Ireland Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

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Publication Date: December 2024

Report Pages: 285

Ireland’s telcos step up with fibre network sharing deals

Ireland’s telecom market has benefited from extensive investment in recent years, as well as from a vigorous cooperation between telcos to share infrastructure assets. This has particularly been manifested in the fibre broadband sector, which itself has been stimulated by projects associated with the government’s National Broadband Plan. The incumbent telco eir has engaged in several joint ventures, including one with InfraVia by which it expects to pass 1.9 million premises with fibre (able to provide data at up to 10Gb/s) by the end of 2026.

The mobile market continues to be dominated by Vodafone Ireland and 3 Ireland, followed by eir, each of which has a substantial market share. There is room for a small number of MVNOs, the largest two of which are Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Collectively, the other players only had a 3.3% share of the market in early 2023.

Later into 2023, the mobile sector will benefit from the multi-spectrum auction, which was delayed to the end of 2022. This increased the available spectrum resources by almost half, and will greatly support the MNOs to increase network capacity as they migrate from LTE to 5G.

This report provides statistics and analysis on the key sectors of the Irish telecom market, presenting an overview of the regulatory environment, the fixed network operators and services, and telecom infrastructure. In addition, the report covers the fixed and wireless broadband markets, together with developments in related technologies such as FttP, powerline broadband, wireless and mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, and internet via satellite. Statistics and analyses on the mobile voice and data markets are reviewed, including the recent regulatory issues, a snapshot of the consumer market, and an assessment of emerging technologies and operator strategies. The report also includes a range of subscriber forecasts.

Key developments:

  • Vodafone Ireland signs fixed wholesale network access agreement with Virgin Media Ireland.
  • Eir concludes fibre network JV with InfraVia Capital Partners, aiming to cover 84% of premises with FttP by 2026.
  • Regulator completes multi-spectrum auction, with four telcos winning concessions.
  • SIRO expands fibre reach in County Cork.
  • IRIS cable linking Iceland with Galway comes into service.
  • Regulator removes all SMP obligations and designations.
  • Report update includes the regulator’s market data to Q4 2022, telcos’ operating and financial data to Q1 2023, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Vodafone Ireland, O2, eir, eMobile; Tesco Mobile, Virgin Media Ireland, Casey CableVision, Digiweb, BT Ireland, Smart Telecom, Tele2

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