The following e-mail will be sent on your behalf.

 has sent the following story to you from ElectricNews.net.

The story is available from https://electricnews.net/news.html?code=3029394

Irish telecoms market slows down
Thursday, September 06 2001
by Stan Van Haasteren


The Irish telecoms regulator's quarterly report has revealed poor growth for the
telecoms sector, with a drop in revenues and a levelling off in text messaging.





The quarterly review by the Office of the Director of Telecommunications
Regulation (ODTR) showed that for the period April-June 2001, new telcos' share
of the fixed line market increased just 1 percent to 21 percent.
Telecommunications revenues actually fell by 1 percent to EUR3.12 billion, and
employment in the sector fell 2.5 percent, reflecting job cuts in the sector.



"Today's figures are clearly indicative of a sector experiencing a levelling
off in the strong growth rates it enjoyed over the last 12 months," the
regulator Etain Doyle said. "Revenues in this sector increased by up to 30
percent in this time period, but this quarterly review shows a slight fall for
the first time in many years."



The report also showed that mobile phone penetration in Ireland has reached 70
percent, up from 22 percent this time last year. The regulator stressed that
direct comparisons with the last quarter are not reliable due to the revisions in
definition of pre-paid subscribers. She maintained, nevertheless, that "it is
clear that the market has continued to grow." 



But in troubling news for the mobile operators, the growth in text messaging has
plateaued, the report showed. Short-messaging service (SMS) traffic has been a
strong growth area for mobile operators and its sluggish growth in Ireland will
not please local operators.



Internet access now accounts for around 28 percent of all retail traffic, an
increase of 3 percent since the previous quarter.



Also on Thursday the regulator cleared the way for the provision of short-range
public access services such as Bluetooth and Hiperlan. The announcement means
that these technologies, as well as IEEE 802.11, are exempt from licensing from
now on, but companies must comply with European regulations and hold a general or
specific telecommunications licence. 



Operators will be free to use the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands for these technologies
subject to certain technical restrictions, on a non-exclusive basis. 



"If offering services to the public they will need to have an appropriate
telecommunications service licence," Doyle said. "This facility may be useful
either to complement their existing licensed services or to provide localised
services in areas not currently served." 



"This decision is basically a clarification," Brighid Smyth, spokeswoman of
the ODTR said on Thursday. "Until now there hasn't been a specific framework.
It was unclear if these technologies were allowed or not." 



More information is at http://www.odtr.ie



Sheila McDonald contributed to this report.