireland despite the sharp downturn in the economy.
As part of the Vodafone deal, it has signed a seven-year network deal with the mobile-phone giant. BT will also invest in improving its network, the second-largest in Ireland.